Mambo website workshop a success

On Saturday 15 January, Mambo magazine offered a free workshop in website creation run by web developer Duvien Trang, whose work can be seen at www.duvien.com The workshop was also sponsored by the Jambiani Tourism Training Institute, which kindly offered classroom space, and Acquia, the creators of Drupal Gardens, the system Mambo had decided to use to make people's websites.

Duvien firstly gave a presentation to all the attendees - turnout was high. Places had been limited to 12, but over 20 people arrived on the morning, so we did our best to include everyone in the workshop. Attendees were given an introduction to how the Internet works, what should be considered when you are deciding who will host your website, and what features your website should offer.

In the next session, Duvien and Mambo founder Rachel Hamada worked in one-on-one sessions with attendees to determine what sort of business they wanted to publicise online, who their audience was and therefore what features and functionality their site should include.

Attendees were from a diverse range of backgrounds, and businesses featured included both tailors' and farmers' co-operatives, a henna painter, local tour operators and guesthouses, a new diving business and an art and carving shop.

Lunch was offered by Mambo to keep attendees going through the afternoon, and was local Swahili fare, such as beef sambusas (samosas), potato cakes, vegetable rice, vegetable sauce and chapatis.

In the afternoon, attendees tried to work on the creation of their websites, but unfortunately the number of attendees that had turned up meant that the Internet connection was extremely slow, and only limited progress could be made in the afternoon session. It was agreed that Mambo staff would meet with smaller groups in follow-up sessions to make sure that everyone had the chance to finish off their basic websites.

Acquia offered free subscriptions to Drupal Gardens for two prize winners, worth $19.95 a month, meaning these people will be able to have even more potential for their sites. Winners were chosen by prize draw, and were Munira Said of Reclaim Women's Space in World Heritage and Hamad Khamis Said.

Prize winners Hamad Khamis Said and Munira Said

Attendees were really enthusiastic about the opportunity to design and launch their own websites, and Mambo was really impressed by the level of entrepreneurship on show.

Thanks again to our sponsors, and check out our picture gallery here.