January 2008
I was solidifying partnership with this Indian Tech guy
Febuary 2008
Started work on theinvestor.in and studentnetworks.in, and launched www.bushfalling.com [AfroVisioN's community of cameroonians ], met Enstine of njangihost.com , FEE of kerawa.com and Nino of 20mai.net thats when the marvelous connection started
March 2008
Launched cameroonfootballers.com as AfroVioN's community of professional football players
April 2008
Had this great interview about me and AfroVisioN on 20mai.net, and started partnership talks with Sebastian schmid of Ecorp www.ecorp.ch
May 2008
Launched AfroVisioN's " one website for every cameroonian" project which entails a full professional site at 50,000FCFA per year
June 2008
We started work on www.afrikeo.com, www.seekvice.com and met Judith Modjock of www.weboptimal.net and signed a partnership deal with weboptimal.
July 2008
We had the first version of afrikeo and started work on our partnership with panther media and Ecorp. Our main partnership for Business Process Outsourcing of web applications from switzerland to Cameroon. Also met Joel Nlepe from Microsoft who is currently working with us on alot of projects including www.coolmboa.com and we also launched his ww.africa2point0.com blog.
August 2008
We successfully implemented the www.executiveasset.com project for our client in Douala. Real estate site where you can search for houses to rent or buy in Douala. And we started work on www.spdmania.com for cheap and auction sales listing in Douala.
September 2008
Redeveloped our AfroVisioN new corporate website, with an administrative backend, CRM module and scalable codes running on an MVC design patern with HTML views.
October 2008
We added computers to our training hall and launched marketing for our AfroVisioN Training programs in Buea and online
November 2008
We releaseed the www.spdmania.com for our partner Weptomial.
I came in contact with this Cameroonian Msc student in UK who intends to do her internship with AfroVisioN.
my research paper got accepted for IctAfrica 2008 Conference.
I came in contact with Billzimmerman and had this great email interview with him posted on his blog 27months.com
December 2008
Attended the ICTAfrica conference along Phebe Etchu business student from USA.
Started revising our business plan at AfroVisioN for the year 2009.
Also came in contact with Anabi Epizitone of BigPiktures Group www.bigpiktures.com
That is the brief run down of my professional life in 2008, and some projects are not included due one or two things.
Showing posts with label FEE. Show all posts
Showing posts with label FEE. Show all posts
Monday, January 19, 2009
Tuesday, September 02, 2008
some random pictures
I have had a couple of events at the offfice, around buea, in douala and all and I was to blog about them but I didnt have time because there are alot of projects AfroVisioN Group is working on and I have to see that all the clients are satisfied. So I have decided to post the pictures and just comment about them.
check out the pictures below and you might know what has been happening with me:
Below: Ghislain Kamgang(Cameroonian in Paris, France) paid us a visit at AfroVisioN Group while we were working on our new corporate website so we had to take a look at it together
Below: Ghislain and the brother Sorel (Cameroonian in Germany) were with us yesterday and we had to analyse AfroVisioN Group's new website.
Below: Ghislain while he was explaining some software development concepts to AfroVisioN Group developers during his visit
Below: I was walking the streets of Buea with a laptop behind me, and I decided to get the look and feel of the whole scenario
Below: Enstine (www.enstine.net) came to AfroVisioN Office and he was asking Valery (Software developer - AfroVisioN Group) some questions about an enterprise software we were building in C#
Below: I had a meeting with Enstine and it was fun. Its always fun when I meet with software developers or geeks
Below: I paid a visit to douala along with Wenie (my gf) and we were with FEE and Enstine.
check out the pictures below and you might know what has been happening with me:
Below: Ghislain Kamgang(Cameroonian in Paris, France) paid us a visit at AfroVisioN Group while we were working on our new corporate website so we had to take a look at it together
Below: Ghislain and the brother Sorel (Cameroonian in Germany) were with us yesterday and we had to analyse AfroVisioN Group's new website.
Below: Ghislain while he was explaining some software development concepts to AfroVisioN Group developers during his visit
Below: I was walking the streets of Buea with a laptop behind me, and I decided to get the look and feel of the whole scenario
Below: Enstine (www.enstine.net) came to AfroVisioN Office and he was asking Valery (Software developer - AfroVisioN Group) some questions about an enterprise software we were building in C#
Below: I had a meeting with Enstine and it was fun. Its always fun when I meet with software developers or geeks
Below: I paid a visit to douala along with Wenie (my gf) and we were with FEE and Enstine.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Business and Fun Trip To Douala
Yesterday(May 31st 2008( I had a good trip to Douala where I met soo many interesting friends of mine, including FEE ( kerawa.com ), Enstine Muki of Njangi Host Cameroon ( betterplanning, enstine.net njangihost) , DJ Rene Cool ( So Sound Records), Mr AkoAkere Che Mone ( MTN Cameroon ), Mudjock Judith ( weboptimal.net), Suh Calvin ( a friend and prospective software developer ) and a couple of 'passerbys' who are always present in every city here in Africa.
