Last month we soft launched ActivSpaces, a new open collaboration space, innovation hub and startup incubator in Cameroon. The comparison to Limbe Labs, an entity I co-founded last year, should immediately be apparent. It’s essentially the same model transplanted to a new location with some refinements and a fresh new brand. Why the change? Limbe was initially attractive for several reasons. Among them are good infrastructure and public services relative to office lease costs. Douala—a city of 3 million inhabitants and Cameroon’s economic capital—was recently ranked the most expensive city in Africa and in the top 40 worldwide. By contrast, Limbe had ample commercial space at a fraction of Douala’s rates, no traffic jams and one noteworthy fringe benefit; access to some of the best beaches on the coast of West Africa.

Many of the young entrepreneurs who visited Limbe Labs commuted from Buea, a buzzing university town situated 20 minutes away by car. Over time, the message became clear: they were happy to come to Limbe, but we needed a presence in Buea. Recently, we had an opportunity to acquire a lease in Fakoship Plaza, an upscale commercial building at the foot of Mt. Cameroon, so we jumped on it. At a breezy elevation of 1,000 meters air conditioning is needless (the A/Cs in Limbe ran continuously when they weren’t being serviced). More importantly, as predicted the space swiftly became a magnet for techies.

Starting with a new identity, it made sense to reexamine our organizational structure. For its size, we felt that Limbe Labs was top-heavy and didn’t reflect a strong sense of community ownership. The first decision we made was that this space would be wholly owned and managed by the local tech community, rather than officers of a commercial entity. With this as our foundation, the rest were details; what criteria do we use to process new member requests? How many membership levels do we need? What percentage of invoiced commercial projects go toward funding the space? And so on.

Finally, we considered the brand. I entertained the notion of holding onto the name I’d nurtured for over a year. A separate entity, Sanaga Ventures (named for a river in Cameroon), handles investments and directs commercial projects to the space. Limbe Labs was tied to a specific geographic location. We could iterate the “Labs” brand by prepending the name of a town or city, but this lacked originality. Since we’re managed by a community board, we put it to a vote. Our members settled on ActivSpaces. The acronym ACTIV had a lot of appeal (read about it here) and “spaces” suggests a plurality that was found lacking in Limbe Labs. Who am I to argue with our members? :)

The irony is Buea is a place I lived and worked for the better part of three years. So in many ways it was an easy move to make. I was returning to my roots, as it were.

We couldn’t be happier with the new space and the name. If you’re in Buea, stop in for a visit. Follow @activspaces on Twitter and please drop by our new home on the web.

The Extreme North of Cameroon is aptly named for a variety of reasons, apart from being the remote northern terminus of the country. It is, in many respects, a land of extremes with a vastly different character from the Grand South. Situated at the edge of Sahelian Africa, the climate is typically hot and arid with dry season temperatures reaching highs of 118°F (48°C). During this period, the rain ceases to fall in any appreciable amount for months on end, replaced by Harmattan dust whipped up from the depths of the Sahara Desert. When the rains return, bone dry mayos (rivers) and plains are subject to flash floods that may displace entire villages. Lacking any viable roads linking it to the south, travel to the region is achieved only by booking a flight on a small plane (fast and expensive) or an overnight train from Yaoundé followed by an 8 hour bus trip (slow and affordable).

With all its challenges—the climate, geographic isolation, poverty, poor infrastructure—it’s about as unlikely a place as any to find a nascent mobile software scene.

Until Djorwe Temoa arrived, that is.

Born and raised in the village of Tchatibali, Djorwe traveled to study at the prestigious National Advanced School of Engineering Polytechnique in Yaoundé. Degree in hand, Djorwe began his career in 2001 working for Orange, a leading mobile service provider. After his success in the mobile industry, he returned to the Extreme North with his wife. Following BarCamp Cameroon, Djorwe asked if he could visit Limbe Labs to get a copy of the iPhone SDK (at a whopping 2.3GB, a download well beyond the grasp of most Africans).

While he copied a trove of Mac OS X software to his external hard drive, Djorwe demonstrated two mobile apps he’s developed for the local market. I assumed that Mac users were rare in Maroua and aspiring iPhone app developers rarer still, so I was eager to hear his story. Djorwe was happy to oblige. The highlights of our conversation are below:

BZ: Tell me about becoming an entrepreneur with a focus on the mobile platform.
DT: I wanted to start my own IT company but I thought it required a big investment. Later, working with Jean-Francis [Ahanda], who was very interested in Open Source software, I discovered that it doesn’t take too much capital to start a software business. I also wanted to create software that most Cameroonians could use, which is why I chose the mobile platform.

BZ: And you’ve got a strong interest in the iPhone now?
DT: I’m interested in developing for the iPhone, but it’s very expensive. I know I won’t get one million subscribers in Cameroon with an iPhone app—not now. So I started with J2ME and SMS applications because more Cameroonians can benefit from them.

BZ: Describe for me what it’s like working as a software entrepreneur in Maroua. Are there others like you?
DT: I work from home. I can say, I don’t know anyone else in Maroua making mobile applications. As for the environment, it’s very hot—especially in March and April. So the best time for me to work is during the night. The good thing is it’s calm, so there’s no distractions. For an internet connection I use Camtel 128k ADSL, but it can go down for 1-2 days at times.

BZ: I couldn’t help but notice your new MacBook Air. I’m sure those are rare items in Maroua.
DT: Yes, they’re not common! (laughs) I bought the MacBook Air from a shop in Douala because I’m interested in building applications for the iPhone. Also, it’s a gift for myself.

