The Kabissa-fahamu Newsletter has grown rapidly. Along with it, the services provided by Kabissa – space for change in Africa – have also grown. But what are these services? Since we continue to receive requests for information, we thought it might be useful for us to tell you a bit more about Kabissa.

Kabissa is dedicated to strengthening the capacity of African non-profit organisations to use the full potential of the Internet in the interest of building civil society and democracy in Africa. We operate on the principles of inclusiveness and collaboration, and invite all organisations and initiatives that share our goals to join as members and partners.

BACKGROUND
Access to the Internet in Africa has grown substantially over the past few years. According to a recent survey, at the end of 1996 only 11 countries had Internet access, but by November 2000 all 54 countries and territories had permanent connectivity and the presence of local full service dialup ISPs. The total number of computers permanently connected to the Internet in Africa (excluding South Africa) finally broke the 10,000 mark at the beginning of 1999 and in January 2000 it stood at almost 12,000, an increase of 20%. While the cost of establishing local e-mail accounts has fallen recently, the cost of website hosting, Internet domain names and similar services is frequently very high, and frequently out of reach of many non-profit organisations in Africa.

Many of us working in the non-profit sector have been inundated with requests from African NGOs seeking assistance in setting up websites, training in the use of the internet, access to resources on the internet, training in proposal writing, management training, and help with establishment of electronic mailing lists. In our early work with International Alert and the World Organisation Against Torture, we have run workshops and provided technical assistance to human rights organisations to enable them to exploit the potentials of the Internet for their own purposes.

Through this process we became aware of the difficulties such organisations had in establishing websites and accessing resources on the Internet. In response, we decided to invest our own efforts and resources in establishing an entity called "Kabissa" (meaning "complete" in Kiswahili). We set up an Internet server in order, initially, to provide free website and e-mail hosting for non-profit organisations in Africa. Now we are finding that Kabissa has filled other gaps in service, in particular in empowering African non-profits by enabling them to share essential information through this newsletter.

SERVICES PROVIDED BY KABISSA
Interest in the initiative has grown rapidly. Within a year, we had more than 250 user accounts on Kabissa, including 30 separate domain accounts. Our website now has thousands of pages, receives over 400,000 hits per month (averaging over 340 visits per day). We currently register five new members each week.

Kabissa currently provides the following services, all of which are provided free to African non-profit organisations (except domain registration and hosting for which we make a modest charge):

- Web space accounts (ftp)
- E-mail mailbox accounts (pop3/imap4)
- Automated mailing lists (majordomo)
- Web-based access to website files hosted on Kabissa
- Web-based access to any e-mail mailboxes
- Web-based access to Kabissa mailing list administration
- www4mail server enabling users to retrieve web pages via e-mail
- Participation in the largest human-edited directory on the web (dmoz.org), providing access to more than 330,000 websites
- Website promotion (dmoz.org, AfriPromote banner exchange, search engines)
- Web-based domain availability check (whois)
- Domain registration and hosting (low-cost)

We have also developed "Best Practice" documentation designed to demystify the technology and enable African non-profit organisations to develop the confidence to control the resources that they access through Kabissa.

KABISSA-FAHAMU NEWSLETTER
In addition to providing access to the above services, Kabissa also established this electronic newsletter, designed to enable members and others to share up-to-date information about events, news, and resources available of relevance to the non-profit sector in Africa. The growth of the newsletter in terms of content, breadth and reach has been extraordinary. Within months of establishing it, the weekly mailing went to more than 400 subscribers. In December 2000, Kabissa and fahamu merged their respective newsletters, resulting in a subscriber base of more than 700. Today, the Kabissa-fahamu newsletter reaches 2,500 individuals in NGOs, international organisations and networks, funding agencies and foundations, governments, and the private sector. Free advertising space is provided for non-profits. Based on our research and excellent reader feedback, we are constantly innovating the contents of the newsletter, which now has nearly 20 printed pages and has 21 sections for categorizing the information.

INFORMATION SHARING DATABASE
In addition to the Internet Services and the e-mail based Kabissa-fahamu Newsletter, we also maintain a database on our website for the purpose of organising and sharing information relevant for Africa.

