The Vim Views & Versions - Blogs of a MIghTy African

Today at the #MomoAccra end-of-year party at +233 Jazz Bar & Grill,  +Nana Fosu  directed me, the host, to talk through some major developments that happened on the tech scene in Ghana. Lovely idea. A chance to celebrate accolades chalked, accomplishments met and good news lived. I haven't been as present on the tech scene in Ghana due to work commitments at  +Rancard  but I've followed many of what has happened. I led the discussion to bring out many things that happened in Ghana's tech industry this year. There's more to come, with an eye on the over-subscribed  +Barcamp Accra  happening on December 23rd at the World Bank office , but let's recap some of what has happened in this year. The Wireless Application Service Providers Association of Ghana (WASPAG) was formed to unify the voices of players in the tech (especially mobile) industry and help shape policy and regulate the industry. It's also to support local tech innovation. Companies th...

At the Stanford SEED Centre in Accra, here for a design thinking workshop. Ready to learn. Maybe blog this later too. :-) — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) October 17, 2013 Today, I participated in a design thinking workshop at the Stanford Institute for Innovation in Developing Economies (SEED) centre in Accra . It was organized for Rancard which is one of the companies in the first cohort. I am working at Rancard now (yea, long story, will share that with you later). Ehi Binitie , my boss and one of Rancard co-founders, has been a huge fan of design thinking this year and ensured people he worked closely with got to appreciate the same. So about 10 of my Rancard colleagues and 5 of our friends from our clients (mobile network operators) joined for this workshop. Bill Scull , who has a lot of experience in Business Development with companies in the Silicon Valley , is one of the coaches based in Accra now working some of the companies in the first SEED West Africa cohort. Today...

The first time I heard of +kobla nyomi  was when he'd gone to participate in the Google Internship program in Zurich in 2010. For an Ashesi student, it's a regular occurrence for one to do an internship with a top-class company or institution for the summer, but this is Google we are talking about here. Kobla was one to watch . I'm not sure I met him in person until I was at Rancard. So now I've been watching him . Late last month, he won the MTN Apps Challenge in Ghana, picking up a cool GHC 10,000 and a trip to San Francisco. Are you going to have a watch on him now? :-) Sometime this year, when I was thinking through cool Ghanaian apps and technologies, I remembered that Kobla Nyomi had built an Oware computer game. It was a 3D app and on Android too. I googled for info on it and found very little, apart from this Ashesi.edu post and another. So I asked him, " What happened to the app? " He said something like " Oh, I haven't really touched ...

When I started using the internet a lot in 2001, I kept hearing about bridging the digital divide. The internet boom and dotcom bust had happened in the US, and for us in Ghana, we were struggling with access to the internet and having to deal with the few internet cafes at their expensive costs. A decade after, we had made a lot of ground with internet access and digital participation thanks to mobile phones. Thanks to my work around GhanaThink and my work at Google, I knew and worked well several digital champions in Africa, building web and mobile apps, etc. The next frontier we had to cross was the digital divide between men and women. A lot of strides have been made, but there is a lot more that can be done. In 2013, I was a Product and Project Manager at Rancard, a major tech company in Ghana that had multinational clients and served customers all over Africa. I worked with lots of engineers on recommendation, payment, communication and content management web and mobile apps. We ...

Chillaxing stands for chilling and relaxing. It's like relaxing but doing something fun. Yesterday, I joined the Rancard team on a corporate outing to visit the Holy Trinity Spa in Sogakope in the Volta region. It's about a 2 hour drive from Accra. Loved being there . Before we get into the tweets, let's learn about the 10 pillars of health. Regular and appropriate physical exercise Scientific relaxation and restful sleep Healthy diet Detoxification (including fasting) Management of sress and stress disorders Supplements Positive attitudes Christian disciplieship Health through water (SPA) Medical, surgical & dental treatments Now to the tweets :-) Yes, cos I was blogging while there. Holy Trinity Spa things. Today's work day is going to be a lot of fun. #ilovemyjob #teamrancard #rancard — Ato Ulzen-Appiah (@Abocco) October 14, 2013 If I had taken the day off, I would have had a 5 day weekend with the Eid-Ul Adha holiday being today. Can...

