If you haven’t seen this yet, here is a great insight into the development of Twitter in Africa. The recent events in Egypt, and across the N.African region, have shown us what coming levels of connectivity can bring about. Youth connected can change the world?

Here were some facts from the Portland report:

· South Africa is the continent’s most active country by volume of geo-located Tweets, with over twice as many Tweets (5,030,226 during Q4 2011) as the next most active Kenya (2,476,800). Nigeria (1,646,212), Egypt (1,214,062) and Morocco (745,620) make up the remainder of the top five most active countries.

· 57% of Tweets from Africa are sent from mobile devices.

· 60% of Africa’s most active Tweeters are aged 20-29.

· Twitter in Africa is widely used for social conversation, with 81% of those polled saying that they mainly used it for communicating with friends.

· Twitter is becoming an important source of information in Africa. 68% of those polled said that they use Twitter to monitor news. 22% use it to search for employment opportunities.

· African Twitter users are active across a range of social media, including Facebook, YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn.

Read the report in full detail.

Want to know more about VC4Africa and our work to support starting entrepreneurs? Here is a presentation we recently recorded. I outline some of the recent trends and developments we are witnessing in the space and some of our thinking on how we can do more to support the emergence of an African startup culture.

As Obama said in his statement, ‘The Obama administration will not support legislation that reduces freedom of expression, increases cybersecurity risk, or undermines the dynamic, innovative global Internet.” Much of the innovation we support at VC4Africa depends on an open and accessible Internet. The Harvard Business Review explains, ‘So if “content” vs “technology” doesn’t capture what’s going on in this fight, what does? Well, SOPA makes much more sense if you look at the debate as big companies unwilling to accept change versus the innovative companies and startups that embrace change. And if we accept that startups are created to find new ways to create value for consumers, the debate is actually between the financial interests of “big content” shareholders versus consumer interests at large.’ It is in this line of thinking VC4Africa joins the protest to end piracy, not liberty! Tell Congress: Don’t censor the Web http://www.vc4africa.biz #SOPA #PIPA

We have been wanting to produce some visuals for some time now and it was fun to see this project come together for the start of the new year. Instead of some card with a bunch of happy faces we thought we would visualize a trend we strongly believe in. We witness and champion a general shift of attention that we hope will see more focus placed on the continent’s entrepreneurs. Really the most underrated change agent if you ask me.

The infographic starts with some background on VC4Africa and where the community is at in terms of its development. We then follow the introduction with statistics that give a strong indication of just how fast things are actually changing on a fundamental level. We highlight the challenges we still need to face concerning some of the resource constraints (human and capital) and answer this challenge with our peer-to-peer driven network approach we feel is a viable way to start filling the gaps.

This graphic was done in partnership with our designer Joppe Rovers. Check out his website. Also see a higher quality version of the VC4A Infographic – 2012 the year of the Entrepreneur (280KB).

I think it is fair to say that 2011 was a good year for the VC4Africa community. What originally started as a Linkedin group has now grown into a thriving and productive network. This year we closed the old website and started a new chapter on VC4Africa.biz, the next step in our continued mission to champion the continent’s greatest entrepreneurs.

We now have more than 4.300 members who have opened personal profile pages on the new site and over 200 entrepreneurs stepped forward to crunch their venture online. There are promising businesses making progress in over 30 African countries and we have seen members in Cameroon, South Africa, the United States, Kenya, Nigeria, the Netherlands and Somaliland establish partnerships, investments and joint ventures. Increasingly, VC4Africa featured entrepreneurs are being picked up by global media channels like Forbes and BBC World. We have opened a new thread where members are starting to share their successes as their continued progress remains our bottom line – as a community and organization.

In the past months we have launched a number of new programs and resources VC4A entrepreneurs can tap into for support. For example, entrepreneurs are now calling in on Free Feedback Fridays. These are sessions hosted by business experts and are useful for working through challenges faced in the business development process. We also hosted several Business Modeling Workshops and worked with entrepreneurs to practice and film their elevator pitches. More recently, we launched the VC4Africa Mentorship Program that connects members for peer-to-peer coaching with some early successes already on the books. We also gave a facelift to the venture profiles and entrepreneurs can now post their video pitches online, one of the reasons ventures like Njorku are top ranked all time. They are personal and you immediately get a sense for the entrepreneur and their vision behind their project. In the year ahead we will be doing even more to support our entrepreneurs as they champion their ventures.

Our team is constantly working to introduce new tools and services that further improve the VC4A networking experience. To foster more effective network building we launched our own ‘dating widget’ that matches members on the basis of complimentary skill sets and forwards recommended connections. How do you tap into a global network spread across 159 countries? This past year saw the release of Questions & Answers as a tool for crowdsourcing knowledge from across the member base. There are now 68 open threads and 128 responses. We also launched dedicated groups that allow members to come together around a specific country or theme. Some notable groups we look forward to growing in 2012 include Green Entrepreneurship, the Social Entrepreneur, VC4Africa Mentors and VC4A Woman Entrepreneurs.

Far and away, one of the greatest projects we launched this past year was VC4A Badges. Building great companies and an effective network of contacts is a lot of hard work, but it’s also a lot of fun. With great looking badges we look to recognize your milestones and contributions along the way. For example, when you establish a partnership, support VC4A entrepreneurs as a mentor or attend your first VC4Africa meetup. And they are pretty useful too. Want to know who has organized a VC4Africa meetup in the past? Want to know which VC4A entrepreneurs have been profiled with a featured article on the homepage? Maybe you want to know which entrepeneurs received funding or the ‘on fire’ badge for being picked up by mainstream media? And I encourage everyone to check out the members who are part of the VC4Africa Officers Program and help shape the community and grow the effort. See an overview of all of the badges and keep your eye out for new ones

We will continue to listen to your feedback and build the tools that enrich your time spent with VC4A.

