This one mentions and quotes Appfrica founder and CEO Jon Gosier, as well as Grameen AppLab's Eric Cantor.
The piece discusses Grameen's banana disease monitoring and their other information services, although it does not directly mention Question Box.
Read it here
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Monday, September 28, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
A very brief update
I'm back in the US, and on my way back to the Bay Area as we speak (sitting in Phoenix waiting for a flight at the moment).
I've got several posts in the wings, some of them already written, just awaiting a bit of editing and finalizing to post, and I do apologize for the delay. However, you can expect a short post about the riots, mainly consisting of links that give more information than I possibly could, and my own very trivial involvement in the 'citizen media' that was the main source of real-time news, at least for many of us.
I'll also have some sort of post summing up my summer and work and whatnot experience. Again, it's in draft, not really done yet.
But besides the riots, which I think all of you who read this heard about from me otherwise, nothing of particular note happened in my last few weeks (hence the dearth of blog posts).
Anyway, just want to say that there's more to come, and I'm going to keep this blog up other than for just this trip, I just have neither had much to say nor much time in which to say it as the summer's wound down.
I've got several posts in the wings, some of them already written, just awaiting a bit of editing and finalizing to post, and I do apologize for the delay. However, you can expect a short post about the riots, mainly consisting of links that give more information than I possibly could, and my own very trivial involvement in the 'citizen media' that was the main source of real-time news, at least for many of us.
I'll also have some sort of post summing up my summer and work and whatnot experience. Again, it's in draft, not really done yet.
But besides the riots, which I think all of you who read this heard about from me otherwise, nothing of particular note happened in my last few weeks (hence the dearth of blog posts).
Anyway, just want to say that there's more to come, and I'm going to keep this blog up other than for just this trip, I just have neither had much to say nor much time in which to say it as the summer's wound down.
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Not sure what it is about the new office...
...but people randomly walk in. Constantly. For no reason at all. We're not really sure what used to be there (I've heard a tailor shop, possibly), or what people are even doing wandering around on the 3rd floor of the building. There are a few other businesses -- an Internet cafe, a couple of restaurants, a massage place, etc, although none seem to get much traffic. And the Internet cafe has a sign, right at the top of the stairs, that you can't miss, that says where it is (which is NOT where our office is).
We changed the layout of the desks to make it more convincingly office-like and totally unmistakable for an internet cafe. It's otherwise empty. There's really not much it could possibly be. Yet people are constantly sticking their heads in the door or walking all the way (sometimes weirdly far) in.
We definitely need a sign.
Anyway, this afternoon was the best one, though. About five of us were standing around talking before we left, and, as you might expect, we had clustered by the door as groups on their way out frequently do. One of the developers, Jerry, was actually standing in the doorway, with a backpack on. Needless to say, he took up the majority of the doorway and certainly didn't leave enough space to walk easily by. And then some random guy comes up to the door, squeezes past Jerry, and looks around. WHY?!
There's no easy way in, you have to brush by someone. Whatever the place is, it's clearly about to close, since everybody in it is standing right by the door talking (and blocking it!). When would it ever occur to you to do that?! And he didn't say anything, no asking what the place was or anything. He just looked around, presumably catching the silence that descended over the group and five sets of eyes with looks that screamed "what the hell are you doing here?" and then turned around, squeezed back past Jerry and left.
It was really hilariously weird. And it wasn't just me -- an English friend of mine who's been here six years and all of the Ugandan developers (both present for that incident and just in general) find it weird and annoying, and found this specific instance especially bizarre and hilarious.
People who walk by our (usually open) windows along the building's outside corridor also frequently look in, and don't tend to make any particular effort to look away when any of us look up and make eye contact or anything, either. It's a bit odd. I really don't know what's so fascinating about what we're doing.
We changed the layout of the desks to make it more convincingly office-like and totally unmistakable for an internet cafe. It's otherwise empty. There's really not much it could possibly be. Yet people are constantly sticking their heads in the door or walking all the way (sometimes weirdly far) in.
We definitely need a sign.
Anyway, this afternoon was the best one, though. About five of us were standing around talking before we left, and, as you might expect, we had clustered by the door as groups on their way out frequently do. One of the developers, Jerry, was actually standing in the doorway, with a backpack on. Needless to say, he took up the majority of the doorway and certainly didn't leave enough space to walk easily by. And then some random guy comes up to the door, squeezes past Jerry, and looks around. WHY?!
