Comments on: Help me surprise my Dutch friends with “Surprising Africa”

By: David Sasaki

David Sasaki — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 09:22:02 +0000

This deserves some attention:

By: Kilimanjaro Lion Conservation Project » mobile applications, and more tech-babble

Wed, 17 Sep 2008 21:11:35 +0000

[...] collars (South Africans are African too by the way – and so are Egyptians). Check out some links on Ethan Zuckerman’s blog (My Heart’s in Accra) for more food for thought on this subject. Thanks Nomad for the [...]

By: Dangermouse

Dangermouse — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 20:42:05 +0000

Ethan – You mention the tech edge of mobile applications and African society. It might be an idea to remind the rest of world that a significant percentage of africa’s mobile users are non-literate, but they charge through Nokia menus as if they were Tokyo teenagers. Point being that most of the folks here have found ways of maintaining comms, despite what development theorists might anxiously think of as numerous barriers (literacy, exposure to technology, language etc).

An example of a Maasai “Lion Guardian” from southern Kenya on his donated Nokia-brick here: http://lionguardians.wildlifedirect.org/2008/09/03/lions-kills-cow/

An interesting tie-in: a collared lion wearing a satphone, emailing his position to a mapping server. The info is then available to the Lion Guardian co-ordinator, who deploys the Lion Guardians where needed:

http://www.abycats.com/maps/catmap.html

By: ali

ali — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:31:43 +0000

All ties in to the rise of the Africa 2s.. neither very rich, nor very poor – but growing middle class (buying all those mobile phones for starters).
Same middle class that is buying TVs.. So in terms of media, broadcasters are investing in new content (like football) – which impacts (e.g. commercialisation of the sport), and gives companies an audience to sell to Africa 2s. Mobile TV on the way..

By: ndesanjo

ndesanjo — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 15:27:51 +0000

I would add William’s story:
http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/

By: josh goldstein

josh goldstein — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 14:16:15 +0000

ethan:

here are some ideas from down the street that I was (a) floored by; (b)embarrassed by the fact that I hadn’t heard of them

I think they are perfect for your talk:
http://inanafricanminute.blogspot.com/2008/09/people-will-work-on-their-mobiles-in.html

Josh

By: Bev Clark

Bev Clark — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 10:59:35 +0000

Hey Ethan

I’ve shared this with a few people and hopefully they’ll chip in. AND we will go out and look for a Cold Beer and brainstorm a bit.

Bye
Bev

By: Jim

Jim — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 09:48:48 +0000

This might be a good place to start: “Even the Poorest Can Be a Thriving Market” in the Harvard Business Review recently.
Gives a nice context to the huge potential for productive and creative activity from Africa- not just seeing is as a new ‘bottom of the pyramid’ market to sell to.

http://harvardbusinessonline.hbsp.harvard.edu/hbsp/hbr/articles/article.jsp?ml_action=get-article&articleID=F0805G&pageNumber=1&ml_subscriber=true&uid=24518643&aid=F0805G&rid=24612573&eom=1