The travel was initially intended to sign a partnership agreement between WebOptimal Cameroon ( www.weboptimal.net) and AfroVisioN Group ( www.afrovisiongroup.com ).
I got up from bed at 6 am after working on some codes for www.studentnetworks.in overnight till the early hours of the morning. So I had to continue coding till about 10 am, because I knew while in Douala, the day will go by without me working on any codes ( trying to maximise the day business wise ). After that I went online to check out a couple of mails and also meet Nino ( http://nino.akopo.com ), so we talk out some business regarding some projects we are working on.
After that, I took my bath, and got dressed up in a white shirt and pair of jean trousers (blend of young and responsible haha ).
Called my friend Steveslil ( www.steveslil.com) because we had to travel together, handling business you know how it is. After that I made a couple of calls to some guys and finaly my girl friend ( Wenie Taila -unfortunately she has no web blog or personal site, she is into the medical stuffs and far from computers)
The next thing I can remember is seeing myself at Web Optimal offices, where I had a long and very interesting discussion with Mudjock Ouafo ( which made Steveslil leave us to watch his football Match Cameroon vs .... ) and we had concrete terms on how our partnership will go along ( hey I cant tell you more than that :D).
After the business talk, she accompanied me to meet FEE, who made me stand for about 25 mins infront of his office waiting on him to come meet me down stairs but he was in another building, so he had to take a cap to join me and the rest is history.
We had to walk around Dla with FEE ( 'promene' comme on dits en francais ), where we talked on topics like African entrepreneurs and internet, building a startup, less is more, introvert, nairaland - yes we talked about nairaland.com vs blueworld.co.za but I will save it for another post.
Most of the talking was in his office, after that I recieved a call from Mr Che Mone asking me to meet him at his place. At his place it was fun and chat and fun and chat again with FEE making a reunion with his high school pals. After discussing for about an hour or so, men we had to 'sqwalleee', and meet Steveslil at Rond point, Deido. From rondpoint had to go meet Enstine Muki at his place in "Bonamoussadi".
Men the table infront of me was filled with a blend of fish, soft drinks and technology talk; very very interesting. I am not the outgoing type but I think if I go out with Software / Web developers its much fun.
The most interesting topic and center of the table ( Enstine, Myself, FEE, Steveslil) was 'information technology in cameroon and web business'. The difficulties and the work arounds, man I must say we need an official gathering like that where web developers and entrepreneurs can meet and make contacts here in Africa.
Then FEE left us because he had to go Cinema with someone. later we went to meet D J Rene, where Enstine left us but Suh Calvin was with us at this point. We talked some business with DJ Rene and he made me realise how the music industy in Cameoron was in need of serious music promoters and marketers. In his words " the Music industy in Cameroon be it Makossa, Hip Hop, Bikutsi needs marketers soo badly and the fake marketers here have no network..." but he concluded that it was better in Nigeria than Cameroon which we all accepted.
Finally we hit the road back to Buea.
The trip to Douala and back lasted about 8 hours but soo many things happened that I cant recall all.
Thanks Judith, FEE, Enstine, DJ Rene, Calvin for the wonderful time you made me spend alongside Steveslil.
"Piss Out"
The travel was initially intended to sign a partnership agreement between WebOptimal Cameroon ( www.weboptimal.net) and AfroVisioN Group ( www.afrovisiongroup.com ).
I got up from bed at 6 am after working on some codes for www.studentnetworks.in overnight till the early hours of the morning. So I had to continue coding till about 10 am, because I knew while in Douala, the day will go by without me working on any codes ( trying to maximise the day business wise ). After that I went online to check out a couple of mails and also meet Nino ( http://nino.akopo.com ), so we talk out some business regarding some projects we are working on.
After that, I took my bath, and got dressed up in a white shirt and pair of jean trousers (blend of young and responsible haha ).
Called my friend Steveslil ( www.steveslil.com) because we had to travel together, handling business you know how it is. After that I made a couple of calls to some guys and finaly my girl friend ( Wenie Taila -unfortunately she has no web blog or personal site, she is into the medical stuffs and far from computers)
The next thing I can remember is seeing myself at Web Optimal offices, where I had a long and very interesting discussion with Mudjock Ouafo ( which made Steveslil leave us to watch his football Match Cameroon vs .... ) and we had concrete terms on how our partnership will go along ( hey I cant tell you more than that :D).
After the business talk, she accompanied me to meet FEE, who made me stand for about 25 mins infront of his office waiting on him to come meet me down stairs but he was in another building, so he had to take a cap to join me and the rest is history.
