In discussions about the locations that make up the key productive nodes of the global digital economy, African workers rarely get a mention. Autonomous vehicles, machine learning systems, next-generation search engines and recommendations systems: how many of these technologies are ‘made… Continue Reading
I have a new publication coming out soon in the Review of African Political Economy, with my colleague Mark Graham. The paper is based on the research we have been carrying out over a number of years in Africa. It… Continue Reading
If we’ve been quiet about our Digital Entrepreneurship in Africa research, it’s because Michel, Mark, and I have been busy drafting chapters for an upcoming monograph. In the book, we use our empirical data to work through some of the… Continue Reading
African digital entrepreneurs like Tayo Oviosu (see tweet in the picture) are forcefully pursuing the aspiration that African technologies will one day be used by millions of users around the world. We want to share a working paper that discusses this… Continue Reading
Last week, 600 Wikipedians met in Cape Town for Wikimania 2018, the annual global gathering of the Wikipedia community. The keynote speaker on the first day was OII digital geographer Dr Martin Dittus, who presented new work with Professor Mark Graham on the… Continue Reading
It has almost been a year since I finished the final draft of my dissertation about African innovation hubs. In the meantime, a number of publications have come out about hubs in Africa and elsewhere, some in high-profile venues (references are… Continue Reading
The ‘techie’ archetype is the mascot of our age. Generally imagined and depicted as a youth, most often male, wearing a casual sweat-shirt, and carrying a backpack that contains the tool of his trade—the laptop. The techie dreams of building… Continue Reading
Digital entrepreneurship is on the rise across Africa. There is no question that the number of technology startups and the number of organizations trying to support them has multiplied in recent years. Many have taken this rise of activity to… Continue Reading
Good news: my dissertation on African technology innovation hubs is now complete! The permanent digital record (incl. a pdf for download) is here, and the hardbound copy will shortly be deposited with Oxford’s Bodleian Libraries as well. Friederici, N. (2016,… Continue Reading
We have a new publication out: Ojanperä, S., Graham, M., Straumann, R. K., De Sabbata, S., & Zook, M. (2017). Engagement in the knowledge economy: Regional patterns of content creation with a focus on sub-Saharan Africa. Information Technologies & International… Continue Reading
