AfricaHackTrip Drink-Up Recap

What a great way to kick off the US chapter of the AfricaHackTrip project. Our host for the evening, Pete Fecteau, was joined by 12 other smiling faces. The evening kicked off at 6:30 at the Showdown in the heart of San Francisco California. The conversation was hot and covered projects and technologies that the group has been looking at in Africa as well as things that may be of interest to African hackers.

One topic in particular kept coming up, M-Pesa, Africa’s SMS-driven solution to sending/receiving payments. The solution makes complete sense in Africa where mobile technologies are at the cutting edge and serves as a great case-study for how culture and geography make different demands on emerging technology.

Many people attending the event came with minimal knowledge of the group and it’s mission but after a short pitch it was apparent they were in the right place. One individual, Charles Van Norman, mention he had started a very similar group he was calling the African Dev Tour and was interested in seeing if there was any overlap. The two groups showed very similar interests and we look forward to collaborating in the future.

At 8:30 the event was winding down. Some of the attendees retired for the evening while others enjoyed food and more camaraderie at Grubstake, a local restaurant. All-in-all is was a very pleasant evening and served the purpose of making friends out of profiles.

Many of the attendees have now signed up to attend the official meeting on Wednesday, October 24th at 12:00pm. That meeting will be held at the SFSU downtown campus (835 Market St @ Powell station, 6th floor, San Francisco, CA).