These are the points that will be tested to award the winner of the 17^th November 2012 BlackBerry Hackathon:

• The Business Model – 25%
• Design Quality – 25%
• Originality of Idea – 25%
• Functionality – 25%

Each team should comprise of no more than 6 team members (You can 1 guy or 6 guys max)

Everything you present on the App has got to have been done in the room. Do not bring your previous work to this event. All has to be done here.

End of coding is at 6.30pm and each team Read more »

InMobi, the world’s largest Independent Mobile Ad network, reports on how mobile innovation and technology give political parties innovative new ways to reach voters.

Kenya is facing an election year in 2013, about 6-8 months from now depending on how you look at it. This would generally mean that there is no better time to reach a broad audience come voting season for political parties than now. So InMobi went ahead and did a study on what matters most to Kenyans beliefs are as far as they’re tie-in with mobile are. Findings reveal that what matters most seems to be policy and how they get to hear vis-a-vis interact with information as this is key to informed decisions. 

Quick Comparison: Barack Obama in his first campaign massively used digital, online and social media to reach out to would-be voters and wood them into voting in America’s first Black president. Read more »

Microsoft today held a presser to announce how far the piracy fight has come. Truth be told, it has come a long way.

According to a study done in May of 2011, Microsoft loses up to 85 Million USD annually through piracy of their software packages in Kenya alone. According to their OEM Lead for East and Southern Africa (ESA) region, Wanja Muriithi, this is attributed to by the many installations done in offices, schools, cyber cafes and home personal computing systems across the country.

On an authoritative note, Microsoft in conjunction with the Kenya Copyright Board (KECOBO) conducted a raid yesterday, 21^st December, at the premises of an industrial company and confiscated computers allegedly installed with pirated software. The biggest culprits were the Windows operating system and the Microsoft office suite which is largely pirated across the country, even in mid-size companies and SMEs.

The raid comes after the Kenya Copyright Board recently concluded their debatable successful 30-day amnesty campaign for software offenders and did much to send messages n the dangers and tough penalties should one commit an intellectual property crime.

Read more »

Youtube (the famous Google product that focuses on video sharing) recently launched a service channel that is primarily for learning.

This comes at a time when videos are seem as a great source of information and YouTube are at the top of ensuring that they are the key distributors even when it comes to learning. Videos have long been incorporated in learning from the early days of VCRs and their tapes, and now DVDs that are full on useful and curated content.

There are more than 400 playlists found here, and they are split into grades (which automatically means that it is built for the US and Europe for now).

Kenya and Africa at large is yet to see this localized version but we really look forward to a time when teachers will spend less time searching, and more time teaching.

App Circus, a unique worldwide travelling showcase of creativity and innovativeness in app developers is coming to Nairobi this September the 10th. App Circus, powered by dotopen, targets the most influential international events in mobile and web. Developers, startups and any other organizations are open to apply to showcase their app during the event, which presents the winner a nomination to the Mobile Premier Awards 2012 in Barcelona during the Mobile world Congress. Read more »

Kenya’s fastest growing Information Technology solutions provider, Seven Seas Technologies, has unveiled a joint investment partnership with Zimbabwe’s Twenty Third Century Systems, one of the largest sub-Sahara Africa business solutions providers.

In a pioneering multimillion business alliance between a South African regional giant and an East and Central Africa IT flagbearer, Seven Seas Technologies (SST) and Twenty Third Century Systems (TTCS) have unveiled a joint venture operation in Kenya to spearhead the rollout of premium Enterprise applications.

The full-fledged IT solutions firm will be trading under the brand name: Twenty Third Century Systems Kenya, with a business mandate to provide SAP Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) solutions.

As the largest sub Saharan Africa solutions provider for SAP, the union between SST and TTCS is geared at facilitating SAP’s aggressive market expansion drive in the continent. The venture is also expected to herald the dawn of a new era in specializes systems trainings as the firm gears up to unveil an SAP Talent Academy here in Nairobi. Read more »

Through a mobile advertising partnership with InMobi, the world’s largest independent mobile ad network, Dealfish is now one of the most visited local web sites in Kenya.

Dealfish, a free, user-friendly online classifieds site for local communities, provides users with a simple and convenient way to buy, sell, rent and find products, services and jobs as part of a like-minded community.  Dealfish engaged InMobi to help drive registrations and raise brand awareness in Kenya using highly successful mobile advertising campaigns. The Dealfish site received over 60,000 listings in just 9 months Monthly traffic is currently hundreds of thousands of unique visitors generating millions of page impressions. Read more »

As we go about our daily lives, we all get into certain situations where we find it dificult to pick  the best spot to spend some time, whether with family, friends or just by ourselves.

Often, we are confused about where to go, how much time will it take etc etc. If you have ever found yourself in such a situation, then you need to download AroundMe, a locally-developed Kenyan app on your Nokia phone.

From shopping to restaurants to hospitals to banks and even gas stations, wherever in Kenya, this app is your go-to directory for all the service you could ever need. The minute you log on, it triangulates your location and depending on where you want to go, it gives you a list of all the available locations. Read more »