The close of the year is often a time for reflection, for individuals and companies alike. For Appfrica it’s no exception as we profile the twelve most trafficked stories from the blog. Last year we did the same, but read on to see what our most popular stories were this year.

15. Kampala Riots, Citizens Tweet

In mid-September, Kampala was rocked by rioting across the city. The whole continent watched in wait as one of sub-Saharan Africa’s ‘darling’ cities had it’s reputation of tranquillity marred by the events. Luckily the violence subsided and things settled down but it leaves us all wondering what’s in store for Uganda’s 2011 elections.

14. PayPal’s Electronic Profiling

Frustrated by apparent IP profiling, I review some of the problems with PayPal’s policies when it comes to African consumers.

13. PayPal Alternatives for African Entrepreneurs

Theresa Carpenter followed up on the previous post with recommendations of alternatives to PayPal. This is a space I’m hoping we see explode in 2010 as more Africans come online.

12. Asynchronous Info, Disjointed Data and Crisis Reporting

The Kampala riots were scary, but what was even scarier was the lack of a resource for ‘filtering out the noise’ and inaccurate reports. Can apps like Ushahidi’s SwiftRiver or DevelopmentSeed’s ManagingNews fill this void?

11. How to Save Money as an African Startup

This post was filed very early on in the life of Appfrica Labs. These days we’ve changed our modus operandi a bit. For instance, our staff is free to work from anywhere and our hours have dropped from eight hours a day to six.

10. Kiva.org Responds to Fraud

Kiva ran into some different trouble this year but prior to that was the issue of apparent fraud. It turns out this report may have been inaccurate so make sure you read through the comments to find out the story from both sides (the accused and Kiva).

9. The Future of Giving

Concept art for an augmented reality application that could change the way donors and ngo’s work in the field. Since this post, Appfrica Labs has been encouraged to look into the possibility of making this application a reality.

8. The Popularity of Programming Languages in Africa

Our most popular post in 2008 was the Popularity of Programming Languages in Africa, this year it drops to number 8 but to be fair we only published this years report about two weeks ago. That it’s on the list it all really surprised me.

7. Google South Africa to Open Theme Park

April Fools day is my favorite day of the year! We pulled a fast one on our readers by claiming Google was building a Theme Park in South Africa. Google, if you’re looking for new revenue streams, I think the flood of email I got about this announcement from people who didn’t get the joke might be an indicator of where to look!

6. Undersea Cable Arrives in Africa

Another April Fool’s joke that fooled many people (I was even contacted for an interview), partly because anticipation for SEACOM and TEAMS was high and people were truly fed up with internet speeds. Both cables would arrive only a few months after this was published, adding to the realism. The aftermath of these cables, however, has been no joke as Appfrica Labs saw it’s internet costs cut in half in September, only two months after Seacom’s arrival in Mombasa.

5. 20 Ideas for Social Entrepreneurs

The throw back from last year that’s still ranking up the page views! Want to save the world, here’s a few things that I’d love to do if I had the time and capital.

4. Do Cellphones Outnumber Lightbulbs in Uganda?

A controversial post that was paralleled by this episode of FricaFactoid. Still I think cellphones actually outnumber lightbulbs in Uganda. Don’t let the connectivity of Kampala fool you, the country-side and city-clums are severely lacking power.

3. 10 Social Entrepreneurs to Follow on Twitter

Another throwback from last year. Ten people that are champions of various social causes. Of course, this is by no means a list of the best or most effective, just a list of people I continue to find interesting.

2. Best and Worst Project Management Applications

It’s interesting that ten months ago my internet was so slow that I couldn’t used Basecamp, but now it’s so fast I’m using Basecamp over a 3G connection on a daily basis! Still, here’s a look at some of the project management applications that might be suited ‘for the field’ or areas with poor connectivity.

1. Infostate of Africa

To help offer people a better understanding of the rapid progress of African internet penetration, I made this infographic that explores how investment in infrastructure is improving ‘readiness’ and internet penetration all across the continent. Will 2010 be the continent’s most explosive period for internet growth? Looks like that very well may be the case!

