We're proud to announce that the Wall Street Journal picked up our story: http://blogs.wsj.com/corruption-currents/2012/05/24/website-targets-corruption-at-ugandan-universities/
If you haven't already seen our site, please visit https://www.notinmycountry.org and rate any university staff members you're familiar with. We're also on Twitter (https://www.twitter.com/nmcountry) and Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/groups/notinmycountry / https://www.facebook.com/NotInMyCountry.org). We'd like to thank everyone for their feedback! The positive comments were very encouraging. As for the negative, we've taken note of five points: 1) Be positive: We did our best to create a balanced site and think this is mostly a matter of how it's promoted. We took a more positive attitude when advertising on Facebook as a direct result of this feedback ("Find out which professor is the best!"). It's hard for us to tell if that change in attitude made a difference in terms of hits/usage, but it's worth noting that our first two staff ratings were positive ones! 2) Use OpenStreetMap: We'll consider including this in a future update as it's in-line with our open-data policy. 3) Use local photos: We agree that the banner graphics do not "feel" Ugandan. We debated this internally and decided it was easier and safer to avoid this at first, though we're not opposed to changing them in future updates. We have legal concerns, security concerns, and don't want to appear as if we're focusing on particular universities. 4) Donations: We don't have an easy way for individuals to donate money but we're working on a solution. This is not a straight-forward process for legal and security reasons. 5) Fraud: We did our best to minimise this problem. Users are limited to one vote per staff-member and verified corruption reports are not applied to individuals (only departments and universities). It's our hope that, with a critical mass of users, fraudulent votes will be overwhelmed by legitimate ones. If you have any ideas on how to eliminate this problem on a rate-my-professor style website, please let us know! Finally, we'd like to share some launch statistics (May 24th - May 25th). A few observations: Firefox and Linux users dig deeper than others (highest Pages/Visit ratio), users in Uganda browse the longest (by far), and Facebook is our best promotion tool. Visitors: - Unique Visitors: 725 - Page Views: 2,558 - Pages/Visit: 3.08 - Avg. Visit Duration: 00:04:25 Top 5 Browsers: - Chrome: 41.25% - Firefox: 29.62% - Mozilla Compatible Agent: 7.91% - Safari: 7.67% - Internet Explorer: 5.40% Top 5 Operating Systems: - Windows: 51.92% - Linux: 16.07% - Macintosh: 13.43% - iPad: 6% - Android: 4.2% Top 5 User Locations (Number of Hits - Visit Duration): - Uganda: 282 - 00:07:41 - United States: 174 - 00:02:19 - Kenya: 89 - 00:01:59 - Unknown: 57 - 00:02:35 - Ghana: 53 - 00:01:09 Top 3 Traffic Sources: - Facebook - Twitter - Google Mail On Fri, May 25, 2012 at 2:35 PM, Paul Bagyenda <[email protected]> wrote: > The site FAQ says that submissions are moderated before being reflected in > the results. Not ideal, but decent enough. > The problems of the 'public' education system are deep, but you gotta > start somewhere to fix them. And no one else is seriously trying (except > perhaps the elite who are voting with their wallets). > > In this case, like the case of the Law School starting entry exams, you > are starting at the top end. It is a little brute force, but I suspect it > will help, and is therefore to be commended. > > P. > > On May 25, 2012, at 13:59, Mark Wamai wrote: > > >> >> On Thu, May 24, 2012 at 11:12 AM, Simon Vass <[email protected]> wrote: >> > >> > Victor as our resident Prof. how do you feel about this? You have >> experience of working here and know that what this is trying to prevent is >> noble, do the ends justify the means? >> > >> >> It is very necessary to improve the standards of tertiary education in >> Uganda but blaming the lecturers anonymously is not the way to go in >> my opinion. E.g, a lecturer who hands out a low marks because the work >> is not good and is not willing to be bribed to improve the mark can >> easily be nailed on this site (unless I overlook something). Do you >> really think that the students that actually bribe will report these >> lecturers? Is is not the case that lecturers that give the best marks >> are liked best? >> Before reporting a lecturer for not showing up in class one should >> know the reasons first. Maybe the administration failed to pay him or >> her (I have seen many of these cases). In that situation I think the >> lecturer should not be blamed (he does not have lecture when he is not >> properly paid), but the administration. Does the student in class know >> the difference? >> >> I can think of many more of such examples, but in general I believe >> the underlying principles of the site does not acknowledge the complex >> reality in education in Uganda and fails to address false-blaming (or >> even promoting it?). I would have rather liked it the other way around >> - celebrate the lecturers/departments that do well. Start an award for >> best lecturer or best department. Transform negative into positive. >> >> my 2 cent >> >> >> > Aggravation aside, a positive attitude does it for me any day > > +1 > > Mark. > > -- > He is solitary in His majesty, unique in His excellency, peerless in His > perfections. He sustains all, but is Himself independent of all. He gives > to all, but is enriched by none.--Arthur W. Pink 1886-1952 > > _______________________________________________ > The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug > > Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: > [email protected] > Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug > To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug > > The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: > http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in > any way. > > > > _______________________________________________ > The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug > > Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: > [email protected] > Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ > Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug > To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug > > The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: > http://www.infocom.co.ug/ > > The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including > attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in > any way. >
_______________________________________________ The Uganda Linux User Group: http://linux.or.ug Send messages to this mailing list by addressing e-mails to: [email protected] Mailing list archives: http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/ Mailing list settings: http://kym.net/mailman/listinfo/lug To unsubscribe: http://kym.net/mailman/options/lug The Uganda LUG mailing list is generously hosted by INFOCOM: http://www.infocom.co.ug/ The above comments and data are owned by whoever posted them (including attachments if any). The mailing list host is not responsible for them in any way.
