Kelechukwu Iruoma and Ruth Olorounbi are winners of the
second phase of the Microsoft Modern Journalism program which focuses on
immersive storytelling. The journalists will be reporting on the aftermath of
oil spills in Ogoniland, Nigeria. They will receive special grants to involve
audiences in real-time news gathering and storytelling of important news events.
Microsoft’s modern journalism program is in partnership with the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ). The initiative helps journalists use innovative ways that enhance news coverage and connect more deeply with their audiences. The first phase focused on data analysis. Kenya environment and health reporter Verah Okeyo, was a grantee of the first phase of the program early this year. The second phase focuses on immersive storytelling. Microsoft says they will receive funding and training to pioneer storytelling using immersive technologies like livestreaming and mixed reality.
How can we help journalists around the world tell stories. From sports updates to watchdog investigations, in ways that promote transparency, understanding and engagement?
Microsoft
ICFJ says the two Nigerian reporters will explore the effect of oil spills on community health. Integrating elements such as livestreaming to reach out to new audiences.
Freelance journalist Kelechukwu lruoma and Per Second News business editor Ruth Olurounbi will use drone footage and lab testing to investigate the long-term health effects of repeated oil spills in the Niger Delta.
As part of their investigation, they will work with health professionals to conduct lab testing on 50 people across Ogoniland, a kingdom in southern Nigeria’s Rivers State hit by the country’s first major oil spill in 1970. An average of 240,000 barrels of crude oil are spilled in the delta every year, according to the Nigerian Medical Journal. Studies link oil spills to cancer, childhood malnutrition and low fertility.
As their award they will receive $7,500, hands-on training
in tools and techniques and instruction in relevant Microsoft technologies.
Women innovators and technology entrepreneurs in Kenya, South Africa and the United Arab Emirates will soon get the opportunity to join the Women in Cloud Business Accelerator. Gretchen O’Hara, Microsoft VP Marketing, One Commercial Partner made this announcement at the 2019 GeekWire Cloud Summit.
Women innovators will recieve access to the cloud, mentorship, networking communities and resources to bring their innovations to market in the Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Program.
Gretchen shared that the program is going global, to
ultimately help drive sustainable economic growth across the globe. Businesses
from the first cohort were able to generate 3 million in new business just from
the connection of technology access and business connectivity she noted.
Gretchen O'Hara (@GretchenOHara), VP/Go-to-Market for the One Commercial Partner Organization at @Microsoft with a special announcement about a major expansion of a Women In Cloud accelator.
“Through our partnership with Ideagen and Women in Cloud, we’re extending the Cloud Accelerator Program to 8 additional countries to empower more Women in Tech around the world!”
Microsoft
The eight additional countries include Canada, France,
Germany, India, Kenya, South Africa, the UAE and the UK. Selected women
innovators from these countries will have unique programs planned for them in
the second cohort.
Women in Cloud, Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Program
Women in Cloud is a women community-led initiative built to
empower women-led technology businesses to drive growth through cloud solutions
and services. With the Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Program being one of its
initiative.
The Women in Cloud Microsoft Cloud Accelerator Program is an
immersive 6-month program designed to help female-led tech companies start and
build their businesses through Microsoft and its cloud distribution channels.
Selected entrepreneurs will learn to develop their cloud business model, cloud
solution, source target customers, get access to subject-matter experts and
executives.
Microsoft hopes the expansion of the program will see it generate $1B in cloud opportunity by providing accessible cloud technology to more than 1,000 women-led tech companies.
There hasn’t been a specified date for when the global initiative will start. We will bring you updates when this happens.
Microsoft announces Partner of the Year Award Winners and finalists ahead of its annual partner conference, Inspire. Microsoft Inspire 2019 is set to take place July 14-18 in Las Vegas. The award showcases Microsoft partner organization building innovative solutions for their customers leveraging Microsoft technologies. We bring you the Middle East winners in this post. Click to check out Africa partner winners.
“Virtually every entry we received showcased something remarkable” says Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner. This year they received 2900 nominations from 115 countries. Winners were selected in 41 Partner of the year categories and country partner of the year category.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate the finalists and winners of the Microsoft 2019 Partner of the Year Awards. These companies are industry leaders helping businesses around the world connect and achieve more. I’m truly amazed by each winner and finalist, and I am honored to highlight the incredible work they are doing.” – Gavriella Schuster
2019 Microsoft Country Partner of the Year Middle East Winners
Israel Partner of the Year U-BTech Solutions
Jordan Partner of the Year Optimiza
Lebanon Partner of the Year Exquitech
Oman Partner of the Year Bahwan IT LLC
Pakistan Partner of the Year Maison Consulting & Solutions
Qatar Partner of the Year Information & Communication Technology W.L.L
Microsoft announces its 2019 Partner of the Year Award Winners and finalists from about 3000 nominations from 115 countries. We bring you winning African partner organization building new and innovative solutions for customers using Microsoft technologies. These winners will be recognized in July at Microsoft Inspire 2019, set to take place July 14-18 in Las Vegas.