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

The challenge of ‘coded in country’ — how to get more coders in the developing world working on mobile projects — is in many ways a helpful proxy for thinking about the larger question above. In an energetic discussion, we developed something of an incomplete typology for developing the capacity of local programmers, each with its advantages and drawbacks.

Partner with Local Universities

Lucky Gunasekara of FrontlineSMS:Medic and Stanford University pointed to Nathan Eagle‘s Entrepreneurial Programming and Research on Mobiles project that partners with African mobile engineering department to strengthen capacity. challenge: ensure knowledge reaches beyond university-educated classes.

Break Down Barriers with Local Tech Industry

Chrissy Martin of the Fletcher School mentioned that in Tanzania, the most inspired, engaged, and talented programmers all worked at value added services companies. These are companies that charge premium rates for sending and recieving sports scores, concert tips and other local cultural content. Chrissy argued that there should be more cross-pollination between private sector talent and those working on M4D projects. challenge: find an incentive for private sector programmers to engage.

Convince Donors to Adopt a ‘Coded in Country’ Standard

Similar to a fair trade stamp of approval, what if the Gates Foundation declared that any development project with a coding element must be 50% coded in-country. To be sure, some projects already feel a need to hire local developers. Stephen Miller of the Ujima Project | Investigative Reporting for Africa, discussed how the group hired Appfrica Labs to do the coding for the project. challenge: in places where local capacity is not established, balance project goals with local capacity building.

Give Space for Informal Innovation Labs

Christelle Scharff, professor of computer science at Pace University, discussed the mobile development boot-camps she runs in Senegal. The goal is to create space and an incentive for young people to spend a week intensely tinkering with mobile solutions to community problems. This is a similar approach to Appfrica Labs 10,000 Hours project, which urges companies in Kampala to open their space to young people interested in digital technologies. challenge: ensure that peer-education ensures learning of fundamental skills.

Cross-posted on In An African Minute.

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

Click the above photo to check it out…

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

In Makerere’s Computer Science program they graduate about 900 kids per year. Of those 900 between 5% and 10% find full time jobs by the same time the next year. Those that don’t find jobs by that time, now have the added pressure of competing with the next class – with a the added disadvantage of a slightly outdated and somewhat unequal education (as education should be getting better with each graduating class). Many of the remaining 90% to 95% will simply give up, going back to tried and true jobs like taxi driving, owning a small shop or working in unrelated areas to their degrees. Again, this is a cost on the state, who’ve trained highly specialized individuals who are often now doing things they could have done without an education at all.

To further illustrate my point, I’ll borrow some terms from behavioral psychologist Burrhus Skinner and his work with positive reinforcement. Essentially, he argues that there are two motivations for a person do anything. Either to avoid suffering (negative reinforcement) or to experience the pleasure of reward (positive reinforcement). Skinner argues that every decision in life is made with an internal dial that tilts from one degree of extreme to another. Now, this is important because if there’s no reward, some people don’t excel. Why would they, there’s no real point. Alternatively, achieving to avoid punishment will ensure (in my opinion) that people will only ever just enough to avoid that punishment. Whether it be working everyday (to avoid poverty and hunger), abiding the law (to avoid penalty) or sending their remittances across the Atlantic (to avoid cultural and family shame) – all of these things can be done with different motivations. It’s my opinion that truly remarkable results are achieved by people who are acting for reward rather than the fear of punishment. And I won’t go too Psych101 on you all, but there’s also a correlation between negative reinforcement and immediate gratification; and positive reinforcement and delayed gratification.

‘Reward’ in this sense could be anything from their own ‘feeling good’ about what they do or the general idea that their actions may have long term positive implications. But I digress, since I work with investors, I’ll bring all right back to the topic of this piece which is capital.

