Thoughts of Richard C. Close

I have been following Nancy’s and WOUGNET’s Uganda blogs for some time now, often stopping my work for a prayer and tears. It is a great honor to write in this Arise magazine of innovation and style. My mother, now 94, was a tough feminist before her time, raising three boys while my father was on the road. She taught full time while getting her Master's in Education at Columbia University in New York City. I still have memories of her on her bed, sandwich in hand, with books and papers long after the nightly chores were done. Later, when raising my own daughter, Maya, I would drop her off at elementary school each morning telling her “Get straight A’s, go to a good school and change the world.” In my family, learning is everything. Today, Maya is a special needs teacher in Brooklyn, NY. This being said, I ponder what a visionary strategist in learning technology could offer to my sisters in Africa. My life has been filled with riots in Kenya’s Rift Valley, the oppression of ...

Below is a Link to a 20 page white paper I developed as a labor of love (no charge download at Academia.edu) for my many friends in Africa and colleagues in academia. As one of my Linkedin contacts thought you might like a copy. The paper is filled with strategic and marketing tips to help expand the Internet’s global education reach. Teacher and community leaders need greater access to the Internet but also need the Teleco’s to partner with them on how to leverage the Internet’s content and collaborative resources.  We invite you to share this link with fellow government, education and ICT leaders. View/Download: “Human Collaboration, Africa’s Revolutionary Application for Broad Band Expansion” http://www.academia.edu/4154169/Human_Collaboration_Africa_Revolution_App_White_Paper_by_Richard_C_Close This unique paper evolved from a diner with New York City university professors and lawyers having a discussion about the issues around deploying broad band and Internet t...