Zimbabwe Internet after ZANU PF

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Zimbabwean News Websites, Newspapers, and Media

Zimbabwe Internet during ZANU and Mugabe
If you search on Google.com using the words “Mugabe” or “Robert Mugabe” or “ZANU”, you will get not less than 2,500,000 web pages as results. There is a lot said about these three phrases by .CO.ZW, .CO.ZA and .COM websites, as the nation goes through transformation into an economic powerhouse. Day after day, emails, web links, pictures, slideshows, jokes, forums, chats, instant messages, electronic magazines, Newsletters, Newspaper Articles, photos, graphics, and other files are moved from on email box to another, from one continent to another, and from one website to another. Stories are created, cartoons are drawn and posted. Some true, some fabricated. There is a hive of “all” opinions on the subject matter.

Zimbabwe Urikuendepi: Where are you going?
Without being political, my focus would be on the motives, the business, and the going concern of the News, Debates, Books, Publicity, Campaigns, Thesis, and Related Information, now and afterwards. Nothing lasts forever except the Maker of Eternity. There will come a time when ZANU, Mugabe, and everything associated will no longer be viable information to publish or even consume on the Internet. What then will these .CO.ZW, .CO.ZA or .COMs do? Where will they generate their revenue from adverts or even hits from visitors? It is interesting at present as the stories, rather news, is juicy for publication. But there seems to be one song being sung by almost everyone. When I crawl on the Internet about Zimbabwe, I often ask myself what a foreigner would say; “Is everything in Zimbabwe about Mugabe?” Zimbabwean Independent Media, internet included, is running a risk of chasing foreign web consumers away, painting a wrong image of the nation, and archiving a minute portion of our history. Look at Malawi. Their worst years are over and they are focusing on rebuilding. What would have happened had they put their media focus on archiving vision, hope, prosperity, and profiling every opportunity available to the foreign investor? They are currently one of the beggars at IMF and World Banks does, only because of Media foolishness.

Zimbabwe Internet Hope, for the Foolish!
Instead of shooting yourselves in the legs, as a community and people, why don’t you start archiving news that brings hope to the Zimbabwean Consumer, Citizen, and Foreign Investor, creating hype, just as you are doing with the Mugabe issue? To all the Websites, Emailers, and Forums that talk about “Mugabe” or “ZANU”, I challenge you to grow up and become more visionary than what you currently are. It is good that someone changed things for us, causing some to cry out “Who Moved My Cheese?” so that we can be very creative offline, and online too. We now need to start refocusing our efforts to productive content, lest we become another Malawi, though having the best Infrastructure Online in Southern Africa, yes even better than South Africa.

DIFFERENTIATING BETWEEN WEB DESIGNING, WEB DEVELOPMENT, AND WEB PUBLISHING

In understanding what content is, entrepreneur ought to understand the difference between Web Designing, Development and Publishing respectively. This helps the enterprise know the role they play in regards to the website.

Web Designing has to do with the Graphics, Art and Layout. This topic deals with the artistic creativity that is put into creating buttons, menus, pictures, animation, and page layouts. A Web Designer understands the beauty and image aspects of the Internet, which include Themes, Appearance, Colour, Placement/Position, and Navigation. Content to a Web Designer would refer to anything in relation to the aforementioned, focusing on what the web consumers will see, not necessarily what they will do – THE FACE.

Web Development has to do with the creation of Software Applications and background instructions that are used in conjunction with the website. This includes Feedback Forms, Shopping Carts, Registers, and other content manipulation tools. Most of these applications are Database Driven, meaning they have enormous sharing abilities, and data stored on an accessible server, no matter the size or complexity of the content you want to keep in them (Multimedia, Text, or Graphics). A Web Developer understands the Technology of the Internet, which includes Programming Languages, Network Administration, and Website Administration. Content to a Web Developer would refer to anything in relation to the aforementioned, focusing on what they will do, rather than see – THE INSIDE/BACKGROUND ISSUES.

Web Publishing combines Designing, Development, and Internet Marketing skills to deploy and sustain a website. This also includes Market Research, Journalism, Advertising, Promotion, and many more. A Web Publisher understands the Business, the Market, and the Technology of the Internet. Content to a Web Publisher encompasses what you see (THE FACE), what you do (THE INSIDE), and how it will succeed, such as What Consumers want, How to attract consumers, Effectiveness, just to name a few.