i4Policy Task Force Meeting

i4Policy Task Force Meeting

After the convention of hubs organized last year by i4Policy, during which innovation community leaders from across Africa co-created the Africa Innovation Policy Manifesto, the first meeting of the Africa Innovation Policy Task Force took place at Impact Hub Kigali in Rwanda.  i4Policy is a pan-African movement gathering over 140 Innovation Hubs from 43 African countries. The 21 members of the Task Force include several GIG members: Sheila Birgen of iHub, Kenya; Markos Lemma of iceaddis, Ethiopia; and, Jaiksana Soro of Platform Africa, South Sudan & Uganda. Jon Stever of The Office & Impact Hub Kigali in Rwanda hosted the meeting and convened the task force as lead of the i4Policy secretariat. I was invited to take part in both the 2018 and 2019 events as an observer - and I did observe history in the making! https://twitter.com/i4policy/status/1127263908551692290 After three intense and long days of co-creation to update the Manifesto (one evening ended after 3am!), the Task Force presented a new outline of...
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Meeting your neighborhood friends, activists and makers – open:fora at r0g Agency

Meeting your neighborhood friends, activists and makers – open:fora at r0g Agency

Together with Open Source Ecology Germany e.V., and with the support of the Guerrilla Foundation and GIGgers in Berlin we from r0g Agency held our first open:fora 'street meet' … a rather spontaneous artistic and cultural action intended to complement the week of re:publica. At a time where we felt that cultural activism and open culture is being subverted by a growing political rejection of societal freedoms we ran a series of thematic events and cocktails bringing our friends and colleagues from the open tech and culture communities, artists and social activists together to zoom in on specific projects and stories we are working on. It was a great opportunity to meet new and old friends and get their feedback on new initiatives, such as the Migrant Media Network (MMN). Based on our #defyhatenow initiative in South Sudan, MMN, conceived by our colleague Thomas G. Kalunga, focuses on social media as a peacebuilding and migrant information system. Piloting with Ghanaian...
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GIG @ Communities & Technologies

GIG @ Communities & Technologies

The biennial Communities and Technologies (C&T) conference stimulates scholarly debate and is a prime venue to disseminate research on the complex connections between communities and information and communication technologies. #comtech2019 aimed to also connect academia and practitioners - an endeavor that GIG as a network and many members obviously relate and can contribute much to! Already in 2017, some GIGers participated in C&T in Troyes, as Oliver Stickel from Fablab Siegen had initiated a workshop around 3D printing and digital fabrication for education and the common good. This year’s C&T took place in Vienna from June 3rd till June 7th, and many GIG members participated in various roles. Regina Sipos and me organized the workshop Critical Making For and With Communities with the goal to facilitate and further exchange between researchers, practitioners and activists in the fields of critical making, social and digital innovation, participatory design, and community management. It was a very fruitful exchange between people working in...
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Field Ready launches a new makerspace in Iraq!

Field Ready launches a new makerspace in Iraq!

This month GIG member Field Ready announced the launch of a brand-new makerspace in Erbil, Kurdistan Region of Iraq! Field Ready: Erbil Makerspace will form part of a growing network of innovation and co-working spaces across Iraq. Supported by German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, it will give Field Ready’s existing Iraq program a well-equipped, permanent base to support work across the country. Based in Re:Coded House, a vibrant co-working space run by Re:Coded, a long-time associate of Field Ready, the makerspace will: - Run courses and events in ‘making’ related topics, - Offer an open space where members of Re:Coded House’s community can access physical resources and the support of staff to realize their own projects, or - Provide services to the public, business and NGOs who wish to develop and make products or host tailored training courses. The makerspace is equipped with 3D printers (plastic and rubber),...
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Calculative Making: The Fear of Failure in Kenya’s Makerspaces

Calculative Making: The Fear of Failure in Kenya’s Makerspaces

When I first entered a makerspace in Nairobi in 2016, I was surprised that most people were sitting in front of their computers. My imagination of a messy makerspace where everyone tinkers with 3D printers and materials to build clumsy prototypes was disenchanted. A makerspace is a collaborative workshop equipped with tools and machines to process various materials. Contrary to the origins of makerspaces in hacker and do-it-yourself cultures that are aimed at an anti-capitalist appropriation of mass-produced goods (Maxigas 2012), the contemporary global phenomenon of emerging makerspaces focuses predominantly on entrepreneurial workplaces providing access to digital fabrication machinery like laser cutters, Computer Numerical Control (CNC) machines, and 3D printers. Nairobi’s first makerspace – the epicenter of my three-year ethnographic research - joins the chorus of celebrating digital machinery for the development of cutting-edge prototypes to attract investment. On a state level, developing and innovating technology is seen as a path-breaking driver of national development in Kenya and as a historic moment for...
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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

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

‘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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Visiting the Cricket World Cup with 13 young cricketers from  Khayelitsha,Cape Town

Visiting the Cricket World Cup with 13 young cricketers from Khayelitsha,Cape Town

Part of my work is with the Gary Kirsten Foundation, a non-profit Sports Foundation which works in Khayelitsha, the largest township in Cape Town and one of its poorest areas. We build Cricket ecosystems with infrastructure and coaching for young players who have no other sport programmes to take part in. Starting in 2014, and without any starting capital, the Foundation committed to building one cricket facility and appointed a full-time coach. Five years later, and with sponsors and investors taking more notice all the time, the Foundation now operates from five schools in Khayelitsha and employs seven full-time coaches from the area. This year, we decided to take a team of young players to the sports’ biggest global tournament, ‘The Cricket World Cup’. At first, it seemed like an impossible dream, but after months of passport and birth certificate and Visa applications, fundraising, kit sourcing and branding and logistical planning, the GK Foundation World Cup Tour...
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African Digital Economy

African Digital Economy

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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Malian in Diaspora of the Year 2018

Malian in Diaspora of the Year 2018

On January 26, Youssouf Simbo Diakite, founder and CEO at African Diaspora Youth Forum in Europe (ADYFE) was awarded the Mali Entrepreneurship and Engagement Award in the category Malian in Diaspora of the Year 2018 – Best Achievement. Watch the ortm.ml news itemDownload Watch Youssouf Simbo Diakite interviewDownload Read more at maliactu.net/mali-4eme-edition-de-la-nuit-de-lentrepreneuriat-promouvoir-la-creation-demploi/ (French). In December 2018, Youssouf and his team at ADYFE organized the high-level forum 'Accelerated Africa Conference 2018 – from Entrepreneur to CEO: Channeling the power of the Diaspora : ...
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