RLabs at Baba Indaba

Diapers, cots, prams, bottles, soft toys, baby clothing, teething gel are just a few thoughts that spring to mind of an expecting mom. To enrich parents and parents-to-be more about baby stuff was the SABC Education Baba Indaba. The Baba Indaba was designed to inspire new moms to delight in their pregnancy, bring fresh ideas to parents, stimulate toddlers and entice kids with various essential, interesting and fun products.



This annual event was held in Durban, Johannesburg, Pretoria and Cape Town. On 23-25 July the CTICC was the venue where parents, babies, toddlers and tweens were entertained, inspired and encouraged to discover a world of fun and education with a variety of exhibitors. For the first time in South Africa the Kids Indaba, which focuses on children between the ages 6-12 years, was part of the already well-known Baba Indaba.

Among the necessary new-born products, nutritional and healthy food, educational cartoons and maternity fashion shows, was Bridgetown’s very own Reconstructed Living Lab (Rlabs) to stimulate the children via computers. Rlabs was determined to take Social Media Surgery to the younger generation, who were eager to interact with technology. Rlabs aimed to increase the understanding of technology and to educate the children between the ages of 6-12 years about various educational sites, children from as young as three years old were playing games on the Wii, X-Box and the PC’s.

Most of the children who passed-by showed an interest either by pulling their parents towards Rlabs or running towards a pc or the games projected on the screens. They were knowledgeable as well about the internet and exchanged their favourite sites with the Rlabs team.

Technology has weaved its way to the very young ones and to enhance the phrase “...if you can’t beat them join them,” Rlabs encouraged the parents to embrace the ever transpiring evolution of the online world by introducing them to sites beneficial to their children’s development.

Improving the Knowledge Exchange landscape on the Cape Flats using Web2.0

One of our papers titled "Improving the knowledge exchange landscape in the Cape Flats, a developing community in South Africa" published in the South African Journal of Information Management (SAJIM) explores the use of Web 2.0 services to ease the access to information by people living in a socially and economically deprived area. Even more barriers exist, namely that the community is affected by gangsterism and drugs. The article reports on an investigation into the use of Web 2.0 technologies to enhance the information flow within the community to assist preventing the growth and spread of gangsterism and the use of drugs among South African communities, especially those in the Cape Flats. The findings showed that, through the use of Web 2.0 technologies, interviewees (ex-gang members and ex-drug addicts) learnt to use, exchange and disseminate information that could be used to uplift their communities. This paper was based on the work at the Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs)and it is amazing to see how the team have developed since the time the paper was written.

Source: http://marlonparker.co.za

Day 2: World Bank Innovation Fair

Catch Day 2 of the exciting World Bank Innovation Fair below:

Day 1: World Bank Innovation Fair

Below is a video (DAY 1) of the World Bank Innovation Fair where some of the Reconstructed Graduates were part of the Social Media Factory team managing the Social Media activities:

RLabs breaking barriers

What an exciting week ahead for the Reconstructed Living Lab with RLabs not only breaking the 45,000 conversations mark in the Substance Abuse Mobile Counselling service and training over 300 community members in Social Media, but the team will also be managing the Social Media activities for the World Bank.

Innovation Fair: Moving beyond Conflict from WBI Innovation on Vimeo.

The World Bank is hosting the Innovation Fair in Cape Town this week and approached RLabs (Thanks to Rafiq from Webaddicts) to come on board as their Social Media partner. These activities will be done via the Social Media Factory a RLabs inititiave. This is definitely more barriers being broken by the RLabs team who are all community members who were reconstructed through technology. This is another milestone as the RLabs community are planning to grow the activities to the Eastern Cape, United Kingdom, Namibia and South-East Asia this year.

2010, More than Football

After two consecutive years of social media for social change training under the umbrella of Rlabs, this past weekend they launched the 2010 social media for social change sessions. This is the 3rd year of training happening together withImpact Direct and CPUT. For 2008 -2009 Rlabs trained more than 70 men, women and teens on the platform of social media. The launch for 2010 social media for social change sessions 17 people signed up to join the mom3.0 and the reconstructed sessions this year.

2008:

This was the first year when Marlon Parker took a gamble to take ex-drug addicts and ex-gangsters into the Lab at CPUT to teach them computer skills in a undisciplined way which was social media. Something that I have to highlight we knew nothing about computers besides knowing how to steal them. Later in the year Rlabs launched the mom2.0 this was house wives of the community which did the same training (social media for social change).

2009:

The intake of 2009 mom2.0 and the reconstructed sessions was facilitated by a team of the 2008 graduates remember they knew nothing about computers and social media but they managed to take them through to graduating the end of December 2009.

2010:

A very interesting year again a team of 2009 graduates will manage the sessions. This year’s sessions will be more spiced up the training will not only be manage in the Rlabs it will be more practical where the students will go into the community, malls, mountain and beaches to take video clips and pics and do their stories around that.

As a graduate of 2008 I’m a witness how champions are being developed through this Rlabs project. A message to these years’ students if you know nothing about computers and social media you are a perfect candidate of becoming a great champion for the community.

Source: RLabs.org

The Journey Begins...