Xeni on the Road in West Africa: Liberia's Blackboard Blogger

Xeni Jardin 8:19 am Mon Mar 16, 2009

Boing Boing reader Hugo van Tilborg, who I caught up with here on the road in Benin, points us to a fascinating story by Eric Hersman on Afrigadget blog about a fellow in nearby Liberia who "blogs" on a chalkboard. The guy even sells ad space there! I wonder what his CPMs are, and how the business is doing these days. Snip:

Alfred Sirleaf is an analog blogger. He take runs the “Daily News”, a news hut by the side of a major road in the middle of Monrovia. He started it a number of years ago, stating that he wanted to get news into the hands of those who couldn’t afford newspapers, in the language that they could understand.

Alfred serves as a reminder to the rest of us, that simple is often better, just because it works. The lack of electricity never throws him off. The lack of funding means he’s creative in ways that he recruits people from around the city and country to report news to him. He uses his cell phone as the major point of connection between him and the 10,000 (he says) that read his blackboard daily.

Above, WhiteAfrican's video. See lots of photos of Mr. Sirleaf's "analog blog," and read the full post at Afrigadget (or WhiteAfrican). Also: here's a New York Times story about him from a few years ago.

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