Who are you?

I'm 28 years old, currently living with my wife in Zurich. I love being a digital nomad, to travel the world, experience new things and make new friends. I'd describe myself as pragmatic and a bit naive, but in a positive way.

Why are you supporting the project?

I've read Erik Hersman's Article "From Kenya to Madagascar: The African tech-hub boom" on bbc and wondered, why I worked with designers and developers from all around the globe, despite Africa. When it comes to Web Developement, Africa is a blank canvas to me. I'd like to change that.

What are your expectations?

I expect to meet talented and motived developers and designers that use their skills to solve the problems they are surrounded with. I want to learn what these problems are and how they are approaching them. I'm looking forward to some fun hacking with the local creatives and hope that we'll collaborate on projects beyond the trip.

What are your fears?

I fear that we might get misunderstood.

What should be the goal of the AfricaHackTrip?

Meet local communities. Exchange experiences and ideas. Collaborate on projects. Spread the word.

What would you like to contribute?

I want to make it happen. I take responsibility for the overall organization.

hide

Who are you?

I am a publisher at eufrika.org, a news platform which aims at creating an African-European public. I am curious about people and the connections between the personal, social, political, economic and cultural spheres of life, which got me a master’s degree in Anthropology. I worked in PR, ran a company for a while, and now have a day job as an organizational development consultant focusing on team building, leadership, (social) entrepreneurship, and new forms of collaboration.

Why are you supporting the project?

Because I believe that bridging the digital divide and bridging cultural divides go hand in hand. Serendipity and good friends got me involved with the AfricaHackTrip, which is one of very few projects that will give creative, clever and crazy people from any side of the Mediterranean the chance to meet at eye level.

What are your expectations?

I expect to learn a lot – and still be more curious after the trip than before. AfricaHackTrip is going to be an awesome experience for us as well as for the people we’ll meet. Having interesting conversations with interesting people is what I look forward to most.

What are your fears?

Group dynamics.

What should be the goal of the AfricaHackTrip?

Meaningful connections. And: kicking off awesome projects, getting people everywhere excited through the documentary, and establishing networks. I want there to be an AfricaHackTrip every year from now on, as well as a EuroHackTrip, an AsiaHackTrip, an AussieHackTrip.. You get the idea.

What would you like to contribute?

Networking skills, basic knowledge of Swahili, experience in PR. Non-tech questions and comments, even if they annoy the hack out of hackers.

hide

Who are you?

Hacker and open web enthusiast currently living in Cologne, Germany. Co-founder of Railslove a web development consultancy and founding member of Coworking Cologne.

Why are you supporting the project?

I believe there is a lot we can learn from each other and the AfricaHackTrip is a great project to foster the exchange and build the start for future collaboration.

What are your expectations?

I'm super excited about just seeing what the tech scene is like in a part of the world where I -unknowingly- haven't expected to find such communities. I hope to be able to share experiences and to get a better understanding of the topics and problems the people we'll meet are confronted with.

What are your fears?

getting misunderstood

What should be the goal of the AfricaHackTrip?

Making people aware and connect people. Also the AfricaHackTrip should be the start for future trips/"exchanges".

What would you like to contribute?

Whatever is needed. I'd love to help organizing the events and to develop ideas how continued collaboration could look like.

hide

Who are you?

I started my own web development company Upstream in 2006. In 2008 we added a coworking space called co.up and in 2010 we released Cobot, a coworking space management software.

I mostly work too much but when I don't I go indoor climbing, I go on sailing trips and I make small films.

Why are you supporting the project?

I want to travel, see new places and cultures. I want to know what the tech scenes in the country we will be visiting are like.

What are your expectations?

None. Let's just go and see.

What are your fears?

Safety?

What should be the goal of the AfricaHackTrip?

Learn. Meet people. Bring that back home. Connect.

What would you like to contribute?

My film making skills. Plus whatever else is needed.

hide

Who are you?

I'm a web frontend and JavaScript app developer from Berlin, Germany. I'm currently freelancing, enjoying working on many exciting projects. I'm also getting involved in the Unhosted project that aims to decentralize personal data on the web and with OpenTechSchool, an organization helping to get new people into the tech industry and teaching tech-related subjects in general.

Why are you supporting the project?

