Digital revolution lights up Africa with maps, mobiles, money and markets

In Africa, necessity is the mother of invention and social media sites are not just for sharing photographs and gossip

In Africa, necessity is the mother of invention and social media sites are not just for sharing photographs and gossipAs a teenager Noé Diakubama made a sketch map of Mbandaka, on the Congo river, so as not to get lost in the forest while picking a vegetable called fumbwa. “I remember never having seen a map of the city,” he says.Thirty years later, maps of the city in the Democratic Republic of the Congo are still in short supply. So Diakubama decided to create the first one of his home city. He spent hours at his computer in Brussels, where he now lives, using Google Map Maker software and entering the streets he could recall. He hired an assistant to tour Mbandaka by bike and name the streets on a map scanned in pdf format and printed out.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/30/africa-digital-revolution-mobile-phonesAlso see:Africa’s apps: farming to gaming
Digital enterprise on the continent has sparked a range of user-friendly programs, from chat forums and photo-sharing sites to the first mobile ‘cow calendar’
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/oct/30/africa-apps-software-digital-enterprise

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