Social Media Studies
One of the things I’m doing for myself as I go back to school as a full time student after 30 years exactly is taking the classes that will bring me uptodate as rapidly as possible on the current state of the art in higher education and the post Millenial generation now at University. All […]
Connectivity, Communication, and Commerce: The 3 Cs of Africa’s Smartphone Led Future
Recent headlines touted the decline in marketshare being seen by smartphones on the African continent, and the concurrent increase in sales of basic devices. Yet a closer look shows that this shift might only be numerical due to the opening of new markets in heavily populated DR Congo and Ethiopia – first time buyers are […]
Collapsing the sustainable agricultural value chain of commodities with a single tweet
Tony Addison of UNU-Wider, in Helsinki, just tweeted this photograph, expressing his pleasure at seeing Rwandan coffee at his favourite coffee shop, Roastery. I retweeted it and within minutes, Josh Kariuki proudly tweeted that his neighbourhood Gachatha coffee, from Nyeri county in Kenya, was being sold far away in Helsinki, Finland, by name. The next […]
My African Twitter: Social Media and Its Role in the Emergence of African Economies
Social Media Day 2015 is as good a day as any to finally get around to completing this post I’ve been meaning to write for almost half a year now. It is based on my personal experience and observations, supported by a few relevant links. African Twitter is unlike any social media I’ve experienced. In […]
Upward Mobility is Changing Base of the Pyramid Consumer Aspirations
I’d observed earlier that upward mobility wasn’t simply about increasing incomes, but also a change in mindset, world view and values. Aspirational consumer behaviour trickles downward faster, as strivers seek to emulate the status signals sent by those they perceive as “arrived”. The emerging middle class numbers may indeed be uncertain, as statisticians debate over […]
A tale of two Africas
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. By the middle of the year 2013, the continent of Africa finally put her foot down and said to the world that enough is enough, “We’re taking over the reins of our future and giving voice to our own story.” Ghana and Kenya […]
How social media can steal your soul.
In January 2011, I began researching articles on the African economic rise and concurrent opportunities, for a series I was writing for Dirk Knemeyer’s GoInvo blog. Having just been introduced to Tumblr, I liked the real time capture ability of the application and the flexibility in tagging, for keeping track of quotes and snippets. I […]
Mobile phones, social media and the Maasai: Time to refresh the image
At first, I did not know what these two young men were upto during an enforced halt on our way to Kisii at the end of February this year. The road had been blocked by the local community demonstrating about land rights just a few kilometres outside of Narok, in the heart of Maasailand and […]
In conclusion: Lessons from The Village Telco project in Kenya
We’ve finally reached the point in our work for Village Telco where there’s been enough time for some reflection after the intense weeks of travel and observations across Kenya. I can cluster our learning into three broad areas: our approach, methodology and team work; Kenya’s people and the informal economy; and finally, the role of […]
Socially networked mystery shopfront
We spotted this closed shopfront just before entering Mtwapa – a midsize town about 10km from Mombasa, when returning from a day trip north to Kilifi today. There was no signage to tell us whether it was a cyber cafe or internet center of some sort. But we’re sure they are extremely networked socially.
