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Archive of entries posted on January 2011
Last week 1%CLUB founder Anna Chojnacka was one of the speakers at ‘Student Entrepreneurs Amsterdam‘ (‘Ondernemerscafé 020′) to tell and inspire with her story about 1%CLUB.
Below you”l find the registration of her presentation. Production of the video by Talk & Do TV, an initiative by Edo van Santen. The presentation is in Dutch.
Open for Change is a platform for exchanging knowledge about development (happening on the web) in order to support new and existing projects in the philanthropic or Development Aid sector.
It is all about open data, sharing knowledge and developing standards to do so.
We are looking for a great design that matches the Open for Change concept. Will you be up for the challenge?
Requirements
The platform is an initiative of Dutch organizations: representatives of AKVO, 1%CLUB, TexttoChange, Africanews, Global Village Media, Nabuur, Hivos, Oxfam Novib, Butterfly Works, Pif World and Partos.
We would like the logo/identity to express that:
- it is a platform/network (many parties are involved and we would like to make more connections, also international cooperation)
- it is a transparent, honest platform/network and open for everyone
- it is a platform/network that focuses on the use of internet technology within the development aid sector
- it is a platform that pleads for innovation, change, renewing
- it is a platform that stimulates sharing experiences, information, knowledge and technology.
- we would appreciate if we could use the logo (or part of it) as a stamp, like Apple has
- please be aware that we don’t want a traditional look and feel that has been used in the development aid sector, like globes and green
Check out 99designs.com for the complete briefing and maybe your design will become our new visual identity!
Image credits: w3.org (image)
Update: the Open for Change website is now live!
African countries provide a great place for IT-investments! More than 1 billion people populate this continent, whilst IT infrastructure is arriving and improving, and prices are dropping.
So it is not surprising that IT companies are entering the African market. What does the presence of these companies mean for the development of African countries? Does it offer new perspectives? And what are the motives for these companies to come to African states?
The 8th edition of Fill The Gap!, organized by Hivos and IICD, was entirely dedicated to the presence of foreign and local IT-companies in African countries (check out the Fill The Gap website and #ftg8 on Twitter).
 Estelle Akofio-Sowah (Country Lead Google Ghana) and Kamal Badhabhatti (CEO Craft Silicon) travelled from Ghana and Kenia to share their experiences on IT companies in Africa, the entrepreneur climate and the impact of ICT on society in African countries.
As Estelle states: “Access to information is a right!” Mobile telephones and the Internet will provide many opportunities for African countries to make use of and contribute to global information networks. Since, unsurprisingly, people in Ghana will use the IT facilities for the same interests as people in Europe do. The popular topics people search for on the internet are no different: ‘Yahoo, Opera, World Cup, Facebook, Skype, Ipad, Ghana, love’.
 Try to use the popular Pan-African Q&A side Baraza once, which will answer all your questions, such as: ‘What was the South Sudan territory as envisioned by Dr. John Ngarang?’, but also: ‘Why do people ask seemingly obvious questions on Google Baraza?’
Of course there are still many challenges to face, but as a positive Estelle concludes: “We are so blessed that God gave us patience in Africa”. The IT-sector will help Africa work towards a knowledge-based-economy!
Fotocredits:
Estelle Akofio-Sowah: Fill the Gap
Kamal Badhabhatti: Fill the Gap
Stage: @brutuz
Thanks to Google Alerts I discovered that 1%CLUB was listed in Frank Barry‘s blogpost ‘9 Social Media for Social Good Sites You Should know About‘
Read Frank’s introduction, I can’t agree more:
 It’s amazing to watch technology evolve. Think about it for a second. Ten years ago there was no Facebook, Twitter or YouTube. But now over 300 million people log-in to Facebook daily, Twitter supports over 50 million tweets per day, and 2 billion videos are watched every day on YouTube. Amazing stuff.
This is a very good sign for the non-profit world. Why? Well, because the non-profit sector is built on human connectedness, relationships, passion and the desire to create positive change in the world. All this innovation birthed a new type of website – one that’s not driven by a specific non-profit, but is focused on individual people and their online networks.
These new websites enable people to support the causes they’re passionate about and connect with like minded individuals – inspiring further interaction, engagement and support. Social media for social good is grassroots organizing, fundraising and impact in the digital world.
Check out the blog right here and leave your comments!
Image by Dustin Diaz
When thinking about Africa’s future (which few people really do), one is easily lost in a maze of great ideas, contradictions, inspiring pioneers, disenchanting news reports and ridiculously low quality data. Jasper Grosskurth of STT spent 3 years exploring ‘Futures of Technology in Africa’ on a quest to understand the continent’s next two decades.
The resulting book contains lots of insider knowledge, ICT and energy data, insights into future opportunities and risks, future scenarios, a chapter about learning from Africa, a science fiction short story, and much more. You’ll find the book (PDF) right here.
Africa’s ICT future begins with the mobile phone. The 450 million units in use today are the cornerstones of Africa’s first ever pan-continental infrastructure, reliably and affordably connecting all corners, urban and rural. Internet will follow suit, and so will mobile money (pay and/or earn anywhere anytime) and geo-location services (navigation, tracking & tracing, …).
As a consequence, the transaction costs for any type of data (voice, image, video, prices, locations, account information, weather data, code,…) are dropping from outrageous to global average. Business economics 101 teaches us, that lower transaction costs mean more business opportunities for everybody. Read Jasper’s book (PDF) to add insights about changes in other fields, such as energy, infrastructure and agriculture taking place over the next 20 years and your head should start spinning.
All this has an impact on what 1% of time or money can do. First of all, less of anyone’s 1% input is lost in transaction. Money reaches its destination quicker, information is exchanged more efficiently, increasingly complex projects can be tackled through digital and social networks. And 1% really can make a difference.
However, as the amount of entrepreneurship – for profit or not – in Africa grows, 1% will make less and less of a difference. When skills levels, access to information, the sophistication of African economies and the Cheetah generation grow, the added value of the 1% contributions will drop. With some luck, they will continue to drop to a level, where we see a global 1% community funding each other’s great projects.
1% of Kenyan money and skills will then help a cool idea in Amsterdam to move from idea to reality as much as the other way round…
Contribution by Jasper Grosskurth
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