An Interview With TMS Ruge, Entrepreneur And Co-Founder Of Project Diaspora
We recently caught up with TMS Ruge, a blogger and social activist who co-founded Project Diaspora, a blog which profiles the African Diaspora community.
The team of Project Diaspora have made informed use of social media to promote their ideas and brand.
TMS Ruge was also involved is creating a platform called Women Of Kireka; a project to help a group of poor women in Uganda, get a market for their arts and crafts.
The interview is below
TechMasai: As someone very active in the African blogosphere, what is your experience with starting an online 
brand, and the use of social media to market your ideas
TMS Ruge: I think one of the key elements to starting an online brand or any brand in this day and edge is that you have to be active in the space. Meaning you just can’t build it and they will come. In the brick and mortar world, if you start a business, but don’t put a sign on the door or advertise, no one will know you exist. The same for online entities, the difference is that your content sells. Social media is the new engagement tool. It allows you to not only have a presence but also provides you the ability to engage one on one with your audience. You can foster immediate direct relationships that then spider out into a much much bigger audience. Your content has to be relevant, your content has to engage.
At Project Diaspora, it’s been a very organic growth in terms of carving out our niche in the digital space, and especially in terms of all things Africa. We owe a lot of our success and progress through the relationships we’ve made through social media. Our various projects have benefitted directly from those relationships.
TechMasai: What is the state of the technology sector in Africa at the present moment
TMS Ruge: I think “nascent flux” would be the optimal phrase to use in terms of the state of technology sector in Africa. There is so much going on, and not enough going on at the same time. It’s hard to quantify all the activity. It wouldn’t be appropriate. When you are looking at an addressable market of 1 billion people spread out over 53 countries, there’s a tremendous amount of innovation hidden in that mass of talent.
We are only now starting to see spikes of wonderful technological innovations with the potential for global impact; William Kamkwanda’s windmill in Malawi, Ushahidi, mobile payment innovations in Kenya, mobile social media in South Africa. Don’t forget about the various tech hubs springing up in Uganda, Kenya, Cameroon, Senegal and South Africa.
TechMasai: What are the problems that hinder development and innovation, and how can we overcome them
TMS Ruge: Various. After all, TIA. Everything from overhauling colonial-era education systems still in use today to political will, to financial support, to having to weigh the option of living to survive or suffering for the sake of the innovation. And connectivity notwithstanding. We face it all on this continent. But I think innovation truly is the absence of viable options. So, amid all these problems, we are starting to see the great minds. Kamkwanda’s wind mill served a crucial purpose, Ushahidi was born out the ashes of an imploding nation, Julius’s ‘Status.ug’ being developed at Appfrica Labs in Uganda solves several connectivity issues…. the list goes on.
The innovation hubs that are springing up will provide somewhat of a stable environment for even more ideas to come to fruition. We need more of these centers. More importantly we need governments and leaders that ‘get it’! Kagame gets it! Rwanda’s significant ICT push should be replicated across all 53 African states. The landscape is very much in flux, but it’s still early with a lot of work to do and being done.
TechMasai: As someone very active in unifying the voice of the African diaspora, what contribution or role do they have in the development of Africa.
Aside from their financial contributions, I think knowledge in every sector is very crucial. The reasporification of the African Diaspora is also in a state of nascent flux. So the future looks really good, as we begin to reverse the brain drain. More of our human capital is coming back from the West with chest-fulls of sector-specific expertise that we need to tap into for development. Many of the founders of Ushahidi are were diaspora at the time. We need more contributions like this and they are everywhere!
TechMasai: What social or political stance can be taken to help push for development, whilst coming out as avidly non-political.
Development is never a political topic. It’s only made so if the authenticity of your political agenda dependent on it. There has to be cohesive political will, muscle, and financial support in order for real development to happen. Political infighting is a sure way to derail any progress. If you can’t get the politicians to see the big picture and focus all their muscle on just that one thing, then you can’t really do development, you can only talk, and wave the shovel around… but at the end of the day, no dirt gets moved.
I’d like to see a political culture of “this is what I have done” instead of “this is what I will do.” Promises are political candy. You can give them out and make everyone happy on the way to the office, but then you have to do something while you are there. You don’t build nations on promises, but you do build empires on results.
