Best of Appfrica 2009
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.
TEDx Week
This week we’ll be distributing all the talks recorded last week at TEDxKampala. What was TEDxKampala? On November 23rd, 2009, Tim Berners-Lee, the inventor of the world wide web dropped by Kampala, Uganda for our first ever TEDx. The event was facilitated by UNICEF who graciously provided catering, snacks and the venue; and co-organized by … Read more
Infostate of Africa
People often only see Africa from one perspective, here’s another. The above infographic details some of the happenings over the past few years in regards to infrastructure improvement and capacity building in Africa, particularly in the area of the internet and cost. The sources are various reports from the International Monetary Fund, InternetWorldStats, the Millennium … Read more
Coded in Country | Stoking Local Innovation
Can institutions [be they international organizations, companies, universities, foundations or governments] enable innovation in local technology industries? We explored this question on a rainy Saturday afternoon in New York at the ‘coded in country’ session of the Open Mobile Consortium‘s Open Mobile Camp in New York.
Asynchronous Info, Disjointed Data and Crisis Reporting
The recent riots in Kampala have revealed a couple of things about the flow of news and how people behave in crisis situations. We still don’t quite know what we’re dealing with in Kampala. It’s either the beginning or the end of a wider scale confrontation. For those of us on the ground, we’re starved … Read more
PayPal Alternatives for African Entrepreneurs
This is a follow-up to yesterday’s rant about PayPal’s lack of availability in sub-Saharan Africa. Although PayPal is ubiquitous in the States and Europe, there are many alternatives available online, most with far more relaxed policies about where and how money can be sent. The alternatives are more expensive and less flexible, but it’s utterly untrue … Read more
In Search of… African Sci-Fi Novels
I have to admit when I watched this scene from THE MATRIX RELOADED with all the dancing people in Zion, I couldn’t help but wonder if the directors were deliberately trying to nod towards the increasing mixing and diversity of the world’s population and what it would mean for the future. It stood out to … Read more
PayPal's Electronic Profiling
I don’t know whether it’s laziness, callousness, indifference or all three but PayPal, intentional or not, are sending a very strong message to the rest of the world about Africa. Before I go any further, let me clarify that this is a rant. It’s about PayPal and how they seem to be ‘profiling’ users based … Read more
How to Shoehorn the High-Bandwidth Internet into a Low-Bandwidth Connection
High speed Internet access in Africa is rare and often prohibitively expensive. Lucky for us, the web started out as a text-only medium, and with a little bit of know-how, the vast majority of content remains accessible over low bandwidth connections.
The Future of Giving
Does the future of field research lie in augmented reality?