Information already in the database includes:

- Member directory of African non-profit organisations, most of which are hosting websites on our Internet Server
- Partner directory of organisations collaborating with Kabissa
- Internet Domains hosted on Kabissa
- Mailing List/eNewsletter directory
- Software Resources

We are working on "portalizing" the information and interfaces provided through the Kabissa website and the Kabissa-fahamu Newsletter. Users of the site will be able to log in to customize their own home page, as seen on many other portals. African non-profits eligible for free Internet accounts and mailing lists will be able to use the portal interface to manage their accounts. We will be able to administrate users, allocate access and posting privileges, and monitor and evaluate the usage of our website. These are standard features on portal websites these days.

What sets Kabissa apart from other typical portals is that we intend to innovate in directions that enable African organisations to share their information using means and media relevant and appropriate for them. For this purpose we are gathering information about useful software that is freely available under "open source" licensing agreements.

Our goal for the Kabissa database is to enable African organisations to take control of information-sharing opportunities provided by the web, e-mail, cdrom and print. All four media are tremendously important for Africa:

- The web is ideal for collaborative maintenance and organising of information amongst organisations that have made the investment to be "information providers".
- E-mail remains by far the most relevant Internet application, used far more than the Web or any other service. For Kabissa users, E-mail is and shall remain for some time the most efficient means for transmitting and receiving current information.
- CDROM provides offline access to the "search and browse" capabilities usually reserved for the web. Thousands of pages of information can be shared in this way, along with large software programs and other files that otherwise would have to be downloaded from the Internet at prohibitive expense.
- Print is a media that is too often overlooked in this age of sexy Internet applications. While the web is ideal for maintaining and organising information, when it comes to getting practical information, the most handy source remains a telephone book or some other printed publication.

We are developing our database so that we can provide access to essential information through a portal website and CDROMs and print publications. At the same time, we have a view to enabling organisations and individuals in Africa to perform the same function for their community. This would require training, but it would also require new software to retrieve, organise and output relevant information using your own computer.

STRENGTHENING THE CAPACITY OF AFRICAN ORGANISATIONS
All of our efforts are intended ultimately to contribute to strengthening the capacity of African organisations to carry out their important work. In this context, we are pleased to be involved in the Adilisha Project, established by Fahamu, which seeks to strengthen the campaigning, advocacy and organisational capacity of human rights organisations in southern Africa through the development of computer and internet based distance learning materials. Kabissa has been involved in providing support for the project’s information and communication technology work, including the development of appropriate databases, hosting and technical maintenance of the project’s websites and mailing lists. Kabissa also assists in sourcing information on human rights in Africa (disseminated through the Kabissa-fahamu Newsletter) and provides expert input, through the Adilisha Advisory Board, to the development of a CDROM-based training course on the 'Use of the Internet for Advocacy and Research'.

COLLABORATE WITH US
As we are working with Adilisha and our other partners, so we also want to work with you. Join us to create an African platform for information sharing and collaboration using the Internet. If your organisation provides services in Africa that contribute to this end, we would love to hear from you.

REGISTER YOUR FREE KABISSA MEMBERSHIP ACCOUNT

Organisations working in the African non-profit sector are eligible for Kabissa Membership. Kabissa Members are listed in our member directory, and are eligible for free standard Internet accounts on the Kabissa Internet server. This provides you with web space and mailboxes for your staff, and support for standard scripts such as forms (see FAQ). If you already have a website, you may choose to place a 'mirror' (or copy) of your website in your Kabissa account.

REGISTER YOUR INTERNET DOMAIN ON KABISSA
http://www.kabissa.org/domainreq.html>http://www.kabissa.org/domainreq.html
Domain hosting is available on Kabissa at low cost. We can register domains for $70 (we recommend those ending in .org) and host them on Kabissa for a $35 setup fee and $60 annual hosting fee. You can also transfer your domain to Kabissa or host domains you wish to register independently. Hosted websites and mailboxes are linked directly with member Internet accounts.

KABISSA FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
http://www.kabissa.org/faq.html
The Kabissa Frequently Asked Questions page is your "first port of call" for questions with Kabissa membership and making your start on the Internet. Section headings are:
1. Communicating with colleagues within your country and abroad
2. Accessing Information on the Internet
3. The use of Internet in the African non-profit sector
4. Kabissa Membership
5. Using Kabissa Electronic Mail Accounts
6. Using Kabissa to Make your Organisation’s Information Available
7. Using your Kabissa Website
8. Taking advantage of Kabissa Website features
9. Promoting your Organisation on the Internet
10. Setting up an Internet Domain Name for your Organisation
11. Making payments to Kabissa