There's no easy way in, you have to brush by someone. Whatever the place is, it's clearly about to close, since everybody in it is standing right by the door talking (and blocking it!). When would it ever occur to you to do that?! And he didn't say anything, no asking what the place was or anything. He just looked around, presumably catching the silence that descended over the group and five sets of eyes with looks that screamed "what the hell are you doing here?" and then turned around, squeezed back past Jerry and left.
It was really hilariously weird. And it wasn't just me -- an English friend of mine who's been here six years and all of the Ugandan developers (both present for that incident and just in general) find it weird and annoying, and found this specific instance especially bizarre and hilarious.
People who walk by our (usually open) windows along the building's outside corridor also frequently look in, and don't tend to make any particular effort to look away when any of us look up and make eye contact or anything, either. It's a bit odd. I really don't know what's so fascinating about what we're doing.
LINK: Appfrica and Question Box featured in NYT Freakonomics blog!
Great writeup on Appfrica (Jon Gosier's East African tech startup/incubator, Question Box's local technology parter) and Question Box, along with two other interesting African entrepreneurs.
Hit the post title for the read link or click here.
Hit the post title for the read link or click here.
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Hectic week, behind on email
Just a quick update for all of the people I owe emails to but haven't gotten around to -- this week (especially the last couple of days) has been veeeery busy.
This was the last week of the Question Box pilot for one (well, with Monday as a grace period), and there's been some confusion surrounding that for a variety of reasons, including a lot of key players being out of the country and hard to reach at the same time.
Also, Appfrica's in the process of moving to a new office -- incidentally located in the same building I just moved to. So that's involved a certain amount of going back and forth, packing things, moving things, etc.
And finally, a friend of mine here just got married yesterday, as I mentioned, but wasn't going -- it was to be a very small, private affair, which it was. At any rate, on Thursday (!) they asked me to photograph it. In a lucky coincidence, Jon had recently (mere days before) bought a rather nice Olympus DSLR from a guy we knew who had been traveling through. I borrowed it and the results were actually quite good. Much more convenient than my film one, as far as distributing the pictures and everything. Also, the total unavailability of ISO 800+ film in this country would have made film quite challenging without a flash. Anyway, it was nice to be involved, and I think the pictures turned out very well; they haven't seen all of them yet, but I'll have a CD waiting for them upon their return.
Anyway, it's all been very exhausting, and today I've done very little (except walk the perhaps ten minutes each way to get a baguette and some camembert for myself and my flatmate -- well worth the exertion, I assure you), and haven't even been on my computer until now.
Tomorrow I'll get more done, and get through my email backlog.
One last thing: Go Bears! Beat the Terps! The first Cal game of the season is tonight, at 5am my time. Ugh. Don't think I'll be watching it. But I'm still excited for it, and for everybody getting ready for their first shows of the season, and especially those about to do their first show at all in Cal Band. It had better be on Youtube now now! [to use the Ugandan expression that means actually soon; a single now means more of 'in the foreseeable future' than 'in a short and measurable length of time,' as in: "I am on my way, I'm coming now," meaning in an hour, versus "I'm coming now now," meaning in perhaps fifteen minutes.]
This was the last week of the Question Box pilot for one (well, with Monday as a grace period), and there's been some confusion surrounding that for a variety of reasons, including a lot of key players being out of the country and hard to reach at the same time.
Also, Appfrica's in the process of moving to a new office -- incidentally located in the same building I just moved to. So that's involved a certain amount of going back and forth, packing things, moving things, etc.
And finally, a friend of mine here just got married yesterday, as I mentioned, but wasn't going -- it was to be a very small, private affair, which it was. At any rate, on Thursday (!) they asked me to photograph it. In a lucky coincidence, Jon had recently (mere days before) bought a rather nice Olympus DSLR from a guy we knew who had been traveling through. I borrowed it and the results were actually quite good. Much more convenient than my film one, as far as distributing the pictures and everything. Also, the total unavailability of ISO 800+ film in this country would have made film quite challenging without a flash. Anyway, it was nice to be involved, and I think the pictures turned out very well; they haven't seen all of them yet, but I'll have a CD waiting for them upon their return.
