Mombasa Tech Community Blog http://www.mombasatech.org/ Blog posts for Mombasa Tech Community en-gb [email protected] Copyright 2014 Building for the future with Appmaker http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/08/building-for-the-future-with-appmaker th floor the JKUAT Mombasa Campus.  Participants started coming in early minutes before the event and settled.]]> Thu, 14 Aug 2014 13:51:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/08/building-for-the-future-with-appmaker Mozilla Mash-Up the Web http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/08/mashup-the-web So with the date set and people registering for the event, Mash-up the web was finally here! Despite experiencing some slight rains in the wake of the event this didn’t deter attendees from showing up to the event with some like Gilbert showing up at the exact time 8:00am sharp. It was very commendable and we hope this spirals down to the community members, punctuality is the soul of business. The venue was really outdone, kudos to the Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture & Technology (JKUAT) fraternity for providing the space, facilities and for their valuable support of course without which this event would not have been possible.]]> Tue, 12 Aug 2014 10:21:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/08/mashup-the-web Mozilla Mozilla Maker Party 2014 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/07/mozilla-maker-party-2014 Teach Learn & Make. This undoubtedly describes the series of events that Mozilla Mombasa is about to roll out in the coming weeks in Partnership with Mozilla, we will be spearheading this series of events under Mozilla's Global Campaign dubbed Maker Party 2014. Maker Party is Mozilla's global campaign to teach the web through thousands of community-run events around the world, it unites educators, organizations and enthusiastic web users with hands-on learning and making.]]> Wed, 30 Jul 2014 14:50:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/07/mozilla-maker-party-2014 Mozilla Google I/O Extended 2014 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/06/google-io-extended-2014 Here in Mombasa, developers and tech enthusiasts had high expectations on this year’s Google I/O. Last year’s event got everyone in attendance excited on the new developments from Google including Hangouts upgrade, Android Studio development platform and their improvements.]]> Fri, 27 Jun 2014 14:53:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/06/google-io-extended-2014 Google BarCamp 2014 Mombasa - Thank you http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/04/barcamp-2014-mombasa-thank-you Earlier on we had done publicity for the BarCamp Mombasa 2014. We would love to thank the sponsors and the community for its huge success. A special thank you to our crew. BarCamp 2014 would not have impressed our supporters, including Intel Kenya, the iHub - Nairobi’s Innovation Hub, and Angani had it not been for our dedictated efforts.

Special thanks goes to Intel, iHub and Angani for their high level support and event sponsorship.

And a special thank you to our crew: Said Fuad Said, Alifya Ganijee, Murad Swaleh, Swaleh Abubakar Ahmed, Brighton Mwasaru, Musa Jeffer Alfan, Joan Nabusoba, Phil Kioko, Aisha A Abubakar, Jamila Mbarak Bassadiq, Ruth Kaveke, Derrick James, Joel Mwas.]]> Thu, 03 Apr 2014 11:48:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/04/barcamp-2014-mombasa-thank-you Events Coffee with Mozilla Mombasa http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/coffee-with-mozilla-mombasa On Saturday the 22nd of March 2014, the Mozilla Mombasa community organized a meet-up dubbed “Coffee with MozMombasa” a meet up with Student Reps, Firefox Student Ambassadors, the Regional Marketing Ambassador and fellow Mozillians to reflect on the success of the Mozilla events that have been covered on the 1st quarter of 2014 and the challenges that have been faced in carrying out some of events. Also in attendance was Alex Wafula, Mozilla Rep from Nairobi who also joined in to take into account challenges from the Mozilla Mombasa and see to it how we could all solve them.]]> Tue, 25 Mar 2014 14:06:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/coffee-with-mozilla-mombasa Mozilla Mozilla Women's Webmaker Day http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/mozilla-womens-webmaker-day On Saturday, 15th March 2014, WoMoz Mombasa, a sub-chapter within the Mozilla Mombasa community focused on Women and Mozilla organized its second event called Women's Webmaker Day under the theme: "Learn by making"

The event was packed by 42 attendants out of which 8 were boys which implies that 81% of the attendants were female! Congratulations to all the ladies who made it!]]> Fri, 21 Mar 2014 13:28:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/mozilla-womens-webmaker-day Mozilla Javascript Meet-Up http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/javascript-meetup Firebase – A big deal! - A Blog post compiled by Harris Mwashalo

On Wednesday, 19th March 2014, a group of Mombasa Tech Community members met with Mr. Connor Leech to have a discussion on the latest developments regarding the ever evolving Web Applications. We started off by recapping the well-known programming languages used by today’s web developers. These being HTML, JavaScript, CSS for the front-end (Client-side languages) and PHP, Python and Node.js for the back-end (Server-side Languages).]]> Fri, 21 Mar 2014 11:10:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/javascript-meetup General BarCamp 2014 Mombasa http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/barcamp-2014-mombasa
BarCamp is an "unconference" - The structure and agenda is completely informal - attendees decide how the event is run, and vote on which topics and speakers get to present !
It is a completely open event, attended by techies, bloggers, entrepreneurs, key stakeholders and other clever people within the Mombasa technology scene who come to share and learn.

