Africa

See the following -

Google’s Boss Eric Schmidt Projects Kenya As Africa’s Tech Leader

Oluwabusayo Sotunde | Ventures | January 24, 2013

After a week’s visit to sub-Saharan Africa that included meetings in Lagos and Nairobi, Executive Chairman and former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt has labelled Nairobi as the ‘maybe’ silicon valley of Africa. Read More »

Happy Holidays From Ushahidi!

Juliana Rotich | Ushahidi | December 21, 2012

First, just in time for the holidays, we have the free Ushahidi iOS app now available for download in the itunes store. Dale Zak put a lot of time and love into the app, releasing the SDK and integrating the fantastic work of The OpenGeoSMS team. Why OpenGeoSMS? So you can collect reports when the internet is not available, for example during a disaster situation or have intermittent connectivity. Read More »

How African Hospitals Can Be Helped Through Open Source ERP and EHR Software

The daily management and operation of a hospital requires enormous effort. These days, most hospitals utilize Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) software to centralize facility operations including inventory, budgets, invoicing, and employee management.Any hospital administrator will tell you that ERP software is essential to efficiently managing their hospital as the software lowers inventory costs and improves efficiencies and quality.

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How Does The Gates Foundation Spend Its Money To Feed The World?

Staff Writer | Grain | November 4, 2014

At some point in June this year, the total amount given as grants to food and agriculture projects by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation surpassed the US$3 billion mark. It marked quite a milestone. From nowhere on the agricultural scene less than a decade ago, the Gates Foundation has emerged as one of the world's major donors to agricultural research and development...

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How Kony 2012 Campaign Went Viral and Focused Rare Attention on Africa

Curt Hopkins | Christian Science Monitor | March 9, 2012

Invisible Children, through its Kony 2012 campaign against the Lord's Resistance Army, had a strong message, social media, and a strategy for how to channel a youthful desire to be involved.

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How Technology Democratised Development

Ken Banks | BBC | September 7, 2012

Over the coming weeks, A Matter of Life and Tech will feature a range of voices from people helping to build Africa’s tech future. This week, mobile innovator Ken Banks argues that technology has become a vital tool in the fight against poverty. Read More »

How WikiFundi Is Helping People in Africa Contribute to Wikipedia

In developed countries, the ability to access and edit Wikipedia easily is taken for granted, but in many African countries, where access to reliable electricity and broadband are limited, that's not the case. I recently interviewed Florence Devouard, who is working on several open source projects to help close gaps caused by poor access to online information. She is co-leader of the WikiFundi project, as well as other projects related to Wikipedia and Africa, including Wiki Loves Women, a women's information initiative, and Wiki Loves Africa, a media contest that invites the public to contribute photographs, videos, and audio to Wikipedia. All projects are part of the WikiAfrica movement...

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma Draw the Line - Time for the US to Embrace Open Source Emergency and Disaster Response

For nearly 20 years now the global open source community and applications have been a keystone to disaster relief efforts around the world. The enormous number of disaster relief applications and knowledge that has been developed through all these years, should, and needs to be leveraged in the current crisis. For that reason, Open Health News is starting a series of articles to highlight some of the most important solutions. A substantial portion the open source applications for emergency and disaster response that exist are actually already on the news website in the form of articles and resource pages.

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Hype Around NGO-Funded Apps Is Stifling Africa's Innovation

Jessica Hatcher | Wired | June 10, 2014

The Silicon Savannah brings to mind a hyper-tech innovation zone, a mini-city of mirrored buildings ringed by sandy sub-Saharan scrub. Closer to the truth is a handful of industrial-style offices that occupy the top-floors of mirrored buildings and overlook a traffic-clogged Nairobi city artery called the Ngong Road. Read More »

IBM Expands Push Into Africa With Office in Mauritius

Darryl K. Taft | eWeek | March 16, 2012

As IBM has stated that growth markets are key to its future, Big Blue continued its expansion into Africa with an increased presence in Mauritius. Read More »

iCow Launch With Safaricom

Matt O'Reilly | Indigo Trust | June 27, 2013

As readers of our blog will know, we have been supporting Kenyan agricultural start-up, iCow, for a while. Yesterday, they announced the details of their partnership with leading mobile operator Safaricom. Here is our take on iCow’s journey to date [...]. Read More »

In Kenya, Microfinance Is Going Mobile – Part 1

Claire Penicaud | GSMA.com | September 6, 2012

This blog has been written with the support of Tonny Omwansa, co-author of Money, Real Quick: The story of M-Pesa. We want to thank David James, CEO of Musoni and Sharon Langevin, Project Director of FrontlineSMS:Credit. Read Part 2 here. Read More »

In The News

Rachael Mclellan | Indigo Trust | October 1, 2013

Mobile technology is now being used for everything from paying bus fares to eye tests, donating money for disaster relief to distance learning.  ICT for development remains a big issue in Africa and here’s a sweep of some of the latest developments that we’ve been following at Indigo. Read More »

Indigo Grantees In The UK’s Observer Newspaper

Matt O'Reilly | Indigo Trust | August 28, 2012

It was great to read this weekend’s Observer newspaper’s special section on the new Africa. It was an attempt to shift coverage of Africa from war, famine and dictators to the innovation and good news stories that abound on the continent. Read More »

Innovative Device Puts Kenya On The Global Map

Doreen Otieno | The Star | September 24, 2014

Large parts of Africa lack accurate real-time accurate weather data...The BRCK is a device that can be plugged into the weather station and used as an on-ramp for the Internet of Things (IoT)...

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