Some know me as Shara Karasic, but my new moniker is “Queen of Amplification” for BarCamp Africa. That means I am looking at ways to broadcast the event to people who cannot attend and also make it easy to virtually participate. I will be working with Jay Bhalla who has key insights since he is from Nairobi, has 10 years of IT experience, and is currently CEO of SpeechNet, a voice technology company. We are so honored to help facilitate conversation and connection between people from Silicon Valley and people in Africa.
After years of developing online communities in the San Francisco Bay Area, I applied to become a Geekcorps volunteer. In 2001, I left for Accra, Ghana, where I spent six months and was thrilled to experience the emerging and very vibrant tech scene there. Working from my desk at Africa Online and IM’ing my co-workers as we updated websites was amazingly similar to working from my desk in San Francisco. Except for a few things…
In San Francisco, we HTML’d to Aphex Twin, Pink Martini, or Yo La Tengo. In Accra, we HTML’d to gospel, "Shake the Booty that Jesus Gave You," Amakyee Dede highlife, or one’s favorite pastor preaching on JOY FM. In San Francisco, we wore sound-muffling headphones. In Accra, we had office sing-alongs. In San Francisco, we had a T3 connection. In Accra, a 33K connection down for the day.
In San Francisco, when someone in your office came up to your desk to talk, you remained focused on your monitor (you were busy). In Accra, you turned from your computer, faced your visitor, pulled over a chair, and had a conversation.
The relationships created in Accra have continued and enriched my life greatly. My former Ghana co-workers and I still IM each other as if we are sitting in the same office, as if oceans do not separate us. We tell each other about our respective tech scenes or how mobile phones are being used or exchange business ideas. Most of the people I worked with in Accra have started their own Internet businesses, and it’s been wonderful to follow their entrepreneurial progress.
We are so excited to share BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley with people living in Africa and around the world. Though this event is being held in Silicon Valley, we are looking at how people living in Africa and elsewhere can virtually participate. We’d love to get updates from key people in Accra to Nairobi, and learn more about what Africans are doing that’s innovative or changing society. We’re going to make sure the conference is live-reported and documented in a variety of ways to ensure that whatever your bandwidth situation, you'll be able to access it.
BarCamp Africa will be broadcasted through:
We're also involving virtual participation through:
Other tools we're considering or would be nice to have
Tagging
If you cannot attend BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley but would like to participate virtually, what are the best ways you can do that? So many have been reaching out with great suggestions. We welcome your ideas in the comments below.