……

Yes, individualism and personal tenacity do play a huge role but the point is those things have to be rewarded to exist. For example, people in Silicon Valley don’t innovate because they’re so brilliant they just can’t help it. If that were the case, Moore’s Law would have been trampled upon years ago. No, they innovate because of the multiple rewards that exist for being innovative. Maybe they just want the big checks, maybe it’s the adulation from their peers and suitors, perhaps they just want to prove that they are smarter than everyone else in the room. But there’s always some reward. Likewise, it’s absurd to expect entrepreneurial people and innovative ideas en masse in markets where there’s often the opposite of reward for such behaviour. Investments and other types of support represent reassurance and afirmation that something (in this case a business plan) is worth pursuing. I’m not saying investing resources is the only way to breed success. Of course there are other things that come into play like mentorship, education and the role that governments play. But it is one factor and there certainly isn’t enough long-term capital investment in the region.

Read the rest at TED…

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

I’m happy to formally announce my participation in the TED Fellows program this coming July in Oxford, UK. I’ve been a huge fan of TED ever since I saw talks by people like Andrew Mwenda, Jonathan Harris, Jill Bolte Taylor and Jacqueline Novograts. Those people in-particular but also many others that I’ve seen along the way inspired me in many ways to do what I’m doing now. To a stranger, the connection between these four individuals of completely different backgrounds is probably obscure; one a journalist from Uganda, another a researcher and stroke survivor, a web designer barely older than myself and the founder of Acumen. All I can say is that they all affected me in profound ways; Andrews call for accountability from African leaders and Aid organizations, Jonathan’s visual manipulations of large complex datasets, Jacqueline’s insight into the needs of entrepreneurs in developing countries and Jill’s ability to detach, breakdown and analyze her own personal crisis as if she were reading it from a text book. These are all ideas that have shaped me as a person and the way I’ve approached my business, ideas that I definitely think are worth spreading.

For me TED will offer the opportunity to, not only share my own work and experiences, but to learn from others both as peers and mentors. It’s main stages have been graced by people like Malcolm Gladwell, Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking, Amy Tan and other incredibly influential people from various disciplines and industries. It’s intimidating, inspiring and challenging all at once and I’m deeply grateful for the opportunity before me.

The TED Fellows program helps world-changing innovators from around the globe become part of the TED community and, with its help, amplify the impact of their remarkable projects and activities. Fellows are drawn from many disciplines that reflect the diversity of TED’s members: technology, entertainment, design, the sciences, the humanities, the arts, NGOs, business and more.

I’m sure as the weeks go on I’ll share more about my work in preparation for the conference but for now, thanks for the support and wish me and my fellow TEDizens (listed below) luck!

You can see some of my favorite TED Talks for yourself, by visiting my profile at http://www.ted.com/index.php/profiles/view/id/45502

TED Oxford 2009 fellows: Esra’a Al Shafei (Bahrain) – Founder, MiddleEastYouth.com/Blogger; Xavier Alpasa, S.J. (Philippines) – Founder, Rags2Riches/Parish Priest/School Director; Rachel Armstrong, MD (UK) – Teaching Fellow, The Bartlett School of Architecture/Medical Doctor/Science Fiction Author; Nassim Assefi, MD (US/Iran/Turkey/Afghanistan) – Medical Doctor/Writer/Women’s Health Specialist; Frederick Balagadde, PhD (Uganda/USA) – Research Scientist, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory; Michelle Borkin (US) – 3D Visualization Researcher, Harvard University; Constanza Ceruti, PhD (Argentina) – High-Altitude Archeologist/ Anthropologist; Candy Chang (US/Finland) – Design Specialist/Artist; Jessica Colaço (Kenya) – Researcher, SRCC/Mobile Technology Evangelist/Blogger; Shereen El Feki, PhD (Canada/UK/Egypt) – Academic, American University in Cairo/Writer; Gabriella Gómez -Mont (Mexico) – Founder, Tóxico Cultura; Jonathan Gosier (US/Uganda) – Founder, Appfrica; Peter Haas (US/Haiti/Guatemala) – Founder, AIDG/Tinkerer; Meklit Ayele Hadero (Ethiopia/US) – Singer/Musician/Cultural Activist/Resident Artist, Red Poppy House; Marvin Hall (Jamaica) – Founder, Halls of Learning/Teacher; William Kamkwamba (Malawi/South Africa) – Student, African Leadership Academy/ Inventor; V.K. Madhavan (India) – Executive Director, CHIRAG; Evgeny Morozov (Belarus/US) – Blogger/ Political Scientist/ Writer; Naomi Natale (US) – Founder, One Million Bones; Alexander Petroff (US/Democratic Republic of the Congo) – Founder, Working Villages International; Zoya Phan (Burma/UK) – Burmese Human Rights Activist/Author; Seth Raphael (US) – Hi-Tech Magician; Nuhu Ribadu (Nigeria/UK) – Exiled Anti-Corruption Pioneer/Lawyer; Fred Swaniker (Ghana/South Africa) – Founder, African Leadership Academy; Benji Zusman (US)- Co-Founder, CURIOUS/Filmmaker/Scientist

