Telecom Communication between Ethiopian and Eritrea is Up

Ethiopia and Eritrea have agreed to restore relations following a landmark meeting between the two countries' leaders in Asmara on July 8, 2018. In the agreement made between the two sisterly countries, the long time interrupted a direct international telephone connection between the countries is up on the same day. Families from both countries talked each other after almost two decades.

In the statement from Dr. Abiy, PM of Ethiopia, "We (Abiy & Isaias)agreed that the airlines will start operating, the ports will be accessible, people can move between the two countries and the embassies will be opened," including the  international telephone connection.

Ethiopian PM chief of staff Fitsum Arega tweeted on his tweeter page. The visit is broadcasted live from Asmara and  people in both country attended the event through different channels.

Panel: ICT Infrastructure Investment and Private Sector Leverage

In the Ethio ICT Expo 2018, the panel discussion on ICT Infrastructure Investment and Private Sector Leverage discussed on interesting points how ICT can be used to leverage the private sector including the small holder farmers. The panel was moderated by Hadis from  Gates Foundation and panelists are Khalid  Bomba (Ethiopia Agricultural Transformation Agency), Dr.Andualem Admasie  (Ethio Telecom),  Jordan Fabyanske (Dalberg) and Craig Kadish  (RLB Integrated Livestock Management). The interaction with participants was excellent and interesting.

Ethio ICT Expo 2018 is officially Opened

The theme for the 2018 Ethio ICT Expo is “Transform Ethiopia”. The Expo serve as a platform for ICT companies, governmental actors implemented and uses ICT, invited speakers in the area, and attendees from all over the country, majorly from Addis. The Expo will have a number of panel discussions on different ICT topics inviting guests from the field. A one day Intonational conference is to be conducted by presenting scientific peer-reviewed papers from different researchers in the area. 

A group of young singers sang the ICT Anthem prepared by MCIT at the Ethio ICT Expo 2018, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

In the official opening of the Expo was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister of Ethiopia, the Minister of Ministry of Communication and Information Technology (MCIT), the Minister of Science and Technology (MoST) and other from governmental and non governmental officials.

ICT Expo Ethiopia, 2018 :-TRANSFORM ETHIOPIA:”A Transformation to the Digital Economy”

June 30- July 04, 2018 | Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

The power of digital transformation is getting ingrained in our everyday life and is strongly impacting the way we live, work and communicates with each other. Digital platform plays a key role in all our lives with the rapid entry of disruptive technologies, multiple electronic devices, and the internet and most of our time is spent accessing all these devices and technologies. Currently, our life comprises of two components: the real life, where we interact with physical elements — people around us, and the virtual universe with connected data and information encompassing the content that we share online and consume as well.

Presently, our virtual world and the real world are interconnected and overlapping at the same time, making it impossible to differentiate and segregate, and with every step, the virtual world is intercepting and substituting actions and elements in our real world. Every service, product, and innovational activities in this world are becoming totally digital dependent, which in turn leading the innovators to create disruptive technologies for digitalization. Research says that by 2019, 40 percent of digital transformation initiatives will use Artificial Intelligent (AI) services, and by 2021, 75 percent of commercial enterprise apps will use AI [IDC, Oct 2017]

This advancement has been described as the “fourth industrial revolution”, and it presents both challenges and opportunities. To overcome these challenges and capitalize on the opportunities, leaders in both public and private sectors must come together, work together, and embrace digital transformation, the fruits of which promise to entail inclusive and sustained growth and a more prosperous future.

Read more on the ICT Expo Ethiopia, 2018 

Youtube Video Link and Address

The following link can be used to see all the Youtube video that are produced on different topic from Mesfin.

Localized Mobile Apps in Ethiopian Languages (Part Two)

As indicated in part one below, localizing the Apps to make ease the flow of information to assist users to gain the maximum from available resource internet and mobile gadgets can provide. In part one, six Apps are introduced that are localized. In this section, I will try to introduce the rest of the Applications programmed and hosted at the Google Play Store.

7. Ethiopian Unit Convertor ( የመለኪያ መቀያየሪያ): This App is programmed in four languages (Amharic, Tigegna, Oromiffa and English) to get conversions from one unit to another units in the same family. The categories are Speed, Distance, Weight, Temperature, Area, Fuel, Volume, Time and Digital. For example, users can easily convert degree centigrade to fahrenheit. 

7. Hotels and Restaurants (ሆቴልና ሬስቶራንት አድራሻ): Using this App users can easily search a hotel or restaurants in Addis Ababa and also outside Addis and get the physical locations of the including the telephone numbers to call. The list is categorized to make the search easy in Hotels, National Foods, Asian, European, etc. After getting the hotel's or restaurant's address, users directly call from the App. The localization concept implemented here is, giving you local information to people in the country.