We had to walk around Dla with FEE ( 'promene' comme on dits en francais ), where we talked on topics like African entrepreneurs and internet, building a startup, less is more, introvert, nairaland - yes we talked about nairaland.com vs blueworld.co.za but I will save it for another post.
Most of the talking was in his office, after that I recieved a call from Mr Che Mone asking me to meet him at his place. At his place it was fun and chat and fun and chat again with FEE making a reunion with his high school pals. After discussing for about an hour or so, men we had to 'sqwalleee', and meet Steveslil at Rond point, Deido. From rondpoint had to go meet Enstine Muki at his place in "Bonamoussadi".
Men the table infront of me was filled with a blend of fish, soft drinks and technology talk; very very interesting. I am not the outgoing type but I think if I go out with Software / Web developers its much fun.
The most interesting topic and center of the table ( Enstine, Myself, FEE, Steveslil) was 'information technology in cameroon and web business'. The difficulties and the work arounds, man I must say we need an official gathering like that where web developers and entrepreneurs can meet and make contacts here in Africa.
Then FEE left us because he had to go Cinema with someone. later we went to meet D J Rene, where Enstine left us but Suh Calvin was with us at this point. We talked some business with DJ Rene and he made me realise how the music industy in Cameoron was in need of serious music promoters and marketers. In his words " the Music industy in Cameroon be it Makossa, Hip Hop, Bikutsi needs marketers soo badly and the fake marketers here have no network..." but he concluded that it was better in Nigeria than Cameroon which we all accepted.
Finally we hit the road back to Buea.
The trip to Douala and back lasted about 8 hours but soo many things happened that I cant recall all.
Thanks Judith, FEE, Enstine, DJ Rene, Calvin for the wonderful time you made me spend alongside Steveslil.
"Piss Out"
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Why Social Networks / Media Sites Cannot Get to Millions of Users in Africa [ part 2 ]
I wanted to continue "why web 2.0 ventures are not making it big in africa", so I decided to drop this post. Please read on ...
There are soo many issues why a social network/media site cannot get to millions in Africa as a whole, although the number of internet users in Africa is up to 50+ million.
[Challenge: can your venture make an African who is not interested in the internet use the internet ?]
- How many Africans have access to internet at home ( luxury )?
- How many langauges do we have here in Africa ( minimum two : internationalisation starts from day one )
- How cheap is it for our users to go to the cyber everyday just to have fun on a soo called social network where they do not make any thing out of it ?
- Are the Ventures (web 2.0 sites ) having the right networks ( business , marketing, HR, IT ) to handle such growths to millions of users, and do they have the "big problem" Venture Capital ?
- How many Africans know the importance of the internet or how to use computers not to talk of your soo called social media site ?
If you are in Silicon Valley and you have a crazy idea like twitter.com, it can explode within two years but if you are in West Africa, who is ready to invest into a "war torn zone" ( as they address us ), thinking that when a war breaks all their servers will be turned to dust ??
But I think if you offer Africans a place to meet people to better their lives( jobs, marriage, career networking ) just like what we are working on with www.webyfolio.com ( still a work in progress ) or what FEE is putting forth www.kerawa.com ( classified ads - jobs 100% important to unemployed Africans) , they will come there and also tell their friends, and with time you might get the VCs coming or you might get the traffic to make some money out of.
More to that:
If I was unemployed I bet you I will visit www.kerawa.com everyday to see what opportunities God has for me somewhere in Cameroon or Africa.
My Proposed Solutioins:
- African web entrepreneurs should take some time to study software engineering and the business behind it. Remember this process will take you about two years before you can be able to build a good solution. Go to school or hit the browser to www.w3schools.com, most of us started from there
- Before starting a web 2.0 site, look at Africa, see what they value and what they dont value, what they have and what they can afford, dont build your site because its a social network, but build your solution because it has value to give to the average African no matter his poverty. Africans dont have money and they pay to access the internet, if you want them to use your site, then it should be something worth the small pocket money they have.
- Ensure that you make a bilingual solution ( kudos kerawa.com), so that most Africans can use the solution from day one.
- Market your solution via TV, Radio, Magazins, Blogs ( pay for the marketing ) else you wont get those users. Here in Africa, we watch TV, and listen to Radio and if you tell us something on Air, we will see it. You can hit MNET African Magic, and some other stuffs like Canal + horizon.
In business if you dont pay in something you wont make anything ( correct me if I am wrong ).
But if you count on online marketing: Abi we are not in Yankee (USA), and we dont want only tech savvy guys in Africa using our ventures
- While growing your web venture indulge into something else that will give you money for the time being else you will give up. You can get a regular job, which is not the best because its bad for the growth of your venture but good for the money. You can offer other services to firms in your area like build websites and softwares ( good one but very much strainous to your team), then get part of the money and experience and contacts as positive effects to your venture.
