It is with regrets that I have to inform my readers that the TechMasai blog will be shutdown. I decided to shut down the brand after much thought. They are plenty of reasons but the main ones include
- The TechMasai name, it is not the most politically correct term to use for a pan-African technology blog. In actuality the reference to the Masai people from Kenya, on a blog founded by a Zimbabwean is plain weird.
- The challenging and nature of researching the stories, and finding relevant sources aka journalism
It is with regrets I shut TechMasai down, and I thank the few readers we had for taking the time to pay attention.
Ushahidi the start-up based in Kenya which crowdsources crisis information has had a cool media rise. One of the founders of Ushahidi, Kenyan Ory Okolloh was recently interviewed on CNN voices.
Ushahidi rise to fame is based on its innovative solution in enabling citizens and organizations to track crisis situations in an easy, efficient manner. Their unique system has been used in Kenya and more recently in Haiti.
The interview of Ory Okolloh on CNN Voices is below. read more…
Yola the South African based website creation tool with an international userbase, we profiled here was recently attacked by hackers. The motive of the attack on Yola is still unclear since to the best of my knowledge Yola does not have any social or political agenda which might negatively affect people.
The compny released an e-mail to all its users explaining the details of the attack and what form the hack was performed. The hackers it seemed tried something called a Denial of service attack “Dos” with the aim of halting Yola servers from performing normally. This means they weren’t after data but to hinder basically.
This attack is surprising since hackers usually ignore African start-ups.
The e-mail from Yola is below read more…
Africadiscuss is a pan-African forum founded by a Ghanaian called Chris-Vincent with the motto, “denying ignorance through discussion.” The idea behind the forum seems to empower people to further engage in a debate about the motherland over topics which uniquely affect people who live here.
The idea behind Africadiscuss is both unique and useful, but whether it will translate into success is in question. They are very few popular forums in the African cyberspace, with people tending to gravitate to social networks to engage on an online dialogue. Also the general popular forums in Africa utilize national solidarity like with Mashada forums. read more…
iJol is a South African event finder.At iJol you can search and find concerts, shows and listing of the top entertainment based events in South Africa.
Have you ever had the feeling that there is cool stuff going on, but you just don’t know about it? Ever wished you’d been at that awesome party that happened last weekend, that secret gig only a select few knew about, or that once-off movie screening your mate at work raved about the next day?
Well, here’s your chance to stay informed.
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Stay in the know. read more…
The Ushahidi Team Have Launched Crowdmap, A Tool To Crowdsource And Visualize Info On A Map
The Ushahidi team – based in Kenya- have created something called Crowdmap, a service which allow people to gather information and visualize it on a map in realtime, and for free. In their own words
Crowdmap is a tool that allows you to crowdsource information and see it on a map and timeline. It is the Ushahidi platform, built by the team who created Ushahidi as a way for anyone to run their own crowdsourcing site without having to know the intricacies of running their own server. It’s free and it’s yours to use.
Opinion Piece: A Few Great Ideas Would Include Camps, Competitions And Conferences Targeting Africas’ Future Techies
Note: The below piece is an opinion piece written by Munashe Gumbonzvanda. The post solely reference the personal ideas of the writer.
Not to generalize, but a little more probably needs to be done on a government and social level to empower the youth to engage tech and entrepreneurship to a greater extent. The education system as I stated previously is tailored to create educated workers in the motherland.
A great place to start is to create more out of school stuff like camps, competition and conferences which are aimed primarily at people in high school and university. read more…
Loy Okezie And Francis Oghuma Partnered To Form Sowambe, A Pan-African Social Media Brand
Loy Okezie the blogger/writer and Francis Oghuma the co-founder of Naijaborn and Camerborn recently partnered to create Sowambe.
According to a blog post by Loy Okezie, Sowambe which means “Are You there” in Yoruba, a language spoken in Western Africa will be a pan-African social media lifestyle brand. At Sowambe they will showcase pan-African social media trends, celebrities and culture. They will also track and give insight on social media, by a team which has been involved in the subject for a number of years.
The thing which makes Sowambe standout, is the founders. Loy Okezie and Francis Oghuma are two people who have been very active in the African cyberspace, building up a brand recognition both behind their names and companies.
Dukapress is a wordpress powered eCommerce system from the motherland. The start-up has not launched yet, but details and a screenshots has been released to the public via bloggers like Erik Hersman, who stated
DukaPress is a new customized WordPress eCommerce platform. It allows you to easily set up a fully featured online shop which can be used to sell digital or physical goods to customers all over the world.
I’ve been using WordPress for many years, and am a huge fan. When I saw DukaPress last week, I was at impressed to see that it was built locally in Nairobi,
Zinox Is A Nigerian Notebook Laptop Manufacturer With A Estimated 53% Local Market Share
Zinox is a Nigerian computer manufacturer which was founded about a decade ago. The company manufacturers a range of computers which are sold around the world, but their biggest market is Nigeria.
Zinox is strongest in the laptop market where it leads six other international brands, including HP, Acer, Toshiba, Dell, Lenovo and LG Electronics, with a 53.6% market share and a year-on-year growth of 799 per cent, while its closest competitor, HP, achieved a 23.6 per cent market share.