These developments aside, VC4Africa had a great year because we have such great members. People who believe in the continent’s potential and want to see its best entrepreneurs succeed. As a community we share and learn from each others experiences and support one another along the way. It is remarkable to see more than 30 VC4Africa meetups organized by members from around the world. We already have great events online for 2012 starting with Accra, Oslo and London. More are on the way. Certainly Africa is a great business opportunity and we all agree the time to make it happen is NOW.

The best part about all of this? We’re just getting started

Beyond ICT4D: New Media Research in Uganda is a collection of ethnographic reports from diverse perspectives of those living at the other end of the African ICT pyramid. Crucially, these texts refocus on the so-called “ICT4D” debate away from the standard western lens, which depicts users in the developing world as passive receivers of Western technological development, towards Ugandans whose use and production of technologies entail innovations from the ground up. It is this ‘other’ everyday point of view that is too often missing in the ICT4D debate: valuable voices that put technologies, projects and organizations into their proper context.

Conducted in 2009 by a group of five Masters in New Media (humanities) students from the University of Amsterdam under the supervision of Geert Lovink the research examines both the role and implementation of ICTs in Uganda, covering a wide range of subcultures and projects, including internet cafe usage, print media, NGOs and communities, software subcultures and civic new media. The book argues that now is the time to look beyond the technology layer and instead focus on the social implications and local consequences of digital media’s widespread use. By recognizing the impact that ICTs have on society and identifying what functions currently and what needs to be improved, we can more effectively understand and develop these technologies in the future.

Initiated and introduced by Dutch-Australian media theorist and internet critic Geert Lovink this Theory of Demand publication was produced at the Institute of Network Cultures (HvA).

Authors: Ali Balunywa, Guido van Diepen, Wouter Dijkstra, Kai Henriquez and Ben White (yours truly).

Colophon: Authors: Ali Balunywa, Guido van Diepen, Wouter Dijkstra, Kai Henriquez and Ben White. Editor: Geert Lovink Copy editing: Cindy Jeffers, Lily Antflick and Morgan Currie. Design: Katja van Stiphout. DTP: Margreet Riphagen. Printer: ‘Print on Demand’.

Publisher: Institute of Network Cultures, Amsterdam 2011. ISBN:
978-90-816021-9-8.

This publication is also available through various print on demand
services.

Download the free pdf.

Here is an interview I did last week with Fast Moving Targets, a new series dedicated to showcasing innovation in media, technology and communications. They are very much tapping into Amsterdam as a creative media lab and the beginnings of a promising startup culture here in the city. Importantly, they ask the question, ‘what’s going on, what does that mean for whom and how do you actually get new trends and technologies to succeed?’

It’s great to see initiatives like this come online. It adds to The Next Web (many people do not know they are based in Amsterdam) and Hackers and Founders Meetups as important platforms for engaging the community, identifying key developments and highlighting protagonists in the space. Fast Moving Targets is an initiative of ‘The Crowds‘ and hosted by Erwin Blom and Roeland Stekelenburg. They have a great production team and it was nice of Johan Schaap, the founder of Probaton, to make the connection.

The show is filmed live which gives it an interesting character and streamed via the site. They film the chit chat before and after the actual show (so be aware:) and take questions from people watching via Twitter. The show has an interactive and relaxed feel to it. Mostly because of the Palm beer. It was also great practice for my Dutch!:) Here is the description as posted on the site: ‘Ben White van VC4Africa probeert werelden bij elkaar te brengen. Investeerders en ondernemers. Europa en Afrika. Omdat hij ziet hoe groot het talent in laatstgenoemd werelddeel is, omdat hij overtuigd is van het zakenlijk potentieel, maar ook omdat hij een idealist is die van Afrika houdt. VC4Africa gaat over geld, maar nog veel meer over netwerken. Met al duizenden aan boord. Een aflevering van Top Names van Fast Moving Targets.’

Technology + Entrepreneurs + A vision = Startups in Africa in need of Venture Capital.

This is a one line summary of the presentation I recently gave at the 1% Event in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. In the presentation I talk about the rise of the techprenuer in Africa and the cheetah Generation that is now empowered with the knowledge and tools they need to change the world. This presentation builds on a lot of the ethnographic research I did in Kampala, Uganda and my experiences working on the ICT Entrepreneurship program at Hivos. I also talk about AfriLabs as a network organization connecting technology incubators in Africa and VC4Africa (Venture Capital for Africa) as a platform for crowdsourcing network, information and capital via the web.

Accenture published the nominations for their annual Innovation Awards. I think its great our community was selected out of hundreds of applications to continue to the final round. Now the winner will be decided by the public and this means you!

The project that collects the most votes will win the coveted Blue Tulip. I encourage everyone to review our video pitch and to show your support for the community by adding your email address on the top right corner. Once you have voted you will receive an e-mail notification and will need to confirm your vote by clicking on the confirmation link. Every vote counts….

If you can, please share this news with friends and colleagues as we build support for our concept on a global stage. We are using the following link to promote our application [http://shar.es/bb0nB].

Vote now!

I love teaching a course on Entrepreneurship in Interactive Media. In my work I don’t think there is one person I refer to more often than Steve Jobs. He is an incredible inspiration and source of creativity. He is someone entrepreneurs will always aspire to.