- I have realised that most internet users in Africa are mostly tech savy guys who work in the IT industry, but the guys who dont work in the IT industry need to use our sites too. Do something that can convert the non internet user in African to become an Internet user on your site [ VERY VERY BIG CHALLENGE ]
Web Gurus of Africa this is what I want you to remember:
online ventures need patience
Nairaland.com started in 2005 but its getting 200,000 users in 2008,
Facebook started in 2003 and it became big in 2007,
Google started in 1999 and it became big in 2003,
Myspace (2003 - 2006 ).
Blogger started in 1999 and Google bought them in 2005.
So don't expect to start today and in a year you get 20 million users, but you should expect a Geometric Progression kind of thing.
like Facebook was with 15 million users in 2007 and it converted that figure to 70million users in 2008. but it took them 2003 - 2007 to get 15 million users.
I think I have exhausted all the reasons why web ventures don't grow that big in our continent.
There are soo many issues why a social network/media site cannot get to millions in Africa as a whole, although the number of internet users in Africa is up to 50+ million.
[Challenge: can your venture make an African who is not interested in the internet use the internet ?]
- How many Africans have access to internet at home ( luxury )?
- How many langauges do we have here in Africa ( minimum two : internationalisation starts from day one )
- How cheap is it for our users to go to the cyber everyday just to have fun on a soo called social network where they do not make any thing out of it ?
- Are the Ventures (web 2.0 sites ) having the right networks ( business , marketing, HR, IT ) to handle such growths to millions of users, and do they have the "big problem" Venture Capital ?
- How many Africans know the importance of the internet or how to use computers not to talk of your soo called social media site ?
If you are in Silicon Valley and you have a crazy idea like twitter.com, it can explode within two years but if you are in West Africa, who is ready to invest into a "war torn zone" ( as they address us ), thinking that when a war breaks all their servers will be turned to dust ??
But I think if you offer Africans a place to meet people to better their lives( jobs, marriage, career networking ) just like what we are working on with www.webyfolio.com ( still a work in progress ) or what FEE is putting forth www.kerawa.com ( classified ads - jobs 100% important to unemployed Africans) , they will come there and also tell their friends, and with time you might get the VCs coming or you might get the traffic to make some money out of.
More to that:
If I was unemployed I bet you I will visit www.kerawa.com everyday to see what opportunities God has for me somewhere in Cameroon or Africa.
My Proposed Solutioins:
- African web entrepreneurs should take some time to study software engineering and the business behind it. Remember this process will take you about two years before you can be able to build a good solution. Go to school or hit the browser to www.w3schools.com, most of us started from there
- Before starting a web 2.0 site, look at Africa, see what they value and what they dont value, what they have and what they can afford, dont build your site because its a social network, but build your solution because it has value to give to the average African no matter his poverty. Africans dont have money and they pay to access the internet, if you want them to use your site, then it should be something worth the small pocket money they have.
- Ensure that you make a bilingual solution ( kudos kerawa.com), so that most Africans can use the solution from day one.
- Market your solution via TV, Radio, Magazins, Blogs ( pay for the marketing ) else you wont get those users. Here in Africa, we watch TV, and listen to Radio and if you tell us something on Air, we will see it. You can hit MNET African Magic, and some other stuffs like Canal + horizon.
In business if you dont pay in something you wont make anything ( correct me if I am wrong ).
But if you count on online marketing: Abi we are not in Yankee (USA), and we dont want only tech savvy guys in Africa using our ventures
- While growing your web venture indulge into something else that will give you money for the time being else you will give up. You can get a regular job, which is not the best because its bad for the growth of your venture but good for the money. You can offer other services to firms in your area like build websites and softwares ( good one but very much strainous to your team), then get part of the money and experience and contacts as positive effects to your venture.
- I have realised that most internet users in Africa are mostly tech savy guys who work in the IT industry, but the guys who dont work in the IT industry need to use our sites too. Do something that can convert the non internet user in African to become an Internet user on your site [ VERY VERY BIG CHALLENGE ]
Web Gurus of Africa this is what I want you to remember:
online ventures need patience
Nairaland.com started in 2005 but its getting 200,000 users in 2008,
Facebook started in 2003 and it became big in 2007,
Google started in 1999 and it became big in 2003,
Myspace (2003 - 2006 ).
Blogger started in 1999 and Google bought them in 2005.
So don't expect to start today and in a year you get 20 million users, but you should expect a Geometric Progression kind of thing.
like Facebook was with 15 million users in 2007 and it converted that figure to 70million users in 2008. but it took them 2003 - 2007 to get 15 million users.
I think I have exhausted all the reasons why web ventures don't grow that big in our continent.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)