User talk:Boat12

The Akwapim Community Wireless Network is an open-architecture mesh network that uses cost-priced WiFi technology and open-source software to share Internet access. The network currently has ten nodes, and spreads out over a 20km range, offering connectivity to schools, businesses, and community activity centers throughout six towns in the mountainous Akwapim North district of Ghana's Eastern Region. Figure 5.1 maps out the existing nodes on the network.

Who we are:

CBLit's Wireless Ghana Project - developed and managed by the Apirede Community Resource Center - helps to make Internet access in rural communities a reality.

The Wireless Ghana project is committed to:

1. Promoting a reading culture. 2. Training rural schoolchildren and teachers in and use of Information and Communication Technology. (ICT) 3. Empowering rural communities by providing access to information. 4. Providing and using ICT to help increase direct participation in development and decision-making processes at local and national levels.

Wireless Ghana is a project of Community-Based Libraries and Information Technology (CBLit), a non-government organization based in both Ghana and the United States. The Wireless Ghana project is a rural project. It was initiated at the Apirede Resource Center (CBLit’s first Community Resource Center) in 2005 in response to the local community’s requests for connectivity to help them break their isolation, move their children and community closer to the 21st century, and be competitive with their urban counterparts. Apirede is in the Akwapim North district in the Eastern Region of Ghana. This district has seventeen towns and several villages with a total population of about 1.2 million people.

The project is being developed and managed by the Apirede Resource Center. The officers, volunteer staffing, and a variety of resources (Internet access, spare computer parts, etc.) are based at the Apirede Community Resource Center. Peace Corps Ghana has provided a teacher at the Apirede Community Resource center, Mr. John Atkinson, who is also acting as the Project Director for the Wireless Ghana project. Two Ghanaian gentlemen manage the project, Mr. Gideon Kofi Amoah as the Project Co-ordinator, and Mr. Ebenezer Boateng as the Chief Officer of Technology. They are able to do this because of the capacity they have gained by managing the center. The management committee together with the Chief and Elders monitor the activities/management closely to help create a professional environment, and professionally ensure that services/activities and orders are of quality and delivered on time.

boaeben@gmail.com Boateng Ghana.