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

About Couchsurfing

The concept behind Couchsurfing is simple. Join the network, go through their easy Verification Process (the online equivalent of being screened) and start participating in the community. A big part of the verification process is getting recommendations from other users, somewhat how LinkedIn and Ebay allow for references from colleagues and former buyers, respectively. The real ‘safety system’ of the site is here, you get reviewed by your peers. If you join the network for the wrong intentions or you do something stupid, the community plasters it all over your profile as a flag to let travelers know what to expect from you. How do you get these recommendations if you don’t know anyone? New members are encouraged to go to CS Meetups or Gatherings where they’ll meet more experienced people on the site. Simply make a few friends there and look up your new buddies on the site. Then you request to ‘friend’ them on the website where they will leave you a reference (positive, negative or neutral). Then you can begin requesting to stay with other CSers around the world. Because it’s a web platform, CS can’t control every variable of your experiences using the site. Thus surfers are encouraged to be smart, use their instincts and to generally help each other for the sake of the greater community.

My Experience

In 2006 I went back packing across Europe, visiting 19 or so countries along the way. Some countries I stayed in hostels, but only when I couldn’t find anyone on the site to host me. After successful ‘surfing’ experiences in Tallinn, Estonia and Berlin, Germany I went on to find CS Hosts in Portugal, Spain, Slovakia, Slovenia, France and London. I’ve gone on to host several travelers from all over the world whom I’ve offered my couch and guesetroom to whenever I had the opportunity. Since then, I’ve surfed maybe 20 times, and probably hosted around 30 times (about 50 people), and I’ve met hundreds of random CSers for drinks, dinner or just while traveling.

Hospitality on Demand

But the point of the website isn’t just to find a free place to stay or someone to act as your ‘tour-guide’ in their home town. CS is all about cultural exchange and getting to see a new place like most tourists ever do, from the vantage point of the people living there. When I’m being hosted by a CSer, it’s not uncommon for me to spend the days hanging out in the places they normally hang out in, with the people they normally hang out with. It’s the same when people stay with me. I’ll often give them a key so they can come and go as they please, while also inviting them to meet my friends. In this way people get to see how alike, or different, people are all over the world. It’s the kind of hospitality people usually reserve for friends and family. For me, the CS community is like an extended group of friends just waiting for my call, wherever I go.

Are You Crazy?

The first question I usually get from people (after the above quip) are usually related to safety and sex. For instance, “What happens if the person you let stay with you is an axe murderer?” or “What if the person I stay with expects something intimate from me in return?” In the first case, thankfully the scenario has never come up. There have been very few mild incidents, spread across the community of one million (fights, arguments, breakups, theft etc.), but nothing major. Like with any guest to your house, play it safe (ask an unruly surfer to leave) and trust in your local authorities. In these scenarios it usually comes down to reporting the incidents via the website or to a CS Ambassador (volunteers who help police the community). This is so the community can adjust and future travelers won’t stay with the person. In the second case, this actually surprisingly rare. What’s more common are mutual hookups from Surfers who decide they like each other. Still, it’s pretty obvious when someone’s got ill intentions; from both their profile and their demeanor. Being a man who’s been hosted by women, I usually offer to meet my hosts in a public place, just to reassure them but usually the profile sets everyone at ease even before they meet me. I’ve got hundreds of references on the site from people who’ve I met over the years. In full disclosure, I’m also a Nomadic Ambassador for the site (a CS Ambassador who travels around the globe a lot). For the official CS terms on safety visit this page.

