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francispisani

AkiraChix - 0 views

shared by francispisani on 18 Aug 11 - Cached
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    This is a group for ladies with interest in Information Technology. Right now we are based in Kenya but we intend to spread our wings to all corners of the world. The aim of this forum is: to empower the gal tech community in Kenyato use the Akira Chix to reach out to other gals in community and encourage them to pursue careers in the field of technologyto integrate use of technology in solving life's problemsto facilitate collaboration and communication among the tech galzto inspire gals to be transformational leadersto enlighten the community on the technology sphereto motivate the gal community to continue in their technology development
francispisani

The Problem With Silicon Valley Is Itself - TNW Entrepreneur - 0 views

  • As a Brit who gave up cheerleading the European tech scene to make the pilgrimage to Silicon Valley to live, eat and breath the world’s leading hub for technology startup innovation, I’ve been largely unimpressed and disappointed by the quality of startups here.
  • there’s only two, out of two hundred, I think are game changers. Now, don’t get me wrong, Silicon Valley is an incredibly inspiring place to be. Everyone is doing something amazing and trying to change the world, but in reality much of the technology being built here is not changing the world at all, it’s short-sighted and designed for scalability, big exits and big profits.
  • I’ve come to the conclusion that entrepreneurship in the Valley has become productized
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  • It’s never about the technology or impact it’s having, it’s about the game of entrepreneurship; getting users, funding and exiting as quickly as you can.
  • From an investor’s perspective, it’s a clever model; you put a group of extremely talented and hard working graduates together, give them seed funding, keep them lean and they pivot until they get you a hit and you make your return. But I wonder if the model is counter productive, producing risk averse entrepreneurs who, if they follow the right procedure, are almost guaranteed success in the form of a talent acquisition or exit. Should this be what entrepreneurship is about? What happened to irreverence, thinking outside the box, wanting to make a difference in the long run?
  • the gold-rush mentality.
  • there is innovation happening around health care related startups
  • One of the reasons for lack of innovation in the Valley is that entrepreneurs are not exposed to enough real-world problems.
  • consumers in the USA clearly want to play Angry Birds, whereas in some African countries consumers are more likely to be searching for their nearest Malaria drugs clinic.
  • you wouldn’t even imagine
  • many entrepreneurs can’t get to the US because of visa issues
  • Startup Chile
  • There is one thing though, that continues to set Silicon Valley apart from every other technology hub on the planet and that’s access to finance.
  • But the funding landscape is changing due to the cost of innovation decreasing rapidly which means anyone with a laptop and a WiFi connection can get an idea off the ground for dirt cheap.
  • Geeks on a Plane
  • i/O ventures
  • more media should cover tech outside the Valley
francispisani

One African voice amongst a billion - 0 views

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    She is based in London
francispisani

Real Change Requires Politics - NYTimes.com - 0 views

  • Social entrepreneurs see problems much as economists see them: as simple inefficiencies. Sometimes, indeed, inefficiency alone is involved — for example, mushroom growers not having access to discarded coffee grounds. But in many other situations, the problem is politics, which is to say the clashing interests of people.
  • Many social entrepreneurs treat power as something to work around. They can be clearer in articulating what they are for than in stating what they oppose, and why. They often take the holes of the system as a given and do their best to plug the leaks.
  • Likewise, in poorer countries like India, social entrepreneurs address real needs — bringing solar lamps to villages, teaching women to weave shawls and connecting them to big-city markets. But the elites attracted to such projects are often less interested in combating the underlying structural problems. The villages need solar lamps because the government fails to bring electricity. The women must weave from home because their husbands forbid them to leave. These problems are not inefficiencies in need of smoothing. They are fights in need of picking. But picking fights is rarely the social entrepreneur’s way.
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  • The avoidance of politics by many social entrepreneurs would not matter if politics abounded in people as bright, sincere and intelligent as they. But it does not. Politics needs their verve and their drive, whether they serve in government itself or pick fights from the outside. It needs their spreadsheets, but it also demands their sense of battle. There is a case to be made for the importance of not being earnest.
  • http://anand.ly
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    Social entrepreneurs see problems much as economists see them: as simple inefficiencies. Sometimes, indeed, inefficiency alone is involved - for example, mushroom growers not having access to discarded coffee grounds. But in many other situations, the problem is politics, which is to say the clashing interests of people. Many social entrepreneurs treat power as something to work around. They can be clearer in articulating what they are for than in stating what they oppose, and why. They often take the holes of the system as a given and do their best to plug the leaks.
francispisani

