In the midst of all the coding hack-fest that was Facebook Developer Garage here in Uganda yesterday, I managed to corral Jon Gossier–founder of AppAfrica, based right here in Kampala–for a quick one-on-one about all things tech and the state of code here in Africa. Jon is one-half the team responsible for putting together #fbUganda in hopes of spurring home-grown coders capable of doing great things right here on the continent. It’s a new effort to help Africa retain and expand talent in the emerging ICT and BPO sectors. More on that later during my interview with Samasource founder, Leila Charayath Janar.
It was particularly exciting to talk to Jon about his thoughts on the near-term impact that broadband will have on East African coders (and Africa in general) come 2009-2010 when several broadband initiative start docking dark fibre to the continent, effectively plugging all of Africa into the Information Super Highway. Have a listen.
Jon Gossier: Facebook Developer Garage Uganda (mp3)
UPDATE:
As an added bonus, Jon managed to get both Charlie Cheever, from Facebook platform, as well as Samasource founder, Leila Chirayath on video earlier in the week.
Facebook Day - One Degree North
December 16, 2008 at 10:48 am[…] Project Diaspora’s Interview with me […]