There are A LOT of interesting things happening in the innovations, entrepreneurship and ICT fields in Africa. I had the privilege of representing  iLab Liberia at a meeting of the Afrilabs network of tech & innovation hubs in Africa last weekend, as a pre-event to the Global Innovation Lounge of the re:publica conference, in Berlin, going on this week. There were all in all about a dozen African labs present and meeting for the very first time.

Africa is not one story or one market. However, the choir of our voices can be louder together. As later mentioned by one of our hosts, GIZ’s Christian Gemelin, having Erik Hersman open up the huge re:publica digital media conference with a keynote “Innovating Africa”  turns the typical setup to a new direction – it was not the West talking about Africa and spreading there but rather a story of how Africans innovate at all levels of the society. Hersman presented some of the developments in Africa, highlighting that ideas and innovations come from the edge, from outfits and the disruptors – this means that we need to be on the lookout to learn from anyone – and the powerholder corporations, beware! And right now, there is a lot happening in Africa – and there are now more efforts to work collaboratively across the continent

So what’s in it for iLab?

The meeting and the conference were energizers, eye-openers and door-openers.

First, it was absolutely great to feel the energy amongst peers – all the hubs have a community of their own – but now there is also a network of hubs that makes us stronger, as we the users of the labs are getting to…well, thousands, if not perhaps already tens of thousands! And that makes for a powerful feeling of doing things together, around the continent.

Secondly, discussing with peers and hearing and seeing the stories at each of the places was – in addition to being entertaining – very thought-provoking and a learning experience.

Some of the key trends and developments that we discussed included:

-          Hubs moving up in the value-creation chain, i.e. moving gradually from being tech and coworking centers to being incubation and accelerator hubs, places that coach and develop companies (of course, not everyone has to be like that. At iLab, we are not quite yet at a phase where 5 or 10 startups could be incubated at iLab – but we are moving towards a pre-incubation phase, having various events and programs in place that encourage entrepreneurs to work together and it won’t be long before we have the first set of companies working out of iLab.

-          Hubs thinking about sustainable funding and business models – how hubs generate all or a substantial portion of their income by their own activities in a moderate time. As for iLab, this year’s budget is not fully covered by grants – we are looking to generate as much as 15-25% of our budget through various paid services.

-          It’s certainly not just “traditional IT” that these tech and innovation hubs are embracing: hubs that foster social innovations, physical computing and hacking/making and green technology had some of the most creative things happening. ILab is just starting out and experimenting on physical computing (Starting next week!) but already knowing that some of the other hubs have, there are great possibilities to learn

Thirdly,  the Afrilabs meeting and the joint Global Innovation Lounge at re:publica was a about initiating new contacts and collaborations – both in terms of collaboration between the various hubs on the continent, but also between hubs and donors, venture capitalists, academics and so on. We started our first collaboration with Hive Colab in Uganda, regarding Girls in ICT and more specifically Girls in Programming.

Pictures? Oh yeah, hub manager from around the world in action

Workshopping at Supermarkt. It used to be an abandoned Supermarket in a run-down area. Now several spaces in the area have been taken over by creative industry professionals and the areas has revived as well. It’s a great place for co-working and doing workshops.

Springtime in Berlin, very pleasurable weather. Whenever doing groupwork, most preferred to talk outside. The sun is good for creative thinking!

Some of the results from the first day: how do we make Afrilabs, the network of African tech and innovation hubs as success story.

The second day: after getting a few more into the city, the hubs briefly presented themselves, some of their unique features and challenges – to launch workshops on the most mentioned topics.

Topics of the second day.

The hubs that were present at the event.

The Global Innovation Lounge is not about flashy corporate style, but rather business and innovations coming from the grassroots. We demonstrated this feel by “hacking and making” our area at the conference – with inexpensive materials and a big heart. Jay Cousins from ICECairo leading the pack.

So…we all got our handmade pillows made.

Erik Hersman delivering the keynote: “Innovating Africa” and claiming that the statmakers got it all wrong – patent statistics are not really the way to define where innovations are happening.

This is what an early phase innovation might look like – a DIY 13-phase security system.

