For all things ICT in Senegal, look no further than OSIRIS (Observatoire sur les Systèmes d’Information, les Réseaux et les Inforoutes au Sénégal). The long-time resource has ICT news and insight covered like no outlet we’ve ever seen in the region. A couple of articles piqued our interest last year and we’ve finally gotten the chance to spread the word about OSIRIS.

OSIRIS, a non-profit association recognized by the Ministry of Interior, educates, informs, and provides analysis on all matters relating to the use and ownership of information and communication technology. More generally, OSIRIS is committed to the development of Senegal and Africa as an information society.

The site is a nearly-overwhelming mix of resources, press releases, and key indicators. The directory of Senegalese websites is huge! OSIRIS also lists opportunities (tenders, training, contests, calls for papers, events, surveys) for improving the general ICT environment within Senegal.

Just within the past 3 days, posts have focused on pertinent topics like:

• biometrics visas for foreigners
• arts and ICT
• winners of Ericsson Application Awards
• secrets of Sonatel’s success as a telecoms operator
• an early learning program using ICT
• cloud computing
• a new committee for the management of ICT projects

Plus, an RSS feed pulls in stories from other sources in Senegal and from neighboring Burkina Faso (Burkina-NTIC). Other links go to the map of African undersea cables, regulatory information, and Facebook statistics by country. OSIRIS even has a built-in translation option to aid international visitors.

OSIRIS is very active on social media (notably Twitter and Facebook) and is a must for anyone interested in monitoring Senegal’s rise as an information society.

P.S. The articles that drew our attention last year were on PWCS technology, the similarities between India and Africa, and an audit of Senegalese websites.