Introducing The Africa They Never See

I thought moving to Uganda might reduce the number of requests that I got from CSers (because I assumed there would be less tourism here) but it’s actually increased. In the past six months I’ve hosted around fifteen people. Mostly Americans but also one Canadian, a French person, two Belgians, one Rwandan and one Ugandan. The role of CS in introducing people to Africa is huge. A lot of will people assume there will be racism, sexism and cultural bias, but with CS , the community is big and diverse enough that a lot of these things become remote concerns. Furthermore, those mentalities, if expressed outwardly will often be mentioned on a users profile either as a negative reference from other members or sometimes even by the CS user themselves, making these people easy to avoid.

In 2006 when I went to the Baltic region everyone warned me of the rampant racism and violence I’d find there as a person of the African diaspora. On the contrary, I didn’t find any of that and instead I found a wonderful CS host who’d recently expatriated from Portugal. We had a great time and I actually stayed there longer than anticipated as a result. This lead to my exploring Eastern Europe further, from Estonia to Hungary with many stops in between. Likewise, people coming to Africa often have fears both valid and imagined. If they choose to surf with me, then I’m always happy to show them side of Africa they never see on the news. My brilliant staff, the fun nightlife and my friends. Sometimes it takes a bridge individual to introduce a person from one culture to another. Once the bridge is made, people usually find out many of their prejudices were just misconceptions and speculation. I don’t mind being that bridge for them and most CSers that I’ve met don’t either. It’s not always peaches and roses but what always is?

For me, what’s most remarkable about CS is how its successfully built this global community of people who actually travel and get to know each other regardless of race, class, sex, or creed that successfully manages to regulate itself. Recently Couchsurfing.com revamped it’s five-year old website to be a little sleeker and more easy to navigate. Check it out, and if you’re ever in my neck of the woods, don’t hesitate to request to surf with me!

Photo by Scfiasco used under the Creative Commons

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

Facebook just hit a major milestone, 150 million users world wide. How much is Africa contributing to that number? Let’s take a look:

South Africa has 1.1 million users. Egypt has just over 900,000. Morocco has 369,000. Tunisia has 279,000. Jordan has 260,000. Nigeria has 220,000. Kenya has 150,000. Mauritius has 60,000. Just to name a few.

Thanks to Kaushal for the tip.

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

Editorials and Features

The Not-So Inclusive Web and Network Failure Pt. 1

Is the web community really as inclusive as it claims to be and if not, are there valid reasons for the way things are?

What Journalism can Learn from Zimbabwe

Simple math tells us micro-payments as a subsidy for journalism are a pipe dream. Why will it fail? Let me count the ways…

The Best and Worst Project Management Apps

Different markets have different needs. I investigate PMS apps and their viability for the four billion people on the planet not blessed with high bandwidth.

Appfrica Joins Kuv Capital

My Manifesto explaining why Appfrica exists, where we’re heading and how we’re helping.

Bittorrent in Developing Countries

What are the real world advantages of Bittorrent and why isn’t it being embraced by more development organizations?

Free RSS!

Some websites are still trying to control the flow of data when RSS feeds really just want to be free.

News

GTV Closure Hurts Africa

The fate of GTV and what it means in Africa.

The World in 2050

According to this projection, Congo will be one of the most populous places on the planet.

Great African LAN Party

Brining video game culture to Africa.

Synthasite Raises $20 Million

In these harsh economic times, raising any amount of capital is a blessing, but $20 million secures very solid futures for Synthasite.

Young, Tech and Dangerous

Who are the upcoming tech stars of South Africa and Nigeria?

Links to Appfrica

Cyn.in thanks us for the positive review of their software.

Change.org is congratulatory calling Appfrica Labs the ‘coolest tech incubator in the world‘!

