 |  | | iMENTORS Newsletter - Issue #4 | 31/07/2013 | | | |  | | Editorial |  | Dear reader,
We are happy to present you the fourth edition of the quarterly iMENTORS newsletter.
We are very excited to announce that the beta version of the iMENTORS platform has just gone live and is taking one step closer to becoming the most comprehensive crowdsourcing map on ICT infrastructures in Sub-Saharan Africa! Users can now register and create individual profiles on the platform and begin exploring our database and visualize it using our map tool. We will continue to enrich our database with new layers of data and visualisations as we progress towards our objectives.
The iMENTORS staff values and welcomes all user feedback which we carefully review and use to improve our service to our stakeholder community. Feel free to send us a comment on any suggestion or problems that you may experiencing whilst using the platform. We will be thankful for it!
Enter the maps today! www.imentors.eu/map.html
Co-funded by the European Commission’s DG CONNECT under the Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), iMENTORS www.imentors.eu is designed to enhance the coherence and effectiveness of international actors involved in e- infrastructures development projects and initiatives in Sub-Saharan Africa. iMENTORS launched in April 2012 by Stockholm University and Gov2u is a web-based platform serving as a knowledge repository for sharing and aggregating data on e-infrastructure projects, donors and stakeholder organizations throughout sub-Saharan Africa and beyond.
We will be glad to receive any comments or suggestions you might have, so contact us at: [email protected]
Discover more about the project and its related activities with our Newsletter!
Enjoy the reading!
Warm Regards,
The iMENTORS team | |  | Project news | | Mapping ICT across Sub-Saharan Africa
 By identifying and mapping the majority of e-infrastructure projects in Sub-Saharan Africa, the project provides valuable knowledge of what is currently on the ground which in itself represents the first step to more informed future choices and decision making on e- infrastructures deployment.
Register and give us your feedback: www.imentors.eu/map.html Read the Press release
EuroRis-Net+ - iMENTORS synergy
 A memorandum of understanding, a document describing a bilateral agreement, was signed between EuroRis-Net+and iMENTORS indicating an intended common line of action. The two projects have a common interest in a close co-operation in order to achieve their respective objectives. This MoU specifies the way in which such cooperation will be undertaken. EuroRIs-Net+ is the European Network of National Contact Points for the "Research Infrastructures” programme. Read more
e-ScienceTalk and iMENTORS, Two EU co-funded projects join forces for e-Infrastructures
 A memorandum of understanding, a document describing a bilateral agreement, was signed between e-ScienceTalk and iMENTORS. The two projects have a common interest in a close co-operation in order to achieve their respective objectives. Read more
 It was agreed that e-ScienceTalk will disseminate iMENTORS results through the e-ScienceTalk dissemination channels, such as iSGTW and GridCast. For example:
There is an announcement on iSGTW about iMENTORS and its collaboration with e-Science Talk. Read more on iSGTW
A memorandum of understanding was signed between CHAIN-REDS and iMENTORS
 CHAIN-REDS will provide access to iMENTORS to its Knowledge Base and to its Semantic Search Engine;iMENTORS will provide access to CHAIN-REDS to its Data Warehouse. Read more
Consultation on IST Africa Conference
 We have carried out a successful stakeholder’s workshop following iMENTORS panel at the IST Africa conference, where the audience provided invaluable feedback on the functionalities that were available on the platform, and made several recommendations leading us to develop and introduce several new additions in terms of functionalities in the Beta version. Read more
| | | Relevant news | | AfDB Announces Open Data Platform For Africa
 Africa Development Bank has announced that the Open Data Platform (ODP) – which increases data accessibility – is now operational for the entire African continent. Read more
e-IRG’s White Paper 2013 published: Europe needs a e-Infrastructure Commons
 A 2012 e-IRG Roadmap outlined a vision for the future of e-Infrastructures in Europe. Now, the e-IRG has published its 2013 White Paper, which takes the discussion one step further and proposes specific next steps. Read more
How Big Data is creating opportunities for Africa and the role of the data scientists
Data, like any other commodity, only has real value when it’s refined: in this case combined with enhanced analytics to provide insights that help identify opportunities or develop solutions. Read more
Redesigning Data with Ushahidi v3.0
 Ushahidi made the conscious decision to redirect its approach to building its core services and products. Read more
Using Visualization to Unlock Secrets in Big Data
Users who explore their own data using visualization tools and techniques can sometimes beat the best algorithms. Read more
Less than 1000 days to the MDGs: Data Dashboards to Monitor the last Stretch
 Data on Millennium Development Goals (MDG) indicator trends for developing countries and for different groups of countries are curated in the World Development Indicator database. Read more
Intra-Africa Optical Fibre Network map updated
 A second version of the Intra-Africa optical fibre network map produced by UbuntuNet Alliance has been published. Read more
EuroRIs-Net+ workshop on “Research Infrastructures towards 2020” - Results
All presentations are available on: http://observatory.euroris-net.eu/euroris/events/view/14
Read more on the event
GridCast
 GridCast takes you behind the scenes of some of the most exciting grid computing and e-Infrastructure events in the world. Read more
| | | | | Upcoming Events | | - 5th Annual Conference of the African Network for Internationalization of Education , Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, 2-4th October 2013
- CHAIN-REDS workshop on e-Infrastructures for e-Sciences focusing on Cloud Computing and Data Repositories, Beijing, China 17-22, 2013 October
REGISTRATIONS NOW OPEN for eInfrastructures for eSciences 2013
The deadline of the Call for Contributions for the CHAIN-REDS workshop e-Infrastructures for e-Science 2013 has been extended to August 20, 2013 to provide full papers (max 5 pages)!
- Joint eI4Africa / CHAIN-REDS Workshop, ‘An African e-Infrastructure for Virtual Research Communities and their Applications’, Kigali, Rwanda, 13 November 2013
- UbuntuNet-Connect 2013 and associated events, Kigali, Rwanda, 11-15 November 2013 (UbuntuNet-Connect to run from the 14-15 November)
| | | | | Further information, and subscription to this publication  | |  |  |  | CONTACT US: [email protected]
Important Information: All classifieds in this publication are published free of charge
Published by www.gov2u.org 2013. All rights reserved | | | | | If you no longer wish to receive this publication, please click on the Unsubscribe Link | | | | |  | iMENTORS is a project Co-funded by the European Commission's DG CONNECT under the 7th Framework Programme | | |
