East Africa Google Gadget Competition

Overview

As part of Google’s ongoing commitment to innovation and technology, we are pleased to announce the East Africa Google Gadget Competition 2008. Through this competition, we aim to reward and encourage students in East Africa to envision, design, and develop gadgets that can impact consumers globally.

If you’re a student in East Africa, the Google Gadget Competition is your chance to participate in a technical competition and create a functioning application of your own design. You might build a calendar of school events, an interactive quiz, or anything you can dream up for a web page. If you’ve never taken a web design class, you can probably create a gadget in a few weeks.

Multiple prizes will be awarded based on the strength of the submitted gadgets. All entered students will be notified of the results of their gadget creation in August 2008.

Eligibility Requirements

Candidates Must:

• Be currently enrolled in a Bachelor’s degree, Master’s degree, or PhD program in 2007/2008
• Be studying CS, Information Systems, ICT or have related technical skills
• Be currently attending a university in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, or Burundi

http://www.google.com/intl/en/events/eagadgetcompetition/contest.html

 

 

Technorati Tags: google.com,East Africa,Kenya,Tanzania,Rwanda,Uganda,Ethiopia,Burundi

innovative Japanese fashion – dress vending machine

I love to see technology / related ideas mixed with ‘daily-life’…, not the kind that stands aloof from their users.

here is one of such:

To prevent crime, a fashion designer thought to transform clothes into inanimate objects to help people disguise and deceive, potential ‘muggers’ thieves.

source: gizmodo

I wonder if such ‘clothes’ could be classified as a ‘gadget’, I mean, who says all gadgets have to be hardware, how about clothe-ware gadgets.

 

Tags: Fashion+into+security

Congo’s pygmies turn to technology

Through the use of Hand-held satellite tracking devices, Pygmies and commercial loggers have begun to work together in the Congo Basin Republic.

The Congo River (for a time known as Zaire River) is the largest river in Western Central Africa. Its overall length of 4,700 km (2,922 miles) makes it the second longest in Africa (after the Nile). more on wikipedia

With the Congo basin completely mapped, and available on GPS, with these devices in hand, the Pygmies and the loggers know and can identify if their present location is marked for preservation, marked for logging, a no-go area, even where their vehicles must/must not drive through. These devices also help monitor the logging activities agaiinst illegal loggers. Read the full story here by Gladys ,M.

picture source

I believe its high time that Africa starts utilizing technology to its advantage. Farmers could take a cue from this, even petty traders.

example: Nigeria could take a cue from this to provide information on traffic situations around the country. With GPS enabled mobile-phones, that ‘I am stuck up in a heavy traffic jam‘ might ease out a little bit. Another perspective is on security. With by the hour up-to-date GPS info, no-go areas due to an on-going armed robbery operation(perhaps) could be very useful. It could also help track these bandits on their getaway.

There are so many applications, and all we can hope is that we wake up to these realities that could make life easier.