Jonathan Gosier
Encyclopedia
Jonathan D. Gosier is an American designer, software developer, blogger, investor, and entrepreneur. He currently serves as Director of Product for SwiftRiver at Ushahidi
, on a platform for making sense of streams of realtime data. He founded the East-African incubator and blog Appfrica. Appfrica is a software consultancy in Kampala
, Uganda
that mentors, incubates and invests in East African tech talent. He has acted as CTO of Question Box and Director of SwiftRiver for Ushahidi
and has been described as "an African-tech guru" despite his being African-American.
in Oxford
about his company Appfrica and one of their projects which connected rural African villages with the internet. The service, in collaboration with nonprofit OpenMind, was called QuestionBox and allowed people with no access to the internet to ask questions and get timely, vetted answers.
. He worked with artists including Andre Benjamin, Bryan-Michael Cox, Kanye West
, The Pussycat Dolls, Gwen Stefani
, Britney Spears
, Polow Da Don
, Timbaland
, Ciara
and The Neptunes
. Later he was among the first staff members of Tyler Perry
Studios.
. His blog Appfrica.net was one of the widest-read blogs about the emerging African technology sector, and one of the most trafficked blogs on the continent.
and a number of others were among the organizers and in-country facilitators.
as the Director of SwiftRiver. He redirected SwiftRiver in terms of architecture and vision. The platform was rebranded as Swiftly.org with the tagline Open Source Intelligence Applications to reflect the project's focus on Big data
, the Real-time web
and the Semantic web
. A secondary goal involved methods for validating crowd-sourced data. In 2011 Jon's work with Ushahidi on SwiftRiver was awarded a Knight News Challenge grant of $250,000.
SwiftRiver uses algorithms for validation purposes. In March 2010 Robert Scoble
interviewed Ushahidi's Patrick Meier about Ushahidi and the thinking behind the SwiftRiver project. The Haiti
earthquake
s and Ushahidi's involvement were described by Gosier as being hugely transformative for SwiftRiver, highlighting inefficiencies of disaster response technology. Since then SwiftRiver has been used for projects including the Queensland Floods in Australia
, by student protesters in London, and during the 2011 Earthquakes in Japan.
Ushahidi
Ushahidi, Inc. is a non-profit software company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping....
, on a platform for making sense of streams of realtime data. He founded the East-African incubator and blog Appfrica. Appfrica is a software consultancy in Kampala
Kampala
Kampala is the largest city and capital of Uganda. The city is divided into five boroughs that oversee local planning: Kampala Central Division, Kawempe Division, Makindye Division, Nakawa Division and Lubaga Division. The city is coterminous with Kampala District.-History: of Buganda, had chosen...
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
that mentors, incubates and invests in East African tech talent. He has acted as CTO of Question Box and Director of SwiftRiver for Ushahidi
Ushahidi
Ushahidi, Inc. is a non-profit software company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping....
and has been described as "an African-tech guru" despite his being African-American.
Career
In 2009 Gosier spoke at TEDGlobalTED (conference)
TED is a global set of conferences owned by the private non-profit Sapling Foundation, formed to disseminate "ideas worth spreading"....
in Oxford
Oxford
The city of Oxford is the county town of Oxfordshire, England. The city, made prominent by its medieval university, has a population of just under 165,000, with 153,900 living within the district boundary. It lies about 50 miles north-west of London. The rivers Cherwell and Thames run through...
about his company Appfrica and one of their projects which connected rural African villages with the internet. The service, in collaboration with nonprofit OpenMind, was called QuestionBox and allowed people with no access to the internet to ask questions and get timely, vetted answers.
Music and Film Career
Early in his career, prior to entering the technology space, Gosier was a producer and audio engineer at Doppler Studios and Patchwerk Studios in Atlanta, GeorgiaAtlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
. He worked with artists including Andre Benjamin, Bryan-Michael Cox, Kanye West
Kanye West
Kanye Omari West is an American rapper, singer, and record producer. West first rose to fame as a producer for Roc-A-Fella Records, where he eventually achieved recognition for his work on Jay-Z's album The Blueprint, as well as hit singles for musical artists including Alicia Keys, Ludacris, and...
, The Pussycat Dolls, Gwen Stefani
Gwen Stefani
Gwen Renée Stefani is an American singer-songwriter and fashion designer. Stefani is the lead vocalist for the rock and ska band No Doubt. Stefani recorded her first solo album Love. Angel. Music. Baby. in 2004. The album was inspired by music of the 1980s, and was a success with sales of over...
, Britney Spears
Britney Spears
Britney Jean Spears is an American recording artist and entertainer. Born in McComb, Mississippi, and raised in Kentwood, Louisiana, Spears began performing as a child, landing acting roles in stage productions and television shows. She signed with Jive Records in 1997 and released her debut album...
