Archive Page 2
1 year on: His Faithfulness
One year and a few days on, we removed our ‘anniversary’ cake from the depths of the freezer, and let it defrost for about 12 hours 
One year has flown and we are grateful to Yahweh for his faithfulness in taking us through it.
Filed under: Me | 2 Comments
iHUB: Motivation
Skunkworks was conceived with the idea of bring together Nairobi (and Kenyan) techies together and really kicked off in early 2007. From the onset we had the idea of having a central location where guys could come in and utilize fast internet, access local servers to test out their applications while bouncing off ideas with each other. The goal was to create an environment where (hopefully) cool world class products could be developed and sustained. There are many great developers around but many complain about access to bandwidth and servers. In addition to this, many business people looking for software are sometimes at a loss when it comes to tracking down good developers. The iHUB will be the place to be for all these people.
iHUB is a realization of this, and I’m really excited about what will be happening after the March 3 launch. It is quite an experiment, and the iHUB advisors admittedly do not have all the answers to some of the questions being posed by many. However it is worth doing, and I guess learning shall be done as it evolves.
There is loads of widespread support coming in for this, meaning that the local tech community has been yearning for such a space as this. However the iHUB is just but a small cog in the wheel that will drive Nairobi (or will it be Malili?) towards being the Silicon Valley of Africa.
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Visit & mark this in your readers – http://www.ihub.co.ke and keep up to date with the latest on the iHUB.
There’s also a design contest on for the iHUB logo which has a $500 price tag so do not miss out on that!
Filed under: Technology, kenya | 2 Comments
Crowdsourcing: Haiti Earthquake
In the aftermath of the Earthquake in Haiti, an instance of Ushahidi’s engine is now at http://haiti.ushahidi.com. If you happen to know anyone there, please let them know about this.
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Impunity – Uta do wot?
This is a one way turning – It is only legal to turn left into the side road.
If the cops do it (I doubt it was an ‘emergency situation):
So can we:
Filed under: kenya | Leave a Comment
African Pixel (AP) has recently launched its first product for the iPhone – iScribe.
iScribe brings old school journaling to the new age of mobility and the internet. Making it simple to capture life’s moments in a fun way and on the move. You don’t have to wait to get back home to record the experience. You can capture it as it happens – in text, voice, images and video! Get all aspects of your experience as it happens!
AP’s founder Wilfred Mworia is no stranger to software development, particularly mobile applications having worked on various platforms previously. AP’s focus is on smartphone apps, primarily on the iPhone, Symbian and Android platforms.
The world is going mobile and phones are becoming more and more sophisticated (and relatively affordable), and AP look to be well positioned to take advantage of this.
Get iScribe from the iTunes store for only $1.99.
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Fuel Statistics
I enjoy keeping records; they reveal so much, especially over longer periods of time.
Since Sept 2007, Kenya fuel prices per litre have averaged KSh 85.45 (~ 1.13 US$) with a maximum of KSh 108.9 (~ 1.436 US$) and a minimum of KSh 71.9 (~ 0.95 US$). Looks like prices are headed back up, and that means essential commodities will get affected.
There’s several mobile utilities one can use to monitor fuel consumption, but I like Mileage on android.
I have just noted that I spent KSh 144418.12 (~1904 US$) on fuel in 2009…
How much did it cost you to travel last year?
Filed under: Travel, finance | Leave a Comment
Strathmore University hosted an open session where a few interesting projects done by people around the skunkworks community got presented.
Sir Tim Berners-Lee (who by the way invented the WWW) was the chief guest.
Among the projects were:
- pesapal done by Liko Agosta – Verviant
- jahazi done by Mugambi – VST
- iScribe + Afrinnovator by Wilfred Mworia – African Pixel
- ushahidi by Emmanuel Kala
- sembuse by Mbugua Njihia – Symbiotic
- website.co.ke by Gichingiri – sokoletu
Sir Tim Berners-Lee gave us a brief background on how life was before the WWW. It is hard to imagine working without it in our times.
He also had some thoughts on where the web is going: web on the mobile, more web based apps using advances such as HTML5, geo-location etc.
A main concern for him and many others was how the WWW would be accessible for those living on less than a dollar. He mentioned the WWW Foundation which he had launched at the IGF in Egypt earlier in the week.
We hopefully will have more events like this next year.
Filed under: Internet, Technology, kenya | Leave a Comment
Tags: Internet, www
Professional Farmer?
A good friend of mine, let’s call him Farmer K, has ventured into vegetable farming and I got to look at his project this past weekend. On about an eighth of an acre, he has put up a green house and has planted about 2000 tomato plants complete with drip irrigation, as well as about 700 capsicum.
Many young people and professionals are not too interested in where their food comes from, as long as they are able to buy it. Such a venture as Farmer K’s is a departure from the norm, especially since Farmer K’s day time job is in technology, and not related to agriculture. Perhaps at some point in the not too distant future we shall see him employing high tech systems within his (hopefully) much larger farms.
From his projections which I got to look at, the returns on investments are not too bad, not to mention that farming can be relaxing when one is used to the hectic city life.
A template to follow perhaps in the very near future…
Filed under: Farming, kenya | 1 Comment
Phillip M. Verges – Founder & CEO of New Market Technology Inc had some interesting thoughts on fund raising as well as the unique position that Kenya, and Africa at large has as an emerging market.
- Investors are not investing in your success (I have never looked at startup funding from this point of view but it rings true). The Venture Capitalist (VC) just needs to take the startup to the Initial Public Offering (IPO) to make money.
- Investors are only interested in financial milestones and not your long term success, so when pitching focus 10 minutes on your vision, and 20 minutes on how and when the investor will make his money.
Some fund raising myths:
- Long Term Investments – Investors are only interested in financial milestones
- Partner for Success – Investors can make money even when the start up is not enjoying success
- Cash flow positive – investors can make money whether it is positive or red
- Internal Rate of Return – investors are more interested in their rate of return
On Milestone Fund raising, from research:
- Less than 40% of start ups are sustainable for more than three years
- The fourth time is usually the attempt that tends to be successful for start ups
- Milestones are needed along the way
- Fund these milestones
He suggested that it is more prudent to raise funds for the next milestone – e.g. funds for a pilot of a product or service, as opposed to funds for the entire roll out at once.
He also mentioned that they are looking at local companies that they can work with. Interesting times indeed.
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I didn’t get the last bit of the seminar as I had to leave.
Great times indeed for those with good ideas and are willing to give a shot at bringing them to fruition!
This seminar was facilitated by the ICT Board – Much appreciated
Filed under: Technology, kenya | Leave a Comment
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