The U.S. Mission's Information Resource Center in Kampala hosted a half-day workshop on Internet's Social Media Networking tools for NGO's information and advocacy officers.  The workshop took place on Monday January 25, 2010 at the U.S. Mission ( Embassy), Plot 1577, Ggaba Road,  and began at  2:30 p.m.
 
The  Workshop Objective was to bring together NGO officials to discuss how to use the Social Media Networking tools like face book, blogs and Twitter to promote democracy, human rights and good governance. 

The half-day workshop was facilitated by Ms.  Sheila Weir, the State Department's Regional Information Resource Officer. She said that social Media are places, tools and or services allowing individuals or groups to express themselves to share, meet, discuss and lobby. Communication through social media is to be part of a network, online, in real time or as you want. She noted that Social media tools can be used for both in coming Communication like comments, Quotes and Outgoing Communication like Sending News; Raise awareness on issues, sending human interest stories and Sending ‘snippets ‘of information

What makes Using Social Media Different is the fact that:

Ø      Multiple networks operating simultaneously yet not necessarily independent. For instance a blog can be made by an email reader or an RSS feeder and link to a face book site or flickr photos which all have been captured by a twitter feed.

Ø      Viralness- Your information can be reposted and easily duplicated

Ø      People expect quick , frequent updates

Ø      Coordination on different tools is key.

Ø      Pushing and receiving

Ø      Must Identify audience and ensure they have access, knowledge of the tool you are using.

The benefits of the workshop are innumerable given the fact that some of the participants were exposed to the complex world of media, journalism and online blogging.