This is an Atom formatted XML site feed. It is intended to be viewed in a Newsreader or syndicated to another site. Please visit the Blogger Help for more info.
MFA media coverage2010-02-26T19:35:10Z2010-02-26T19:35:10ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2010-02-26:/group/coop/ws/mfa_media_coverage/2010-02-26T19:35:10Z
<div class="document">
<p><a class="reference" href="http://boingboing.net/2008/10/08/a-diy-manufacturing.html" title="">A DIY manufacturing event for Africa, "Maker-style," in 2009?</a> <strong>Boing, Boing</strong> - Actober 8, 2008</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://www.treehugger.com/files/2009/04/maker-faire-heads-to-africa.php" title="">Maker Faire Heads to Africa</a> <strong>Treehugger</strong> - April 16, 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://www.nextbillion.net/blog/stop-talking-start-making-maker-faire-africa" title="">Stop Talking, Start Making: Maker Faire Africa</a> <strong>Next Billion</strong> - June 6, 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="/group/coop/ws/Maker%20Faire%20Africa/" title="">Maker Faire Africa</a> - <strong>The Naked Scientists</strong> - July 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="/group/coop/ws/Maker%20Faire%20Africa/" title="">Maker Faire Africa</a> - <strong>Wired</strong> - August 10, 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://allafrica.com/stories/200908140685.html" title="">Ghana: Maker Faire Africa Underway in Accra</a> - <strong>All Africa</strong> - August 13, 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://www.core77.com/blog/events/maker_faire_africa_is_on_14323.asp" title="">Maker Faire Africa is on</a> : <strong>Core 77</strong> - August 14, 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/08/radio_maker_faire_africa.html" title="">Radio Maker Faire Africa</a> - <strong>Make Magazine</strong> - August 17, 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://www.africanews.com/site/Maker_Faire_Africa_09_thrills/list_messages/26450" title="">Maker Faire Africa 09 thrills</a> <strong>AfricaNews</strong> - August 17, 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://ict4d.at/2009/08/17/recap-of-maker-faire-africa-2009/" title="">Recap of Maker Faire Africa 2009</a> <strong>ICT4D.at</strong> - August 17, 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/science/2009/08/090819_digitalplanet_180809.shtml" title="">BBC World Service: Digital Planet</a> <strong>BBC</strong> - August 18, 2009 - (26:28 minutes, audio)</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/2009/aug/19/africa-technology-maker-faire-conference" title="">All the fun of the technology faire</a> <strong>Guardian UK</strong> - August, 19 2009</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p3X2VMkB2wM&feature=player_embedded" title="">Maker Faire Africa Africanews YouTube Video</a> <strong>AfricaNews</strong> - August 27, 2009 - (5:12 minutes, video)</p>
<p><a class="reference" href="http://www.globaldevelopmentcommons.net/node/2876" title="">Maker Faire Africa Ignites Innovation in Accra</a> <strong>Global Development Commons</strong> - August 31, 2009</p>
<p>WSJ article "Tinkering Makes Comeback Amid Crisis" <a class="reference" href="http://bit.ly/4uImUU" title="">http://bit.ly/4uImUU</a></p>
</div>
African Emerging Market Technology & Innovation2008-10-23T15:20:24Z2008-10-23T15:20:24ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2007-09-21:/group/coop/ws/index/2008-10-23T15:20:24Z
<div class="document">
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Weekly Call: Thursdays 8:30AM Pacific Time (West Coast USA)</div>
<div class="line">218-844-3366</div>
<div class="line">PW:669273#</div>
</div>
<p>Inaugural Conference Call was 8/28/08</p>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Erik Hersman - White African - Afrigadget & Ushahidi.com crowdsourcing sms/text. </div>
<div class="line"><strong>Needs Help:</strong> Looking at different orgs that could alpha the product - size doesn’t matter, pilot, best in out of the way locations, trying to aggregate a lot of information, maybe some opportunities with Question Box per Jon Gosier </div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Glenn Strachan - glennstrachan.com - @glennstrachan - US Aid Work Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, does broadband wireless in dev countries and effect economic development, final throws in Lesotho wireless project, contacts in Lesotho, connections with 20 telecom companies, Uganda done some mesh-networking approach in small villages but with an entrepreneur (non NGO) approach to it, Sierra Leone connectivity. </div>