In 2005, just four years after launch, read more…
The “Big Boys” Of East African Tourism Are Getting More Into Something Called E-Tourism
There is an E-Tourism conference occuring in Nairobi, Kenya on the 2nd to 3rd of September. The conference will feature a number of international speakers from services such as Trip Advisor, Expedia and WAYN.com.
The event is also sponsored by a number of powerful East African companies such as Safaricom, one of the most influential companies on the Kenyan stock exchange and KCB a bank.
David Thuo the KCB Divisional Director Treasury, stated read more…
According to It News Africa the Kenyan government plans to put their schools online, to further enpower their students and to save costs on textbooks whilst avoiding scams occuring within the local education board. The move is still in the design stage, and features Microsoft as an influential partner.
The actual impact of the initiative is in question, since if the government was really serious they would probably implement the program independent of any corporation.
Speaking on the topic, East and South Africa Manager Microsoft Manager Mark Mutunga stated read more…
African Film Library is the largest online film database of African films. The service was created by the people behind DsTV the powerful South African based satellite TV company with influence in Africa.
At African Film Library you can traverse the trailers complete with synopsis and background information on over a hundred films which were created for and by people in the continent. The database features a number of very iconic films, like the work of Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene.
The website however does not contain all classic African films, like Neria my favourite Zimbabwean film or Sarafina, a powerful film about apartheid South Africa. They also included fewer Nollywood films than I would like.
Also they have for a year been stating that they will allow online movie rentals for a small fee, but so far nothing has surfaced. read more…
We recently rediscovered this footage of Paul Ndiho the journalist discussing an assembly plant built in Zambia. The mobile phone assembly plant was created in 2009 and made a few waves in local media since very little manufacturing is done in Africa, usually sourced to Asia.
The plant was an investment by a foreign firm in Africa, in this case M-Tech, something which usually does not happen. The most common type of foreign investment is either in the African mining sector or telecommunications sector.
The clip is below read more…
Sembuse is a Kenyan mobile application which aims to help local users save the amount of money they spend sending SMS messages. Sembuse v3 was launched by the Symbiotic media in 2009 and has since grown to become a reputable start-up in the Kenyan tech sector.
All you have to do to use Sembuse is download it onto your mobie handset. On their website are listed three methods
- You download the software from their mobile enabled website
- SMS the word freedeom to 2346
- Visit a Sembene agent in Kenya in the cities Nairobi, Kigali or Kampala read more…
Opinion Piece: I Apologize But Africans Need To Stop Depending On Other People And Innovate More
I do not know the reason, but in Africa there is a lot of dependency going on. The countries in the continent as a whole are so dependent on either Westerners or of Asians that if they ever decided to stop giving us aid, or visiting our tourist destinations the continent would literally go bankrupt.
South Africa is usually touted as the developed hub of Africa, but when you actually look at the reason South Africa is developed its not really because of the South Africans. The main reason South Africa is developed is because of Europeans and North Americans who feel more comfortable to invest and set up businesses in the country as an entry point to the African continent. A good example being Sony, De Beers, Virgin, Paypal and Starbucks who only have a presence in the South Africa and nowhere else in Africa. read more…
Yarnpad is a Twitter clone we found out about from Loy Okezie, who stated
With so much love for Twitter, yet another Twitter-clone has been launched on the micro-blogging space. This time, YarnPad! has emerged from Nigeria and lets you “see wetin people they yarn about“, that is, what people are talking about.
Founded by Deji Kadri and Victor Sylva, Yarnpad! is a real-time information network powered by people all around the world that lets you share and discover what’s happening now.
Launched in private beta in April 2010, and in public beta in May 2010, YarnPad! wants to help create a vibrant community of entrepreneurs, where people can bounce ideas, get feedback, and meet like- minded business people. read more…
Osita Nwoye the entrepreneur who helped found Onepage, a start-up which creates online business cards is back with a start-up called Lotaar with a co-founder named Roland Ukor. The start-up has yet not been launched, but the homepage states
Lotaar is a Television and Radio guide built for the social web. It is anchored on notifying users when their favorite programs are about to start
What is the problem Lotaar is trying to solve?
We are trying to solve problems for both broadcasters and their audience.
Loy Okezie who we get the story from read more…
Olusan Amusan created a slideshow for the SDRIN ICT e-Empowerment Summit 2010, which I hope that every African could get a chance to read. The topic discussed in the slide is the fact that Africa needs to innovate itself out of poverty. The way that Mr Olusan Amusan presented his argument is refreshing, even if patchy in some places.
We discovered the presentation thanks to twitter user arkeenlarjar, who according to his page is a software developer from Nigeria.
The Design Change At Gistcater The Nigerian Based Social Media Platform. Included Are The Before And After Pics
A few changes occured at Gistcaster social media platform, most notably the tweaking of the interface. The most distinct change are at the header and with the update button.
The changes are welcome since they seem to be part of Gistcatsers dedication to constant innovation, with the aim of hopefully giving us users a better experience on the website. read more…