Using this platform to inform my fellow Africans about Barcamp Nigeria 2010. The event was successfully hosted last year in Lagos (April 25th). This year's event will be held on the 22nd of May 2010 with the Theme: Creating local content for Nigerian Web Market.

We hope to accelerate the growth of internet enterpreneurs in Nigerian and kickstart the growing community.

More updates are live at barcampnigeria.com

We recently had the pleasure of getting a wrap-up of BarCamp Nigeria via Google Talk from one of its main organizers, Tim Akinbo. Tim Akinbo is a Nigerian web developer who is currently working on a project with UNICEF and the National Malaria Control Program in conjunction with the Ministry of Health to develop a mobile SMS-based monitoring and distribution system.

BarCamp Nigeria took place in Lagos on April 25, 2009.

How was BarCamp Nigeria?

Tim Akinbo: It was simply awesome! There are just so many things to say about it, I don't know where to start. We had between 70 and 80 people in attendance.

Why did you see a need for BarCamp Nigeria? How did it start?

It all started with BarCamp Africa. I told a couple of friends about it and about the virtual participation [editor's note: we had live audio streaming from Nigeria at BarCamp Africa '08], and that inspired one of my friends, Ayodeji Adewunmi to organize BarCamp Nigeria. I was enthusiastic and we put our heads together to see how we could organize BarCamp Nigeria. And shortly after BarCamp Africa, a couple of us went to Ghana for BarCamp Ghana.

Did you have sponsors?

Yes! We got a lot of support. We had sponsorship for the venue,which was provided by TOM Associates. Our sponsors included TOM Associates, Afrigator, Startups Nigeria, and Blue Identity - there's a full list on the BarCamp Nigeria site.

So were people in the tech community excited about it?

Are you kidding? Someone called me during BarCamp Nigeria to ask if we could make it monthly. Lots of people got to know about it late, and weren't so happy about it since they wanted to be there.

How did people find out about it?

We used only social media to spread the news about it -- blogs, Facebook and Twitter. We got some of our media partners to blog about the event.

Did people living outside of Nigeria get involved?

Yes, we had a number. I can remember a Nigerian living in Ghana who flew in to attend. We had Justin Hartman of Afrigator and Rafiq Phillips of Feedalizr fly in from South Africa to attend.

Who were the keynote speakers?

Justin Hartmanof Afrigator and N'dee Victoria Uwadoka, who works with Microsoft Nigeria as the PR and events manager for Anglophone West Africa. She manages the company's image agenda, media relationships, agency support and strategic events in the area.

What were their main messages?

Justin related his experience with Afrigator - there were many questions on how they got funding and what they did to become popular. It turns out (like in many cases) that they just wanted to create something that gave them a view of the conversations going on around in Africa. Victoria gave a wonderful presentation on how Web 2.0 tools can be used for societal good.

So what kind of other sessions were there? What did people want to talk about?

We had breakout sessions on search engine optimization, running an Internet-based radio station, long-tail marketing in Africa, open source software, RapidSMS and mobile applications, e-learning, and increasing social media adoption in Nigeria.

How would you describe the Nigerian tech scene to people living outside Nigeria? How is business using technology, and how is technology helping social change?

The Nigerian tech scene is booming. There are a lot of initiatives going on. A huge number of companies are adopting technology to solve their daily problems. And even the government is pushing technology. Recently, the government adopted the use of e-payments to handle payments of salaries to workers and payments to contractors. A colleague of mine told me about a project he worked on, that uses SMS in reporting torture cases.

So the government is supportive?

That's right Shara, the government is very supportive although they can be slow. Pretty much what happens in a number of places - politics, bureaucracy...

How is Internet speed and access? Do people access Internet on mobiles?

People access the Internet a lot on mobiles. When you get to the major cities, you can get decent Internet connections for good prices -- not as fast as you would get in the US, for example, but usable.

How is technology changing Nigerian culture? Is it for the better?

I can't really say -- it's got its good parts and bad parts.

The good part is that we're more efficient, we live improved lives. The economic status of a lot of people has been improved, and communication is improved. The bad part is that we have replaced a lot of face-to-face interaction with phone calls. We have fewer family meetings -- what's the need when we can make a phone call and resolve our issues? Some of my couisns, I haven't seen in years, but we've had at least several phone calls.

What would you say were the main takeaways from BarCamp Nigeria? And what advice would you give to African countries who want to organize their first BarCamp?

First off, concerning takeaways...we realize that although Nigeria has a buzzing tech industry, we don't have a buzzing tech community. And so BarCamp Nigeria was organized. From BarCamp Nigeria, it is our hope that the tech community will thrive and that we'll see a lot of collaboration and learning from each other in the coming days.

Advice I'd give to those organizing barcamps in Africa...don't take yourself too seriously, just get something going. Don't be too concerned if people aren't following you initially -- once you gain good enough momentum, others will join. And I think you really have to know why you're organizing the barcamp.

Talk to people and you'll see a lot of support. In Nigeria, gaining trust can be difficult, but once people see how passionate you are and how determined you are, they'll support you. We had to change the date of BarCamp Nigeria twice. When we were first organizing the event, we had a lot of our priorities mixed up. The first date we selected was too soon and we hadn't gotten some of the basic things we needed, like a venue, and hadn't yet done enough to inform the community, so we had to change it.

And then, we thought we'd do a better job by having an events manager help, but we were disappointed when all of the sudden, things changed. We had to swallow our pride and shift the date again. We had already sent out notices about the date and changing it again was really frowned at by the community. All of a sudden, the events manager just stopped communicating, and all attempts to reach him were futile. The date came and passed and till this very moment, we still haven't heard from him. We learned the hard way not to delegate core responsibilities to a third party.

A lot of the people who criticized us when we changed the date eventually came to support us. We were determined to have the barcamp come rain or shine, whether we had the experience in organizing events or not. And it paid off.

Are you glad you did it?

Glad? I am ecstatic!

So, what do you see happening with technology in the next 5 years in Nigeria and West Africa in general?

Only time will tell, but we're really progressing strong. Being at BarCamp Ghana really confirmed this...there are a lot of talented developers in Africa, and all we need is some little coordination. Things are very, very, very promising. There are people doing cool stuff here...subscribe to a blog like Startups Nigeria -- there Loy Okezie showcases Nigerian web startups.

Where are people getting investment money? Bootstrapping? Or are there funds?

Bootstrapping is the popular option, although when it comes to Web 2.0 usage, it's still very low.

In terms of mobile innovation, it seems like you're leapfrogging the U.S.

Yes, probably.

So, what would you tell people interested in investing in African technology businesses?

I would say that it's definitely a growth region, and if you're interested in investing for the long term, this is definitely where to invest. There's a lot of latent potential, If you do invest, be ready to spend on infrastructure, since we are grossly lacking. Also be very flexible, especially when it comes to dealing with governments. It might be slow start, but it's definitely a good start.

What would you tell those interested in outsourcing to African developers?

There are cost advantages in outsourcing to African developers. I would recommend testing your developers before committing big projects to them. I can't say from an African perspective, but a lot of Nigerian developers lack mentorship, and so write not very good code. If anyone's interested in outsourcing to Nigeria for example, I would recommend that you look at it from an investment point of view that will pay off eventually. Get them in on the project with other good developers in other countries.

And a strong tech community can help with the mentorship part...

True.

Is there a special way to say thank you in Nigeria?

In Yoruba it's ose (pronounced oh-shey), and in Hausa it's nagode (na-go-de).

Ose! Nagode!

Pictures courtesy of Oluniyi David Ajao. See the rest of his full BarCamp Nigeria Flickr photoset here.