06 June 2007

Day Two on the blogs

Tuesday, June 5, from around the blogs:

Erik Hertsman at White African reports: Google has hired its first sub-Saharan Africa employee!

Joseph Mucheru has been named the new site lead for Google Kenya. This was whispered to be happening, but at today’s Google lunch at TEDGlobal the position was made official by Francoise Brougher, Director of Google Business Opportunities.

Mentalacrobatics posted a fascinating blow-by-blow of his Day Two, ending with this wonderful image:

Back at the hotel is when TED came home. I sat down to write my thoughts on the day when Harinjaka shared with us the crazy deforestation that is taking place in his country of Madagascar. That was the beginning of all night thinking, sharing, debating session. Two Kenyans, one Madagascan, one Nigerian, one Italian, one American. We had never met before TED, all but one of us are at our first TED conference and we had our own TED session then and there. We talked about HIV/AIDS, about social disempowerment, about colonial legacy, about Nollywood, Bollywood and the Chinese film industry, about music, about deforestation in Madagascar ...

Afromusing was captivated by Ron Eglash's work on African fractals, including a web tool that integrates fractal design and hair braiding:

!! Indeed !!
Design cornrows using transformational geometry. Click here.
Ron Eglash spoke on looking at fractals in African architecture and design. For non comp sci people, fractals make for some of the most beautiful designs. For African geeks, egm and mathematicians, get the book.

David McQueen blogged his highlights from the second day:

Idris Mohammed - The suggestion of a “Fund of Funds” from G8 as a means of smarter aid. Encourage Africans or Europeans who can invest in Private Equite Fundraising. Remove the focus from “Poverty Reduction” and place more emphasis on “Wealth Creation”.

Don at fifthculture shared a ride with investor and TED Day 2 speaker Idris Mohammed:

Idris Mohammed, a private equity pioneer, said that energy is the next big job in Africa. ... I had the opportunity to ride to the hotel from the airport with Idris. I asked him what form of power (fossil fuels, wind, hydro), he said that most likely it would be fossil fuels. It seems we can't avoid creating problems even when we are solving them. Both options are grave.

Mweshi's roundup captured the buzz around entrepreneur Ted Kidane:

... a wonderful talk by Ted Kidane of Feedelix which is a mobile phone piece of software that enable text messaging in non-Latin scripts. But the thing that stood out the most about Ted’s talk was his challenge to everyone in the room to change the manner in which they look at the word POVERTY; which in his words defined as Prosperity, Opportunity, Validation, Enthusiasm, Resilience, Trust and Yes!

Big, brave ideas are flying around. Ellen Horne reports on a lunchtime conversation:

Today, I sat down at lunch with three African men. One was a grad student from Cape Town, S.A., and the other two were ex-pats from Ghana - living abroad but very much engaged in a conversation about the reasons that Africans leave. The conversation turned to the topic of corruption. How to address the massive short-term incentives for supporting the 'big man' power system fueled by corruption. One quickly brainstormed talked about a public humiliation website where people could anonymously post photos of bribes being given. I asked innocently 'Why would someone exchange bribery cash in public?" He agreed -- sure you aren't going to get many -- but maybe the few would set a powerful example -- and hopefully not a unique one.

And as always, for minute-to-minute coverage of the conference sessions, turn to Ethan Zuckerman at My Heart's in Accra.

Technorati tags: Africa, Ron Eglash, TEDGlobal