From a VERY early proto to a crowdfunding capable production version – the BRCK from Ushahidi

The crowd was gathering at the Lounge, it was busy most of the time

African hubs and their managers.

It has been and emotional time here at iLab lately as Kate Cummings, the warm and inspirational co-founder and director of iLab has been transitioning out of Liberia. As the new incoming director, I have greatly enjoyed the three weeks that we have been able to work face-to-face – getting to know iLab and its users, collaborators and donors.

On March 22, Friday, tens of people gathered at iLab for a chance to meet and talk together before Kate was set to leave. It turned out to be a very emotional evening, during which we had plenty of laughs and what seemed like a river of tears shed. A great many testimonies were spoken out by the fine people from the various organizations we’ve had the pleasure of working with. For me, it was a very important and insightful evening  as I was witnessing first-hand the accounts of people describing the impact iLab has had on them or their organizations. Many memorable moments from the last years – from 2010 and 11 onwards were shared, reminding us of the hard work Ushahidi, iLab and all their users have done in the past.

Luckily we, the staff had a few more days together before Kate’s departure – delayed due to circumstance until March 29. We were also fortunate to have the other co-founder John Etherton join us for two weeks, meaning that the staff had a good chance to exchange knowledge, pick up some new skills and all in all work as a team together, face-to-face.  We also had a chance to spend some time together just talking about personal matters as well as naturally exchanging some farewell and welcoming gifts.

Many of the collaborators were asking how to be in touch with Kate in the future. Rest assured, she will be keeping eyes on iLab as she is on the Board of Directors of iLab and formally the Treasurer of iLab International. She can still be reached at kate@ilabliberia.org.

We, the remaining staff of iLab in Liberia, wish Kate all the best in future challenges. We are certain that whatever paths she decides to take up, she will be successful and make a great impact, just as here in Liberia. Meanwhile, we are motivated to keep fulfilling the mission of iLab Liberia and are very much looking forward to Kate’s next visit here to see how things have evolved since. Let’s make sure she is proud of us!

Deep bow of respect and a thank you once again, Kate.

For many of Liberia’s most talented hipco artists, the love of music is a reason to stick together.

Hipco, which is short for “hip colloquial,” refers to the broken English commonly spoken by most Liberians. For the circle of nearly twenty artists living in the Sinkor area, hipco is a way of life and a means of self-expression.

iLab was first introduced to the team of musicians through hipco advocate, Nora Rahimian. She was eager to see how we could teach local artists the skills necessary to promote their work to a wider audience, while also enhancing their ICT skills.

After an in-depth evaluation with the musicians, iLab’s team customized the Social Media course to include YouTube (along with the popular Facebook and Twitter), and despite efforts to also instruct Soundcloud, Dropbox, and Bandcamp, the staff wanted to focus attention on a few platforms first.

Lawrence Logan, commonly known as ‘Marvalous MC,’ shared the most important aspect of how the training is beneficial to him

“It’s important for me and other artists to work hard to improve the music industry and get Liberian tunes out to the rest of the world – for most of us, it’s been a way to band together to unite our country.”

As they entered the Twitter-sphere, generated Facebook fan pages and YouTube channels, excitement spread quickly as to how learning these platforms can generate instant exposure of their work.

Hipco artist Abu B. Bernard, or ‘Sunshine,’ reminds us all of the beauty of music:  “Music as a whole doesn’t have any boundaries, so there’s no reason I should as a musician.”

September 20, 2012 marked a unique day in Wales, United Kingdom: it was AfriCAN Day.

AfriCAN Day was inspired from President Obama’s elections campaign (“Yes we Can!”), and has now become an annual event that aims to give schools and community a taste of Africa’s rich and vibrant cultural heritage. The day also seeks to explore how African people have impacted and contributed towards United Kingdom and Welsh society, highlighting the achievements made by people of African decent who have made Wales their home over the years.

With the help of an organization known as Wales Liberia Connect (WLC), efforts were quickly made to host an online forum for students in both regions to have an opportunity to learn about the others’ culture.

