In many African countries power cuts and poor access to the internet are common. But this is just one way of looking at the continent. Another way is to explore the dynamic and confident tech start-up scene brimming with creative ideas. Erik Hersman, technology blogger and co-founder of the internationally renown crowd-sourcing platform Ushahidi, is working to better connect African innovators. In Nairobi he founded iHub – a centre supporting a thriving technology community that has inspired more hubs across Africa.

On Twitter Hersman is known as @whiteafrican – he grew up in Kenya and Sudan and these days lives in Nairobi. If you’re looking into innovation in Africa you can’t go past Hersman. He’s an expert on the technology landscape of the continent – which is completely different to Europe or the USA. At the recent German internet conference, re:publica, Hersman presented the prototype of a mobile router designed to provide an internet connection even in remote and  difficult conditions. This battery powered device called BRCK can switch between ethernet, WiFi, and 3G or 4G mobile phone networks and allow up to 20 users to connect to the internet. DW Akademie’s Steffen Leidel caught up with Erik Hersman at re:publica in Berlin to talk about innovation in Africa.

read more

Stories featuring the growing number of tech hubs, start-ups and co-working spaces in Africa are very prominent across international media at the moment.

Below is a round up of recent articles. But first here’s something visual to get a picture of this trend.

read more

He uses the approach which others only study theoretically and call a future model of journalism. The Frenchman Francis Pisani is an entrepreneurial journalist. He prepared for his new self-funded journalistic project for eight months: a trip around the world in search of those places where the innovative ideas of the future come into being. Pisani lived in Silicon Valley for more than 15 years reporting on new technologies. However, the 69-year-old journalist is sure that innovations of the future will come from other places throughout the world. Since September 2011, he has visited more than 30 cities on five continents, from Mexico City to Recife, Brazil, from Accra and Nairobi to Cape Town in Africa, from Cairo to Beirut and Tel Aviv. He has been in Russia, India and Indonesia.

read more