First in ICT Flight: Monday Round-Up

Today marks the anniversary of Steve Fossett's record-setting solo flight around the world in a hot air balloon in 2002, which in turn landed on the same sad date that Amelia Earhart disappeared in her own attempt at circumnavigation in 1937. To honor these aviary pioneers and their "firsts in flight", below are a few firsts (and seconds) in ICT:

• Huawei has launched a Android app competition in Uganda, allowing many local entrepreneurs to find backing for their first time apps.
• Namibia and Botswana celebrated the landing of the first West Africa Cable System (WACS), which will provide tranmission speeds of up to 5 terabytes per second.
• The government of Zambia has created an Android app to allow users to comment on the first draft of the Zambian Constitution.
• Major websites including Reddit, Mozilla, and Gawker all experienced a bug caused by the "Leap Second", a 1 second adjustment meant to keep Coordinated Universal time close to solar time, and in turn caused problems for platforms using Network Time Protocol.
• Google had two big "firsts" this week for its Google Drive service, making it available on iOS as well as allowing users offline editing.
• Slightly off-theme but nevertheless just as important, lack of electricity in Yemen has caused large scale frustration.
• A solar-powered telecom network will soon debut in Nigeria, the first of its kind in the country. The broadband network is designed to serve rural populations that generally don't have access to the Internet and telecom services.
• Security researchers uncover a Trojan virus that takes advantage of a Mac backdoor, directed at Uyghur activists in Eastern and Central and Asia.
• A new website called "Mursi Meter" is launched by Egyptian activists planning to keep a close watch on their new president during his first 100 days in office.
• You've been following the talks about Internet governance going on at the UN, right? Cynthia Wong talks about how the ITU's proposal to regulate the Internet could deeply affect Internet users in less developed countries.

Events this week:

• Happy 4th of July! The Washington Post provides a quality list of sites to catch the fireworks on Wednesday.
• On Saturday, the Newseum hosts Pulitzer Prize winning cartoonist Matt Wuerker.