When Max Kpakio, CEO of WLC and a Liberian living in Wales, reached out to iLab to see how we could assist in linking his Liberian counterparts with students Wales, the answer was easy.

A simple Skype call at iLab provided the real-time platform that connected nearly 15 students from three high schools in Liberia (St. Peter Lutheran, Free Pentecostal Global Mission, and Well- Hair Stone) to students and instructors in Wales.  Mrs. Asatu Bah-Kenneth, Assistant Minister of Justice for Administration and Public Safety, was the special guest speaker who discussed her views on Liberia’s civil war that paralyzed the country, providing Welsh students a rare opportunity to ask a Liberian official questions pertaining to the war. For nearly two hours, students took turns asking each other questions about important issues in their respective regions.

Having seen the power of how a simple platform like Skype can engage students from around the globe, iLab hopes to continue to partner with more schools and organizations in the future.

Shira Khaminsky studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston and works as a Senior Editor of the school newspaper. This article has been cross-posted from the Mass Media website.

“I saw parents killed by their children. I saw children abandoned by their parents. I saw neighbors from rival ethnic groups who had lived together for generations accusing and causing the death of each other,” said Gleh Huston Appleton, describing the Liberian civil war. “I have also seen a nation entrapped by its past due to bad governance.”

Appleton’s experience is not unique. The Liberian civil war, a brutal conflict that lasted for 14 years and ended in 2003, cost 250,000 lives and left the country in ruins.

Today, the relatively small West African nation is still in the process of rebuilding. The vast majority of Liberia’s citizens have no access to the electricity grid, running water, basic health care or high quality education.

So what’s the connection between Appleton, Liberia, and UMass Boston? The answer is Michael Keating.

Keating, a lecturer in the Conflict Resolution program at the McCormack Graduate School and the director of operations at the Center for Peace, Democracy and Development, has been working on issues in Liberia since 2006.

This semester, he is launching a unique pilot program, offering a group of Liberians the opportunity to take his Globalization and Development seminar remotely, alongside UMass Boston graduate students.

Appleton is one of the Liberian students in the class. A development analyst with experience in Liberia, Sudan, Juba and Lesotho, 34-year-old Appleton has a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree from Liberia Christian College and a Masters of Public Administration from the Management Institute of Canada, which he pursued online. One of 14 siblings, he lost both his parents before the age of 10. During the worst periods of the conflict, Appleton experienced extreme hunger. Referring to those days, he describes himself as a “walking skeleton.”

This program, Keating said, was born out of necessity. In his visits to Liberia, many Liberian students approached him about studying in the US.

“They have a strong desire for an American education, but they don’t really know what that entails,” Keating explained. “Educational methods and standards are much different in Liberia, so students don’t know what is expected.”

In order to fill that gap, he organized a group of Liberian graduates from several of the local universities. These students work in the Liberian government, in non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and in the private sector. They do not pay to take part in the seminar, and they won’t receive any college credit for it.

With funding from Academics Without Borders in Canada, Keating found a space where the Liberian students can gather for Skype sessions with their American colleagues. This space is called iLab Liberia, a unique computer lab in the capital city of Monrovia. Sponsored by Google and eBay, among others, iLab has its own satellite, providing the fastest internet connection in the country. ILab’s staff, comprised almost entirely of Liberians, offers free training to Liberians who wish to learn how to use computers and the internet, skills that many of them lack.

The cooperation benefits students on both sides of the Atlantic. Tara Conklin is a graduate student in the international relations program at UMass Boston, and she is taking Keating’s seminar this semester. Conklin already has a connection to Liberia: she was there this summer with Keating, as part of an international internship initiative from the Office of International and Transnational Affairs (OITA). Conklin worked as an intern for a Liberian congresswoman and in the country’s Environmental Protection Agency.

“I think the American students in the class will gain invaluable insight from our Liberian counterparts,” Conklin said. “They can enhance our understanding of development theory by providing specific examples of what we’re learning and educating us on their own experiences and observations from their country.”

Keating agreed. “Of course, the Liberian students are living out in their daily lives the issues that we Americans only read about. For them it is not theory,” he said.
Appleton, who hopes that this experience will help him decide whether or not to pursue a Ph.D. in international development, said that the class is “a great way of transcending cultural boundaries.”

