Heri does Ruby on Rails + Web Design

A journalist from the New York Times asks the question: “Inside Nairobi, the next Palo Alto?”

This is a provocative title — maybe as sensationalist as the alarmist news reports that were published at the beginning of the year. While I’d do anything to see a technology boom in Nairobi (or in Madagascar), Nairobi has still a long way to go before comparing it to Palo Alto, such as solid infrastructure and mass adoption of technology.

There is something true though to the article; as it tells how the technology landscape and usage is radically different in Africa, compared to North America. As the reporter writes, people don’t use computers but cell phones as their main technology tool, with the example of mobile web payements. This is true in East but also in West Africa, confirmed by friends in Senegal and in Ivory Coast. A friend told me the example of fishermen getting real-time information about fish prices, allowing them to ask for better prices. Other novelty examples is news and alerts crowdsourcing, by the Ushahidi team.

With those 2 simple examples, it doesn’t take long to envision mobile services made for Africans. I’m brainstorming for instance with a friend on a new mobile social networking app for Mali. The service is to be monetized by sms, by usage, (via routesms if you are curious). It won’t also be sticky, meaning that usage should be ocassional and not pushed to users.