As the founder of Hive Colab and the director, respectively, Jon Gosier and Barbara Birungi are ardent about establishing a community for Uganda’s techies. The hub is a free space for all aspiring entrepreneurs and developers in the technology field. The only requirement for potential members is to be working on a new venture or seeking to develop a new idea.
At Hive Colab, there are conference rooms for meetings, Internet access, advisors, and an opportunity to engage with some of Uganda’s most brilliant thinkers and shapers in tech. We asked two of Hive Colab’s key players to share with us the hub’s history, special projects, notable apps, inventions and more. Here’s what they said:
AFKInsider: How did Hive Colab begin? Who are the participants, owners, and what are your specialties?”
Jon Gosier: Hive began in 2010 around the same time as the iHub in Kenya and a few months after ActiveSpaces/Limbe Labs in Cameroon. Its roots were in 2008, when Appfrica was first founded in Uganda. It had a staff (of which Barbara [Birungi] was the first) that moonlighted working on their own projects. So it was both a consulting firm and an incubator.
In late 2009 Appfrica transitioned to mostly consulting, and thus no longer needed an office. We decided to spinout the ‘incubation’ portion of our company to be separate. Since we no longer needed an office, but saw the value in having a ‘space’ that could be used by the community, we decided to re-purpose it. That’s when Teddy [Ruge] and myself decided that it should become a co-working facility. Teddy [Ruge] had shared notes with me about a place called ‘HiveColab’ that he had ambitions of building and together we came together to found Hive with Barb [Birungi].
In 2010, Hive was founded and began offering workspace, networking events, and other resources to Uganda’s finest technologists and innovators.
AFKInsider: As per my research on your website, Securing Water for Food is a challenge for developers to create a method of storing and obtaining water more efficiently. What apps have Hive Colab member’s created to improve the process of collecting and sustaining water in Uganda?
Barbara Birungi: Nakazade is a product for the mothers, infants and children below five years in Uganda that helps reduce on the maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate. Nakzade avails information for mothers and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) through SIM cards that are embedded with information on pregnancy care and health basic infant care health, contraceptive use, and immunization schedules.
Matibabu is a mobile application for early, non-invasive malaria diagnosis with a phone and custom piece of hardware (matiscope). Matibabu offers prompt, accurate diagnosis without painful needle pricks, power challenges, the need for trained personnel and shortened diagnosis time.
Road Conexion is an informative and reporting application that engages the citizens to make real time reports, attachments (photos), geo mapping and opinions on the road and transport projects being implemented around the country.
Ffene is a reasonably priced software package that helps small and medium businesses run more efficiently, make better decisions and save money on administrative costs. Ffene simplifies business management through easy accounting, managing customers, and tracking inventory through, instant reports on account transactions, clients and product management.
Sindika is an interactive SMS platform that allows a user organization to engage the citizens in a back and forth communication though short texts. This was specially built for controlled project environments, research, opinion studies and other related activities.
Tambula is saving lives of commercial cyclists in Uganda through the use of affordable GPS units that keep track of the rider’s whereabouts, caution them when they are in danger zones and aids them send out an SOS signal when in danger.
AFKInsider: What are the current stages of technology project developments?
Barbara Birungi: There are start-ups in all stages from those that are already on the market making money and others that we are helping figure out a business model.
AFKInsider: Please explain the Tech for Farmers Android app. How has it helped and contributed to farming in Uganda?
Barbara Birungi: Tech4Farmers is a start-up company promoting agriculture by leveraging uses of ICTs and phones. Its mobile (android) app provides market prices of agriculture products at real time, visualizes key industry trends using graph, maps and selling food items online.
AFKInsider: Please explain and give examples of how issues with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) have affected Hive Colab.
Barbara Birungi: The high cost and instability of Internet still limits us on the number of tech members and well-wishers we can accommodate for the trainings, co-working, research and events. Poor regulation and policies to support ICTs from the government line ministries have discouraged setting up of ICT enterprises. For example, taxes on ICT equipment and infrastructure like computers, cables, software etc. is still expensive —especially in wanting to set up a training lab.
AFKInsider: How does Hive Colab recruit members to the hub?
Barbara Birungi: Through both physical events we hold within the hub and advertise through posters, attending tech events within the country and talking to different stakeholders about our existence. Hosting events like hackathons, trainings, inviting other organizations to host events at our hub and online platforms like twitter, Facebook.