 
“The course is a proof of globalization at work,” Appleton said. “The mix of the class presents first hand opportunity to classmates in the developed world, who have not or may never experience the impact of international development policies on poor nations of the world. It gives them an appreciation of the deeper implications of each policy instrument on underdeveloped nations.”
Keating plans to continue and expand the UMass Boston’s involvement in Liberia.

“I hope to be able to continue a program like this into the future. It is very low cost, and I believe it can have great potential value for building relationships among students from very different backgrounds who are looking at the same set of problems. Of course, I also hope to will motivate American students to travel to Liberia to work or research or to simply get to know that fascinating place.”

Blair Glencorse is in Liberia working on the Accountability Lab, which aims to find answers to problems of accountability. He also started pitch salons, a cross between speed networking and TED Talks.

On a rainy night in August, iLab was kind enough to host the first Liberian “Pitch Salon.” Pitch Salons- which I started with some friends in Washington, DC earlier this year- are a cross between speed-networking and public talks for hand-picked innovators who think about more than just the bottom line: social entrepreneurs, thought leaders and change-makers. Pitchers give an “elevator pitch” for an organization, cause or idea that is engaging, accessible to an informed listener and has the potential to change the world for the better. I have been spending an increasing amount of time in Liberia through work with my new organization the Accountability Lab, and I knew this concept would work well in Monrovia. The Liberian people have such great energy, enthusiasm and ideas- it was a perfect fit.

Kate Cummings of iLab and I made sure that we found some brilliant young Liberians with a variety of ideas that the audience would find engaging. We also carried out a careful process to strategically select about 40 audience members for the pitches, each of which had a combination of superb networks, access and ideas. The format we planned included short five minute talks by each “pitcher” without a question and answer session, but followed with a discussion and socializing hour. This was when pitchers and audience members could network, ask questions and start helping each other change the world. We hoped that some drinks and some good food from PA’s BBQ might help this process along.

 
The hard work was all done by the exceptional pitchers, who made the event a huge success. Bai Best from the Liberian Observer described his brilliant ideas for ways that Liberians can mobilize new technologies to tell stories; James Mulbah, who looked every inch the successful businessman, explained his progress in making Liberia clean and chemical-free through entrepreneurship; Tecee Boley, a local journalist, expressed in a deeply emotional pitch her idea to cover the untold stories of Liberia’s upcountry; Divine Key Anderson, Liberia’s answer to Steven Spielberg, talked about film-making in Liberia; and Roberta Phillips an amazing young activist illustrated how women can be empowered through technologies. The final pitch- by Nowai Dunbar and her very talented (and seriously flexible) African Prodigies- used dance to demonstrate the importance of engaging youth for the future.

The Pitch Salon did not aim for a specific outcome- it was not an advocacy platform or competition for funding. Rather, it was intended to be an informal, fun and self-contained way for innovative people with great ideas to share them with others who were interested to listen and, potentially, help. There seem to be plenty of both types of people in Liberia and some great follow-up has already taken place. Stay tuned for Liberia’s second Pitch Salon very soon.

Thanks to Microsoft, iLab now holds 30 computer software licenses valued at almost $22,000!

The generous donation will help to build iLab’s training capacity and further provide users with the flexibility of learning two operating systems.

Since it’s beginnings in May 2011, iLab has powered all its computers on the Ubuntu system, a free and open source Linux distribution that ensures virus-free workstations.

Despite that obvious advantage, the slight disadvantage for most users using Ubuntu for the first time is their lack of familiarity with the operating system and most of its office applications.  Even businesses interested in hosting a training on Microsoft Word or Excel using iLab computers have been limited because of the high software costs.

That will all soon change. iLab now has 30 new licenses for Windows 7 and Microsoft Office. And with a rapidly growing user rate, we can expand on our public trainings and further invite businesses to maximize use of our resources.

The donation came from Microsoft’s Corporate Citizenship initiative, which seeks to provide technology tools, training, and resources to help create opportunities and transform communities.