Dates: Saturday October 10, 2009 TBA - Stay tuned
Location: Pending – Bay Area, CA
Ladies and Gentlemen. It's that time again where we are proud to announce another BarcampAfrica event in the Silicon Valley, CA.
Last year a we came to realize that conversation on Africa in the Silicon Valley was quite disheartening and rarely featured Technology despite all the wonderful work on the ground. In a quest to encourage positive conversations we reached out to the community, and with Google as a partner we hosted the first ever BarCampAfrica event at their Mountain View HQ. Here is a post-event writeup on Google's Corporate Blog.
Well it's been almost a year and given the fantastic conversations and continued engagement, we are looking forward to making this an annual community event. The first BarcampAfrica was a Barometer for how much there was a need for the conversation -- we defined a space, an active community and provided a platform for persistent conversations on Africa. The second event will be even more engaging given that there is a ready community and the conversation has only grown stronger in the last year.
As always, the objective of our event is to bring technologists and non-technologists working to promote Africa under one roof for a lively discussion.
Stay tuned and join the discussion via our a wiki and a twitter
See videos from the BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley panel discussions on the Google.org YouTube Channel. Thank you Google!
And thank you, BarCamp Africa community, for your great recaps on BarCamp Africa.
From Google.org's blog:
Topics discussed during the day’s event included emerging technologies, mobile phone growth and opportunities, social innovation and entrepreneurship. Highlights included: the need to focus on supporting entrepreneurship and business growth, the importance of investing in local talent, the opportunity to promote innovation as the key driver of industry growth and job creation...
From the South Africa Project:
The energy and atmosphere at BarCamp Africa were capturing. There was a common understanding that we are on the verge of a big trend: Africa WILL be taking some giant steps in the right direction in the very near future. Some of that is already happening but has not caught the attention of the broad public yet.
From Project Diaspora:
The only criticism I have of this event was that it should have been longer. I needed another day. There were so many people I did not get a chance to meet. There were so many people I met that I did not get to talk to long enough. There were so many conversations that I wanted to carry on longer. I wanted to just soak in the knowledge and passion of the people around me.
From Appfrica:
Kelele was announced to a room of well over two hundred people at BarCamp Africa a few days ago. It’s big news as it’s the first time anyone has attempted to organize a pan-African conference aimed at web 2.0, mobile, and new media...Kelele is an annual African bloggers’ conference held in a different African city each year and run by an organizing committee in that city.
From White African:
Kelele, the African Bloggers Conference, was announced today at Barcamp Africa. That event has an incredible amount of energy and enthusiasm behind it, and it makes the perfect segue to the next big African community event: Kelele!
From Tim Harris's Twitter:
Still honing Scribwib™ - a simple, web-based platform which allows two people in different locations to read together...Jim Sowers and I design a platform to improve world literacy.
Note: Tim and Jim came up with the idea for Scribwib at BarCamp Africa.
From Katrinah's blog:
...some of the top insights mentioned by BarCampAfrica attendees: To build Africa, the key is to build businesses; empowering people through education and business opportunities is the solution to poverty; individual ownership is the most sustainable model; mobile is the future of Africa...
From Adaptive Path:
The day started off with an interesting panel of knowledgeable folks who have direct experience with the issues Africa is currently grappling with, namely education, governance, economics and health...All the panelists agreed that building a vibrant middle class is critical for these fledgling democracies to succeed and flourish. Building a vibrant middle class will require support on many fronts, but many of the panelists and speakers throughout the day felt that building business and enabling economic empowerment was a natural place to start.
From the Google Africa Blog:
As participants set the agenda for the day, a clear consensus emerged that digital technology has a major role to play in addressing Africa's interconnected business and social challenges. Throughout the day, discussions of laptop distribution models were followed by conversations on the state of democracy on the continent, and talk of the future of mobile payments was followed by insights on mobile solutions for human rights monitoring.
From Usahidi's blog:
Ken Banks, of FrontlineSMS, and David Kobia, of Ushahidi, meetup at Barcamp Africa on Saturday in sunny California at the Googleplex. We are baking in FrontlineSMS as one of the options for local SMS messaging into the new Ushahidi Engine.