I love to travel when there's the chance to really get to know countries and people. Meeting people working in the same industry will be exciting as we will probably have a lot in common and at the same time things will be very different. It's great to see how people from the US and Europe cooperate business-wise and also on not-for-profit and open-source projects. We should do this more around the world. Working together and understanding each other more makes the world a better place.

What are your expectations?

I expect to meet interesting people, find out about the countries and cities we're going to visit and of course about cool projects in the tech industry. I hope to learn new ways how to approach solving real-world problems and I hope people are also interested to find out about how we do things.

What are your fears?

That we are not able to communicate our intentions. We do not want to be simply visitors. Or even worse, a delegation of people to show “them” how to do things “right”.

What should be the goal of the AfricaHackTrip?

Connecting communities. Sharing ideas. Promoting cool projects.Telling everyone by publishing all this.

What would you like to contribute?

I can help with documentation (video, sound, photos, blog) and I'm happy to take care for our stay in Uganda.

hide

Who are you?

I’m a nomadic interaction designer, advisor & educator. Sharing, remixing and freedom are very important to me, so I mostly work on open source web projects like ownCloud, Unhosted and remoteStorage.

Why are you supporting the project?

I know the tech communities in cities like Berlin, San Francisco, Tel Aviv and collaborate with many people from various countries. But I found I know little about what’s going on in Africa and don’t really work with people from there. Apparently most major tech hubs there all started in the last two years. I want to see what is relevant for people there and what we can do together.

What are your expectations?

Now I read a bit about what is going on there, and it’s very similar to elsewhere. Hackerspaces, Makerspaces, so I think there’s lots of opportunity for working together.

What are your fears?

I fear we might forget something important during organization.

What should be the goal of the AfricaHackTrip?

Establish long-lasting connections between the different tech communities. And most importantly to document everything so it’s not just a one-time trip, but informative for everyone.

What would you like to contribute?

I like connecting people and have experience organizing usergroups and meetups. As well as events with more of a cultural focus, like the Unhosted unconference in the small Czech town of Unhost, and Hackerbeach in Vietnam.

hide

Who are you?

Developer, hacker, entrepreneur, nomad, cosmopolite, cinephile, reader, pirate. Proud wearer of freckles. Most of the time I'm creating or breaking things on my computer, either for fun and pleasure or for the startup I founded in late 2011. I love music, cooking, and my skateboard. Since I gave up my apartment in Berlin in 2010, I'm constantly moving around Europe and sometimes the rest of the world.

Why are you supporting the project?

I think it's a great opportunity to learn more about what seems to be an extremly vibrant new tech scene in East-Africa. I'm sure the resulting documentary film will be super interesting.

What are your expectations?

I like to not have any when travelling, so they're always exceeded and never disappointed.

What are your fears?

Horrendous airline fees for bringing my skateboard.

What should be the goal of the AfricaHackTrip?

A common goal I think is of course learning about the places we're going, getting to know the people and what they do there, and soaking up as much atmosphere and information as possible. If possible it would be cool to not only contribute to local projects, but also build longer-lasting bridges between hackers and projects in East Africa and wherever my fellow travellers come from.

What would you like to contribute?

Anything I can.

hide

Who are you?

I'm a 35 years old software developer living in Berlin. I'm working for nxtbgthng, a small developer company focused on iOS & Mac OS X apps. Before that I had a 4 years stay at the Fraunhofer ISST as a research assistant for location-based services. I love to develop the thing under the visible parts, which makes it from time to time a bit complicated explaining exactly what I'm doing. Beside that I do a bit of open source stuff and I have a strong interest in distributed architectures that allow equal access for anybody.

Why are you supporting the project?

Meeting other culture is always interesting for me. During my career as a developer I didn't get in touch with anybody from Afrika. I would like to see there perspective on things. A different culture may change the way of seeing things and helps looking at it from a different point of view.

What are your expectations?

Meeting interesting people (not only developer), get to know the local cuisine, and having a beautiful impression of the countries we are visiting.

What are your fears?

To be honest: The mosquitoes are my biggest fear at the moment.

What should be the goal of the AfricaHackTrip?

I dont think that there should be a concrete overall goal. But after the trip I would like to see the world, at least for a few persons, a bit more connected.

What would you like to contribute?

I'll help out whereever it's needed. Also I like to take care of the Tanzania chapter.

hide