PopTech : Blog : Erik Hersman makes the case for Africa's upswing

Erik Hersman makes the case for Africa's upswing

Emily Spivack ( Bio / Posts ) | Thursday, January 05, 2012 UTC

In asking us to shed outdated notions of Africa as a place wracked by poverty and war, during his PopTech 2011 talk Erik Hersman (PopTech 2008 Social Innovation Fellow) lays out numerous examples of entrepreneurship and innovation streaming out of that continent, and specifically, out of Kenya. As you watch his talk, use this guide with accompanying links, to cross-reference some of the examples he's provided:

iHub: Open space for technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in Nairobi.
Akira Chicks: All-girl coding group in Nairobi responsible for M-Farm.
M-Farm: A transparency tool for Kenyan farmers to get information about the retail price of their products, buy their farm inputs directly from manufacturers, and find buyers for their produce.
Frances Kere: An architect from Burkina Faso who builds schools using sustainable materials.
Maker Faire Africa: A community of makers and handcrafters in Africa focused on origin, ingenuity, and innovation.
Pivot 25: Mobile apps and developers conference and competition focused in East Africa.
AfriLabs: Established African tech incubators and open collaboration spaces banding together to further promote the growth and development of the African technology sector.
M-PESA: A peer-to-peer mobile transfer solution that enables customers to transfer money.
Ushahidi: A non-profit tech company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization, and interactive mapping.
MXit: A social networking site and instant messenger platform.