There are fewer African country winners compared to 2018. This year saw eight Microsoft partner organizations in Africa winning compared to nine the previous year. It also had the same companies retaining winning country partner positions. Senegal didn’t record any partner winner this year.
Kenya Partner, winner in Global award category
Cloud Productivity Solutions Limited, Kenya are the only winners in any of the global award categories. They won the global category for Teamwork. Cloud Productivity Solutions Limited are also winners in the country partner of the year category. Microsoft says they focused on helping customers realize the broad power of communication and collaboration. Delivering Office 365 services that let customers take advantage of Microsoft Teams to manage employee collaboration across files, chat and meetings, automated business processes, etc.
“We’re thrilled to celebrate the finalists and winners of the Microsoft 2019 Partner of the Year Awards. These companies are industry leaders helping businesses around the world connect and achieve more. I’m truly amazed by each winner and finalist, and I am honored to highlight the incredible work they are doing.”
– Gavriella Schuster, Microsoft Corporate Vice President, One Commercial Partner
Meet the 2019 Microsoft Partner of the Year Africa Award Winners country category
Côte d’Ivoire Partner of the Year INOVA Consulting Services
Egypt Partner of the Year HITS Technologies
Kenya Partner of the Year Cloud Productivity Solutions Limited
Morocco Partner of the Year CASANET
Namibia Partner of the Year Salt Essential IT
South Africa Partner of the Year Mint Management Technologies
Tunisia Partner of the Year Neoledge
Uganda Partner of the Year Britehouse / Dimension Data
Nigeria Partner of the Year Wragby Business Solutions and Technologies Ltd
Microsoft is presenting details on Xbox for gamers at E3
2019, the biggest video game industry annual event. You can expect announcement
of new titles, demos and trailers by Microsoft. Microsoft will also use the
event to talk about what gamers should expect in the coming year from Xbox.
E3, the Electronic Entertainment Expo 2019 will also host
developers, publishers and manufactures of computer, video games and related
products from June 11th to the 13th.
Microsoft’s Xbox E3 2019 briefing will take place at 8 pm
GMT, 11 pm EAT, 10 PM SAT, 4 pm EST and 1 pm PDT. You can follow the event
right on this page.
Watch Xbox E3 2019 live
Or watch the whole E3 event with other announcements
The Xbox team will be giving in-depth looks to new and previously announced games.
Microsoft says “we are bringing Inside Xbox back to E3 this year! Inside Xbox will air Monday, June 10 at 3 p.m. PDT (10 pm GMT) and will feature a livestream full of exclusive announcements, game demos, interviews, giveaways and more“.
Nat Friedman is visiting top GitHub contribution country Nigeria to interact with developers.
Nat friedman, GitHub CEO and Microsoft Corporate Vice President in March announced he was heading to Nigeria and Ghana in a tweet. He shared “I’m going to Nigeria and Ghana for the first time later this year, and I’m interested in meeting local developers and entrepreneurs and learning about how GitHub can be of service.”
This week Nat has been spending time with the open source developer community in Nigeria. Meeting with developers of different ecosystems. Listening to the work they do and how they use developer tools and the GitHub platform. He met GitHub campus experts and developers at an open source Mixer at the Microsoft Nigeria office. He’s also visited and spent time with developers of tech companies and co-creation hubs such as Andela, Paystack, CC hub, etc.
Nat had shared that Microsoft is broadening its horizons as a developer-centric company. That’s by rallying behind technologies like Linux, Git, node and Kubernetes. Microsoft, he says is remodeling its engineering culture after the example of open source projects. For the GitHub CEO and his visiting team, listening and learning from developers in the African tech space will allow them serve better.
GitHub will be looking to hire remote developers from Africa soon says the CEO.
GitHub CEO, Interacts with Nigerian developer community
— Git’sbane, the Sage of the North (@Sage_Godspeed) June 4, 2019
I just met @natfriedman (GitHub CEO) ??. We talked about the open source developer community in Lagos and made him play my open source Android game! pic.twitter.com/YSB9eB8qz4
— Nenne ‘Adora’ Nwodo (@theadoranwodo) June 3, 2019
We loved meeting with @github CEO @natfriedman and the rest of the GitHub team at a fireside chat at the Paystack office yesterday! Stoked for the future of developer relations in Africa! pic.twitter.com/GAzRoBmXTz
@natfriedman graced us with his presence yesterday. We had a great time discussing about how GitHub could work better for us, how to drive engagement in the community and all. It was pretty awesome! He’s a great listener. Thanks a lot, Nat ??? pic.twitter.com/PpfqmpH4Bz
Earlier in the week, we welcomed @github‘s CEO @natfriedman and his team to the office. We gave him a tour of the building, and he also got the chance to interact with some of our team members to learn more about our work at #CcHUB. pic.twitter.com/jK9QUSyaoS
Had a close door meeting with the CEO of Github, @natfriedman yesterday. He is amazing and really interested in Nigeria’s tech ecosystem. He explained how we can leverage the amazing power of the tools GitHub has. It was awesome?.
