The Electromagnetic Ankh experiment from the book "P.T.A.H. Technology" by African Creation Energy was part of a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (S.T.E.A.M.) Camp for Middle School Students at The Nsoromma School on Nov. 16, 2013. http://www.nsoromma.org
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Technology. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Electromagnetic Ankh with Students at the Nsoromma School
The Electromagnetic Ankh experiment from the book "P.T.A.H. Technology" by African Creation Energy was part of a Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math (S.T.E.A.M.) Camp for Middle School Students at The Nsoromma School on Nov. 16, 2013. http://www.nsoromma.org
Saturday, June 1, 2013
Why tech innovators are Africa's future
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/02/22/opinion/apps4africa-marieme-jamme/index.html
Apps4Africa has just announced the three winners of its 2012 competition, showcasing the best in African innovation.
The winners, chosen from nearly 300 submissions, were Ffene, from Uganda, an app that helps small and medium businesses reduce administrative costs; SliceBiz, from Ghana, a crowdsourcing platform to encourage middle class Africans to invest small amounts in high-growth startups; and Prowork, from Nigeria, which is a project management and real-time collaboration tool for businesses.
The Apps4Africa competition began in late 2009 as an annual program that aimed to support African social entrepreneurs using technology to solve societal problems. This year's competition demonstrated again that Africa has innovation and a growing number of innovators. But now the challenge for technology entrepreneurs is not merely to innovate and create apps, but to turn them into lucrative business ideas.
During my trips to Africa while coordinating the Apps4Africa competition, I witnessed from the innovators a real desire to innovate and have their voices heard. But whilst a technology revolution is taking place in Africa, with so many of these young men and women building and creating apps, they still face huge challenges in understanding how to start businesses around their innovations.
Most of the innovators are following trends and their dreams, inspired mostly by the stories of Bill Gates and Steve Jobs making it without a clear business plan or any structured road map when they started their businesses many years ago. The reality check has not yet taken place in the minds of Africa's innovators and lots of time is being wasted on unrealistic desires.
Young entrepreneurs in Africa have a mosaic of demands that need urgent attention. Policy makers need to start taking the young entrepreneurs seriously, as they are the future of Africa.
The growing number of competitions and gatherings -- like Apps4Africa, Startup Weekend, Africa Gathering, Maker Faire, Pivot East and BarCamps -- help to give visibility and credibility to these innovators, but this is not enough. The young African innovator needs business skills and funding.
However, preparatory brainstorming gatherings, where people meet to share ideas, cement relationships and learn, could form the missing link that helps to create a culture of entrepreneurship and trust, that challenges and empowers the technology entrepreneurs to do more for Africa, and encourages the funders to support them.
Now the competition is over, with the prize money coming soon into the winners' bank accounts, what is next for them? Many people are asking this legitimate question.
One thing is sure, the entrepreneurs have ideas; the proof is that we have banks of apps being developed from the continent. But 90% of the people who attended the Apps4Africa sessions, with their business ideas in hand, need mentoring.
The ecosystem in their countries to facilitate the creation of companies and a culture of entrepreneurship and risk taking is currently in its infancy or non-existent. Funding is currently a big issue. Investors don't take the technologists seriously, say the entrepreneurs. Whilst their intentions and ideas are good, many of the entrepreneurs that I meet need to be mentored intensively. Investors don't have time for this.
African policy makers need to seriously invest in creating more business schools and put the right infrastructures into place to save the private sector industry of Africa and youth of Africa. Technology hubs and innovative spaces are addressing these current needs.
The Apps4Africa winners now need to scale up their business models; this means they will need more funding, mentoring and manpower.
To respond to this growing need, I have launched Spotone Mentoring @spot1mentoring, a new social enterprise initiative committed to supporting, guiding, unlocking the potential of the growing numbers of bedroom entrepreneurs in Africa.
With its official launch in the summer, it's an initiative I hope can help Africa's innovators to scale up and become profitable.
Wednesday, May 29, 2013
Africa's tallest building set for $10 billion Tech City in Ghana
http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/20/tech/hope-city-ghana/index.html
(CNN) -- Right now, it's nothing more than an empty plot of land, covered by just a few shrubs and the odd Neem tree. But within a few years, these grass plains just outside Accra, Ghana, could be transformed into a fertile breeding ground for world-class innovation.
Earlier this month, Ghanaian president John Mahama launched Hope City, a $10 billion high-tech hub aiming to foster technological growth and attract major players in the global ICT industry to the West African country.
