<nettime> NairoBitsNews #4 --special edition--

[NairoBitsNews <newsletter@nairobits.org> (by way of Josephine Bosma)]

- - - - - - - -  N A I R O B I T S N E W S  - - - - - - - -

                * * * special edition * * *


# 4 - 28 March 2000
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C O N T E N T S

1 - You are all invited...

2 - The magic word
* A story by MYSA-member Mark about the computer

3 - The ABC of NairoBits

4 - What's happening next!


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1 - You are all invited...

After two months of typing, clicking, drawing, painting and surfing, the
moment is finally there: From the 30th of March until the 5th of April,
Antony, Idris, Simon, John, Ann, Joseph, George, Moses, Campos, Rose,
Stephen, Wilsen, John, Biasha, Bonface, Karani, Mark, Otieno and Geoffrey
will present their work in the National Museum in Nairobi!!  This special
edition of NairoBitsNews is dedicated to this exhibition and the work of
the youths in particular. 

Last week, Hester, Emer and Fiona gave the last regular lessons to the
MYSA youths. Now, everybody is preparing for the exhibition, which will
include web pages, animations, drawings, paintings and other creative
expressions of the youths. Photographs are exhibited, including photos
made by the youths as an assignment as well as photos of the slums they
live in and photos made during the lessons and excursions. Background
information about computer technology will also be provided. The NairoBits
website can of course be viewed. 

On the 30th of March at 18:00 PM local time, the exhibition will be
opened. There will be speeches from the Dutch Ambassador, MYSA director
Samuel Karanja and the NairoBits crew. Emer, Hester, Fiona and the youths
will of course be present and they hope you will come, too!! The opening
is open to everybody interested. If you're not in Nairobi, you can see
pictures of the opening on the website. 

Your invitation to the opening of the exhibition: 
http://www.nairobits.org/exhibition Pictures of the opening (from the 30th
of March):  http://www.nairobits.org/site

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2 - The magic word * A story by MYSA-member Mark about the computer

The magic word, computer. Click, the magic world. So precize and clear.
Click and there you are. When I first heard about computers I thought that
they were one of those things that you had to be an "A" class to
understand. I would walk in town and admire people sitting in sleek suit
behind the computer. Thanks to God, other MYSA comrades and I have been
given a change to study and explore the computer world. 

Ever since we started this project we have aquired many computer skills.
To open or start the computer and to type text on a file in microsoft Word
was my first programme to do. I must admit that it was interesting and
exiting to get to touch the keyboard and use the computer the first time. 
Not to mention the fact that it could be possible for people all over the
world to acces or read these things I was writting. Paricuallarly exiting
is it to work with our dutch exchange partners. 

We learned how to make images and alter the colourby using the
colorswatches, save them on the desktop or any other suitable place. It is
so nice because I get to choose any colour I want or anything I want to
draw and in that way, expand my creative horizons. More interesting still
is the dreamweaver programme. This is because here I learnt how to join
the text on my word file to the image on my photoshop file. This programm
is very interesting. More so because you are given the possibility to to
make alteration or changes to your work in that you can do another colour
on the background of your work simply by going to the window on the
toolbar and clicking on page properties and changing the background colour
there. You can also change the font of your text by making it bold etc.
Using the wide range of possibilities you can make many changes on your
image and text before putting it on the web. 

Come to netscape, and this is the most interesting of all, because here
you can share your work with the people around the world. Using search
enginer appropriately has also made it possible for me to access
information on the internet with considerable ease. I also have learnt how
to e-mail and that is very interesting. There are so many possibilities I
have learnt and am yet to learn, so I guess that's what computer is all
about, possibilities. 

Nairobi, 8 March 2000

More stories of the youths can be found on:
http://www.nairobits.org/site

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3 - The ABC of NairoBits

Especially for the exhibition in the National Museum, the youths designed
the ABC of NairoBits, consisting of words related to art or computers.
Please find a foretaste of this ABC below! 

D of Design by Kennedy

Design: are techniques that one use so that can comeup with an adorable
product. It consist of different shapes, lines and angles. 

E of E-mail by Joseph

E-mail: is like an electronic mail, is a facility for sending letters,
messages and receiving mail through the computer from any part of the
world which has a computer. 

F of Floppy by George

Floppy: this is a plastic disk or disket which can be used to save or
store information or programmes from the computer and it is portable but
delicate as it can be destroyed by falling, by splashing water on it or
always keeping on touching the metallic part. 

V of Visual by Mark

Visual: Everything visible is visual (things you can see).  Art is visual.
In photoshop you can make visual art using colour and the various tools
provided. 


More letters can be found in the National Museum in Nairobi from the 30th
of March! 

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4 - What's happening next!

In every newsletter, we will pay attention to upcoming events, which can
be visited physically or followed online via the website. 

  * 29 March 2000: Festive closing of the Dutch part of
  DigiFriends
  The Dutch participants in the exchange program
  DigiFriends will give a presentation of their activities
  in the CREA theatre in Amsterdam at 13:00 PM local time. 
  Photos will be exhibited which were made during the
  exchange lessons at the Comenius College in Amsterdam. 
  Pictures of this event can be found from 29 March on
  http://www.nairobits.org/digifriends

  * 30 March 2000: Opening NairoBits exhibition
  Everybody is welcome to the opening of the NairoBits
  exhibition in the National Museum in Nairobi at 18:00 PM. 
  More details can be found in this newsletter and on the
  website: http://www.nairobits.org/exhibition

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C O L O F O N

NairoBitsNews is the newsletter of the multimedia project NairoBits, and
is sent about once a month to those who are on our mailinglist. More
information on NairoBits can be found on http://www.nairobits.org . If you
have any questions about the project, you can send an e-mail to
info@nairobits.org or write a letter to NairoBits, Rustenburgerstraat
405/1, 1072 GW Amsterdam, the Netherlands. 

Editor: Maaike Fekkes, maaike@nairobits.org .  Archive: All issues of
NairoBitsNews can be found on http://www.nairobits.org/newsletter . 
Comments: If you have any comments or suggestions regarding NairoBitsNews,
or if you want to contribute to NairoBitsNews, please write an e-mail to
newsletter@nairobits.org .  Subscription: If you want to subscribe or
unsubscribe to NairoBitsNews, please send an e-mail to
newsletter@nairobits.org . 

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