Comments on: Web Usage in Africa http://ateedub.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/web-usage-in-africa/ ATW on Science, Communications, and the World Thu, 19 Mar 2009 04:51:34 +0000 http://wordpress.com/ hourly 1 By: Jillian C. York http://ateedub.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/web-usage-in-africa/#comment-58 Jillian C. York Mon, 21 Jul 2008 01:53:16 +0000 http://ateedub.wordpress.com/?p=38#comment-58 http://thekampalan.blogspot.com/ Another great one. http://thekampalan.blogspot.com/

Another great one.

]]> By: » Web Usage in Africa http://ateedub.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/web-usage-in-africa/#comment-57 » Web Usage in Africa Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:39:11 +0000 http://ateedub.wordpress.com/?p=38#comment-57 [...] can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here [...] [...] can read the rest of this blog post by going to the original source, here [...]

]]> By: Erik http://ateedub.wordpress.com/2008/07/20/web-usage-in-africa/#comment-56 Erik Sun, 20 Jul 2008 22:20:27 +0000 http://ateedub.wordpress.com/?p=38#comment-56 Good reference post. You asked: "One of the major questions that came up was why do so many bloggers write in English even if that’s not the primary language of the country?" Two quick points: 1) Besides being a premium language on the web, it's also the one that you search in and can find results for. Arguably, there's as much (more?) going on in Francophone and Arabic-speaking Africa on the web as there is on the Anglophone side - we English speakers have a hard time find it. 2) The people in-country speaking about technology issues are generally not just talking to their counterparts in-country. So, you won't find that many Kenyans writing about technology in Swahili; a) because English is the language of business, and b) because they realize that they're not just writing to Kenyans, but to a global audience. Good reference post. You asked:

“One of the major questions that came up was why do so many bloggers write in English even if that’s not the primary language of the country?”

Two quick points:

1) Besides being a premium language on the web, it’s also the one that you search in and can find results for. Arguably, there’s as much (more?) going on in Francophone and Arabic-speaking Africa on the web as there is on the Anglophone side – we English speakers have a hard time find it.

2) The people in-country speaking about technology issues are generally not just talking to their counterparts in-country. So, you won’t find that many Kenyans writing about technology in Swahili; a) because English is the language of business, and b) because they realize that they’re not just writing to Kenyans, but to a global audience.

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