error: failed to push some refs to '[Location of Git Repository]‘
To fix this error, all that needs to be done is a pull. This will update will “fast-forward” your local repository and allow you to push your changes:
git pull
git push
Credit for the tip goes to Tony at Rip’s Blog.
]]>Today I’ve run into a problem where I have made a number of changes to a file that I want to abandon and replace with the file currently in the repository. This is actually quite simple but the terminology is different than SVN. In SVN, we would be “reverting” changes we’ve made, but in Git, we are “checking out”. This is all you have to do:
git checkout path/to/file.php
For those of you familiar with SVN and need a primer, Git - SVN Crash Course has been a great reference tool.
]]>Esoko, the rebranding and complete overhaul of tradenet.biz, features many of the same services that will be offered by Google Trader. Esoko is currently partnered with organizations in Ghana and a number of other countries. Less than a year ago, Esoko (TradeNet) was featured on CNN.
Esoko launched as TradeNet about four years ago in Ghana, giving people in the field and in markets a way to connect via SMS. Users sign up for alerts so they can be notified when prices change, or when product becomes available to purchase. Connections that once could not be realized have now been made, thanks to this type of system.
Over the past four years, Esoko has built close connections with people on the ground, collecting market data, meeting with trade groups and helping people to feel comfortable with the way this type of networking works. I think this has been one of the major keys to success. Put simply, the “build it and they will come” mentality doesn’t work. It has truly been a grassroots effort by Africans to get the word out. The entire development team is located in Accra, Ghana and is primarily made up of Africans. I’m unable to avoid the cliche when I say this but, Esoko is a product that has been created by Africans, for Africans.
Besides sharing of market information, there are other tools in the works that, I believe, will make a major impact on traders around the continent. There is no doubt that services like Google Trader and Esoko are going to begin springing up around the developing world. As more of these companies spring up around Africa, hopefully there grows some good competition. In this environment, we will witness some great things happening.
It’s always nice to put a face on the people that Esoko has been working with. The Esoko Blog highlights some of the challenges Esoko partners are facing in countries from Madagascar in the southeast, Sudan in the northeast, Côte d’Ivoire in the west and everywhere inbetween.
There is some more information about Google Trader at the Google Africa Blog and White African.
Disclosure: I’m currently working on contract with Esoko.
]]>Read the original report on Ethan Zuckerman’s My Heart’s in Accra. Also, read an open letter to Bluehost on Christine Prefontaine’s Facilitating Change.
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I’ve been accepted for a 6 month position at a company in Accra, Ghana called BusyLab. My position is focused around PHP/SQL development and I’ll be working directly with the team of Ghanian developers there as well as a few other Westerners. I’m still trying to nail down flight details so I’m not sure exactly when I’ll be going but I should be jetting out of the States some time in March.
BusyLab is developing what looks like a really cool product called Esoko. It is essentially creating a marketplace online for people in agriculture to hawk their goods online. This is empowering people using the free market so they can get better prices for their product.
I may be posting more updates about my time there in this blog so stay tuned.
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Through the Government of Kenya’s state corporation, Kenya ICT Board, in collaboration with the World Bank is rolling out a massive 300 information centers - the digital villages. Ten of these will be up and running by the end of this year. These efforts are geared towards enabling the citizens to easily access government and general information for development. Priority is given to rural and disadvantaged areas.
What is a digital village?
Digital villages are telecentres, information centers, or e-centres which provide a suite of services to the public via computers, internet, digital cameras, printers, fax machines and other communication infrastructure.
Among issues to be addressed by the DVs, which will be operated through a franchise model called ‘Pasha’ Villages (‘Pasha’ is a Swahili word for disseminate) include:
- Adoption and diffusion of IT and rate of uptake
- Attaining Millennium Development Goals through ICT
- IT ethics and development
- IT and the emergence of the knowledge society
- IT infrastructure for public administration and reform [legal framework, human resource development
(HRD) frameworks] - eGovernance for good government (eGovernment, eDemocracy and eBusiness)
- Innovations in capacity building for ICT development (education in IT, skills for ICT development)
- IT strategies for development (national and sectoral)
- Cyber-security
These among others will be the focus of this timely initiative. This will boost Kenya’s plan to operate a 24 hr economy and be felt across board. ICT and Business can also be addressed through the following ways:
- Procurement: public procurement information systems
- Metropolitan growth and Global Information Systems (GIS)
- Sourcing strategies: net sourcing
- Outsourcing web enabled strategies
- Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) access to public procurement systems
- Open sourcing, online communities
- E-Commerce Security
- Uptake of ICTs on micro-enterprises and their effect on the economy
Sadiki Mwita is a clinical officer with the St. Paul’s Health Centre which is an initiative of the Ugunja Community Resource Centre (UCRC). His is an interesting case of how ICT training at the UCRC is changing lives through a Microsoft Unlimited Potential (UP) grant. Having spent a better part of his life in the neighboring country of Tanzania before relocating to Kenya, he had not interacted with computers much all his life. He studied and obtained a Diploma in clinical medicine and surgery from Maswa Clinical Officers Training College in Tanzania.
In Tanzania, Kiswahili is the national and dominant language. In fact, most subjects at school are taught in Kiswahili. Sadiki was therefore more comfortable with Kiswahili than English when he started his computer classes at the UCRC. His major fear was the fact that the whole training would be conducted in English. Sadiki overcame this challenge and successfully finished his training.
Finishing the free Microsoft sponsored UP computer training and becoming computer literate was indeed an achievement in his life. But it didn’t end there, what followed was more interest and exploitation of his potential and a vision of unlimited opportunities that would come his way. He then searched the Internet and enrolled in an online dental assistant course from Penn Foster Career School in the United States. Since he didn’t have access to a credit card for payment online, he discussed an alternative with the institution and has been remitting $100 monthly through Western Union money transfers for his fees. Indeed, Sadiki has exploited his unlimited potential through his use of the Internet.
He is now looking at the possibility of telemedicine! with this he hopes to offer services that are not offered at the health center by involving professionals from other parts of the world. His newest challenge is overcoming poor connectivity, which is something he has been wrestling with since he started his was going to school online.
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It was announced today that the blog aggregator, Afrigator, is being taken over by MIH Print Africa. Naspers Limited, MIH’s parent company is a multinational media company that has its hands in both traditional as well as new media. Their holdings include websites that target a number of different markets from Brazil to India to South Africa, pay television in South and Sub-Saharan Africa as well as a number of vibrant businesses.
It’s always exciting news to see a startup get acquired. All of the hard work that goes into the development of a site and the harnessing of a community does pay off.
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There was some Twitter buzz a couple hours ago that Google has stepped up to the plate to host BarCamp Africa at their Mountain View campus. For those that don’t know, BarCamp is an “unconference” where most (if not all) attendees contribute to the knowledge shared either through informal information sharing sessions or full-blown presentations. This BarCamp will be focused on the continent so hopefully there will be some great collaboration to focus some attention on technology in Africa. The event is on September October 11, 2008 so sign up if you can make it. It’s a terrible shame but I won’t be able to get out there. I will be attending BarCamp Atlanta II on October 17th, though!
Check out the wiki for more details.
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