Notes from the Maker Faire Africa 2009 in Accra, Ghana from Friday 14th to Sunday 16th August.

Follow the MFA09 aggregator on Maneno.

MFA09 program available here.

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Workshop: Localization – Suuch Solutions, Ghana

kasahorow

• everybody can localize
• provides fonts with every African symbol
• different date formats, currency symbols
• translations are stored in the kasaharow database

Mozilla

• low presence in Africa
• not available in many African languages – only one officially
• call for people: localize Firefox to your language

Maneno

• site support in many local languages – currently 8
• trying to foster creation of content in African languages
• faster for people in Africa – optimization for low bandwidth

Localization is not just translation – new words may not have a translation in e.g. Twi

ANLoc – the African network for localization – group of localization companies, trying to formalize their procedure

Language is part of who you are – that’s a huge reason to advocate localization of content and usage of language

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Maker Show & Tell

IDDS – chlorine dosing team

IDDS – chlorine production team

Notes from IDDS final presentation

Tosh – Nairobits

Offering IT and webdesign education to disadvantaged youth in Nairobi

• Teaching also entrepreneurship
• Also developing Flash-games
• Many great designed webpages
• Curriculum is online

Paul Sika – Photographer

Photographer and entrepreneur

• scripting pictures as if scripting for a movie
• started casting people – young actors
• important – keeping artistic integrity at the beginning of the career, not being commercial too early

Sam Kessie – filma maker

Searching for collaborators on a new movie

• showing the trailer
• “Mourning movies”
• shot in 3 days
• cost very little money
• high quality

Trying to make movies from Ghana more interesting to international community – Ghana has a lot of stories to tell

Where do you get your inspiration from?

• was a former psychology student – life in general gives ideas
• it’s often like a comedy because that’s often the only way we can handle that

IDDS – energy production team

How long will the battery last using a light?

• 60 watt-hours of energy in a can
• 3 D-cell batteries

Johannes – furniture maker – planiture

Rented a room when going to university in Kumasi, but there was nothing there – even had to sit on the floor

Experimented with various materials -> Decided to create furniture from plastic bottles

• All people who ses it are amazed
• dream: house from plastic bottles
• raising funds now
• trying to rebuild all the children’s centers in Ghana

All problems’ solutions lie in yourself

Production cost?

• way cheaper than usual chairs ~60% less
• everything was from recycling

How many bottles would a house need and how long would it take?

• probably millions of bottles
• many bottles are donated, a woman collects them for him at the market

Kenneth Mubuyaete – Zambulance at Disacare wheelchair centre

Organization provides aim for people with disabilities

• should empower them to be able to earn a living on their own

Generating a device to easily move people with disabilities, creating several devices for disabled people now

Where does the material come from?

• most things locally, things that are not produced locally from the region (Kenya)

IDDS – plastic recycling team

Florian Sturm, ICT4D.at – Hello Africa, a movie on mobile phone culture in Zanzibar
More information on Hello Africa