BarCamp Africa – my personal take

I little recap for all the one who couldn’t make it to BarCamp Africa last weekend.

Most of the attendees were from the greater Bay Area Area but it was a very diverse crowd and some visitors came from as far a South Africa.

I arrived when everyone was standing in line to share what they wanted to talk about. Many interesting topics were presented stretching from IT development to female empowerment. I was pretty much last in line and choose “How to to use the 2010 Soccer World Cup for cause marketing projects in order to make a difference in South Africa”. There were quite some soccer fans in the crowd and the topic was well received.

The energy and atmosphere at BarCamp Africa were capturing. There was a common understanding that we are on the verge of a big trend: Africa WILL be taking some giant steps in the right direction in the very near future. Some of that is already happening but has not caught the attention of the broad public yet.

This was also an event where I could learn A LOT. A ton of information was shared by people doing work on the ground for many years already. What works and what doesn’t work was a common discussion topic.

Image via Wikipedia

A panel moderated by Guy Kawasaki discussed the success opportunities for the $100 Laptop developed by Nicholas Negroponte. It sounds like a great idea at first but all panelists were very skeptical about it for the same reasons
1. Internet access is scarce and expensive.
2. $100 is a ton of money and people will be tempted to sell the machine in lieu of other goods
3. Internet access happens mostly through mobile devices

So even a simple $100 laptop seems like overkill in most areas.

Of course it is always a pleasure to hear Guy Kawasaki  in a panel discussion – simply because he has a great sense of humor and provided some good laughs.

Guy asked the magic question: If I were to write a $1000 check today who would I give it to?
The audience came up with a number of suggestions – usually promoting their own organization but non was compelling enough for Guy to get his checkbook out at that very moment. I like a suggestions to train people to become activists (at $2 per one day training) in order for them to learn about financial resources available in their area and how to access them >> nice leverage effect!

Martin Fisher of Kickstart made the point that 95% of all money going into Africa is being wasted and/or never reaches its final destination. Another panelist stated that for every $1 send to Africa, 85 cents flow right back into the western world.

I heard a strong emphasis on accountability and measurable results during the Rocky Mountain Round Tables. Some representatives from Google.org were arguing the same way during the Barcamp. We I could also see the other side of people saying that things are simply different in Africa and that we don’t understand.

I think this is were the old and the new approaches towards making a difference differ: In our days we want to know what happens with our money, what impact does it have, and if the results can be measured and verified. It weeds out corruption and embezzlement which have always been huge traditional obstacles.

The official part of the days was concluded by Tom Rielly, Director at Ted but also the founder of movingwindmills.org. He told the amazing story of William Kamkwamba that started building windmills in Malawi simply by looking at a book in the library and figuring out the rest on his own.

The need for help in Africa is still huge. Therefore it was good that many different causes and organizations were represented – all of them valid.
The causes stretched from basic things like Google creating maps for remote areas in Africa to organizations, or nonprofits with a focus on clean water supply to smaller tech companies developing applications for mobile devices.

What’s next?
Ellen Petry Lense, the organizer of the event stated “This day was a chance to bring the best out of all of us. Let’s maintain it”.

I feel indeed that there is a huge responsibility on the shoulders of the attendees to keep the spirit and the momentum alive. I think the final goal is clear: Turn Africa into an equal partner to the the rest of the world that is being able to participate and contribute on an even level.

This event could serve as a starting point of a dialog on a larger scale: We can all learn from each other on what works and what doesn’t. We can share data and resources. We can also still all try to do our own thing and have 100,000 organizations do their own thing.

Why did BarCamp Africa matter?
BarCamp Africa showed that the interest in Africa is overwhelming right now. It is a “trendy” subject. This event had a ton of eyeballs on it. So the potential is clearly there. We just have to do get the following right:
1. Collaborate, share data & communicate
2. Focus on measurable results
3. Focus on models that are scalable or that can be replicated
4. Make sure no more money is being wasted – how about one central agency with an effective control system?
5. Plus a few more things smarter people than me can add to the list…

I’d like to say thanks to everyone who made this event happen: Ellen, the volunteers, the participants and all of you out there that followed the event online.

This is how Africa was being tagged at the event:

PS:
I can now officially confirm that GooglePlex looks like the biggest playground in the world – with a few few working spaces aligned in-between;-)

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