Power of Information Conference (15th September, 2011 - London)

My presentation at the Power of Information: New Technologies for Philanthropy and Development conference. This conference was co-hosted by the Indigo Trust, Omidyar Network and Institute for Philanthropy. In this video, i explain how the Hub is fostering innovation and enterprise in Nigeria.

Techloy vs. Google

@techloy

I don't particularly subscribe to your conspiracy theory that Google is in the game to knock out local developers as i have been privileged to meet the target audience of their GNBO at a Pan African University conference. They are largely microenterprises and small businesses that won't pay decent fees (if any at all) to developers to get a website done.

To the contrary, i think Google's move would actually help spur growth in the uptake as more small businesses will gain knowledge and support to make the move. Remember Google won't give real customised support to these businesses as they will largely be riding on templates...hence some of the businesses will actually grow to require more sophisticated platforms which only local developers can provide.

Google's intervention i see more as a market development investment which the larger ecosystem can benefit from. I wonder which other stakeholders out there will consider this investment worthwhile. There is no doubt Google will also benefit from this...more Nigerian businesses online implies growth in the size of their potential market for ads, quality of search results and much more. In the end however, a competitive local tech ecosystem will benefit all and sundry.

I can imagine the basis for your outcry but i don't really believe its a threat. Let's be conscious of what we can learn from the presence of these players in the market to raise our game. Other countries are tactically building their markets while leveraging resources and expertise the big players bring.

We need more Harambe spirit behind the message we send out there as this is the only way we can garner proper knowledge partnerships needed to strengthen our offerings as a market.


'Bosun Tijani

Nigeria's First Open Innovation Hub is Here (CcHUB)!!!

Right in the middle of churches, schools, police stations, bars, typical Lagos market, popular bus stops and eateries; is a 182sqm open space secured on the 7th of June 2011 to house Nigeria’s first open living lab. The state-of-the-art facility named Co-creation Hub (CcHUB) will serve technologists, entrepreneurs, investors, tech companies and hackers in and around Lagos.

CcHUB is being designed as a multi-functional, multi-purpose space where work to catalyse creative social tech ventures take place. With 10mbps connection, a mobile application testing lab, dialogue café, a demo unit, thought shower corners and comfortable co-working space, the HUB is positioned to accelerate technology innovation and application for social good in Nigeria.

The hub will function at the heart of Nigeria’s technology innovation ecosystem as a place to:

•  facilitate creative thinking and collaborative problem solving
• encourage technology innovation for improved social accountability in Nigeria
• incubate novel tech ideas that promotes good governance/provision of public services
• encourage shared accountability between technologist & innovators
• serve as a living lab for prototyping and testing socially minded tech tools
• build new skills and competencies
• connect, share, create and find expertise

As described by Sarah Lacy, “CcHUB is a cushy nest for social change which welcomes more than just coders, but teachers, doctors, or anyone from any background that has a dramatic idea of how to make life in Nigeria better. A new co-working space to be opened later this year will operate like an open living lab for social change.”

Interested in making history with us? …get in touch to learn how you can support CcHUB in harnessing the power of technology for prosperity in Nigeria.

Facebook

Twitter: @Cc_HUB

Mobile: +234 705 844 6350, +234 813 624 1976

http://www.cchubnigeria.com

Report: Tech-In Governance

The maiden edition of the Tech-In Series took place on 24th - 26th of March 2011 at the Pan African University, Victoria Island campus Lagos. The 48hr experiment gathered geeks and designers with stakeholders from different walks of life to co-create novel web and mobile based solutions aimed at empowering citizen to contribute to good governance through citizen participation.

The open and temporary living lab was powered by intense collaboration where participants worked passionately to transform six back of the envelope ideas into working prototypes of social web and mobile based tools for better governance in Nigeria. While the projects and teams were centrally selected and allocated, the team’s ability to self-organise led to a successful experiment.

The Co-creation Hub team spent a significant amount of time planning and organising the unusual event behind the scene between December 2010 and March 2011. However, the organisation was mainly to ensure an enabling environment where the individual team could freely engage and organise for result. The gathering obviously thus demonstrates the power of crowd and how a well supported co-creation process can lead to well thought out solutions. Even with meagre resources, collective intelligence when properly harnessed proved invaluable at the end of the event.

The winner, "Residents’ Report" is a managed platform which allows citizens to point local problems to public institutions responsible to aid prompt fixing. The runner-up was "BudgIT", a web platform for user-friendly presentation of state and federal budget to include charts and performance analysis for proper understanding of what budget entails. The 2nd runner-up "Project Watch", is a project monitoring system which allows citizens to certify the execution of public projects.

I believe it is appropriate for me to claim that the investment in this series has been good value for money and I would like to say a special thank you to Indigo Trust, Enterprise Development Centre, Main One Cable and Funmobile. The viability of Tech-In Series of course is dependent on whether some of the projects turn into sustainable social ventures but we believe the commitment of the partners towards nurturing and mentoring the team will provide a strong driving force.