, Polow Da Don
Polow Da Don
Polow-Freache Jamal Fincher Jones , better known by known by professional name Polow da Don or Awesome Jones, is an American record producer, songwriter, rapper, and singer. His cousin is Atlanta singer Monica. He has produced for a variety of artists including Usher, Nelly, Christina Aguilera, T.I...
, Timbaland
Timbaland
Timothy Zachery Mosley , better known by his stage name Timbaland, is an American record producer, songwriter and rapper....
, Ciara
Ciara
Ciara Princess Harris , known mononymously as Ciara, is an American singer-songwriter, dancer, actress and fashion model. Born in Austin, Texas, she traveled around the world during her childhood, only to land in Atlanta, Georgia where she met music producer, Jazze Pha...
and The Neptunes
The Neptunes
The Neptunes are a record production duo consisting of Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo, who are credited with contributing the sound for many successful hip hop, R&B and pop artists in the late-1990s and 2000s...
. Later he was among the first staff members of Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry
Tyler Perry is an American actor, director, playwright, entrepreneur, screenwriter, producer, author, and songwriter. Perry wrote and produced many stage plays during the 1990s and early 2000s. In 2005, he released his first film, Diary of a Mad Black Woman...
Studios.
Work in East-Africa
From 2008 to 2010, Gosier lived in Kampala, Uganda where he worked on high profile tech projects in East Africa including projects with Google Africa, the U.S. Department of State, and UshahidiUshahidi
Ushahidi, Inc. is a non-profit software company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping....
. His blog Appfrica.net was one of the widest-read blogs about the emerging African technology sector, and one of the most trafficked blogs on the continent.
Apps 4 Africa
Apps 4 Africa was a regional competition sponsored by the U.S. Department of State with the goal of promoting African technology entrepreneurs as they built tools to serve the needs of local NGOs and their own communities. This partnership meshed civil society with developers and designers, to create technical solutions to local challenges. The competition asked civil society and citizens throughout the region to submit local community challenges on issues like transparency and better governance, health, education and more. The project was part of the Obama administration's 21st Century Statecraft initiative. American First Lady Hillary Clinton and thanked organizers in a recorded statement. Gosier, Joshua Goldstein, Uganda's Appfrica Labs, Kenya's IHubIHub
iHub is a coworking space and business incubator in Nairobi that was started in March, 2010 by Erik Hersman a renowned blogger, TED fellow and entrepreneur...
and a number of others were among the organizers and in-country facilitators.
Ushahidi and Swiftly.org
In December 2009, Gosier joined UshahidiUshahidi
Ushahidi, Inc. is a non-profit software company that develops free and open source software for information collection, visualization and interactive mapping....
as the Director of SwiftRiver. He redirected SwiftRiver in terms of architecture and vision. The platform was rebranded as Swiftly.org with the tagline Open Source Intelligence Applications to reflect the project's focus on Big data
Big data
Big data are datasets that grow so large that they become awkward to work with using on-hand database management tools. Difficulties include capture, storage, search, sharing, analytics, and visualizing...
, the Real-time web
Real-time web
The real-time web is a set of technologies and practices that enable users to receive information as soon as it is published by its authors, rather than requiring that they or their software check a source periodically for updates....
and the Semantic web
Semantic Web
The Semantic Web is a collaborative movement led by the World Wide Web Consortium that promotes common formats for data on the World Wide Web. By encouraging the inclusion of semantic content in web pages, the Semantic Web aims at converting the current web of unstructured documents into a "web of...
. A secondary goal involved methods for validating crowd-sourced data. In 2011 Jon's work with Ushahidi on SwiftRiver was awarded a Knight News Challenge grant of $250,000.
SwiftRiver uses algorithms for validation purposes. In March 2010 Robert Scoble
Robert Scoble
Robert Scoble is an American blogger, technical evangelist, and author. Scoble is best known for his blog, Scobleizer, which came to prominence during his tenure as a technology evangelist at Microsoft. He is married to Maryam Ghaemmaghami Scoble. He has three children; one from a previous...
interviewed Ushahidi's Patrick Meier about Ushahidi and the thinking behind the SwiftRiver project. The Haiti
Haiti
Haiti , officially the Republic of Haiti , is a Caribbean country. It occupies the western, smaller portion of the island of Hispaniola, in the Greater Antillean archipelago, which it shares with the Dominican Republic. Ayiti was the indigenous Taíno or Amerindian name for the island...
earthquake
Earthquake
An earthquake is the result of a sudden release of energy in the Earth's crust that creates seismic waves. The seismicity, seismism or seismic activity of an area refers to the frequency, type and size of earthquakes experienced over a period of time...
s and Ushahidi's involvement were described by Gosier as being hugely transformative for SwiftRiver, highlighting inefficiencies of disaster response technology. Since then SwiftRiver has been used for projects including the Queensland Floods in Australia
Australia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
, by student protesters in London, and during the 2011 Earthquakes in Japan.