Posts Tagged ‘kenya’

During the tragic post-election violence in Kenya late last year, a couple of technologists with ties to Kenya created Ushahidi, an innovative web service that allows witnesses to report crisis news from their mobile phone or computer. From the Swahili word for “testimony,” this non-profit has created a platform which allows for the crowdsourcing of reporting. It has already been proven useful in South Africa to track anti-immigration violence, and I’m sure sundry other uses will pop up.

I’m really excited for the possibilities this opens up. Ushahidi was an important tool for making the crisis in Kenya more transparent and capitalizes on the mobile penetration in Africa. Allowing more people to have the ability to express what they see is an important goal and Ushahidi is doing so in an open-source way which will make this as accessible as possible to all. Congratulations to the team!

Tim Lee, who blogs at the great group blog the Technology Liberation Front, has a review of James Bessen and Michael Meurer’s new book, “Patent Failure.” The conclusions:

• For large, publicly traded firms, patent portfolios are net losers. To defend a corporation’s patents typically costs more for non-pharmaceutical patents than the intellectual property makes.
• This disincentive for innovation has risen sharply since the 1990s when courts loosened restrictions on patent granting and litigation.
• Patents suffer from the lack of notice they offer. It often isn’t clear until costly litigation occurs what the patent covers (in contrast to both real property and trademarks and copyrights).
• A number of proposed fixes could help the excruciatingly complicated task of reforming the patent system including raising patent fees, increasing stringency of granting patents, providing a safe-harbor for good-faith, accidental infringement and ending software patents.

Secondly, via White African, a New York Times article on the Kenya technology scene provides a glimpse into the burgeoning technical industries in Africa. Although the article develops into a discussion about Google opening an office in Nairobi, it provides an insightful look at the ingenuity which is required to innovate in a city where Internet is slow and expensive, people cannot afford the most advanced gadgets and mobile phones are the primary means of connection.

[Photo via NYT]