[US blogger tour] Blogging lesson #2: Africa is Africa, contextualise IT

Africa, in case you hadn’t noticed, is a continent filled with a flair that is unique. Nowhere else in the world would you find the things that you can find in Africa. We have something that stands out.

It stands out for a very specific reason. We are untouched technologically, sociologically and societally by the western world by in large. That might initially seem somewhat ridiculous. But think about it for a second. We are removed and almost shunned by the rest of the world as a dead zone; an irrelevant place on Earth that hasn’t enough Internet connectivity to really matter.

We know better though. Something I have learned on my trip with the bloggers from the USA is that they don’t really know much about South Africa in general, or Africa for that matter. This places us in a very unique position. We have the chance to stand out in a market filled with one TechCrunch and a million wannabe-crunches, with one Engadget and thousands upon thousands of gadget-ish-almost-ens.

We have the ability at this juncture in our technological advancement to step out of the crowd and wow the world. All we need to do is take the world by storm and not be afraid of our Africanism.

Projects like Ushahidi are doing just that (not quite a storm as a drizzle for the moment). But the principle is sound. Make use of the technological developments being made and initiated around the world and localise the initiatives to an African context. Make the tech work in the space and make the space work the tech.

We are on the cusp, as a continent, of great things in the online market as well as and especially the mobile market. Let’s open up our fists and grab what is coming and bound to be coming our way now while we still can and we still have the ability to intrigue the rest of the world with our resourceful individuality.