Press

Appfrica has been featured in a number of news articles. Forbes, The White House Blog, The New York Times, CNN, New Scientist, Freakonomics and more. You can read these articles and more below:

For logos for press, linking or print use, look here.

The word about Appfrica is spreading fast and the response has been incredibly rewarding. Here are links to articles, interviews, video and other data related to Appfrica, CEO Jon Gosier or it’s various projects:

CNN | Building tech companies in the land of dialup (Publish April 16, 2010)

http://money.cnn.com/2010/04/16/smallbusiness/appfrica/

In its first year of business, Appfrica generated $60,000 in revenue from paid work. Clients include UNICEF’s RapidSMS project — a bulk SMS messaging service for data collection and communication, for which Appfrica provides regional technical support — as well as Ujima, a Web site for African investigative journalists that offers access to data on government activities, such as weapons sales and lobbying efforts.

NEW YORK TIMES | Freakonomics Blog (Published November 17, 2009)

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/11/17/africa-connected/

The folks at Appfrica have put together some interesting infographs on infrastructure investment and Internet connectivity in Africa. The graphs provide information on Internet penetration and network readiness by country, and the various infrastructure development projects that are rapidly transforming Internet connectivity in Africa. While Africans currently represent only 3.9 percent of global Internet users, the continent’s Internet use has grown by more than 1,300 percent since 2000. The completion of three major marine cable projects this year is expected to decrease international bandwidth costs by 90 percent and support further Internet penetration.

NEW YORK TIMES | Dialing for Answers Where Web Can’t Reach (Published September 28, 2009)

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/28/technology/internet/28village.html

The Question Box service was first introduced in remote villages in India two years ago, and it came to Uganda in April. The Ugandan version takes advantage of the explosive popularity of cellphones in Africa. Cellphone use has more than tripled in the last few years, and nearly 300 million Africans now have cellphones.

Where rural villages were once cut off and isolated from urban centers, cellphones now offer a lifeline, providing access to banking, news and business opportunities.

That is a big technological advance, but for most Africans, Internet access is still too costly and slow. Question Box was conceived as a way of overcoming both the expense and the scarcity of Internet connections. Eventually, Question Box will allow farmers and others to use the hot line with their own cellphones or through text messages.

NEW YORK TIMES | Freakonomics Blog (Published September 9, 2009)

http://freakonomics.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/09/08/african-entrepreneurs/

Gosier devised a bold plan to address the gap. Using his personal savings as startup capital, he launched a sort of technology incubator called Appfrica Labs, which provides budding entrepreneurs with investment capital, a stable salary, a structured workplace, and the kind of training and mentorship that western entrepreneurs take for granted. Gosier hopes the innovators currently sitting down the hall from him will all have departed within a year to run their own tech startups. Less than six months into the venture, Gosier secured his first round of funding from a venture capital firm seeking exposure to Africa.

FORBES.COM (Published on July 23, 2009)

http://www.forbes.com/2009/07/23/google-questionbox-imac-technology-breakthroughs-google.html

OXFORD, England — Jonathan Gosier, one of the TED Fellows at the conference here, presented his project called QuestionBox that promises to bring answers to the curious in the most remote parts of the developing world. Gosier started by asking the question, how do we know what people want to know? Google knows what we want to know, and builds its search engine around those requests, but that service covers those of us in rich countries with widespread access to PCs and broadband. What about in rural Ghana?

GOOGLE.COM (Published on July 28, 2009)

http://google-africa.blogspot.com/2009/07/how-volunteer-translators-impact-local.html

The Luganda interface and those launched in early July are the first examples of a new volunteer translation model at work. Google ‘partner’ volunteers mobilize language enthusiasts on the ground towards the translation effort, relying only on Google Africa team to facilitate offline work and events. These groups will self-organize and vet the translations themselves.

PCWORLD.COM (Published on July 08, 2009)

http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/168056/searching_where_google_canand8217t.html

We read a lot about the delivery, and popularity, of SMS services such as market prices, health advice and job alerts in developing countries, information there is clearly a need for. Only last week Grameen’s AppLab initiative, in conjunction with Google and MTN, launched a suite of SMS services in Uganda. These are the services you’ll get to hear most about when you search the Web, trawl the blogosphere and attend various conferences on the subject. It all seems pretty sewn up on the content side — I mean, what else could people earning a few dollars a day (at most) possibly want?

