In Kenya, most Mondays, developers gather together to discuss and share ideas on mobile app development. Mobile Monday – Kenya is indeed helping Kenya to become a leader in mobility computing in Africa. This is something other African countries must look into and replicate. Good enough, it did not even start in Kenya – they just adopted it. We know Barcamp, for instance Barcamp Nigeria, but the specificity of Mobile Monday makes it cool. Companies like Nokia, MTN and others are using these events to tap and create partnerships with these local developer communities. African youth is taking over the technology roadmap and they are getting it right.
From Mobile Monday – Kenya
Mobile Monday is a global community of mobile industry visionaries, developers and influentials fostering cooperation and cross-border business development through virtual and live networking events to share ideas, best practices and trends from global markets.
Mobile Monday has the following objectives:
- To encourage innovation within the mobile sector.
- To facilitate networking between small and large companies, and between local and foreign.
- To help local companies effectively participate in international initiatives through the import and export of visions, concepts, technologies, know-how and best practices.
- To present innovative visions, trends, studies and forecasts from the mobile marketplace.
- To facilitate and create partnerships.
- To contribute to the education of the broader public through its publications, online presence and media partnerships.
Mobile Monday is organized by a group of dedicated volunteers from around the world. Originating in Helsinki, Finland, in the year 2000, Mobile Monday has grown into the world’s leading mobile community.
History
The remarkable MobileMonday phenomenon began almost by accident in Helsinki, Finland during the autumn of 2000. A couple of well-known Finnish visionaries, invited the who’s who of the Finnish mobile industry to a pub for an informal get-together and perhaps a warming drink. The only suitable time? Monday evening.
After meeting many new faces and discussing the latest in mobility, the group decided to continue meeting on the first Monday of each month — and thus, MobileMonday was born. Towards the end of 2004, the movement started to spread to other areas of the world and new MoMo chapters were started in Tokyo, Japan, Silicon Valley, UsA as well as Rome and Milan, Italy. Since then, the number of MobileMonday chapters and members has dramatically increased making MobileMonday the world’s leading mobile community.