Broadband in Africa Report (3)
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6 days, 15 hours
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Russell Southwood’s Balancing-Act newsletter is one of the best sources for internet and mobile statistics and reports in Africa. If you don’t read it, you should. If you run any type of mobile, web, or ISP-type company in Africa and you can afford it, then you should be buying the reports. Here are some excerpts from the recent one on Broadband Markets in Africa with some opinions thrown in by me. Every country needs a ...
No Connectivity, No Phone, No Electricty, No Problem | White African (3)
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1 week, 6 days
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Next time I’m in Orlando, I’m going to see Scott Johnson. He lives about an hour away in Daytona Beach and has developed a solar-powered Internet “hub” system (running Ubuntu GNU/Linux) that he builds to order. In the video below, he talks about the what, why and how of his system. Incredible work, and well worth watching. GNUveau Networks builds solar-powered computer networks for remote villages from roblimo on Vimeo. His objective is to bring ...
“Made in Africa” my talk from Pop!Tech (1)
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3 weeks, 1 day
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Here is my 5-minute talk that I did at Pop!Tech this Saturday. It touches on Ushahidi, AfriGadget and why I’m optimistic about Africa. The best part for me is that in a recording I can make sure I don’t forget any lines and I can add more images into the slideshow. I know I had to cut out a section of the talk in the live event as I was running out of time. Either ...
Ushahidi “Eldoret” (v0.1) is Released! (1)
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3 weeks, 2 days
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I’m very excited to take a moment to give a big thanks to some very special people who have taken a lot of their time to make Ushahidi’s first release of the new engine come together. Each release is named after an African city or town which has seen a large crisis or disaster overtake it. The “Eldoret” release is in recognition of the problems that were centered around that town in Kenya earlier this ...
7 Rules Explain Innovation in Africa (2)
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1 month
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Ethan Zuckerman has produced yet another amazing thought piece. This time, he’s talking about innovation in Africa and how that is brought about by resource constraints. Go read the whole post here. In the meantime, here are his 7 rules explaining how developing world innovation proceeds: Innovation (often) comes from constraint (If you???ve got very few resources, you???re forced to be very creative in using and reusing them.) Don???t fight culture (If people cook by ...
Open Mobile Consortium Launches at MobileActive ‘08 (1)
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1 month
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(Image by Tino Kreutzer) One of the big initiatives that was just formed/announced at MobileActive ‘08 was what we’re calling the “Open Mobile Consortium” (working name). This is a body much like the W3C, focused on bringing together groups working on initiatives in this space, formulating best practices and standards and generally working to bring this fragmented industry a little closer together. We’ll see where this goes, but there seems to be a lot of ...
Mobile Phones in Crisis & Disaster Situations (2)
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1 month, 1 week
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This morning I had the honor of putting on a workshop at MobileActive ‘08 with Robert Kirkpatrick, of InSTEDD, and Christopher Fabian, of UNICEF. Both of them are doing some amazing work in the field of disaster and crisis response, using all different types of technology, but specifically what people carry in their pockets all over the world: the mobile phone. InSTEDD has a number of ongoing projects, generally thinking about ways to use technology ...
Local Software for Local Needs (2)
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1 month, 2 weeks
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I happened to be in Nairobi for the first Skunkworks organized conference on local-grown mobile, web and desktop software - setup by Alex Gakuru. It’s a mixture of demos, with a scattering of talks by high-level sponsors and the Permanent Secretary of Information Dr. Ndemo. Tulipe - An African Payment System Kenneth Mwangi just gave a presentation on his new web and mobile payment application called Tulipe, which means “let’s pay” in Swahili. It’s most ...
If it Works in Africa, It Will Work Anywhere (1)
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1 month, 3 weeks
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(This is from my talk on mobile phones in Africa, at the Picnic conference in Amsterdam this morning.) Africa is brimming with innovative people, projects and organizations. The fact that I’m standing here today proves this out - you see, I’ve been writing about those stories for the past 3 years. Some of you are already familiar with Africa’s mobile stats, but not everyone is. Let’s run through some numbers, and take a minute to ...