<div class="line"><strong>Needs Help:</strong> Looking for some contacts that have ties to telecom, ICT and wireless inside Lesotho.</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Emeka Okafor - blogs at Timbuktu Chronicles and Africa unchained & entrepreneur NY company African beverages Caranda Fine Foods,Makeda Fund - X Prize Foundation advisor - in conference business - directed Ted Africa last year, Africa, innovation, entrepreneurship, X Prize, Gates Foundation, Global Development Commons. </div>
<div class="line"><strong>Needs Help:</strong> with ideas focusing on efforts getting vendors to work together and best practices (they have a habit of not sharing what doesn’t work). Also regarding the X-Prize what are the types of categories and problems could be focused on, what could 10 million dollars solve in the developing world.</div>
</div>
<p>Chris Stewart - @socialtopher - passionate about microfinance and Eastern Europe, software developer with an insurance company, more details next week.</p>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Jon Gosier - appfrica.org @appfrica - Kampala, Uganda - CTO of Question Box a social startup using mobile devices to put rural areas online. Glenn and Jon need to connect. Connect to people at Mobile Active possibly, Google and Grameen Bank doing work in Uganda, Eric in Grameen working in Uganda with App Lab. Glenn will connect Jon, also see assetmap.org. </div>
<div class="line"><strong>Needs Help:</strong> Looking for mobile and software apps companies in Uganda to work with. Would like to talk to contacts local to Uganda Grameen and Google.</div>
</div>
<p>Dave Witzel - forumone.com - @dwitzel - Peace Corps Botswana, Forum One, Policy Commons, openness and sharing with dev sharing, See; development commons, open education resources as a development tool</p>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Mark Grimes - ned.com - @neddotcom - Serial entrepreneur, social entrepreneur and sometimes angel investor. Interested in exploring collective project funding with projects and orgs thru ned.com </div>
<div class="line"><strong>Needs Help:</strong> Exploring merging market Y Combinator meets the developing world with an online/incubator type flavor and looking for a trusted partner on the ground.</div>
</div>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Leila Chirayath - samasource.org (leila (at) samasource (dot) org) - founder of Samasource.org, which aims to create knowledge jobs for the poor through business process and IT outsourcing.</div>
</div>
<p><strong>Needs Help</strong>: closing an angel funding round of $200K to move us to completion on our pilot; looking for projects for small companies in Africa (current clients include Benetech and several Bay Area start-ups)-- can be anything from data entry to transcription to software development. For more info on our brokerage model check out samasource.com.</p>
<div class="line-block">
<div class="line">Others Invited: wanted to attend and will (probably) in the near future</div>
<div class="line">Ken Banks - kiwanja.net - @kiwanja</div>
<div class="line">Eric Osiakwan - afrispa.org </div>
<div class="line">Mike Stopforth - afrigator.com - @afrigator</div>
<div class="line">Ellen Petry Leanse - chep2m.wordpress.com - @chep2m </div>
<div class="line">Kahenya - kahenya.com - @kahenya</div>
</div>
</div>
Maker_Faire_Africa_Concept2008-10-16T16:55:23Z2008-10-16T16:55:23Zlars@workhttp://www.ned.com/user/u742861170/tag:ned.com,2008-09-06:/group/coop/ws/maker_faire_africa_concept/2008-10-16T16:55:23Z
<div class="document">
<div class="section" id="developing-a-maker-faire-africa">
<h1><a name="developing-a-maker-faire-africa">Developing A “Maker Faire Africa”</a></h1>
<p>While the ICT space has developed a head of steam in some parts of Africa, a “maker philosophy” is yet to occur. [It is imperative that the educated do not perceive technology as what appears before them on a computer screen]. The aim of a Maker Faire-like event is to create a space on the continent where Afrigadget-type innovations, inventions and initiatives can be sought, identified, brought to life, supported, amplified, propagated, etc.