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

MySpace has the most registered users, reporting to have just 50 million less registered users than entire population of the United States at around 250m. Facebook has 175m registered users, nearly as many people as Brazil (190m). Windows Live Spaces has slightly less registered users than the population of Japan at 120m. Habbo.com has more registered users than Mexico has people. Friendster has 90m making it comparable to the number of people in the Philippines. hi5 has 80m making it the Vietnam of the social web. Tagged.com’s 70m makes it Iran. Google’s Okurt.com has nearly as many uses as the DRC has people at 62m. LinkedIn has 35m user profiles, putting it around the population of Kenya. Last.fm hovers around Romania’s size. After massive growth this year Twitter.com is close to Switzerland’s size.

This list is pure fun and mostly useless. The numbers used may also be out of date, most of them came from this Wikipedia entry in comparison to this one, except Twitter which I know has about 6 or 7 million users now from recent coverage. Also, keep in mind that these numbers don’t account for multiple profiles, spam accounts, disabled accounts or group accounts which could skew them a great deal. A clear example is MySpace versus Facebook. MySpace has the most registered users but was recently outpaced by Facebook in the number of unique visitors monthly. This is actually very telling. Translation: MySpace is hemorrhaging actual users while Facebook is picking them up as fast, if not faster. Also, these numbers don’t reflect user engagement. MySpace has growing user engagement (how long people stay on the site and what they do while there) meaning the people who are still using the site are using it A LOT.

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.

Dawn Douglass recently asked the question, “How can the Web truly be “open” when only young white male geeks get to decide what the Web is?”

I spend a lot of time thinking about technology. Every morning the first thing I do is pop open my feedreader to read all the incoming articles from all my favorite tech blogs. When I’m not reading about tech, I’m writing about it here. When I’m not writing about tech I’m coding, or designing or tweaking my laptop or learning how to do something I didn’t already know. I’ve been an audio engineer, a graphic designer, a tech columnist, a blogger, a software developer, etc. I got to goof off as a junior Director at public company in the states for a while. I think about tech so much that my girlfriend once famously (well as famous as something can be between two people) told me that she was jealous of my laptop. I’ve since learned to share.

I also think about race, gender and nationality a lot. I have to, I run a start-up incubator in East Africa that is trying to do business with some of the biggest companies in the world. With that comes debates about wether or not people are qualified because they have the skills, or if it’s because they need the opportunity so that people like them will get opportunities elsewhere. For instance, in Uganda (for that matter most places in the world), it’s not so much the culture for females to be technology entrepreneurs. But I’m in the middle of hiring people and I would really like an all inclusive staff, all things being equal. If one woman can succeed in the environment that I’m trying to create then maybe more will be inspired to pursue tech as a career either with us or with some other group.

Of course in Uganda, all things are not equal. Traditionally, women have held specific roles in society and coming here with my liberal American mindset is not going to change a social hierarchy that’s been in place for generations. The fact of the matter is that even in the U.S. it’s difficult for women (for a number of reasons) to find the tech industry comfortable and even survivable. I’m hoping that in Uganda I participate in a differing trend.

A friend of mine runs a web development company here, Mountbatten, has a incredibly talented awesome female hire that I think sets a really good example for other Ugandan woman here. But there’s a lot of things working against this scenario from even happening to begin with. It begins with local culture and people fulfilling perceived roles in society. There’s also a lot of pressure from the people around to live up to those roles. This usually means men work, while women run households while having lots of babies. This is reality here, and for a woman to resist is to experience a type of social isolation I can’t even imagine. Or so I’m told by some of my Ugandan friends. Thus, it’s often the case that people who might be great at certain jobs don’t apply because they’ve been socialized not to even consider such ideas, even though things are rapidly changing.

So this debate about sexism and homogenization in the tech industry is an interesting one for me. Of course these people were talking about Silicon Valley and the U.S. market, but I don’t think the arguments are completely beyond the scope of relating the African experience.