The ambitious project is the brainchild of Ghanaian businessman Roland Agambire, head of local technology group RLG Communications. Smart and futuristic, the hub's sustainable facilities will include an assembly plant for various tech products, business offices, an IT university and a hospital, as well as housing and recreation spaces, including restaurants, theaters and sports centers.
"What is lacking in the African continent is a place where you can have well-designed products, backed with concrete research and proper hardware and software developers to be able to create infrastructure for the telecoms industry," says Agambire, 39, whose company has acquired the land where the technopolis will be built.
"So the inspiration behind Hope City is to have an iconic ICT park where ICT players from all over the world can converge to design, fabricate and export software and everything arising from this country," he adds.
Construction is expected to begin by June 2013 and when completed -- within three years, if everything goes as planned -- the technology park could house 25,000 residents and create jobs for 50,000 people.
Agambire, one of Ghana's top businessmen, says his company is financing 30% of the project, while the remainder will be funded by a wide array of investors and through a stock-buying scheme.
The entrepreneur says the IT hub has already attracted several partners, including Microsoft, with Microsoft corporate vice president Ali Faramawy among the guests at the Hope City launch event.
Agambire adds that the Hope City project also has the support of the Ghanaian government, as it aims to create create thousands of jobs and help turn technology into one of the country's main economic drivers.
"What we want to do is to create the environment and the human resource base for the technology industry to be able to use that [environment] and tap that opportunity," he says. "That's what has happened in China, that's what has happened in other places of the world."
Africa's highest tower
Hope City will be developed in an area of about 1.5 million square meters, located some 30 minutes west of Accra's city center.
Designed by Italian firm Architect OBR, the technopolis will be made up of six towers of different dimensions, including a 75-story, 270 meter-high building that is expected to be the highest in Africa. A system of bridges at different heights will link the towers together, creating a circular connection between the buildings' functions and public amenities.
OBR co-founder Paolo Brescia says the project's goal is to create a living place of discovery and exploration that reflects the tradition and culture of local people in a contemporary urban setting.
To achieve this, the architects designed Hope City with Ghana's traditional compound houses in mind. Originally made of mud brick walls and thatched roofs, compound structures have been a prevalent form of housing in the country for centuries, built to promote communal life and mutual assistance.
"We wanted to recreate, at a different scale, the same feeling of the compound house in a way that it could work as a compound cluster," explains Brescia.
"This place is designed to keep people together," he adds. "We developed this idea, not as a campus, where you have buildings which are dedicated to single functions, but as a city which is developed in a vertical way so that everything could be interconnected."
ICT revolution
The launch of Hope City comes just a few months after Kenya broke ground on its own flagship tech mega project; located some 60 kilometers southeast of the capital Nairobi, Konza Techno City is being touted as "Africa's Silicon Savannah," a major IT hub that aims to create some 100,000 jobs by 2030.
Kenya has already experienced a major IT boom in recent years, spurred in part by a surge in the number of innovation centers, such as Nairobi-based iHub, which enable young coders and aspiring entrepreneurs to collaborate, network and develop their trailblazing ideas.
Similar spaces have also mushroomed across Africa in recent years, from Egypt and Nigeria to Tanzania and Madagascar.
In Ghana, one such center is Accra-based Mobile Web Ghana, a vibrant tech space with more than 300 members. Florence Toffa, director of Mobile Web Ghana, welcomes the launch of Hope City.
"This city hopefully will bring the tech companies together and spark a new ICT revolution in Ghana," she says, adding that the project could equip local techies with the necessary skills to develop apps that would solve community problems, as well as provide a platform for tech companies to find new talent and opportunities to invest in.
For Agambire, this is a project that will position Ghana at the forefront of African technology.
"Africa is hungry for development," he says. "Want to make sure that in three years down the line, Hope City will be a reality and will be one of the biggest dreams that Africa has ever seen."
(CNN) -- Right now, it's nothing more than an empty plot of land, covered by just a few shrubs and the odd Neem tree. But within a few years, these grass plains just outside Accra, Ghana, could be transformed into a fertile breeding ground for world-class innovation.
Earlier this month, Ghanaian president John Mahama launched Hope City, a $10 billion high-tech hub aiming to foster technological growth and attract major players in the global ICT industry to the West African country.
The ambitious project is the brainchild of Ghanaian businessman Roland Agambire, head of local technology group RLG Communications. Smart and futuristic, the hub's sustainable facilities will include an assembly plant for various tech products, business offices, an IT university and a hospital, as well as housing and recreation spaces, including restaurants, theaters and sports centers.
