Snip from Afrigadget:
A couple weeks ago one of our inspirations for AfriGadget – Emeka Okafor of Timbuktu Chronicles – put forward an idea on the Ned forums about a “Maker Faire Africa“.
The aim of a Maker Faire-like event is to create a space on the continent where Afrigadget-type innovations, inventions and initiatives can be sought, identified, brought to life, supported, amplified, propagated, etc.
Maker Faire Africa asks the question, “What happens when you put the drivers of ingenious concepts from Mali with those from Ghana and Kenya, and add resources to the mix?”
The focus here is not on high-tech, but on manufacturing. Specifically, fabrication, the type of small and unorganized businesses that pop up wherever an entrepreneur is found on the African continent. It gets exciting when you think about gathering some of the real innovators from this sector into one place where they can learn from each other and spread their knowledge from one part of the continent to another.
Maker Faire: Africa 2009 (Afrigadget, thanks Emeka).
I realize this is just at message-board brainstorm stage, and don't know if these folks have reached out to O'Reilly yet. But there could understandably be some sensitivity about actually planning the event under the name "Maker Faire" if it were not an O'Reilly event. It's a terrific idea, though — maybe they can work together!
