Are you an African digital citizen, or a digital citizen in Africa or a digital citizen interested in Africa?  Well, 7th July is a date for you to watch out for. The Digital Citizen Indaba 5.0 is taking place down in South Africa. The aim…

The main objective of the Digital Citizen Indaba (DCI) is to bring together bloggers, podcasters, vodcasters, mobile media users, citizen journalists, new media practitioners, online industry experts and civil society representatives, as citizens who try to empower themselves using new media technologies.

The purpose of bringing them together is to enable this empowerment to take place through participation in debate about the state of digital media, information sharing and skills transfer using experts in the field. The DCI was established after it was recognised that – given its focus on new media and journalism – Highway Africa (HA) could do more to encourage new media take-up by non-journalists, thereby ensuring that citizens have a digital voice too…

• How can citizen media tell the development story?
• Should citizen media tell the development story differently from mainstream media?
• Which new media tools are most effective in exposing crucial information about natural resource exploitation, mega-events and disasters?
• What role should citizen media play in exposing how Africa’s rich natural resources are being used?
• What is the role of citizen media in natural disasters? Which stories are important to tell, and how? What technologies enable effective communication after disasters?
• How does Africa perceive mega-events generally, and South Africa’s hosting of the 2010 World Cup specifically?
• What debates are taking place about the development benefits of the 2010 World Cup, which media enable these debates, and whose voices are heard ? Are these the voices that should be heard?
• How can the mainstream media and individuals therein work with others in raising neglected issues and viewpoints in the public sphere?

If you are not sure if you are a digital citizen or not, Wikipedia defines a Digital Citizen…

commonly refer to a person that participates in society using a certain amount of information technology (IT). To qualify for the unofficial title of digital citizen a person must have the skill and knowledge to interact with private and government organizations through means of “digital” tools such as computers or mobile phones, along with access to these devices.

People characterizing themselves as digital citizens often use IT extensively, creating blogs, use social networking and other means of modern communication. Digital citizenship begins the first time any child, teen, and/or adult signs up for an email address, posts pictures online, uses e-commerce to buy merchandise online, and/or participates in any electronic function that is B2C or B2B. Parents and teachers need to start teaching children and teens at an early age about the responsibilities of being online as a digital citizen.