Heading to the African continent is easy these days; you simply need to jump on the web and visit a news portal that directly involves you with the news and happenings in Africa. Having developed a strong relationship with Web 2.0, the African continent is connected with the international community and allows worldwide visitors to utilize key buzzwords to travel intimately into the news of the continent.
Domestically, with Web 2.0, the African continent is connected through social bookmarking networks, such as AfricaNe.ws, which develop and strengthen the relationships between all of the countries and people in the continent. By encouraging individuals to choose the most relevant and important news stories, the information is organic, unfiltered, and comes straight from the people. Thus, the news that is derived from this process is real and important, without any filters created by news organizations in other countries. The current events and news, as told by the first-hand witnesses on the African continent, is broadcasted all over the world.

Fundamentally, with a social bookmarking network, the fundamentals of discrimination and filtering are eliminated. The grassroots news and information about the African continent can flow across international boundaries, without any type of filtration or suppression. When an user engages with Web 2.0, they take the news into their own hands by having the ability to connect with the African continent, collaborate with others, and share information with the world. Web 2.0 and social bookmarking networks allow people, both domestically and internationally, to make a real connection with the countries in the African continent.

The divisions amid social media have recently gathered frequently to discuss censorship, regulations, and even blogging in the realm of news portals. There have been heavy discussions whether other media producers might join in the revolutionary social media. There are many issues that centre around the relevancy of blogging and the news, and whether or not news bloggers should be added to the mainstream news media.

Despite the news media debates, the importance and relevancy of Web 2.0 and social bookmarking networks is making a deep impact for African news, both domestically and internationally. By bringing people and countries together, social bookmarking networks have allowed people to link together on the net and experience cultural growth. It has been an important step in distributing real, relevant, and organic African news to others around the world.

With the advent of Web 2.0 and social bookmarking networks such as AfricaNe.ws, people are connecting with the African countries, both domestically and internationally. Breaking down international boundaries, social bookmarking networks bring people closer together. Through the process of creating, producing, and sharing web content, Web 2.0 news portals continue to empower individuals to share with the world relevant, real news and events. This process in itself provides the news media with unfiltered news stories that come straight from the people of the African continent.

Web 2.0 and African social news networks will make a tremendous impact on the domestic and international communities, with the important, real news stories connecting people and the news media around the world.

In comparison to other regions of the world the African continent still remains under developed in regards to Information Technology. This is only to be expected due to poverty and lack of developed infrastructure in the region. Having said that, large I.T corporations view Africa as an emerging market, which has led to a dramatic increase in the amount of investment flooding into the continent. Africa’s growth potential is considered huge as they have a population of approximately 680,000,000 making up 10% of the world's overall population.

African based firms are now enhancing their technical capabilities in terms of manufacturing, marketing, and product quality in order to remain competitive with the rest of the world. Information Technology plays a strategic role in the long-term survival of any firm. It is now considered a necessity for businesses to have a sound online presence that works alongside their offline business model. While many people in world enjoy easy access to information through the Internet, hundreds of millions of people in Africa as of yet do not have this luxury. The technological divide is not a problem in itself, but rather a symptom of a deeper, more important divide of income, development, and literacy. Fighting poverty is more than transferring money to the poor or direct job creation for the poor; it is providing tools that will empower people to be more independent.

Internet usage for the Africa population currently lies at 4.7%, this figure is low when compared to 21.3% for the rest of the world. However if growth figures are analyzed it shows Africa has grown at a rate of 874% over the past 7 years, compared to 236% for the rest of the world. This figures show first hand why Internet based businesses view Africa as an untapped market with huge growth potential.

Recently Africa’s first news based social networking site was released; the website is called AfricaNe.ws. It provides a platform for African news and related stories to be bookmarked by region. The site encapsulates the full ethos of web 2.0, which is a statement to the rest of the world that African website developers are not willing to sit back on their laurels in regards to the Internet's continual development.

Web based entrepreneurs with vision view Africa as a challenging market, however they also understand that being first to market could prove to be very lucrative in the future. Mike Kofi Okyere the owner and developer of AfricaNe.ws is fully aware of the growth prospects that Africa holds in relation to Internet based products and services. Although Mike Kofi is a successful businessman in his own right he is also passionate about providing Africa and its people with Internet based products that are on par with the rest of the world. Having spoken with Mike Kofi at length on the subject of Africa and Internet development I fully realize how passionate he feels about providing Internet services for the African people.

One thing is for certain, it will take many years for Africa to close the gap in the technological divide, however with entrepreneurs like Mike Kofi Okyere working hard to promote African based Internet products and services, when the gap is closed Africa will be in a much stronger position.