The University of Nairobi’s Department of Informatics has agreed to co-host the first-ever Facebook “Developer Garage” in East Africa, in partnership with Samasource. Facebook, a popular social utility based in Silicon Valley, will partially sponsor the event. Developer Garage Nairobi will bring together approximately 100 computer science students, faculty and local developers to discuss ways to use the Facebook Platform to build commercially viable applications and learn more about coding on the Platform.
To sign up, please join our group: http://harvard.facebook.com/group.php?gid=6117262534
If you have comments on the agenda or views on how Facebook can benefit Kenya and sub-Saharan Africa more generally, please post them here.
3 Comments
This is really a very good undertaking. I look forward to see many computer science students participate in the event. Students can contribute a lot on how facebook platform can be used commercially and perhaps use the platform in coming up with entrepreneurial ventures.
Facebook can have a number of positive effects in sub – saharan Africa in my own opinion in the following ways:
1. Facebook as a means of online collaboration, especially to developer groups.
2. The platform can be a teaching aid in schools, especially in open source programming.
3. Networking people i.e. bringing people together from different parts of Africa.
4. Applications developed on the facebook platform can be used for provision of services that can be paid for and as such can create a source of earning income.
5. Job creation through participation in the development of applications on the facebook platform and the eventual deployment of those applications. Sub-saharan Africa faces a challenge in terms of job creation.
6. As a social tool. Social aspects in humans contribute a lot towards creation of healthy and all rounded human societies. As part of networking, people can share experiences, jokes, humor facts etc etc.
7. As a tool for connecting sub – saharan Africa to the rest of the world.
This is a great intiative. It emphasises that learning of computing can be connected to the fireld of solcing real problems in an innovative. Keep up the good work. We are all looing forward to very positive outcomes from this dvelopers garage. It will be an eye opener of the tremendous opportunities which exist for exciting innovative and entreprenuerial ventures.
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[...] on December 21, 2007. Now this is exciting! The following excerpt is taken from marketforchange: The University of Nairobi’s Department of Informatics has agreed to co-host the first-ever [...]