So am scrolling through my TL at past 11pm Monday night. A
friend RTs @enspireATV’s tweet concerning Abuja’s first hackathon-good idea!!
It’s scheduled for the next day, Tuesday from 10a.m to 4p.m in Maitama with the
aim of introducing and meeting Abuja hackers, identifying new technology
ventures and opportunities, and, creating an international standard for
technology incubation platform. I have
no illusions about the benefits of technology to business; I have been interested
in the dot com rise since the 90s and more recently, researching the business
implications of adapting this model in Nigeria. It is the future we have been sleeping on no
thanks to a critical lack of internet infrastructure.
An Abuja based hub, finally!! The guys at @cc_hub (Lagos)
are by now probably tired of me shooting random accusatory tweets their way,
well they should be relieved and rightfully so. I go through my mind trying to
put together just what I know about code writing, not much, – you’d probably
write it all on a coin and still need a magnifier to read it with, and, with
such dismal thoughts I fall asleep.
Its raining hard in the nation’s capital and I am late for
the Hackathon event thanks to my erratic internet network-I just couldn’t
print my e-ticket , and a newbie cabbie who got lost twice….
The enspireATV hub is located on the top floor of the NEPZA
building in Maitama and the guys are way past introductions by the time I
sauntered in. I manage to grab a seat unbalancing the projector, and,
interrupting the guy currently giving his speech in the process. Somehow my
awkwardness sparks a round of laughter allowing me to settle down quick and
tune in. Participants are seated around tables, some quietly typing on Ipads and
laptops and my horror grows. Surely these guys aren’t going to let hours go by
trying to teach this rookie the rudiments of code writing, I really should have
no fear as there are an equal number of business minded participants at the
event who have never been the ‘techie’ type. Plus the hub has plans to get
people into learning code writing but not today.
The informal setting allows for discussions, questions and
jokes. We listened to @deeman01 explain how the hub is structured to provide an
environment that nurtures hackers, legal concerns, and business plans using individual participant’s experiences as reference and subject material. He was
the middleman, the half geek prince-the other half being consultancy business.
Then came @dasersoft and he was all geek, straight to the glasses too. He has a
wealth of experience in the field and is recently working on a project that
involves Geo-tagging locations in Nigeria. The idea is brilliant; think banks,
hospitals and maybe ATM locations I might add. I also like the fact that he’s
invented a means of mass-coding where even school kids can hack in no time. By this
time, I am ready to kidnap the fellar for my private schemes.
Mike comes in too and talks expansively about the egg and
chicken paradox, with the egg being tech and chicken being business. Which
comes first? Should say, apps be developed for business or should business be
developed for apps? There is no answer really, in this context, a synergy
provides the needed results, and Mike knows this. He is a business man himself
and wears a nice suit. He looks good in it too.
It is rather a very exciting experience at this point with
tea mugs hardly touched, @BankoleToba jokes about this and voila! Frosty soda
cans and meat fillings appear almost magically. While this hub doesn’t hit
target, (not a lot of hackers showed up, Abuja hackers are reclusive or worse,
lost to Forex as Mike puts it) it does trigger the passion of its participants
who are most mostly web developers.
I spend an hour more after the event is over chatting and
networking in the viby green office surroundings. Some of the participants I
talk to are brilliant, @fikitout has a video online library, and is a
mechanical engineer so we spend more time talking about this project he has that
models mechanical component parts and computes variables in test environments.
It’s a wonderful
experience and you should have been there, am glad I did and I tell @BankoleToba
so.
Follow the guys @enspireATV or just walk into the place,
they aren’t just happy idealists, they will shatter your silly ideas but will
do so nicely, I’ll be working with this bunch, they’ve got me fired up proper!!