From Chris Abraham:
I hope that this conference will lead to a plethora of Barcamps that focus on the positive stories of Africa - the incredible ingenuity, the creativity, the technical proficiency and the entrepreneurial spirit. I believe that Africa has entered into a new phase and the emergent economies of Africa will help tell the true story of what this wonderful continent has to offer the world.
The Africa-related BarCamp excitement continues. The first BarCamp Ghana will take place on December 22nd in Accra at the Kofi Annan ICT Centre (AITI). BarCamp Ghana 2008's primary focus is to bring together Ghanaians to build connections between people and fuel Ghana's technology and business renaissance. It's being sponsored by GhanaThink.org. Henry Barnor of GhanaThink was at BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley, and he is committed to spreading the BarCamp vibe in Ghana.
At MobileActive '08 in Johannesburg on Oct. 13th-15th, which connected people interested in mobile technology for social change, there were many African tech developers and NGO's interested in BarCamp Africa, including some folks from Swaziland interested in doing the first BarCamp there - stay tuned for more exciting news. We want to continue to showcase BarCamps and other tech happenings around Africa, so let us know of African events related to technology or social innovation.
It's been exactly 7 days since BarCamp Africa in Silicon Valley... 7 days of contemplating the wonderful conversations; 7 days of sifting through the dozens of connections; 7 Days of absorbing the learnings; and 7 days of reflecting on what's next for this wonderful community.
To begin with, to ALL those who volunteered, participated and supported the Barcamp Africa effort a BIG BIG THANK YOU. We could not have envisioned a better event, and we are grateful to each and everyone of you for stepping up.
How does one adequately thank a community? What one gesture could be truly matter to each and everyone involved? After much pondering, the only fitting response would be to continue in our quest bring more voices to the table, keep the barcamp spirit alive and keep the community engaged for a Barcamp Africa Silicon Valley 2.
To do this we need your help and your continued dedication. We already have some initiatives in motion and would like to open up the stage to other ideas:
BarCamps are very powerful concepts as many of you have experienced. World Changing ideas take hold at BarCamps, communities emerge, connections are developed, and ideas are challenged. Barcamps, in essence are like community gardens where the attendees are the eager horticulturists and hundreds of ideas take root simultaneously.
Just like any community garden, BarCamps need to be nurtured by the larger community rather than one single person or organization; they need constant conversation and a constant flow of ideas to grow and prosper. As the first attendees of the first ever BarCamp Africa we encourage you to join the active community and look forward to growing our beautiful and unique community together...
We continue introducing some of the organizations that made the success of the BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley possible, the sponsors. Today we have a guest post by one of the attendees to the BarCamp who was also one of the many volunteers who contributed their time and energy to the organization of the event, Saul Wainwright. A native born South African that splits his time between Oakland and Cape Town, Saul tells us about Abraham & Harrison, where he works as Director of Operations:
Abraham & Harrison LLC is a Public Relations firm focused squarely on the online and social media spaces. The goal of all Abraham & Harrison’s work is to actively engage conversations that are relevant to a client’s brand and campaign. Our work has focused on Online Publicity, Online Grassroots & New Media Marketing along with Online Reputation Defense and SEO. We are able to leverage our existing relationship and presence in the social media space to actively engage conversations and related social networks that are relevant to our clients needs – never straying from our central beliefs of “transparency”, “honesty” and “relevance”.
You may ask how Abraham & Harrison came to sponsor Barcamp Africa. Well, with a company that operates as a truly “virtual office” with no specific headquarters’ our team is spread across four continents and 10 time zones and multiple languages we recognize the importance of the global community.
Abraham & Harrison has worked extensively with a large range of non-profits helping them to promote causes, campaigns and brands within the social media space. These efforts are close to our hearts and believe we offer a great service to the community.
We, at Abraham & Harrison are thrilled to have sponsored this event where we met so many interesting people from all over Africa with great projects and ideas. We look forward to seeing its growing success.