Social media doing wonders for wool - National Rural News - Wool - General - Stock & Land - 0 views

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    The We Love Wool campaign, with its Facebook and Twitter pages, up to Tuesday this week had more than 14,000 followers since it began on June 1. Decked out in his grey wool sweater, Adrian is among more than 70 woollen garment wearers who have clicked on www.fashionbyfeelings.com to upload his "look" as part of a competition to win Sydney airfares, accommodation, a $3000 gift card and other prizes.
francispisani

Africa Social Networking/Social Media Pulse Check | Afrinnovator - 0 views

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    Africans are active participants in the social media industry, here are a few examples: Motribe - This South African company enables you to create your own mobile social network with speed and ease and offers you great social tools to power your mobile social network MXit - A South Africa-based mobile social network. Over 27 million registered users, adding over 40,000 every day. Check out this cool infographic about MXit Adloopz - An innovative Nigerian startup that puts a social twist to advertising on the internet Personera - Personera lets you create custom artifacts from your content on social networking sites like Facebook Nikohapa - A Kenyan startup that offers Foursquare-like checkins made simple and that reward you with discounts for checking in to partner stores Ushahidi - Crowdsources information using multiple channels including social networking platforms like Twitter  Swift River - An Ushahidi project that adds super data processing to data coming from sources of unstructured information such as a twitter feed Zoopy - Another South African company that focuses on mobile video ForgetMeNot Africa: bridges the huge gap between the internet and mobile messaging worlds allowing any mobile phone to send and receive email and chat message on any carriers network. Quirk eMarketing - A digital marketing agency that also helps companies make use of social media for great results. Quirk has also spawned other cool companies in social media such as BrandsEye that creates great tools for online reputation management and crowdsourcing company IdeaBounty. And as far as group buying is concerned, Groupon has inspired many an African groupon clone. There are numerous African companies playing in this area - Rupu and Zetu in Kenya, DealDey in Nigeria, and a whole lot of others in South Africa
francispisani

http://www.africanbrains.net/2011/02/28/will-ict-make-kenya-africas-silicon-valley/ - 0 views

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    Kenya is on the brink of becoming Africa's ICT hub due to the continued growth in Internet and mobile technology use in East Africa's biggest economy with investors flooding the country.
francispisani

Africa's Best Tech Startups: Njorku.com - Mfonobong Nsehe - The Africa Chronicles - Forbes - 0 views

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    Mambe Nanje is the founder of Njorku.com- a fast growing job search engine and aggregator that helps thousands of African job-seekers find employment opportunities in locations nearest to them. It's something like Google, but exclusively for African job seekers. The service went live on in late March, and within four months, Njorku is already attracting more than 5,000 unique users per week, a brilliant performance by Cameroonian standards.
francispisani

Sinan Khatib: The key to success in the Middle East? Localization. - TNW Middle East - 0 views

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    Localization of an e-commerce site goes much further than just dealing with customers and payment methods. "In the US, local merchants are unsophisticated, you can't imagine how unsophisticated they are in the third world. With all due respect, it's rough. You're not dealing with the most cutting edge people in the world. They're old school. You have to know the dynamic of the local merchant. Every local merchant has a different psychology - how much can you push and pull, how in touch are they with new modern ways of doing business." Dealing with local merchants has been an educational experience, for all involved. Offerna has been playing a significant role in giving merchants new and dynamic ways of dealing with their customers, and in the process, building a loyal consumer base.
francispisani

The Global Innovation Interest Index - Haydn Shaughnessy and Nick Vitalari - Research -... - 0 views

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    How interested are people in innovation - and how does that change cross-culturally? What do users across the world really want, how can we uncover and design for their unmet needs, and what services can we attach to products to stay close to our customers? We've found that these questions point to a new need for innovative cultures in the world today (distinct from innovative companies).
francispisani

How Mobile Phones Are Saving Lives in the Developing World - 0 views

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    Read on for two promising startups that are equipping health care workers in developing nations with souped-up cellphones, and helping them treat more patients, faster.
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