User:Jongos/Barcamp Africa

Barcamp Africa was originally an event that was held on October 11, 2008 in Mountain View, CA at GooglePlex. The event was conceived to build the connections between people and opportunities in Silicon Valley and Africa. With the help of sponsorship from Google.org, five attendees from outside of the United States were able to participate, whose efforts ranged from education to conservation and web development. A number of sponsors and individual participants contributed generously, including Humanity United.

Organizers
Ellen Petry Leanse, Kaushal Jhalla, Joshua Goldstein, Katy Bacon

Presenters
Matthew Stepka (Google), Andrew McLaughlin (Google), David Kobia (Ushahidi), Guy Kawasaki, Jerry Michalski, Jon Gosier (Appfrica), Martin Fisher (Kickstart)

Major Themes and Discussions
Barcamp Africa contributed to the Africa: Open for Business narrative that gained prominence at TED Global and at the 2008 BarCamps held in Nairobi, Kampala, Mauritius, Madagascar, Uganda and Johannesburg. Throughout the day, discussions of laptop distribution models were followed by conversations on the state of democracy on the continent, and talk of the future of mobile payments was followed by insights on mobile solutions for human rights monitoring. The phrase and the idea of a reaspora was also popular, referring to people of the African diaspora who had migrated away from the continent only to return with the educations and wealth they've acquired in other countries.

Outcome and Results
There were several direct results resulting from Barcamp Africa. Reaspora.com was founded as a web destination focused on resources, connections and support for African expatriates interested in re-connecting with the continent. SquibWib a web-based educational platform that allows a mentor and a student in different places to meet online and read together as if they were in the same room, was launched. Afridex was established as the first steps of consolidating pan-African tech content. The African blogger conference Kelele was announced as an annual conference that will move between African countries and cities each year.