NPR.ORG (Published September 28, 2009)

http://www.npr.org/blogs/money/2009/09/dialing_for_answers_in_uganda.html

In Uganda, people without access to the Web can get answers to questions by calling a free, nonprofit service. Question Box, funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, operates on the theory that knowledge is not just power but a means of economic development. People seeking information about crop pests or health care can dial up on cell phones, which are a fast-growing tool in Africa.

NEXTBILLION.NET (Published August 18, 2009)

http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/bridging-the-communication-gap-in-uganda-appfrica-labs

When the subject of successful, scalable BoP models comes up, two will inevitably be cited: mobile telecommunications and microfinance (ala Grameen). While the reach of cell phones at the BoP is indeed widespread and impressive, one still has to consider what the barriers to access are for this technology and its ancillary, the internet. Is it cost, cultural context, infrastructure, or language? My guess is that it’s all of the above. That’s why the work of ICT pioneers like Appfrica Labs is so critical. Having collaborated with Grameen, Google, and MTN to roll out a suite of SMS applications including QuestionBox, the company is poised to address these challenges and many more. Needless to say, I was pleased to have the opportunity to chat with Jon Gosier, founder of Appfrica Labs and 2009 TEDGlobal Fellow.

GUARDIAN.CO.UK (Published July 22, 2009)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/jul/22/mobilephones-searchengines

One of the features of TEDGlobal was two sessions called TED University where attendees could give short presentations on ideas or projects they were working on. The Grameen Foundation recently contacted African designer, entrepreneur and venture capitalist Jon Gosier of Appfrica.org because they wanted to know: What do people in Africa want to know?

They knew if they opened up a hotline and offered to answer anyone’s question about what they wanted to know that they would quickly be overwhelmed. Working with ‘community knowledge workers’ who were usually retirees looking for a way to give back to their community, people in a village in Uganda could ask these workers questions. The workers then would relay those questions back to operators using an offline internet application to find the answer in real-time

UGANDA’S APPFRICA LABS (Published on May 13, 2009)

http://whiteafrican.com/2009/05/12/ugandas-appfrica-labs/

Jon Gosier runs Appfrica Labs. He’s been hard at work over the last year promoting technology all over Africa on his blog, and at the same time building a base for the technology incubator Appfrica Labs that he launched late last year with some external funding from European VC firm Kuv Capital. Jon is one of the most capable, energetic and social programmers that I know. He is entrepreneurial, understands the business side of things as well as the nuts and bolts of developing. In short, he’s about the perfect person to put your money behind if you’re going to invest in the African startup tech space.

HUFFINGTONPOST.COM (Published on September 21, 2009)

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/robin-caldwell/black-like-me-the-missing_b_292706.html

Jon Gosier, founder of Appfrica Labs in Uganda, hosted a Facebook Developers Garage in Kampala to bring resources to students and software developers interested in building applications for Facebook. The TED Fellow is more than a venture capitalist in Africa; he is making an impact on the economy by providing opportunities via the Web.

PEERING INTO AFRICA’S MOBILE TECHNOLOGY SPACE AND WHERE TO INVEST (Published March 19, 2009)

http://projectdiaspora.org/2009/03/19/peering-into-africas-mobile-technology-space-and-where-to-invest/

This past weekend, I had the honor of being invited to be on a panel discussion at South by Southwest (SXSW), “Appfrica: How Web Applications are Helping Emerging Markets Grow” The panel was moderated by one of my favorite techies who’s single-handedly birthing Uganda’s “tech sphere,” John Jon Gosier. Jon is the founder of AppAfrica Labs, an incubator based in Kampala, Uganda. Joining me on the panel were David Kobier and Erik Hersman from Ushahidi and Rose Shuman, founder of Question Box. You can watch the video (bad audio feed) or read a recap of the discussion by ALEX DE CARVALHO or Jon Gosier.

