Each day during this workshop, we will be taking pictures of our daily progress:

Monday, September 15th, 2003: An official welcome from David Queen, Director of the U.S. Embassy's Public Affairs Section in Accra. Introductions from all the participants and staff, followed by an introduction to critical research skills for the web, best practices in web design and usability. In the afternoon, participants are introduced to basic HTML, generating web pages by using HTML code, and transferring these files to the web server at MATRIX.

Tuesday, September 16th, 2003: The participants have their first introduction to Web and Image editing using Dreamweaver and Fireworks, in the morning using these tools for creating brief online bios. In the afternoon the class moves on from creating web pages to web sites with multiple pages, using the image-editor to create graphical logos for the site.

Wednesday, September 17th, 2003: Walking through each step several more times, each participant constructs a new site from scratch. Marian Atta-Boahene (IWDO participant, 2002) leads class today, as the women now begin work on their final sites. A change of pace after lunch, with Eric Akumiah, National Network Information gives a formal presentation on the impact and current conditions of ICTs within the Ghanaian context. Much lively (and heated) debate within the group over the business tactics of ISP and other IT service providers, and growing social chasm between those with IT access and skills and those without.

Thursday, September 18th, 2003: As the participants become more skilled with the software, we revisit some of the issues discussed earlier in the week--specifically Best Practices in web design, and the optimizing of web sites for low bandwidth capabilities. Each participant's site is projected for class critique. The rest of the morning was devoted to individual work on the sites--with participants working to reduce the size of their graphics, using HTML coding rather than images the enhance the look of their pages. In the afternoon Joy Palmer gave a presentation "Issues in Gender and Information Technology: Opportunities and Challenges for Women in Developing Countries," and discussion followed.

Friday, September 19th, 2003: In the morning, participants work hard on building their sites--adding content and perfecting images. FTP at lunchtime. With the sites now on the server, it is clearer what pages, links, and graphics will need work on Monday. The afternoon is taken up by two presentations, the first by Susan Apochi of the Ark Foundation, who describes the activities of the Crisis Response Center and Women and Children's Refuge Shelter--the first in the country--which the Ark runs alongside sister NGO, WISE. Hamida Harrison of Abantu for Development (former participant of IWDO) gives the second presentation, describing Abantu's activities, and particularly the ICT training programs the organization runs.