For instance, a few months ago I stumbled across a string of posts from South African bloggers who were discussing the lack of diversity in the South African web scene. It’s all the more interesting to me because if you took the whole argument and moved it to any city in the U.S. (and around the world), you’d come up with the same arguments. It all started when Mandy de Waal published a ‘power list’ of web professionals, only to realize that one thing she forgot to include was an ample supply of melanin. Ever observant, Ramon Thomas rebutted with this post that cited a number of web professionals, all of whom weren’t caucasian. This also sparked it’s fair share of controversy and contemplation. Then the debate seemed to ping-pong around the South African web space for a while, ultimately arriving at Darren Ravens blog who made the most insightful comment of the meme. He wrote…

What these two pieces highlight is that there exists a network failure. The nature of social networks (the real world kind) is that there’s a tendency for homogeneity, especially in the short to medium term (long term always trends towards the diverse). Birds of a feather and all that. To create diversity within specific sectors it’s important to sow the seeds of integration. Once you’ve done that things are more likely to naturally become inclusive.

This is true, if you want to see a non-racial example of how exclusivity breeds, look over Robert Scoble’s thoughts on the idea of a ‘social media power law’. But when you look at the faces on this list, the argument goes back to diversity. Your ‘personal network’ defines many of the opportunities you’ll receive in life. From almost the very moment you’re born, there’s an either an ever narrowing scope of friends and colleagues, or an ever expanding one. Being social is an asset. The reality is that the main reason why people complain about closed-networks is that they are often the ones on the outside of those networks, trying to figure out how to get in.

I also have a bit of a different perspective. Being black, and having been in Silicon Valley pitching my own start-up ideas, It’s pretty obvious to me that many groups there are staving for diversity. In many cases there’s just not a lot of women or minorities applying. Likewise, when it comes to pitching start-ups, while some do go for it, the number even trying is a disproportionate representation of the population. It’s not as if companies aren’t going to hire or fund people who know their stuff simply because they are Black, Asian, Indian or whatever. Quite the contrary, I think many groups see it as an asset to have a bit of diversity in the workplace. At the same time, you have know your stuff. In my case, maybe my ideas didn’t really connect or it’s possible that I just didn’t fit the mold of what VCs in San Francisco were looking for in start-up founders. Less than a year later I’ve found a different path to pursue the same end-goal and it’s going quite well. Now people are interested. Some people have to learn by being shown that they were wrong. This is not to say that you do things out of spite, it’s just going to be reality that there are outliers (to borrow a term from Gladwell). There are always outliers. Not out of spite. In spite of, I suppose.

But I digress, Silicon Valley wasn’t built out of mediocrity even if it was the same same stereotypical groups doing the building. These are the best of the best at what they do, regardless of where they come from or what they look like. There’s still a reason why people like Serge Prin, Eric Schmidt, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates revolutionized the industry. It’s more than just their ideas, personalities and intellect alone. It’s all of those things and more. Maybe they just happened to be the best people in the right place at the right time, or maybe even the barely capable people in the right place at the right time, but in order to be that person you’ve got to first be in that place otherwise you’ll never be there at the right time. If you want to be in ‘that circle’ you’ve got to do what they do, and play how they play. If you don’t have the same opportunities they did to get there to begin with, then you’re making your own path and in my opinion that’s the best place in the world to be.

I don’t feel like I should be allowed to work at Google or Facebook or anywhere else to fulfill some quota. I want to be there because I’m a qualified chosen candidate who happens to bring a different perspective or asset to the table. If I had breasts or a different skin color and background, I’m sure I’d still feel the same way.

I’m a firm believer in the idea that there is always a way forward. There’s always something to strive for. There’s always someone better. Make it your goal to beat that person (or people) at what they do best by becoming a peer or a leader in your field. And of course, if the ‘big boys’ won’t let you play on their field. Go start your own game. Eventually they’ll come looking for the game they aren’t a part of.

It’s only when you stop trying that you begin settling for less.

Photo of Jakob Lodwick by Zach Klein used under the Creative Commons

© 2008 - 2009 Appfrica International. Looking for more African tech? Try our podcast Appfricast which you can also find on iTunes.