Anyway, it's all been very exhausting, and today I've done very little (except walk the perhaps ten minutes each way to get a baguette and some camembert for myself and my flatmate -- well worth the exertion, I assure you), and haven't even been on my computer until now.
Tomorrow I'll get more done, and get through my email backlog.
One last thing: Go Bears! Beat the Terps! The first Cal game of the season is tonight, at 5am my time. Ugh. Don't think I'll be watching it. But I'm still excited for it, and for everybody getting ready for their first shows of the season, and especially those about to do their first show at all in Cal Band. It had better be on Youtube now now! [to use the Ugandan expression that means actually soon; a single now means more of 'in the foreseeable future' than 'in a short and measurable length of time,' as in: "I am on my way, I'm coming now," meaning in an hour, versus "I'm coming now now," meaning in perhaps fifteen minutes.]
Sunday, August 30, 2009
Nice outing to Ssissa
Today I got to go on a bit of an adventure with my new flatmate and two of my other friends here (one of whom's flats is also nice -- if not quite as exciting as this one -- and has a very inexpensive vacancy that'd probably be my first choice were I making a longer return).
Anyone, the other (from whom I'm subletting now, actually) is getting a quiet civil marriage at the end of this week (!), and is planning their party which will be in a month or so (alas, after I've returned to the States), and wanted to check out this potential venue for it. Her fiancé is still out of the country (until Tuesday, I think?) for work, so he couldn't come, which is too bad. He's Ugandan and does refugee law work, and she was doing research work and coordinating local research being done for US academics (but currently looking for a job, I believe). Needless to say, they're both really, really smart.
The place is a little ways (maybe 20km) outside of Kampala on the road to Entebbe, so not all that far, but all told the trip took about an hour there. It's this sort of lodge place (with a shooting range, of all things) up on a hill facing the lake -- a really, very beautiful place.
You wouldn't know you're so close to the city -- it, and the road to it, felt nearly as remote as the farms I visited in Mbale for work. There's very little in the way of visible construction between it and the lake, too. The vistas are absolutely stunning, and the whole place was just really nice and just being there for a couple of hours was a wonderful contrast to the noise and intensity of the city.
I've got some great pictures from it that I'll post up next time I'm on a connection that's sufficient for that sort of thing. I'll add a link.
Anyway, I think they're going to have it there, she really liked it a lot, and so did all of the rest of us who came, and it sounded pretty shockingly inexpensive. There are also a few cabins around it so I think some of the better friends will stay there a day or so.
At any rate, it's nothing all that exciting to report, but it was a very nice outing; fun and quite relaxing. Definitely a nice change.
And I'm very jealous I won't be able to make it to their reception thing there.
Anyone, the other (from whom I'm subletting now, actually) is getting a quiet civil marriage at the end of this week (!), and is planning their party which will be in a month or so (alas, after I've returned to the States), and wanted to check out this potential venue for it. Her fiancé is still out of the country (until Tuesday, I think?) for work, so he couldn't come, which is too bad. He's Ugandan and does refugee law work, and she was doing research work and coordinating local research being done for US academics (but currently looking for a job, I believe). Needless to say, they're both really, really smart.
The place is a little ways (maybe 20km) outside of Kampala on the road to Entebbe, so not all that far, but all told the trip took about an hour there. It's this sort of lodge place (with a shooting range, of all things) up on a hill facing the lake -- a really, very beautiful place.
You wouldn't know you're so close to the city -- it, and the road to it, felt nearly as remote as the farms I visited in Mbale for work. There's very little in the way of visible construction between it and the lake, too. The vistas are absolutely stunning, and the whole place was just really nice and just being there for a couple of hours was a wonderful contrast to the noise and intensity of the city.
I've got some great pictures from it that I'll post up next time I'm on a connection that's sufficient for that sort of thing. I'll add a link.
Anyway, I think they're going to have it there, she really liked it a lot, and so did all of the rest of us who came, and it sounded pretty shockingly inexpensive. There are also a few cabins around it so I think some of the better friends will stay there a day or so.
At any rate, it's nothing all that exciting to report, but it was a very nice outing; fun and quite relaxing. Definitely a nice change.
And I'm very jealous I won't be able to make it to their reception thing there.
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