

Inside Nairobi, the Next Palo Alto? - tss
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/20/business/worldbusiness/20ping.html?em&ex=1216699200&en=20ae20c25b35e138&ei=5087%0A

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mattmaroon
That title is blatant linkbait. It asks a pretty ridiculous question, then the
article puts no effort whatsoever into answering it. The only parallels it
draws between the two cities are that they each contain at least one
programmer and Eric Schmidt is aware of both of their existences.

This kinda crap is why I agree with Marc Andreessen about the future of that
industry. What is supposed to be America's flag-bearing newspaper is one step
away from Digg-bait top 10 lists.

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SwellJoe
One of the better developers I've worked with was in Tunisia. He went to
University in France, but was born, raised, and lived in Tunisia. He went on
to start a company based around a web server he developed. It's seemingly
still in business seven years later, so I guess he's doing OK. I think there's
probably a lot of talent on the African continent going to waste due to the
general mess many of the African nations are in--corruption, organized crime,
and periodic revolution and genocide as core parts of a culture aren't
particularly good for industry or education. International companies are slow
to move into areas that are unstable. It seems like Kenya experienced a boom
over the past few years, but then mostly lost it due to one crazy
administration (GW has nothing on some of the African "presidents" of the past
30 years, when it comes to corruption and evil).

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mechanical_fish
_But his location posed some daunting obstacles: the iPhone doesn’t work in
Nairobi..._

Oh, you mean like in _Vermont_ , where the iPhone also doesn't work?

 _...and Mr. Mworia... wrote his program on an iPhone simulator._

What, you mean like _everyone else in the world_ who wasn't an Apple employee?

Not that I don't feel for the guy -- he apparently didn't even have a
_cracked_ iPhone -- but this particular choice of example is amusingly ironic.

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jkent
One major problem with East Africa is the lack of a fibre pipe linking it to
the rest of the world, although that is due in 2010.

It's possible to make a good living offering training services, cybercafes etc
- but not call centres or offshore development yet.

And they don't call it Nairobbery for nothing...

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rms
>In Nairobi’s highest-profile validation, Google opened a development office
here last September. “Africa is a huge long-term market for us,” Eric E.
Schmidt, Google’s chief executive, said by e-mail. “We have to start by
helping people get online, and the creativity of the people will take care of
the rest.”

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helveticaman
The next Palo Alto? No. Maybe someday, in the very distant future, but
probably not in the next 100 years. Seattle and Boston are trying to be the
next Palo Alto (if by Palo Alto you really mean Silicon Valley), and those
cities are much better prepared, in every sense save, perhaps, cost.

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tss
I think this image really says a lot about the challenges an entrepreneur
there with an idea there faces:
[http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/InternetMap/medium/wor...](http://www.chrisharrison.net/projects/InternetMap/medium/worlddotblack.jpg)

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rw
Africa has one class A IP address block.. the same is allocated just to MIT.

