Maker Faire Africa is a international organization

International organization

An intergovernmental organization, sometimes rendered as an international governmental organization and both abbreviated as IGO, is an organization composed primarily of sovereign states , or of other intergovernmental organizations...

 founded by Mark Grimes (Ned.com) along with Emeka Okafor (TED Africa),Lars Hassleblad Torress (IDEAS Global Challenge), Erik Hersman (Afrigadget) and Nii Simmonds (Nubian Cheetah). Maker Faire Africa aims to engage with on-the-ground breakthrough organizations and individual makers to sharpen focus on locally generated, bottom-up prototypes of technologies that solve immediate challenges to development.

Overview

The aim of a Maker Faire Africa is to create a space on the African continent where Afrigadget-type innovations, inventions and initiatives can be sought, identified, brought to life, supported, amplified and propagated. At the same time, Maker Faire Africa would seek to imbue creative types in science and technology with an appreciation of fabrication and by default manufacturing.
The first Maker Faire Africa was in Ghana

Ghana

Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...

 in 2009. The second phase was held in Nairobi

Nairobi

Nairobi is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The city and its surrounding area also forms the Nairobi County. The name "Nairobi" comes from the Maasai phrase Enkare Nyirobi, which translates to "the place of cool waters". However, it is popularly known as the "Green City in the Sun" and is...

, Kenya

Kenya

Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...

 in 2010, and the third in Cairo in 2011.

Further reading

• Ariel Schwartz. "Creative Gadgets Dominate Maker Faire Africa." Fast Company, Aug 27, 2010

External links

• Maker Faire Africa
• Makerfaireafrica Blog
• Afrigadget
• Ned.com
• Flickr. Maker Faire Africa 2010
• Flickr. Maker Faire Africa 2010 -Nairobi
• Flickr. Cairo, Maker Faire Africa Day 3, Oct-2011

See also

• Creative problem solving
  Creative problem solving
  Creative problem solving is the mental process of creating a solution to a problem. It is a special form of problem solving in which the solution is independently created rather than learned with assistance.Creative problem solving always involves creativity....
  
  
• Theories of technology
  Theories of technology
  There are a number of theories attempting to address technology, which tend to be associated with the disciplines of science and technology studies and communication studies...
  
  
• Ecoinnovation
• Information revolution
• Invention
  Invention
  An invention is a novel composition, device, or process. An invention may be derived from a pre-existing model or idea, or it could be independently conceived, in which case it may be a radical breakthrough. In addition, there is cultural invention, which is an innovative set of useful social...
  
  
• Knowledge economy
  Knowledge economy
  The knowledge economy is a term that refers either to an economy of knowledge focused on the production and management of knowledge in the frame of economic constraints, or to a knowledge-based economy. In the second meaning, more frequently used, it refers to the use of knowledge technologies to...
  
  
• Open Innovation
  Open Innovation
  Although the idea and discussion about some consequences date back at least to the 60s, open innovation is a term promoted by Henry Chesbrough, a professor and executive director at the Center for Open Innovation at the University of California, Berkeley, in his book Open Innovation: The new...