PD CATCHES UP WITH JON GOSIER AT FACEBOOK DEVELOPERS GARAGE IN KAMPALA (Published December 14, 2008)

http://projectdiaspora.org/2008/12/14/pd-catches-up-with-appafrica-at-facebook-developer-garage-in-kampala/

In the midst of all the coding hack-fest that was Facebook Developer Garage here in Uganda yesterday, I managed to corral Jon Gossier–founder of AppAfrica, based right here in Kampala–for a quick one-on-one about all things tech and the state of code here in Africa. Jon is one-half the team responsible for putting together #fbUganda in hopes of spurring home-grown coders capable of doing great things right here on the continent. It’s a new effort to help Africa retain and expand talent in the emerging ICT and BPO sectors. More on that later during my interview with Samasource founder, Leila Charayath Janar.

PROFILE AT CHANGE.ORG (Published on October 12, 2008)

http://socialentrepreneurship.change.org/blog/view/socap08_entrepreneur_profiles_jonathan_gosier

“To survey the growing African web tech scene is to see a community of people who seemed to have completely missed the memo that Africa is a poor, underdeveloped continent. In places like Nairobi, Cape Town, and Kampala, communities of web developers and entrepreneurs are innovating solutions to economic and social problems, and creating a new infrastructure for collaboration. American-born entrepreneur and developer Jonathan Gosier wants you to know more about this explosion of creativity. In the last year, the Kampala, Uganda-based Jonathan has become an essential chronicler of African technology companies at his Appfrica blog. Perhaps even more importantly, however, he has begun to develop a set of information-sharing tools to raise the level of transparency, awareness and idea exchange in the African web tech scene.”

HABARI TO OUR FRIENDS AT BARCAMP KAMPALA (Published August 29, 2008)

http://barcampafrica.wordpress.com/2008/08/29/habari-to-our-friends-at-barcamp-kampala/

“Hello to our friends at BarCamp Kampala that is taking place now at the beautiful Makerere University campus in Kampala, Uganda. We at BarCampAfrica are following the conversations on twitter with much interest .. and loving every minute of it.

Conversations have ranged from the rise of GPL and Creative Commons in Uganda, to the Luganda Firefox translation project (Costed 12,000,000UGX = USD 7116- mostly in travel expenses), to how Edubuntu and offline wikipedia access can enhance local internet penetration. And this was just day One.”

WHITE AFRICAN INTERVIEW (Published August 26, 2008)

http://whiteafrican.com/2008/08/26/an-interview-with-appfrica-founder-jon-gosier/

“Earlier this year a new blog burst onto the African tech scene, and it hasn’t let up. In fact, it’s growing from a blog into a place for open source developers to work together. The man behind Appfrica is Jon Gosier, an energetic and proactive developer now living in Kampala, Uganda. Below is a short email interview that I did with him last week.”

BLOG HERALD INTERVIEW (Published June 11, 2008)

http://www.blogherald.com/2008/06/11/hello-appfrica-an-interview-with-jon-gosier/

“Appfrica is an international technology conference and think-thank, taking place in Africa of course. The idea is to bring together researchers, educators, businesses, industry leaders, and organizations, to talk about uses of web technology. The goal being to find new ways to further develop the educational process in the developing world, as well as talking about online innovation from an African point of view overall. The first panel is on July 31st at the Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda.”

KENYA STANDARD | Incubation Hub: Young Developers Get Platform

http://appfrica.pbworks.com/f/105183890.jpg

CNN | Mobile app developers tackle Africa’s biggest problems (Published April 12, 2010)

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/TECH/04/12/africa.apps/

THE GUARDIAN UK | In mobile phone journalism, Africa is ahead of the west (Published December 17, 2009)

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/pda/2009/dec/17/digital-media-mobilephone-usage-africa-leapfroging-ushahidi-swift-river

TECHNOLOGY TODAY (Published June 11, 2008)

http://tech.einnews.com/news.php?wid=173761598

STARTUPS AFRICA (Published June 12, 2008)

http://www.startupafrica.com/2008/06/apprifica-2008-uganda-a-tech-conference-for-africa/

BASED CONFERENCING WEB (Published June 12, 2008)

http://www.basedconferencingweb.com/apprifica-2008-uganda-a-tech-conference-for-africa