BarCamp Mombasa 2014 is hosted by the Mombasa Tech Community, and generously sponsored by Intel as the key sponsor
Other sponsors include the iHub and Angani.co]]> Tue, 18 Mar 2014 12:11:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/barcamp-2014-mombasa Events Intel CodeFest 2014 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/intel-codefest-2014
Register to attend!!]]> Tue, 18 Mar 2014 12:04:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/intel-codefest-2014 Events Women Techmakers: Mombasa http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/women-techmakers-mombasa "The fastest way to change society is to mobilize the women of the world" - Charles Malik

In conjunction with International Women’s Day on March 8th, Google launched a series of global Women Techmakers events geared towards increasing visibility, community and resources for technical women in our industry. GDG Women Mombasa was honored to host an event named "Women Techmakers: Mombasa" under the theme "Engineering the future"]]> Tue, 11 Mar 2014 08:32:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/women-techmakers-mombasa Google Our 2nd Anniversary Special http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/our-2nd-anniversary-special Its been 2 years, of hard work, patience, and community service.

Let us talk a abit about the story of a long journey that is breathtaking. Just 2 years ago, 3 fellows came together to chart the begining of what can be named “The Mombasa Tech Community”, completely transforming the technology landscape in Mombasa. Those 3 individuals were: Ahmed Maawy, Alifya Ganijee and Said Fuad.]]> Tue, 11 Mar 2014 05:34:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/our-2nd-anniversary-special Reports Google Gives Alifya Ganijee a feature on their Doodle http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/google-gives-alifya-ganijee-a-feature-on-their-doodle Just a day before World Women's Day, Google has featured our very own Alifya Ganijee in a Doodle for World Women's Day.

According to Google "Women have historically been underrepresented in almost all fields: science, school curricula, business, politics—and, sadly, doodles. In addition to our continued effort for doodle diversity and inclusion (see progress on http://google.com/doodles), today's truly International Women's Day doodle features a host of inspiring women from around the world, including the President of Lithuania, a brave Pakistani education activist, an ever-curious explorer, and dozens more. Find the full list of participants: http://goo.gl/cAvkcb"

This goes a long way to talk about our support for initiatives geared towards developing and empowering Women in the region, especially in technology.]]> Fri, 07 Mar 2014 12:17:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/google-gives-alifya-ganijee-a-feature-on-their-doodle Press Africa Android Challenge 2014 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/africa-android-challenge-2014  #aac2014 is a competition that allows us to groom the next generation of successful developers and Android experts on the African continent. These developers will create innovative Android applications with a focus on #design.]]> Wed, 05 Mar 2014 13:18:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/africa-android-challenge-2014 General A Tribute To International Women’s Day-2014 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/a-tribute-to-international-womens-day2014

“In politics if you want anything said, ask a man. If you want anything done, ask a woman.” (Margaret Thatcher)  and “As a woman I have no country. As a woman my country is the whole world.” (Virginia Woolf).

]]> Tue, 04 Mar 2014 07:48:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/a-tribute-to-international-womens-day2014 General Open Data Day Kenya 2014 - Mombasa http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/open-data-day-kenya-2014-mombasa
Open Data Day is a gathering of citizens in cities around the world to write applications, liberate data, create visualizations and publish analyses using open public data to show support for and encourage the adoption open data policies by the world's local, regional and national governments.

Open Data Day Kenya was organized by Open Institute. In Mombasa the event was done in partnership with The Mombasa Tech Community in Mombasa, Kenya.]]> Sat, 01 Mar 2014 10:13:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/03/open-data-day-kenya-2014-mombasa Partners The First Technovation Meet-up http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/the-first-technovation-meetup ​On 11th February 2014, 17 awesome ladies met up for a brief session on Technovation Challenge, presented and moderated by the Regional Coordinator; Alifiyah Ganijee.