Just when I think I have the software landscape in Cameroon pretty well figured out, a guy like Djorwe comes along to turn all my assumptions upside-down. If iPhone development can be done in Cameroon’s Extreme North—about as harsh a computing environment as one is likely to find anywhere—it opens up a vast range of potential footholds for software engineering elsewhere on the continent.

Djorwe is in Yaoundé as I write this, returning soon via train to his home in Maroua.

With a population of around one million inhabitants, Kibera is widely known as Africa’s largest slum and counted among the biggest on earth. It’s also one of the most studied slums in Africa, given its close proximity to the center of a modern city, Nairobi, and the headquarters of UN-HABITAT, the United Nations’ agency for human settlements.

Despite the fact that many organizations have collected data on various aspects of Kibera, it has yet to be aggregated and shared as a public resource. As a result, the area remains a blank spot on Kenyan maps and knowledge of traffic patterns, housing layouts, health, water and community resources are largely unknown both to outsiders and the residents themselves.

Map Kibera is a collaborative project that aims to fill this gap by producing a free and open digital map using OpenStreetMap, a user-edited map of the world. This November, a group of twelve young residents of Kibera will be trained in current mapping techniques using off-the-shelf GPS receivers and free software developed for use with OpenStreetMap. The group is expected to map Kibera over a two-week period, process the raw data and make it available to the world. The resulting information will be freely available to residents, NGOs, private companies and others interested in working with and for Kibera.

The project is significant because it provides primary, open source data that may be used to illustrate living conditions in Kibera. “Without basic knowledge of the geography of Kibera it is impossible to have an informed discussion on how to improve the lives of residents of Kibera,” says Mikel Maron of the Humanitarian OpenStreetMap Team.

Many organizations, including the Kenyan government, the UN and local and international NGOs, have their own, often opposing, views for how to alleviate the poor living conditions for Kibera’s residents. One one hand, proponents of improving the slum look to provide safe drinking water, sanitation, wastewater and solid waste management. Others, notably Kenyan Prime Minister and local MP Raila Odinga, have plans to bulldoze the slum and relocate its inhabitants. Odinga’s plan hit a snag when residents and landlords took their property rights and land ownership claims to court. Urban planners have also expressed concerns for the project, saying that it risks repeating mistakes of the past. In similar relocation efforts, poor families have sub-let their apartments to middle-class families and moved back into the slums.

Map Kibera is led by Mikel Maron of OpenStreetMap and supported by JumpStart International. Partners include Jubal Harpster of WhereCampAfrica, the Social Development Network, Pamoja Trust, Hands on Kenya and Carolina for Kibera.

Project website: www.mapkibera.org
Follow mapkibera on Twitter

The 9,800 km Glo-1 fiber optic submarine cable made its landing over the weekend at Alfa Beach in Lagos, Nigeria. The cable originates in England and connects Nigeria to the UK, Spain, Portugal and the rest of West Africa with 16 branching units to cities along its route. The cable is expected to drive down broadband costs and provide faster and more robust connectivity for voice, data and video services. The technology sector in West Africa stands to benefit from Glo-1 as companies will be able to communicate more easily with clients and partners overseas. It equally holds promise to open Internet access to individuals and small businesses who’ve been unable to afford connections of their own.

Glo-1 has a current capacity of 640 gigabits per second and an ultimate capacity of 2.5 terabits per second. Until now, West Africa had access to only one submarine fiber optic cable: the SAT-3, owned primarily by Telkom Limited, a South African telecommunications provider, and controlled by a consortium of national telco operators. Those without access to the SAT-3 cable were forced to use expensive and slow satellite links. Glo-1 is unique as it’s the first submarine cable owned by a single telecommunications company, Nigeria’s Globacom Limited.

The main landing points of the cable are from Bude, England (in Cornwall) via Vigo, Spain; Sesimbra, Portugal; Accra, Ghana; Casablanca, Morocco; Dakar, Senegal; Nouakchott, Mauritania; and, finally Lagos, Nigeria. The Glo-1 will provide excess bandwidth to all the cities connected to the cable after the system is lit up.

Cameroon’s first BarCamp, a technology “unconference” centered around open, participatory workshops, has just announced a date and venue. The event will take place on Saturday, November 7th at the College Libermann in Douala. Mark your calendars!

The organizers, which include Cameroonian technology professionals both at home and abroad, are encouraging others to get involved and take an active role in planning the event. Use the links below to follow their progress and participate:

Official Event Page: http://barcamp.org/BarCampCameroon
Event registration: http://barcampdouala.eventbrite.com/
Blog: http://barcampafrica.com/cameroon
Twitter:http://twitter.com/BarCampCameroon
Google group: http://groups.google.com/group/barcampcameroon

Discounted airfare is available from Air France KLM for those traveling for the event. ReadWriteWeb has agreed to provide coverage and Ringo is on board as an official sponsor.

Heroes and Digital Dreams
The theme of the event is “Digital Dreams” which was suggested by Fritz Ekwoge, founder of iYam.mobi and co-founder of Kerawa.com. Fritz is a visionary young entrepreneur at the forefront of Cameroon’s digital revolution. During a discussion on a theme for the upcoming BarCamp Cameroon, he proposed the following:

I am hoping one of the principal outcomes of this barcamp will be to give us reasons to dream again. To help us know that there are ‘heroes’ working on their dreams and are being successful at it. To help us know that we too, can be pacesetters. To help us know that we have, or will soon have, adequate infrastructure, technology prowess, and financial assistance from government, VCs, and other relevant institutions. To help us know that the whole ecosystem is already set; the only thing lacking being…us.

We’ve got lots of talent in this country. We just need reasons to believe in our digital dreams.

Fritz’s full vision statement is up at Downey.net.