Maker Faire Africa asks the question, “What happens when you put the drivers of ingenious concepts from Mali with those from Ghana and Kenya, and add resources to the mix?”</p>
<p>Maker Faire Africa will engage on-the-ground breakthrough organizations like Ashesi University and Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology to sharpen focus on locally-generated, bottom-up prototypes of technologies that solve immediate challenges to development. Specifically, Maker Faire Africa will take an approach that will achieve three principal aims:</p>
<ul class="simple">
<li>Brighten the light on local examples of the “fabrication” ethos</li>
<li>Provide mechanisms to incubate these innovators and their products to a point where they can be taken to market</li>
<li>Connect refined plans to disseminate innovations with venture finance</li>
</ul>
<p>The aim is to identify, spur and support local innovation. At the same time, Maker Faire Africa would seek to imbue creative types in science and technology with an appreciation of fabrication and by default manufacturing. The long-term interest here is to cultivate an endogenous manufacturing base that supplies innovative products in response to market needs.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="background">
<h1><a name="background">Background</a></h1>
<p>When discussions of wealth creation and poverty reduction are made in reference to the continent, for a variety of reasons manufacturing is left off the table. This is partly the fault of education and or orientation. Making fabrication the next “big thing” in a sense could go some way in changing these attitudes. Manufacture – literally, fabrication by hand – is exciting, and exists across the continent of Africa, and is abundant – from centers sited at dumps, where scrap metals are abundant, to more formal collections of mechanics and repairers who have set up shop in the urban core. Much of this curiosity, talent, and entrepreneurial spirit in manufacturing remains trapped in the informal sectors - bricoleurs and tinkerers who ingeniously meet hyper local demands and tend not to scale.</p>
<p>Part of this comes from the irony that universities haven’t gone far enough in “pairing off” with, or trying to mutually reinforce the existing fabricators in their own backyards. This is partly the result of sub-optimal educational systems that emphasized extractive industries over centers of manufacture, and administration at the expense of creativity and production. A Maker Faire with the associated novelty and appeal could reinforce the centrality of fabrication processes in the imagination of the curious and young and accelerate its uptake on the continent.</p>
</div>
<div class="section" id="organizing">
<h1><a name="organizing">Organizing</a></h1>
<p>To grow and respond to needs and priorities on the continent, Maker Faire Africa will require a strong continental organizing force, which will be centered at Ashesi University. This team will collaborate with the organizers of the International Development Design Summit, which will be held at Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology in mid/late Summer 2009, to ensure a well-timed, visible, and celebratory event that draws upon IDDS outcomes and attracts new participants The aim of Maker Faire Africa 2009 will be to establish partnerships and an organizing infrastructure that could lead to a series of events across the continent. No formula or single model for how this could evolve exists, and this will be a part of the challenge taken up by leaders on the continent who take up the Maker Faire Africa concept.</p>
<p>Some key organizing principles:
- Make Faire Africa will engage leaders on the continent across sectors – industry, finance, high-tech, agriculture, academia - self-selected individuals and institutions that already express the attributes necessary for such an effort. So the broad outlines and possible levels of support/shepherding (ie endorsements and seed funding) would be provided by those with the wherewithal (those outside?) and the granular conceptualizing would be more bottom up.
- Involve “external innovators – for example the developers of products like Lifestraw and Hippo Roller – could create revenue streams that in turn could be used to off-set the costs of involving innovators from other parts of Africa who might not otherwise be able to participate.
- Twinning with the arts to create opportunities both to involve them in fabrication conversations (for example, the relationship between “appropriation” and “creation” a la DJ Spooky a.k.a. Paul Miller that Subliminal Kid ) as well as create relaxed times and spaces for networking.
- Attract inventors, venture capitalists, philanthropists, media, and NPO/NGO actors in great numbers.</p>
</div>
</div>
maker faire planning2008-10-12T15:18:53Z2008-10-12T15:18:53ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2008-10-12:/group/coop/ws/maker_faire_planning/2008-10-12T15:18:53Z
<div class="document">
<div class="section" id="people">
<h1><a name="people">People</a></h1>
</div>
<div class="section" id="projects">
<h1><a name="projects">Projects</a></h1>
</div>
<div class="section" id="places">
<h1><a name="places">Places</a></h1>
</div>
<div class="section" id="creations">
<h1><a name="creations">Creations</a></h1>
</div>
<div class="section" id="possible-sponsors">
<h1><a name="possible-sponsors">Possible Sponsors</a></h1>
</div>
</div>
What is a Cooperative?2008-08-29T21:27:51Z2008-08-29T21:27:51ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2007-09-21:/group/coop/ws/what_is_a_cooperative_/2008-08-29T21:27:51Z
<div class="document">
</div>
Resources2008-08-29T21:27:26Z2008-08-29T21:27:26ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2007-09-21:/group/coop/ws/resources/2008-08-29T21:27:26Z
<div class="document">
</div>
Examples of other Coops2008-08-29T21:27:10Z2008-08-29T21:27:10ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2007-09-21:/group/coop/ws/examples_of_other_coops/2008-08-29T21:27:10Z
<div class="document">
</div>
What is unique about a <Ned> Coop?2008-08-29T21:25:01Z2008-08-29T21:25:01ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2007-09-21:/group/coop/ws/what_is_unique_about_a__ned__coop_/2008-08-29T21:25:01Z
<div class="document">
</div>
Looking at <Ned> from the Moon2008-08-29T21:24:41Z2008-08-29T21:24:41ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2007-09-21:/group/coop/ws/looking_at__ned__from_the_moon/2008-08-29T21:24:41Z
<div class="document">
</div>
The Organization Structure of a <Ned> Coop2008-08-29T21:24:22Z2008-08-29T21:24:22ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2007-09-21:/group/coop/ws/the_organization_structure_of_a__ned__coop/2008-08-29T21:24:22Z
<div class="document">
</div>
People2008-08-29T21:23:12Z2008-08-29T21:23:12ZMark Grimeshttp://www.ned.com/user/u513094538/tag:ned.com,2007-09-21:/group/coop/ws/people/2008-08-29T21:23:12Z
<div class="document">
</div>