23:17 I was fortunate to attend one of the sessions today at the BlogHer conference in Chicago (Thanks KenyanPundit!) BlogHer brings together women bloggers to talk, share, learn and network.
You can follow along with the bloggers writing, taking pictures, and uploading videos by visiting the event site for live blog URLs.
The session was on how to use the internet to support your cause. It was titled “Getting it on(line) for a cause part 2″ Raising consciousness.
Rochelle Robinson -online campaign strategist had a wonderful presentation which you can have a look at here. Its a must read for anyone with a cause - Its concise, specific and has some great examples of how tech can be used effectively. One such example she pointed to is Hollaback. Women had gotten tired of street harassment, so they took pictures of their harassers and wrote about it on the blog.
Green LA girl was next with a great idea of using del.icio.us for a cause. What she and another blogger were able to do was to collect and tag information relating to the starbucks challenge. The idea was to challenge people who visit starbucks to specifically ask for fair trade coffee since starbucks had stated they would be selling fair trade coffee at every location. Turns out it was a promise that was easier said than done…Green LA girl and others were able to prove that it was not the case in all locations. The information they gathered was used by another blogger to create a google map of the locations where people had reported succcess in getting a cup of fair trade coffee and locations where they werent so successful. Read more about the challenge here and the google map is here. It might be a great idea for tracking the elections in Kenya, tagging information regarding constituencies and perhaps mapping it onto Mzalendo’s growing database of information. Just a thought…either way get tagging!
I will be participating on a panel tomorrow with Georgia Popplewell of Global Voices! and Amira Al Hussaini. 
I will carry the laptop and do a post after we are done with that.
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The Kikoy does need to be fairly tight, with a certain amount of tension, but not too tight, the mistake is to try and wrap it really tightly as this could result in an embarrassing and unscheduled show of leg! Inspired by the abundance of exuberant colours found on the East African coastline, Kikoys are woven of the brightest hue colour combinations that would alarm most people! Possibly originating from something that the Arab traders wore as they plied the coastline, the Kikoy has developed its very own character of Kenya and Tanzania and is a symbol of safaris in both beautiful countries. There is a band of devoted Kikoy wearers which is steadily increasing in size as more and more people discover the delights of a Kikoy, see our 50 ways to use a Kikoy! 
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Probably the most innovative part of the whole site, the mobile reporters are Africans reporting via their mobile phones. Using GPRS-enabled phones, anyone can send images, articles and video to someone else. This is a huge, primarily because it means that the on-ground reporters don’t need an internet connection at all - only access to a cell phone tower.