Kenyan Women Create Their Own 'Geek Culture'

I see huge opportunities here. There are people all over the world solving the same local problems, shared across disparate areas. Furthermore, there are resources, ideas, talent, and real solutions being developed in certain areas (even the US and Europe) which I feel should be collaborating with groups like this to better understand their needs and great a more global technology community. Likewise, there are no doubt some incredible, innovative solutions coming out of lesser-known technology centers with which the right localization could make a huge impact here in the Western World.

I'd be very interested to see a group acting as a "liaison" between these communities to help solve problems more efficiently. Example: You're developing a sensor network to measure rain levels across cell phone towers? I have an algorithm that can measure this data effectively and correct for error so you don't have to. We already do this today with the overload of SaaS startups -- you're building some monitoring platform? Use Librato to capture the metrics. You need a disaster response application that can aggregate data and display the most severely affected areas? Use Parse for the backend and OpenStreetMaps for the geo -- no need to do it yourself. If you're solving a problem, there is a 70% chance that somebody either solved it already, is currently trying to, and/or has a good idea about how to solve it. Increase the collaboration to a more personal, local level, and you've got something big.

I agree - we need more oportunistas to invest in businesses in developing countries.

I invested in this African company: http://unreasonableinstitute.org/profile/mwilkerson/

It was a little easier as the founder was from the US and I met him here, and then he returned to Africa to continue running the operation. Wish more African founders had the opportunity to raise money here.

I'm guessing you didn't drive on dirt roads or carry all of the fuel for the trip with you in jugs, all while hoping you had enough bribe money for anyone who might turn up with a rusty AK-47 and a barricade to keep them from taking said computer from you along the way.

Kenya is a fascinating place - incredible hardships, but such a will to persevere. I love that they aren't satisfied getting jobs freelancing or anything like that, they are solving their people's issues where no one else will bother. Awesome to see.

Eh, Fiber is expensive. It's getting better, though; a big part of the expense is the skill required to splice fiber, and they are developing better and easier ways to splice all the time. I betcha the last mile is going to suck for most people for a long time. And you know? I don't think it matters as much as we think. If it does matter for you (It matters for me, certainly) you will move to the places where fiber is available. Yeah, google fiber gets all the press, but surewest has been doing fiber to the home in Sacramento for close to a decade now. (I mean, fiber matters a lot to me, but not enough for me to move to Kansas... or Sacramento, for that matter. Ugh.)

Here in silicon valley, both the city of Palo Alto and the city of Santa Clara (see http://svpfiber.com or email me if you want to get in on an in-progress project) have municipal fiber rings. It's aimed at businesses, and /only/ does the last mile (which is to say, once you get to the data centre you will still have to pay someone for transit to the internet. And you will have to pay to trench to your house, so you are probably looking at $500/month minimum and maybe $10K one time to trench in to your house. Still, worth it to not live in Sacramento. Ugh.)

I mean, what I'm trying to say is that there are really good tubes, here in America. I, myself, have 12 gigabits of burst capacity (a 6.2 gigabit commit) Yes, our last mile for most people is shit. But the last mile for everyone, everywhere is shit. Just like in Africa, I personally predict that it's going to be wireless, for most of us. And for most of you? wireless is just fine. I mean, yeah, cheap fiber for everyone like they are said to have in Japan, or in Kansas or in Sacramento would be super great, but I don't think that only having that in a few places will cripple us. I mean, when it really matters, even here in America, if fiber matters to you, you can get it by paying a small (compared to developer salaries) fee, or by moving somewhere unpleasant.