7. Kuraz Flashlight (ኩራዝ መብራት): This App helps users to use their mobile gadgets as flashlight/torch. Easy and simple App where the buttons are designed in both Amharic and English.

7. Ethio Easy Call: This App is designed for users in Ethiopia to avail most of the short codes available on the Ethiotelecom network. It is also possible to call the short code directly from the App. For users want to call international, the App will help them to get the international code of every country in the world.  The App make calling to short code and international easy.

7.  Learning Amharic Language: This App is specifically designed to Tourists or foreigners that can't speak Amharic. Some common words used for early communications are specified in this App and users can easily speak them from the App directly. The phrases that are included are categorized in groups like traveling information, meetings, greetings, commerce, numbers, directions, days, months, etc.  Users need to select one and get the pronunciations of each phrases.

7. Amharic Sliding Puzzle (ምስል በመግፋት የሚጫወቱት ጨዋታ): This App is a common game user can play with by moving the slice of a picture to form a full view of the given picture. Here, the localization is fully in Amharic and all pictures are known pictures from Ethiopia. Users can select pictures from the App, add the complexity and play by sliding the pieces to solve the puzzle.

In this two sections of description I have tried to introduce my Apps that are customized for Ethiopian users. In future, I will try to add more new apps and also upgrade the existing one by adding some features and languages.

Localized Mobile Apps in Ethiopian Languages (Part One)

In a country, Ethiopia,  where more than 80 local languages are spoken, localization play a vital role to share knowledge and information digitally in the larger community. As the usage of Smart phone is increasing from time to time, availing the knowledge with local language is important. Now a days several millions of informations on specific topic is available in different languages on the internet. Even so the data size is growing overwhelmingly, making use of the data is important. In this aspect, the idea of "Apps in Local Languages"  attracted me to invest my time to develop more than a dozen Apps all designed barring the localizations aspect in mind. Some are in 3-4 major Ethiopian language, while most of them are at least in Amharic. English has been also included to give preference to the people who wants to access the content outside the local language speakers. 

The Apps are named by taking some Amharic words that I thought it will express them best. Below is the list of some of the Apps and their brief descriptions. 

1. Cooking Ethiopian Dish /  የኢትዮጵያ የምግብ አሰራር : this App includes cooking recipe or instructions of local foods that are popular by most Ethiopians. The recipe is categorized in groups so that people can search there interest based on categories. 

1.  Ethiopian Traffic Symbols / የኢትዮጵያ ትራፊክ ምልክቶች : this App is mainly designed to users that want to know all the traffic symbols and signages.  The traffic symbols are categorized with their restrictions rate to make accessing easy. This App has also included a quiz on the different traffic symbols and signages. Users can select categories and prove their knowledge on the symbols instantly. The questions, with multiple choices, will be generated randomly and evaluation is give instantly. In addition some miner information clarifying the major part of a car is also displayed and explained. Ethiopia uses different vehicle registration plate for different uses. All possible plate types are described and visualized in this section.

1. Ethiopian Calendar / የኢትዮጵያ ዘመን መቁጠሪያ : this App one of the first App I have programmed it. At that time, Amharic fonts are not fully integrated to all Android enabled smart phones and the Unicode was not assigned. Then I tried to represent the numbers in this app to be visible even if users don't have the Amharic fonts on their mobile. The calendar will show the current date uniquely and users can go forward and backward by months. A few public holy days are also shown on one page. 

1. Amharic Alphabets / የአማርኛ የፊደል ገበታ : this App is for users to know and learn the Gee'z alphabets that are unique and only used in Ethiopia. The naming will remember the Baby Bummers and partly the Generation X for using "የፊደል ገበታ" literally defined a single printed board containing all the Gee'z scripts and numbers on it. This board has two sections, one where similar scripts and their family's is shown (ሀሁሂሃ) and the second section is where scripts are systematically mixed (አቡጊዳ) where both are included in this app. One has to graduate the first to the next. When school starts at the early age, every kid has one የፊደል ገበታ to learn them in common areas (local schools). This App, like the Ethiopian Calendar, don't use the in built fonts on a mobile.

1. Amharic Numbers /የቁጥር ገበታ : This App has similarity with the Amharic Alphabets. The additional feature include here is that users can listen each number after clicking it. The numbers shown looks limited, but you can build by concatenating them in systematic ways. To show that, one option is added to enter any below 10million and get it converted. While this number is not used commonly, this App will help users to remember them.

1. Ethiopian Constitution : this App is to avail the currently working constitution for any reference in both English and Amharic. The 11 chapter and 106 Articles of the constitutions are shown. Users can click on each article to read article by article. Search facility is also part of the app.