Industry News
A Vision of the Present
Radoslav Zilinsky’s 2007 enchanting painting “The World” depicts a distant future where enormous prosperity is accompanied by enormous disparity. Funny because his future looks a …What is Hive Colab?
Hive Colab is the newest co-working space on the East Africa scene. But what is it and where did it come from? To …U.S. State Department’s Conversation with African Innovators
Last week representatives from the U.S. State Department Elana Berkowitz and Bruce Wharton reached out directly to innovators in East Africa to discuss the Apps …Google Developer Days Coming to Kenya, Uganda
Google is hosting two events in September to teach the use of Google technologies and products in Africa… Google is dedicated to making the Internet relevant …Asia and Africa, Fastest Growing Facebook Regions
Facebook recently hit the half billion users mark (more than a quarter of all internet users) and somewhat unsurprisingly developing countries are fueling a lot …TED Recap: A Fornication of Ideas Pt. 1
TED Global 2010 wrapped up last week in Oxford, UK. As a TED Senior Fellow, I’m lucky in that I’ve now attended three TED events …
The TED Phone
At TED Global in Oxford, UK this week TED and Nokia announced a partnership to bring TED talks to Africa and other developing parts of …Hive Colab Announced in Uganda
Earlier in the day we announced Apps < 4> Africa, a competition for app developers across Africa. Also, today in Uganda, Appfrica Labs in …Apps for Africa Contest Announced in Nairobi
Over the past few weeks myself, Solomon King of NodeSix.com, Joshua Goldstein an Appfrica Fellow, Jessica Colaco at the iHub in Nairobi, Philip Thigo and …
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Appfrica at SXSWi and Barcamp Africa
A few months back I asked the readers of this blog, friends and colleagues to vote for Appfrica’s participation in the South by Southwest Interactive Festival in Austin, Texas, U.S.A. Well, you guys delivered big and “Appfrica” is now an official panel at SXSWi2009! South by Southwest Interactive has become one of the premier Web conferences in the U.S. having started the fever around Twitter some years ago and exposing a number of other web services to it’s attendees.
It’s there that we intend to advocate Appfrica’s mission, sharing information about the state of tech innovation in Africa to SXSW’s massive audience!
In addition, I’ve also been invited to participate as a speaker at Barcamp Africa, the cross-continental conversation starter about Africa. Barcamp Africa takes place October 11 at GooglePlex in Silicon Valley.
For me, these conferences represent a real shift in thinking about Africa. Historically, people have seemed far more intimidated by the continent and more than cynical. More recently, though, it seems people are inclined to be more optimistic, more ambitious and more hopeful about Africa’s future. Even more importantly, a number of people are taking an active role in engaging the continent’s entrepreneurs in business; something that will stimulate economies and encourage growth.
It’s my goal to highlight the hard work of the individuals and groups that I’ve met and learned about since arriving. The innovators, the thinkers, and the progressive minds moving Africa forward.
Thanks to everyone who made both of these events happen and here’s to many more.