Beyond the immediate challenges being addressed by Tech-In Series, the impact of the initiative will demonstrate the importance of knowledge application for economic prosperity in Nigeria.

Let’s throw knowledge at our problems, facilitate innovation and encourage entrepreneurs to generate value from it all for the benefit of our society at large.


Olatunbosun Tijani – 6th of April 2011.

Nigeria Beyond Elections 2011...transforming citizen participation in governance through tech innovation

The biggest issue in Nigeria at the moment is the 2011 elections. This is an opportunity and a pivotal moment to engage citizens in the governance of the country. While we work towards ensuring that the votes count and the right leaders are elected into leadership position this year, its also important to explore how the citizens will be engaged actively beyond the elections.

Governance i believe encompasses not just government, but also the civil society, the systems, the procedures and processes in place for planning, management and decision-making. Fostering sound public judgment through engagement of citizens is thus a key instrument for better governance. While technology offers no magic solutions, the diffusion of mobile phone in Africa provides a platform through which more citizens can gain access to information while participating in development processes and decisions that affect them.

In essence, HOW DO WE MAKE DEMOCRACY AN EVERYDAY AFFAIR? Got an idea on how web/mobile platforms can be used to transform citizen participation? Then join us at Tech-In Governance.

Tech-In Governance is a 48hr gathering of ideas, people and digital tools aimed at creating novel web & mobile solutions to transform citizen participation in governance. We'll bring together some of the best governance experts, software developers, designers, marketing communication experts and social innovators to turn 6 selected ideas into tools and social start-ups (with working prototypes) in 48hrs.

This is sure a daunting endeavour but we understand the need to start from somewhere.

To submit ideas, participate or partner Tech-In Governance, visit http://tech-in.org/index.html

Follow us on twitter @techinseries and facebook http://www.facebook.com/pages/Tech-In-Series/177017889007409?ref=ts

Nigerians Co-created Social Tools in 48hrs - harnessing the power of 'US'

Creative minds are undoubtedly in abundance in Nigeria but many will argue the lack of enabling environment thwart their ability to harness their knowledge for the benefit of the country. However, Nigeria is not exempted from the surge in innovation being experienced across the continent with boundaries and barriers now being crushed to allow creativity and entrepreneurship flourish.

With a growing army of social and tech entrepreneurs, little is however known about how the line between collaboration and competition can be explored for value creation in this fierce market.

To test its approach, Co-creation Hub Nigeria recently adopted the Social Innovation Camp to engage Nigerians in an experiment for the creation of new ventures and social tools. With 6 ideas selected from an open call, 60 professionals from different walks of life were engaged in teams to demonstrate how collaborative problem solving can be used in creating home grown solutions.

In 48hrs, prototypes were developed and business & sustainability plans initiated. 6 highly competitive solutions were created and 3 came out of the camp as winners with cash prizes and a range of business supports services. The winner, "i-watch live" is an idea to use web and mobile to keep governments at all levels in Nigeria accountable to their mandate by tracking their activities. 2nd prize went to "my123Health", a web and mobile based health information service while 3rd prize went to "mWanted", a mobile based crime reporting and tracking service, supporting the Nigerian police.

Social Innovation Camp Nigeria was an eye opener and together with researchers from ENVIU - innovators in sustainability (Netherlands), a thorough analysis is being carried out on data gathered from the event to help improve our knowledge on what motivate Nigerians to participate in a Co-creation process. I'll do an update on our findings shortly.

Also watch out for news on Tech-In Series - a quarterly unusual event aimed at harnessing the power of technology for economic development in Nigeria. Tech-In will adopt the Social Innovation Camp model to encourage tech innovation and application in select sectors in Nigeria.

See the following links for more information on Social Innovation Camp Nigeria; http://sicampnigeria.org/ and Facebook Page

InnCite to recruit UK HEIs to support Innovation in Nigerian SMEs (through the British Council AKTP Programme)

In my bid to encourage widespread application of knowledge for enterprise development in Nigeria, i'll be leading InnCite in recruiting UK Universities to support technology and product/service innovation in Nigerian SMEs through the British Council AKTP programme.

The AKTP (Africa Knowledge Transfer Partnerships) are partnerships between private sector organisations and higher education institutions in Sub Saharan Africa and the UK. They leverage research, scientific knowledge and skills through innovation.


The programme is designed to help businesses improve their productivity and competitiveness using the scientific knowledge, technology and skills available from the higher education Institutions through collaborative projects between the institutions and the private sector.



I am a big fan of this British Council initiative and will be writing more on its potentials for economic development in Africa in subsequent posts.

For more on AKTP http://www.britishcouncil.org/africa-aktp.htm