5 Examples of Student Ingenuity in Kenya (2)
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1 month, 4 weeks
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My good friend Josiah Mugambi in Nairobi was at the Kenya chapter of the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) exhibition in Nairobi last weekend. This is where students showcase their innovation in engineering, ICT, mobile application and renewable energy. He did me a great favor by sharing some pictures and research that he did on some of the really interesting students he came across. 1. MPESA Online Shopping By Denis Ndwiga Nyaga Safaricom ...
Pamoja Media: An African Ad Network (1)
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2 months, 3 weeks
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I’ve been waiting for someone to create an African ad network for a couple of years, and I’m really happy to see that Pamoja Media has launched. Started by Joshua Wanyama (of AfricanPath) and Benin Mwangi (of Cheetah Index), it’s an ad network created to serve advertisers trying looking for a one-stop-shop for publishers in Africa, or that reach Africans in the diaspora. Publishers Pamoja is brand new, and just starting to get going. That ...
Africa.Alltop.com - A Little Backstory (1)
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3 months, 1 week
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A couple weeks ago Ellen Petry Leanse and Kaushal Jhalla announced that they wanted to put on a Barcamp Africa for afrophiles living in the San Francisco area. They’re both good friends of Ushahidi and we liked the idea, so David and I jumped in where we could (David created the logo). Ellen is also happens to be very well connected in the Bay area, she used to work as an Apple evangelist back in ...
Mobile Broadband Internet in Africa (2)
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3 months, 2 weeks
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The Africa Report’s quarterly magazine has come out, this time with a report on mobile phones, internet penetration, BPO zones and mobile banking. If you’re not subscribed to this quarterly magazine yet, you should - it’s available in almost every country. Personally speaking, it’s one of only three magazines I subscribe to (the others are MAKE and Technology Review). “The division between the ICT ‘haves’ and ‘have-nots’ now runs through the heart of the continent, ...
2007 African Mobile Phone Statistics (1)
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3 months, 3 weeks
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Africa Telcom News has released a free report, called the African Mobile Factbook, that gives all of the major numbers on subscribers, penetration rates, profitability and growth potential for every African carrier and country. As anyone who is tries to do research in this space knows, it can be difficult to get some of these mobile phone statistics for Africa, so this is a welcome source for information. Interesting Facts Nigeria, South Africa and Egypt ...
NYT Article on the Kenya Tech Scene (1)
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4 months
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Gregg Zachary happened by Barcamp Nairobi last month and had a chance to meet with a few of the techies who were lingering around after the event. Conversations from that night spurred his article today in the New York Times titled, “Inside Nairobi, the Next Palo Alto?“. It’s a good read on why Kenya, even after the violence in January and February, is still a tech hub in Africa. Between Skunkworks, Google Kenya and an ...
Africa’s Internet Exchange Points (Map) (1)
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4 months, 2 weeks
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Last week I talked about Google’s Global Cache, and how they will be housing this new project at Internet Exchange Points (IXP). A quote from Wikipedia’s definition explains the importance of IXPs best. “The primary purpose of an IXP is to allow networks to interconnect directly, via the exchange, rather than through one or more 3rd party networks. The advantages of the direct interconnection are numerous, but the primary reasons are cost, latency, and bandwidth. ...
Google Kenya and the Google Global Cache (1)
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4 months, 2 weeks
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Google is well known for snatching up top-level talent, this holds true in Kenya as well. ICT groundbreaker Joe Mucheru heads up the Kenya office, and he’s surrounded by a team of smart young technologists. I had the chance to meet Isis Nyong’o (Strategic Parter Development Manager) while getting ready for Barcamp Nairobi, and then Chris Kiagiri (Tech Lead) and Mark de Blois (Geographic Supervisor) last week before I left. Google Kenya is Different I ...
FrontlineSMS (v2) is Reborn & Ready for Use (1)
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4 months, 4 weeks
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One of the guys that I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know over the years is Ken Banks. He’s a tireless believer, and more importantly practitioner, in the field of mobile phone as change agent in the world. His FrontlineSMS mobile phone software has been making waves from Chile to Nigeria, and it’s use is only accelerating. Since its initial release in 2005, FrontlineSMS has been adopted by NGOs in over forty countries for ...
