A Colaboradora: Fostering creativity and collaboration through the principles of self-management, care and social currency

A Colaboradora: Fostering creativity and collaboration through the principles of self-management, care and social currency

By Theresa FendNo Comments
Last April Procomum Institute launched the new edition of the A Colaboradora (The Collaborator) programme. The Collaborator is a collaborative platform that brings together a collective work environment and a free school. Created by the Procomum Institute, it is inspired by the project "La Colaboradora", a program of the social innovation ecosystem Zaragoza Activa, in Spain. During the process, 25 young social entrepreneurs who carry out projects in the creative sectors, such as visual arts, music, theater, dance, circus, opera, publishing, literature, audiovisual, design, fashion, gastronomy, architecture, software, games, handicrafts, festivals, museums , libraries and the integrated arts, were selected, focusing especially on women, lgbtqi, indigenous people and Afro-Brazilians. The group will be with Procomum for one year, working through a mixed methodology of education, incubation and exchange programs. In 2019 the project is being realized in partnership with three British organizations: Haarlem Artspace, Junction Arts and Advantage Creative and has support from the British Council. Now the...
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Edukits: Merging 3D Printing and Education

Edukits: Merging 3D Printing and Education

By Theresa FendNo Comments
‘Education is the most powerful tool that can be used to change the world’ — Nelson Mandela The Bridge the Gap training program is an ongoing initiative that was started by Kumasi Hive in partnership with GIZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit), Innovation Factory and e- skills for Girls. The Bridge the Gap program addresses the issue of the gender gap in the technology space. The program trained 60 girls in web development and 3D printing in the first phase, which lasted for one month. We are currently implementing the second phase of the program: the business incubation and internship phase. In this cycle, 10 selected teams are being introduced to global perspectives on leadership and entrepreneurship, the world of business and design, issues that may arise in terms of user experience and how to resolve such problems. They have been provided with the tools and a makerspace where these teams are designing and building prototypes of their products. This week, we are focusing on one of the teams, Edukits,...
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African Digital Economy

African Digital Economy

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Ampion and Plutos Ventures launch new venture for Africa-focused start-ups Focus of the new venture – on site development of digital business models Call for Applications from founders and start-ups with an Africa focus start now! Nairobi & Berlin, 12.03.19 - Africa-focused Ampion and Berlin-based Plutos Ventures Holding today announced the founding of Ampion Ventures. The goal of the new project is to build scalable digital business models in selected African countries by providing seed capital and strategic expertise support. Plutos Venture provides continuous and open-ended funding to Ampion Ventures. Ampion Ventures is led by Fabian-Carlos Guhl, founder of the non-profit organization Ampion.org. Guhl has been working for years on the African continent with founders and early-stage start-ups. Through his very successful start-up bus, with which he has travelled through more than 16 African countries and coached and supported founders in the development of digital business models, Guhl has been able to build up a large network of founders and start-ups in different African countries. Together with Plutos, Ampion is now taking the next logical step to...
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GOSH, GIG!

GOSH, GIG!

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Anna, Saad, Alex, and Jorge joined this year's edition of the Gathering for Open Science Hardware in Shenzhen. China's booming hardware city was the perfect place for workshops, fruitful discussions and foundation of new collaborations from people all around the globe. Saad and Alex hosted a workshop about microbial fuel cells and discussed with the community how this technology can be further advanced in future. Anna hosted a session on distributed manufacturing and is part of a team documenting open hardware business models - she would love to hear from any GIGgers with suggestions of ones to look at. Jorge (who arrived late so missed the photo, therefore was photoshopped in) was leading discussions on AfricaOSH which will move from Kumasi to Tanzania for next year. We think that GOSH’s aims of making Science Hardware open and accessible to all are very complementary to the GIG ideals; would you agree? One of many highlights for me at #GOSH2018 building particle detectors...
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African born 3D printing in Greece

African born 3D printing in Greece

By Zen EditorNo Comments
For the past few weeks our [AB3D Kenya] team was in Athens, Greece working with MIT’s d-lab and a local NGO Faros as we trained unaccompanied refugee minors to build their capacity through teaching them relevant hands-on and digital skills. ...
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GreenFingers Mobile digitizes farming

GreenFingers Mobile digitizes farming

By Zen Editor1 Comment
Hi all! We provide access to market and finance for smallholder farmers through a digital solution that replaces pen and paper farmer management systems. Shifting from Paper to Digital GreenFingers Mobile is a mobile first Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) technology platform, to manage and finance large groups of smallholder farmers. Developed by a team of agricultural value chain experts, the platform easily adapts to different crop types and use cases. For more information or to get involved contact [email protected] and visit our website at greenfingersmobile.com....
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Human Networks Festival

Human Networks Festival

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Last week the Human Networks Convergence took place in Barcelona, Spain.  The Human Networks Convergence was a three day gathering of 30 network connectors representing 16 different international networks experimenting with alternative models and ways of organising to tackle systemic challenges. Theresa Fend participated to represent GIG. The purpose of the Convergence was to test whether a shared event, such as a co-designed Human Networks Festival, could provide a container for our networks to share our learnings and practices with the wider world as a means for being greater than the sum of our networks. In the upcoming weeks the working groups will share their insights and next steps in the form of Medium articles and a joint publication....
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Technology Not For Her?

Technology Not For Her?

By Zen EditorNo Comments
Originally published at webfoundation.org/.../, this guest post was written by Eva Yayi Mawa, Co-Founder of the GoGirls-ICT Initiative and Lecturer at the University of Juba. She is part of the Global Innovation Gathering, a diverse community of innovation hubs, makerspaces, hackerspaces and other grassroot innovation community spaces and initiatives as well as individual innovators, makers, technologists and changemakers.   When I was growing up, one of my half-brothers was not happy that my dad was spending money to send a girl to school; his argument was that one day I would get married and all the money spent on me would be a waste since I was going to benefit my husband’s family and not my dad. This kind of stereotype has been attached to many women across the globe — and especially in my country, South Sudan. As a result, many women in my country are being left behind when it comes to education and opportunities for establishing a career and independence. Pursuing my Computer...
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#SenStartupAct and the Dakar Policy Hackathon

#SenStartupAct and the Dakar Policy Hackathon

By Zen EditorNo Comments
The Dakar Policy Hackathon brought together more than sixty key players in the entrepreneurial ecosystem at Impact Dakar with the goal of developing a Start-Up Act. All stakeholders in the ecosystem have been mobilized to share different proposals to improve the business environment and equip themselves with startup-friendly legislation and regulations to support entrepreneurship and innovation and to respond to global challenges of the world. Read the event report (French). The opportunity for entrepreneurs, innovators and ecosystem enablers to contribute and gave input into policy formulation is a critical and progressive for policy makers and governments as major stakeholders are coming up with effective and inclusive policies that create enabling environment for business development and entrepreneurship. This is what i4Policy helps to deliver, enabling all and empowering all. ...
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