Thanks for talking to me.

Emile: You and your colleague Ana are experts from SOURCEFABRIC who have been training WACSI’s staff on Web management to reinforce the visibility of the Institute. Can you briefly introduce SOURCEFABRIC to our Blog readers?

Jakub: SourceFabric is a non-profit organisation established almost 2 years ago with its Headquarter in Prague, Czech Republic. SOUCREFABRIC develops open source tools for professional media which are also used by non-governmental organisation like yours.

We currently have three different tools, the first is Newscoop, the one we are currently studying here, the second one is Airtime which is web-based radio automation software and the third one which we are preparing to publish now is Superdesk for newsroom management.

Emile:We are drawing close to the end of the training session which has been lasting for 5 days now. At this time, what are your impressions concerning participants and how sure are you of their ability to successfully manage the new Website?

Jakub:It’s going fast….It’s going really fast and now I can say we are very surprise in a positive way and I don’t think that both, me and my colleague Ana, took part in such a very fast way in practical implementation. From day 1 after the training, yes, some things are a little bit confusing but all the people here know that WACSI will grab it and the speed of work we have accomplished after four and half days so far is surely remarkable.

Emile:At the end of the training what is your impression on your partnership with WACSI?

Jakub:This is the beginning and we are very interested in working further with WACSI and other organisations in West African region. Last year we worked with WADR in Dakar, this year we are here in Accra with you WACSI and see what you do, and we have already discussed some ideas of what we gonna do together.

Like the trainers, the Executive Director, Nana Afadzinu’s impression of the training is remarkably positive. In the interview below, she voices her enthusiasm.

Thank you.

Emile:WACSI in partnership with SourceFabric is holding a training session for its staff on Web management. Can you please briefly give us some of the reasons of this training and its objectives for the Institute?

Nana:WACSI’s goal of strengthening civil society’s institutional, technical and operational knowledge and skills can only be achieved when civil society within the sub region know of WACSI’s existence and can fully access relevant information on WACSI and what it offers for their benefit. In this day and age, one cannot do that without having a website that represents what one does and also engages ones partners effectively. This is what WACSI seeks to do.

Our sessions with sourcefabric this week is not only a training in web management but is actually a full involvement of staff in the restructuring and re-launching of WACSI’s current website. We believe that the product we will have at the end of this week will achieve our objectives and satisfy our key partners.

Emile:As we are at the fifth day of training which is actually the last day, do you think your staff are well equipped to successfully manage WACSI’s new Website and thus achieve the objective you just presented?

Nana: I have no doubts at all that the website will be effectively and efficiently managed by my colleagues here at WACSI and I, because we have been fully engaged in this process and are confident of this. I must state that we are particularly excited about the interactive nature of this website and the information that it provides. Even though it will be managed from WACSI, we believe that the current structure of the website encourages active engagement from all development stakeholders in West Africa, Africa and other parts of the world.

Emile:At the end of the training, how proud are you of your partnership with SourceFabric?

Nana:We are happy with our partnership with Source Fabric. This is an organisation that clearly understands WACSI’s mandate and aligns with the Institute’s development objectives. Working with Jakub and Ana this week has not only been informative, but lots of fun as well. We look forward to a long and strengthened partnership with Source Fabric in the coming years.

Thank you.