-Find Abraham & Harrison online at http://abrahamharrison.com
-Read Abraham & Harrison's blog, Marketing Conversation
-Find Saul Wainwright on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sachutney
-Find Chris Abraham, Presiden of Abraham & Harrison, on Twitter at http://twitter.com/chrisabraham
We continue our series on the BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley amazing sponsors, introducing Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel. David Chamberlain, whom many of you probably met during the BarCamp, is the founder and CEO of Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel Worldwide. After receiving a BA in Political Science, serving as an officer in the United States Army, working on Wall Street and working into the enterprise resource management software business consulting, a couple of years ago he founded his own travel company. In this guest post, he tells us more about it:
Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel is pleased to sponsor Bar Camp Africa to enhance our personal relationships with NGO's, technologists and open hearted global citizens. The Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel experience integrates indigenous local culture into every personalized luxury trip we recommend. These personal introductions create authentic cross cultural friendships that generate trust, respect, and generous donations funding philanthropic travel projects worldwide.
Philanthropic Travel For instance, one Exquisite Safari client asked us what could be done with a $10,000 donation in Zambia," a destination she wanted to visit with her family. We suggested building a primary school. Nine months later, she brought her family to celebrate the opening of the school and they received the blessings of the village elders. Her children met the village's children who for the first time could attend school. Exquisite Safaris Philanthropic Travel blends luxury and philanthropy, transforming traveler and host while creating peace and understanding.
Exquisite Safaris creates opportunities for travelers to connect as 'resource catalysts' positively impacting the education, health, entrepreneurial empowerment and the indigenous cultural survival of host communities. Exquisite Safaris are private guided experiences -just you, your partner, kids, grandkids, board of directors/biggest donors, and a seasoned professional local guide, vehicle and driver.
There is no better introduction to a foreign culture than to be the VIP guest of a humanitarian outreach project that has earned the respect and gratitude of the local community. Our seasoned professional guides interpret and share their local secrets, cultural traditions, history and natural wonders while you enjoy luxury accommodations, incredible cuisine, and life affirming philanthropic engagement.
Blending luxury and philanthropy we channel your generosity and sensitivity to sustain people in dire need of clean water to drink, schools and medical clinics worldwide.
-Find Exquisite Safaris Philantropic Travel online at http://www.exquisitesafaris.com
-Find Exquisite Safaris Philantropic Travel on Twitter at http://twitter.com/Philanthropic
In the next few days we would like to share a few collaborative projects born from ideas discussed at the BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley that we know of (please send us more!). The first one, and which we are very excited about, is Reaspora, a meeting place for Africans in the diaspora that have decided to return to their home countries to make a positive change.
One of the participants in the first panel on Saturday morning, Professor Wanjiru N. Kamau-Rutenberg at USF and Director of Akili Dada mentioned the word talking about driving forces for development in Africa, and the buzz started among the audience. She had hit a nail in the head. Later in the day the word kept coming back into various conversations, and at one point Temi Kolawole tweeted saying that he had loved the word and that the web domain was available. The BarCamp Africa inmediately urged him to buy it to start developing some ideas around it.
Now the Reaspora site is in the works and a Twitter account has also been created. But most importantly, brainstorming amongst the participants of the BarCamp Africa has started. So if you have any ideas or suggestions, leave a comment here or contact Temi. Here are a few of his ideas that area awaiting for your feedback:
-It will be a social network where members will have profiles-There will be a messaging system
-People will be able to create groups
-People will be able to write blog posts/notes
-There will eventually be a job board for jobs in Africa. Reaspora Jobs
The overall goal is to encourage easy access to information and sharing among Africans (or anyone else) abroad who might be interested in getting involved with the continent’s development. It could also be used by people in Africa to help share accurate information to the rest of the world.
-Find Reaspora on Twitter at http://twitter.com/reaspora
After the BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley last Saturday we want to continue introducing all the amazing participants, hopefully to help foster and consolidate connections. We will also be collecting a few of the ideas for action discussed during the day, so that the ball can keep rolling. So today we'd like to take a minute to introduce another one of our great sponsors. Temi Kolawole, whom many of you already met during the discussion on knowledge-sharing in Nigeria, and his new startup called Sturvs.
Temi Kolawole is a young Nigerian web developer and entrepreneur who started an internet company, Antigravity, with his friend in 2004 and has been providing web development and other internet services to small businesses and individuals ever since. The company currently has over 100 different clients, has a portfolio of projects from all over the world and is Nigeria's top web 2.0 design company.