The meeting commenced with an introduction session where by attendants introduced themselves and briefly explained why they would like to take part in the Technovation Challenge. Alifiyah Ganijee then introduced the Challenge briefly highlighting some of the important points like; Goals, key dates, Curriculum, Benefits and Prizes. This was followed by a mind warmer - an inspiring video session on "Inspiring women in technology Samantha Quist (Task Hatch Founder)" and "Technovation 2013"]]> Wed, 12 Feb 2014 06:33:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/the-first-technovation-meetup Google Technovation Challenge 2014 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/technovation-challenge-2014 Technovation Challenge is the largest and longest-running global technology competition exclusively for girls to inspire the pursuit of STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). In Technovation, girls aged 13-23 years work in teams to imagine, design and develop innovative mobile apps that solve problems in their local communities. 

For the 2014 challenge, teams have to develop an app that solves a problem in their local community in one of the following categories:]]> Tue, 11 Feb 2014 18:18:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/technovation-challenge-2014 Google Open Data - The new way to Information Resource Sharing http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/open-data-the-new-way-to-information-resource-sharing So how then does open data benefit us? Having open access to data is vital for research and innovation. It decreases the monopoly on infrastructure and data held by only a few large companies today. Open data lowers barriers to market entry for new startups and allows existing businesses to cost-effectively compete. With that said, going open data is the new “green” thing of the information world.]]> Mon, 10 Feb 2014 13:11:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/open-data-the-new-way-to-information-resource-sharing Partners UI/UX Workshop http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/uiux-workshop ​On 8th February 2014, The Mombasa Tech Community hosted a UI/UX Workshop at JKUAT CBD. The turn-out was quite impressive with a total of over 60 attendees. Musa Alfan handled registration and the event kicked off at 9.00am. The guest speakers were Mr. Olivier Vernin and Mr. Zaheer Mamujee; both IT professionals with over 10 years’ experience. They started by talking about their life experiences, how they ended up being in the IT field and their job experiences. Such interesting, capturing and motivating stories they both told!]]> Mon, 10 Feb 2014 11:33:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/uiux-workshop General JKUAT Firefox Club Meet-Up http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/jkuat-firefox-club-meetup The JKUAT Firefox club scheduled a club meet up on the 23rd of January 2014 at JKUAT Msa Campus in order to introduce the club to all students within the university, to spread the word about Mozilla, the club and invite members to contribute as well as plan for the clubs activities for 2014.
 ]]> Tue, 04 Feb 2014 18:21:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/02/jkuat-firefox-club-meetup Mozilla Sensitization on Google Technologies event http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/01/sensitization-on-google-technologies-event Mon, 27 Jan 2014 07:47:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/01/sensitization-on-google-technologies-event Google Mombasa Tech Community gets featured on Fast Company http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/01/mombasa-tech-community-gets-featured-on-fast-company
In an article that talks about how the future of education should be like in Africa, Ahmed Maawy, one of the co-founders of the community gets featured in a Fast Company Article dubbed "Does Ikea Hold The Secret To The Future Of College?".]]> Fri, 10 Jan 2014 18:45:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/01/mombasa-tech-community-gets-featured-on-fast-company Press Moz Barcamp 2013 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/01/moz-barcamp-2013
The barcamp started off at half past eight with attendants slowly trickling in, they were warmly welcomed by the registration team and led through to the main event room. Without wasting time, the MC, Andrew Mwangi, welcomed the host to officially mark the event open with a few remarks. Thereafter, honorable judges were introduced and in no time, Alifiyah Ganijee took was on floor, presenting about Firefox OS App development and led the attendants through installing the necessary tools required to kickstart Firefox OS Apps Development.

Later, Said Fuad took the attendants through a "Hello World" Application and how to begin developing an app for Firefox OS. After the presentations, attendants were requested to break into teams and the brainstorming session started, thereafter, during the quick fire round, each team was given 3 minutes to present their ideas to the audience as well as convince the judges.
 ]]> Sat, 04 Jan 2014 12:05:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/01/moz-barcamp-2013 Mozilla End of Year Mozcoffee http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/01/end-of-year-mozcoffee End of Year Mozcoffee organized on 2nd January 2014 at Dormans Cafe by Mozilla Mombasa.

The end of year Mozcoffee was held past the expected date due to some unavoidable circumstances on 2nd January 2014. Of the 12 people expected, 8 appeared at the Mozcoffee and were satisfied with the meet up.

At first, the activists discussed about the challenges facing attendants during events and ways in which we can solve these problems and thus achieve growth and ensure survival of the community. Thereafter we discussed on the events and the news of the past year, achievements made and so on after which we had some snacks and continued with a plan of events for the first quarter of 2014.]]> Sat, 04 Jan 2014 02:14:00 +0000 http://www.mombasatech.org/index.php/blog/2014/01/end-of-year-mozcoffee Mozilla