Silicon Savannah

AOk. Google's selection of Nairobi for its Africa office as "Nairobi’s highest-profile validation"

Google opened a development office in Nairobi in September 2007 which the author labels as "Nairobi’s highest-profile validation".

The article includes a...Read more

MACRO: What laws and economic drivers produce (or undercut) qualitative data infrastructure, access, work and capacity in this setting?

Zachary, G. P. (2008, July 20). Inside Nairobi, the Next Palo Alto? The New York Times.

Analytics Across Scales and Systems: Qualitative Data Capacity

Nzekwe, H. (2020, August 17). Kenya Hunts Foreign-Owned Tech Startups With 30% Local Ownership Law. Wee Tracker.

This blog post builds on ongoing discussions in the Nairobi tech space where race-based privilege is being increasingly articulated to describe the unequal playing ground that black Kenyan founders and white expatriate founders face when looking for start-up capital. This post focuses on the 30...Read more

Friederici, N., Wahome, M., & Graham, M. (2020). Digital Entrepreneurship in Africa: How a Continent Is Escaping Silicon Valley’s Long Shadow. The MIT Press.

AO: This recent Open Access monograph publication by Friederici et al. is particularly relevant for the macro and nano chapters in that they describe Nairobi's technology ecosystem and the entrepreneurs who work...Read more

Okolloh, O. (2017, July 11). No Sacred Cows. Medium.

This brief Medium post was written by an influential leader in the Nairobi tech space, Ory Okolloh, who was a former co-founder of Ushahidi. In the post, she raises several points including that "we as a tech community must examine the series of events that led us to a point where an...Read more

Learning from Nairobi

Something Kim said - about Nairobi being an important site to learn from given that many in the US may be forced to go into the more informal economy, etc. - reminded me of a twist of that point...Read more

How is “Nairobi”, “Kenya”, and/or “Africa” invoked when data (sharing) is mentioned?

2020_SEPT_24 WRITING MEETING_Transcript

Thematic Analysis: Qual Open Data

Strachan Matranga, H., Bhattacharyya, B., & Baird, R. (2017). Breaking the Pattern: Getting Digital Financial Services Entrepreneurs to Scale in India and East Africa. Village Capital.

AO: This 2017 report has been particularly influential in the Kenyan technology space and continues to be cited in conversations regarding race, tech capital and privilege. The key finding that created a big buzz and is primarily what is referred to when people mention "The Village Capital...Read more

AOk. Nairobi "as a test-bed for tomorrow’s technologies"

This quote touches on what becomes heavily popularized discourse in the early days of the iHub (~2010-2013) that because of the numerous limitations present in the everyday lived experiences...Read more

META: What discourses shape the way people in this setting talk about and conceptualize qualitative data infrastructure and capacity, right-to-know, freedom of information, the potential of expanded public participation, and so on?

Zachary, G. P. (2008, July 20). Inside Nairobi, the Next Palo Alto? The New York Times.

Analytics Across Scales and Systems: Qualitative Data Capacity

AOk. "Kenya's love for IT has earned it the nickname Silicon Savanna"

AO: This article proposes that Nairobi's nickname of "Silicon Savanna" stems from "Kenya's love for IT." The author then goes on to suggest that the moniker "neatly...Read more

META: What discourses shape the way people in this setting talk about and conceptualize qualitative data infrastructure and capacity, right-to-know, freedom of information, the potential of expanded public participation, and so on?

Perry, A. (2011, June 30). Silicon Savanna: Mobile Phones Transform Africa. Time.

Analytics Across Scales and Systems: Qualitative Data Capacity

Kabari, A. (2019, January 7). Don’t raise your voice here. Medium.

This is the public post published in July 20, 2017 by Angela Kabari, the woman who went public with the allegation of sexual harassment against the Ushahidi Executive Director. The post includes detailed documentation including a transcript of the sexual harassment and her statement on the...Read more

Perry, A. (2011, June 30). Silicon Savanna: Mobile Phones Transform Africa. Time.

AO: This article was written about the iHub in its "early days" and was one of the first big mainstream articles about it. I remember my manager at the iHub was very excited about it and on my trip to the US before I officially started my job, I picked up a couple of nice frames from IKEA so...Read more

Tarnoff, Ben. 2017. “Tech’s Push to Teach Coding Isn’t about Kids’ Success – It’s about Cutting Wages.” The Guardian, September 21, 2017, sec. Technology.

AO: This is an important article to read together with much of the mainstream discourse about African techies and the proliferation of new programs to train them (e.g. "Africa is the future of AI Research").Read more

AOk. Skunkworks and other dev community groups circa 2008.

This article from 2008 mentions one of the early tech community groups, Skunkworks. The Skunkworks community was a precursor to many who ended up getting involved in setting up the iHub including...Read more

MESO: What groups, networks and publics are implicated in qualitative data infrastructure, work, governance and capacity in this setting? What data and visualizations of these groups and networks are available?

Zachary, G. P. (2008, July 20). Inside Nairobi, the Next Palo Alto? The New York Times.

Analytics Across Scales and Systems: Qualitative Data Capacity

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