Temi launched Nigeria's first ever social bookmarking website, Sturvs.com (a sponsor of BarCampAfrica) in May 2007, and Nigeria's first ever facebook application in October of the same year. The word "sturvs" is a Nigerian slang for "stuff", so basically it's a place for Nigerians to share their internet stuff. The website has since grown in popularity among Nigerians all over the world since then as a source of news, music, videos and other Nigerian internet content.
One thing of concern for Temi is the negative image Nigeria has when it comes to internet scams and fraud and he has a passion to help change that image by encouraging & motivating Nigerians to use their internet and tech talent positively. He has plans to introduce web 2.0 learning programs on Nigerian campuses to tap into the sharp Nigerian mind and promote entrepreneurial ambition among University students.
You can read more about Temi Kolawole, Sturvs and his other projects in this interview at Starups Nigeria.
-Find Sturvs online at http://www.sturvs.com
-Find Sturvs on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sturvs
-Find Temi on Twitter at http://twitter.com/temi2004
-Read Temi's Other Blog
We continue our series of BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley attendees’s profiles:
Described as "the poetic equivalent of Arundhati Roy", Kenyan artist-activist, Shailja Patel performs in venues ranging from New York's Lincoln Centre to Durban's Poetry Africa Festival. CNN described her as an artist "who exemplifies globalization as a people-centered phenomenon of migration and exchange".
Shailja's one-woman show, "Migritude I: When Saris Speak" received a prolonged standing ovation at the 2007 World Social Forum in Nairobi. It was published in 2008, in a bilingual Italian-English edition, by Lietocolle, and launched at the Genoa International Poetry Festival. Patel opened and closed the first World Authors and Literary Translators Conference (WALTIC) in Stockholm, 2008, with her performances.
Patel also works with Kenyans for Peace, Truth and Justice (KPTJ), to empower grassroots Kenyan activists with strategic tools, and connect them to global resources.
Shailja's awards include the Fanny-Ann Eddy Poetry Award from IRN-Africa, the Voices of Our Nations Poetry Award, the Outwrite Poetry Prize of the New York Lesbian and Gay Centre. In 2009, Patel will be writer-in-residence at the Nordic Africa Institute (Sweden) and the Centre for Civil Society at the University of KwaZulu-Natal (South Africa).
-Read Shailja Patel's blog
Joshua Goldstein is a masters candidate at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, studying development economics and information technology policy with a regional focus on sub-Saharan Africa. He currently conducts research with Harvard’s Berkman Center for Internet and Society and Google Inc. His main interests are the role of information technology in economic development and political change, as well as the role of the United States on the African continent. Notably, he recently published Embracing ‘Open Access’ in East Africa: A Common Internet Infrastructure Policy Agenda for Human Security and Economic Development in Princeton’s Journal of Public and International Affairs and Harvard’s Berkman Center Working Paper Series.
Before attending the Fletcher School, he worked as a program officer for USAID’s Northern Uganda Peace Initiative (NUPI), helping to advise the Government of Uganda on a comprehensive plan for post-conflict reconciliation. Between 2005-2007, he helped start and direct Global Youth Partnership for Africa (GYPA), a non-profit that brings together American and African youth leaders.
Joshua is also a staff editor of the Fletcher Forum of World Affairs and a proud member of the Global Voices Online community.
-Read Joshua's blog, In an African minute
-Find Joshua on Twitter at http://twitter.com/african_minute
-Find the Berkman Center for Internet and Society online at http://www.cyber.law.harvard.edu
Paula Meyer received an MBA from the Wharton School of business in 1982 and began her mutual fund industry career with Vanguard. After many years as a corporate executive her belief is that the skills she and her board have learned in business can be applied successfully to deliver results in a different context. So in 2006 Paula left a successful career as President of the mutual fund business at American Express (now Ameriprise) and has since focused on building Friends of Ngong Road, a non-profit whose mission is to fund education and provide support for children who have lost one or both parents to HIV/AIDS living in the impoverished urban communities of Nairobi.
In less than two years Friends of Ngong Road has grown to an operating budget of nearly $200,000 – all of which is sent directly to Kenya. Money is raised through both sponsorships and direct contributions. The program consists of three main elements: schooling (tuition, tutoring, uniform, books, supplies and a daily lunch), Saturday program (a day of fun activities and a wholesome meal) and family support (ase worker support, food assistance and access to basic medical care).
