Link 2: http://ushahidi.com

About: SwiftRiver is a free and open source software platform that uses algorithms and crowdsourcing to validate and filter news.

Our Role: This white paper explains the relationship between algorithms and users within the SwiftRiver platform.

Awards: n/a

Link 2: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ww4f/4100142073/

About: The fiber infrastructure and bandwidth available to Africans is rapidly progressing. Our Quarterly Infostate of Africa graphic analyzes this progress in detail.

Our Role: Research, Design, Layout, Print, Art Direction

Awards: n/a

Date: Sept 2009 – Current
Client: Ushahidi
Link 1: http://ujima-project.org
Link 2: http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/09/19/appfricast-16-ujima-and-the-future-of-journalism-3/

About: The Ujima Project is a new experiment in journalistic transparency. The Web site offers African journalists, nongovernmental organizations and others seeking factual data access to information that is not readily available in many African countries. The project operates on the premise of reverse transparency, taking database, documents and other information from donor countries — The United States, European Union, for example — and providing it in an easily searchable manner. Want to know what NGOs are doing in your country? The Ujima Project can provide some of the answers. Want to know how much your government is spending to influence policy in the United States or to promote its image abroad? The Ujima Project can assist with that as we

Our Role: Appfrica developed the Ujima website and visualization suite.

Awards: n/a

Link 2: http://appfrica.net/blog/2009/08/12/the-future-of-giving/

About: Concept art for an application we are envisioning illustrating how Augmented reality can be used to serve NGOs, nonprofits, their donors and the developmental aid community.

Our Role: Not a real application but one we hope to build in the near future.

Awards: n/a

Link 2:

About: Twenty-Five percent (about 1.73 billion) of the world’s population is currently online, largely in developed world countries. Challenges for bringing the other four billion online include: investment in regional infrastructure, reducing individual poverty, offering multilingual content, engaging mobile web users, producing local content and reducing the wholesale costs of bandwidth and computing equipment. It’s incredible to consider that even with all the amazing content available on the internet right now, three fourths of the planet have yet to even join the global conversation. The above graphic illustrates how far we’ve come as well as how far we still have to go.

Our Role: Each block contains up to eight pieces of information. The rank (and sequential order of the chart), place among the top ten fastest growing internet populations, the country code (also the countries ccTLD), rank among the countries with the fastest bandwidth speeds, percentage of population using the internet, the country name, and in some cases whether or not the block represents a country or territory.

Awards: n/a

Link 2: http://sites.google.com/site/gwscommunitytranslation/uganda/volunteertranslatinggooglecougintoluganda

About: Google is one of the world’s largest technology companies. Google.co.ug is the Ugandan portal for Google’s products Search and Apps.

Our Role: Appfrica’s role was to kickstart their localization project in Uganda, which we did by volunteering our developers and resources to translate Google.co.ug into Luganda.

Awards: n/a

About: Question Box is an all questions answered service that attempts to democratize the world’s information for all the world’s people. Unlike many services that target only mobile or web users, Question Box takes into account the fact that some people are illiterate, some people are too poor to afford even a mobile phone and some people (often times women) are shut out from communicating with certain people or information sources. The service was started by Rose Shuman a few years ago when she got the idea to offer the internet and information found in things like Wikipedia to people who couldn’t read or who were otherwise disenfranchised. Since then the service has been piloted in India and Uganda.

Our Role: Our role was to work with Open Mind to rethink the Question Box project for the African continent. This meant using mobile phones and publicizing a phone number in rural areas instead of deploying costly question boxes. We also operated a three-person call center outfitted with custom software for answering caller questions.

The custom software we developed is called Open Question, an open source software project that allows for the quick offline search and storage of content.

Awards: Presented at TEDGlobal 2009

Appfrica Labs began as a software consultancy that develops innovative solutions for developing countries. We serve a global list of clients, working to collaboratively develop creative solutions for some of the region’s most challenging problems. The company was founded in 2008 after CEO Jon Gosier arrived in Kampala, Uganda and saw the untapped potential of Kampala’s skilled tech sector. This leads to ‘brain-drain’ as Uganda’s best and brightest go abroad for work. Appfrica was founded to indentify individuals with talent, passion and training, picking up where the university leaves off to help them improve their technical skills, while mentoring their growth and solidifying their business skills. Appfrica is entirely self-funded and has operated and scaled solely on revenue earned.

As a self-funded venture, we operate with a two-part business model. As an incubator, we support promising entrepreneurs with both funding and expertise, supporting them through the process of turning good ideas into successful technology products. As a software company, our full-time staff consults with global clients to develop unique social networking, ‘mobile-to-web’ software and hardware solutions, often incorporating the residents of our incubator into this work. We are proud to be able to serve clients with high value services while seeding unique ideas and funding innovation in Uganda.

Appfrica’s offices in Uganda are also an open environment for any young business to ‘nest’ while they are trying to grow. We call this our 10K Space. In the same tradition, our 10,000 Hour Initiative is an effort to get professionals to mentor and nurture creativity amongst youth. To find out more click here.

What the Press has to Say

CNN “Founded in 2008, Appfrica Labs is a unique space in Kampala, offering jobs and startup support to young Ugandan developers with bright ideas.”

PCWorld “…African technology gurus.”

New York Times “…a sort of technology incubator called Appfrica Labs, which provides budding entrepreneurs with investment capital, a stable salary, a structured workplace…”