"What is lacking in the African continent is a place where you can have well-designed products, backed with concrete research and proper hardware and software developers to be able to create infrastructure for the telecoms industry," says Agambire, 39, whose company has acquired the land where the technopolis will be built.
"So the inspiration behind Hope City is to have an iconic ICT park where ICT players from all over the world can converge to design, fabricate and export software and everything arising from this country," he adds.
Construction is expected to begin by June 2013 and when completed -- within three years, if everything goes as planned -- the technology park could house 25,000 residents and create jobs for 50,000 people.
Agambire, one of Ghana's top businessmen, says his company is financing 30% of the project, while the remainder will be funded by a wide array of investors and through a stock-buying scheme.
The entrepreneur says the IT hub has already attracted several partners, including Microsoft, with Microsoft corporate vice president Ali Faramawy among the guests at the Hope City launch event.
Agambire adds that the Hope City project also has the support of the Ghanaian government, as it aims to create create thousands of jobs and help turn technology into one of the country's main economic drivers.
"What we want to do is to create the environment and the human resource base for the technology industry to be able to use that [environment] and tap that opportunity," he says. "That's what has happened in China, that's what has happened in other places of the world."
Africa's highest tower
Hope City will be developed in an area of about 1.5 million square meters, located some 30 minutes west of Accra's city center.
Designed by Italian firm Architect OBR, the technopolis will be made up of six towers of different dimensions, including a 75-story, 270 meter-high building that is expected to be the highest in Africa. A system of bridges at different heights will link the towers together, creating a circular connection between the buildings' functions and public amenities.
OBR co-founder Paolo Brescia says the project's goal is to create a living place of discovery and exploration that reflects the tradition and culture of local people in a contemporary urban setting.
To achieve this, the architects designed Hope City with Ghana's traditional compound houses in mind. Originally made of mud brick walls and thatched roofs, compound structures have been a prevalent form of housing in the country for centuries, built to promote communal life and mutual assistance.
"We wanted to recreate, at a different scale, the same feeling of the compound house in a way that it could work as a compound cluster," explains Brescia.
"This place is designed to keep people together," he adds. "We developed this idea, not as a campus, where you have buildings which are dedicated to single functions, but as a city which is developed in a vertical way so that everything could be interconnected."
ICT revolution
The launch of Hope City comes just a few months after Kenya broke ground on its own flagship tech mega project; located some 60 kilometers southeast of the capital Nairobi, Konza Techno City is being touted as "Africa's Silicon Savannah," a major IT hub that aims to create some 100,000 jobs by 2030.
Kenya has already experienced a major IT boom in recent years, spurred in part by a surge in the number of innovation centers, such as Nairobi-based iHub, which enable young coders and aspiring entrepreneurs to collaborate, network and develop their trailblazing ideas.
Similar spaces have also mushroomed across Africa in recent years, from Egypt and Nigeria to Tanzania and Madagascar.
In Ghana, one such center is Accra-based Mobile Web Ghana, a vibrant tech space with more than 300 members. Florence Toffa, director of Mobile Web Ghana, welcomes the launch of Hope City.
"This city hopefully will bring the tech companies together and spark a new ICT revolution in Ghana," she says, adding that the project could equip local techies with the necessary skills to develop apps that would solve community problems, as well as provide a platform for tech companies to find new talent and opportunities to invest in.
For Agambire, this is a project that will position Ghana at the forefront of African technology.
"Africa is hungry for development," he says. "Want to make sure that in three years down the line, Hope City will be a reality and will be one of the biggest dreams that Africa has ever seen."
Konza Technology City in Kenya
Konza Technology City
http://www.konzacity.co.ke
http://www.konzacity.co.ke
Konza Techno City will be a sustainable, world-class technology hub and a major economic driver for the nation of Kenya with a vibrant mix of businesses, workers, residents, and urban amenities. It is dubbed "where African silicon savannah begins". The city will be located in the city of Konza in Kenya. It will be built in 5000 acres of land 64km south of Nairobi, Kenya. The project is estimated to cost approximately $14.5 Billion Dollars US. The official launch and groundbreaking ceremony of the project took place on the 23rd January 2013, headed by Kenyan president, Mwai Kibaki. The Konza Technopolis will be a world class city powered by a thriving IT sector and generating 100,000 jobs by 2030.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konza_Technology_City
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Konza_Technology_City
Entry plaza:
Masterplan structure:
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)