-Find Friends of Ngong Road online at http://ngongroad.org
A few weeks ago we introduced one of the many amazing sponsors of BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley, Ned.com, through an insightful guest post by its founder Mark Grimes. It's about time that we introduce some of the others, since we feel extremely fortunate to have all of them on board. So here are a few words from Pragnya Alekal of the X Prize Foundation, who will be with us at the Barcamp Africa:
The X PRIZE Foundation has built a name for itself for tackling the world's most challenging problems: Man's quest for Space, Genomics, and more recently building super efficient automobiles. But this is just the beginning. We are tackling bigger and bigger issues, including what we believe is the world's most challenging (and probably most humane) issue: improving the quality of life for and enabling wealth generation by the world's poor.
This is the key question we are trying to address: How would you build a $10M prize that would address the most pressing needs of the poor in the developing world?? We're coming to BarCamp Africa to get your thoughts on this!!
We're thrilled co-sponsor the BarCamp... because we love the idea of un-conferences. And we're doing this because we want the world to know that we are serious about global development, and that we are serious about listening.
We can't wait to see you all on the 11th. Please do come by and say 'hello'...keep those comments and suggestions coming...we're listening!
-Find the X Prize Foundation online at http://www.xprize.org/
-Find the X Prize Foundation on Twitter at http://twitter.com/xprize
-Read the X Prize Foundation blog at http://nextprize.xprize.org
A few videos to learn more about the X Prize Foundation
-Follow the X Prize Foundation's YouTube Channel
-The origin of the XPF: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kMUVVw_EJpI
We continue our series of BarCamp Africa Silicon Valley attendees:
Dana Anne Feeny is a freshman at Stanford University studying Mechanical Engineering who has been working with driptech as a student intern. driptech is a company founded by Stanford engineers that designs and manufactures affordable drip irrigation for farmers in developing countries. This improves upon the current drip system by eliminating a large number of parts and reducing installation time, and it has the potential to become the most cost effective and easily used drip irrigation system for small plot farmers in developing nations.
With a $20 investment the average farmer can grow $100-$260 worth of high value vegetables per year, effectively doubling his annual income. driptech is currently deploying a pilot study to prove the product's effectiveness in the hands of rural farmers.
driptech, Dana says, embodies the fundamental ideals that she hopes to pursue throughout her education and profession. According to her, assisting in research, product testing, and networking has taught her a lot about working in this field and the details of the start-up life.
-Find driptech online at http://www.driptechnologies.com
Jim Sowers
Jim Sowers is, in no particular order, a DJ, dancer, adventurer, lawyer, computer engineer, entrepreneur, Carnival king and unicyclist. Jim has rhythm :-) He loves the music, dance, and culture of Africa and the Africa Diaspora. As a result of those passions he traveled and performed throughout the Caribbean and the Americas, and eventually made a solo motorcycle trip from Cape Town, South Africa to Dublin, Ireland. Jim spent 8 months in Africa, where he DJed in local clubs and on radio shows, taught and studied dance, and organized a group performance in Nairobi, Kenya.
-Watch Jim on his unicycle at http://spincycle.org
-Find Jim on Twitter at http://twitter.com/spincycle
Klaus Holzapfel is a cause, video and social media marketer, and a nonprofit activist based in Denver Colorado. He's the manager partner of the marketing agency conceptbakery USA. Klaus recently founded the South Africa Project with the overall goal of supporting the development of South Africa into a peaceful, non-violent nation and setting a positive example on the African continent.
With the South Africa Project, Klaus decided to put special emphasis on the upcoming 2010 Soccer World Cup in South Africa. 
The issues of the country are huge and can't be ignored: Skyrocketing numbers of rape, HIV infections, orphans (resulting of AIDS casualites), etc... So he decided to help gather financial and other support for organizations in South Africa doing the right thing - but who do not have enough funding & support. He believes that traditional marketing can not not be successful and that the focus needs to be entirely on cause marketing.
-Find Klaus on Twitter at http://twitter.com/klaus2go
-Find the South Africa project on Twitter at http://twitter.com/saproject
-Find the South Africa Project online at http://www.southafricaproject.org