I don't like making phone calls as much as many people do. Maybe it's because I always felt they were too expensive when I start making them. My very first SIM card was an MTN (Spacefon) one I used in 2004 when I was in Ghana as part of the MIT-AITI team. I remember the digits, mostly because a dear one uses that number now. After using MTN for a couple of times when I was in Ghana, I decided I wouldn't use an MTN chip again. Because it made me say "Mato nonsense" a couple of times. In December 2010 to January 2011, I used a Vodafone chip. When I moved back to Ghana in August 2011, I used an Airtel chip. It's the same MSISDN I've used till now. MSISDN? Thank Rancard for making me say that. I'm just referring to my phone number. So, this month I made a switch to get a post-paid account with Rancard using my Airtel number. I had fought getting a post-paid account while at Google. I just wanted to do pre-paid things. Post-paid things reminded of many thi...

The time has come to host my profile somewhere on the web. There's no better place to start than here. :-) Profile of Ato Ulzen-Appiah Ato Ulzen-Appiah is a consultant, (social) entrepreneur, manager, social media champion and blogger . He hails from Elmina, grew up in Kumasi and lives in Accra . A notable alumni of Presec , he studied at MIT for his Bachelor's degree in Civil Engineering and had his Master's degree at Stanford in construction and engineering management.  He's the director at the  GhanaThink Foundation which mobilizes and organizes talent for the primary benefit of Ghana . GhanaThink, since its inception, has given birth to Kasahorow and Museke . It currently runs the Barcamp Ghana program (111 events since 2008) from which the Junior Camp Ghana program was created (40 events since 2013). Through GhanaThink, he also initiated National Volunteer Day in 2013, which is now part of the Ghana Volunteer Program . He also led the training o...

I was in Lagos earlier this week for the third time this year. This time, I could clearly tell when I was on the 3rd mainland bridge, when I had gotten into VI versus Ikoyi, etc. Almost every single time I was going somewhere, I was not in heavy traffic. I planned it really well. NOT. It just happened. I didn't parade around as Ayooluwaato Eze but I was interested in the subjects I tweeted about and will talk through in this blog post. The first night I had gone to Man of Steel in 3D which was a blog worthy experience . After spending some time at the Rancard office, I had to go to Ikeja for some meeting like that. After bargaining a price of 2000 Naira, we set off. Enjoying the non-existent traffic on Oworoshoki highway in #Lagos to #Ikeja . We jos dey go. Now, the taxi driver is showing me bus stops. — Mighty African (@mightyafrican) July 16, 2013 Did you hear about the Nigerian traffic app (Traffix) that's looking to get bought by Google ? Got to love their vim. T...

I sit in my father's home office in Kumasi as I type this blog post. +Barcamp Kasoa  is tomorrow morning. I won't be there. I'll be in Kumasi like I was today for my sister +Stacey Mensah 's engagement. She gets married tomorrow and aside collecting 'akonta sekan' amongst other things, I have to emcee the reception. Just like I did for Tracey Mensah's wedding which fell on the same day as Barcamp Ashesi . I trust the  +Barcamp Kasoa  organizing team, ably supported by the  +Barcamp Ghana  team, to hold a successful Barcamp tomorrow. This will be our 41st Barcamp, after  +Barcamp Sunyani  last weekend, which was the 40th. Go,  +GhanaThink Foundation , go! Barcamp Kasoa was born out of the initiative of  +Elorm Billy-Awittor  &  +Mawuli Tsikata  who wanted to bring the Barcamp goodness to Kasoa. The first event faced a number of challenges, including the serious thought of considering having it at Methodist University Coll...