Following Google's UX Masterclasses in Africa, we will be holding our own UX Masterclass event on the 25th of October 2014 at Lakehub.
"This masterclass is suitable for anyone with a passion for creating outstanding user experiences, regardless of whether you are a software developer, product manager, web designer or user experience designer". So as you can see, everyone's invited!
Don't forget to grab your ticket here!!
See you all there!
Tuesday, 21 October 2014
Monday, 29 September 2014
Lakehub Launch
Its been a long time coming.
On the 27th of September 2014 we finally launched our own tech hub Lakehub.. It was an awesome time of networking and charting our way forward. One of the founders, Evan Green got us the Google cardboard which we also spent some time playing around with.
Watch this space y'all, Lakehub is coming!
Some photos of the auspicious occassion..
More photos here..
On the 27th of September 2014 we finally launched our own tech hub Lakehub.. It was an awesome time of networking and charting our way forward. One of the founders, Evan Green got us the Google cardboard which we also spent some time playing around with.
Watch this space y'all, Lakehub is coming!
Some photos of the auspicious occassion..
More photos here..
Thursday, 18 September 2014
Solve For X
During our monthly meetup in August we Solved for X.
We were definitely not short of ideas on how to go about solving some of the local and some international challenges. The challenges were listed up and we had to vote for the one we would take up as a GDG.
Expect periodical reports on our progress on the project we are currently undertaking.
As usual Photos are in order..
We were definitely not short of ideas on how to go about solving some of the local and some international challenges. The challenges were listed up and we had to vote for the one we would take up as a GDG.
Expect periodical reports on our progress on the project we are currently undertaking.
As usual Photos are in order..
I/O Extended Kisumu
Google's annual I/O Conference went down this year in June.. and Kisumu was not left behind. Being our first I/O Extended we didn't really know what to expect. Almost loosing out on the venue at the last minute to getting sufficient internet connection were some of the challenges that could have deterred us from realizing our event but it all worked out in the end and we had an awesome time and fun.
This post would would not be complete without the mention of a suggested Android L device that one of our most active members Dianga Michael felt was missing.. the Android Oven.. how the oven works is that you download a picture from the internet of the food you want and you upload the photo to the oven and you wait for the oven to output the real thing. We offer ourselves as GDG Kisumu to be the seed dev team to start working on it :)
Check out the photos from the event
This post would would not be complete without the mention of a suggested Android L device that one of our most active members Dianga Michael felt was missing.. the Android Oven.. how the oven works is that you download a picture from the internet of the food you want and you upload the photo to the oven and you wait for the oven to output the real thing. We offer ourselves as GDG Kisumu to be the seed dev team to start working on it :)
Check out the photos from the event
Friday, 20 June 2014
Google Computer Science For High Schools Kisumu
Hi guys.
Kisumu is honored and privileged to be one of six institutions in the whole of Africa to have been granted Google's Computer Science for High Schools grant.
On the 7th of June we convened to brainstorm and chart a way forward on how best to implement the program. We dialogued on the best approach to the curriculum, teams and team leaders were chosen and we got the ball rolling.
We hope to achieve the most optimal impact from this program on our babies in high schools, our future GDGs.
We invite y'all to join us on our G+ Community Page , critique our every move, comment on our photos or just say hi.
I also take this opportunity to wish us all a happy Google I/O 2014 and merry I/O Extended 2014.
Cheers.Kisumu's First Hackathon
Hi guys.
On the 16th and 17th of May we held our first ever hackathon in Kisumu. It was hosted by our tech hub Lakehub and Nairobi's startup accelerator hub Nailab.Yours truly was honored to be a mentor at the hackathon and the team I mentored became first runners up. Congratulations to me, i really worked hard :)
Below are the links to the various blogs, photos and media write ups about it.Meet the Kisumu Hackathon Winners
Kisumu Hackathon Edition
Kisumu Hackathon in Pictures
Chao
Wednesday, 7 May 2014
Africa Android Challenge and GDG Kisumu Lanch
The 3rd of May 2014 saw us hold our Africa Android Challenge
Awareness event at Maseno University's Kisumu City Campus. It was our
first event to be held as a GDG so it also acted as our launch.
The event was kicked off by GDG Kisumu's Lead Organizer on an introduction to what a GDG is. She took us through Google's official definition of a GDG and after deliberation and brainstorming it was unanimously agreed that we would kinda tweek the definition on the website to our GDG not just being for developers/techies but also for tech enthusiasts who may not necessarily have the developer skills but who may have the eye for how tech can be applied to our everyday lives. She went ahead to encourage the audience to join the mailing list and like the Google page in order to have their ear on the ground on the community's happenings. She then introduced the seed team that had worked together to make the event happen.
The floor was then handed over to GDG Kisumu's Co-organizer +Adhiambo Dorcas who took the attendees through all they needed to know about and all relevant resources on the Africa Android Challenge 2014. The well-done slide presentation highlighted the key dates that everyone needed to have in memory including but not limited to the deadline date for Round 1, which was in 1 week's time and the date for the shipping of goodies - hoooooraay to the shipping of goodies \o/\o/\o/
After that the Lead Organizer was back on stage with an introduction to Android development using AppInventor. This was after advice by the outgoing Google Student Ambassador for Maseno University and also GDG Kisumu's official Consultant, +Odede James, that since it was just but one week to the deadline of Round 1, AppInventor would be the best tool for especially beginner programmers to use to develop their apps.
Our Consultant who is also the Co-founder of Lakehub +Odede James then took us through a brief session on Google's Student Ambassadors' Program and encouraged the audience to apply since all Universities, Colleges and Institutions of Higher Learning in Kisumu lacked them except Maseno University.
After +Odede James we took an hour break to distribute AAC swag, awesome t-shirts designed by +Ilyes Boudjelthia from GDG Algeria, and have lunch together as we contemplated on how the day was fairing on.
After the break it was +Odede once again explaning to us the importance of UX/UI in our android apps. Still on UX/UI It was a pleasant surprise to behold the Founder of Kenya's first rural tech hub in Kisumu, Lakehub,Evan Green-Lowe who expounded on the subject matter. Now we understand why we should round the corners of our buttons and not have them as right angles \o/. Evan also took us through what is currently going on with Lakehub and in what ways we can contribute and work together. It was a real eye opener on the possibilities of tech in Kisumu.
The event ended with a vote of thanks by the Lead Organizer who ended up thanking everyone -including herself :-) - for the role they played that ensured the success of the event. We went home to awesome sweets and biscuits from +Adhiambo Dorcas as we took group photos with our magnificent AAC and Google swag.
This report would not be complete without honorary mentions of two wonderful people without whom the event would not have been as successful.
1. +Mike Ochieng of Maseno University City Campus for making our venue and technical equipment possible. Whatever we needed he was more than willing to arrange for.
2. +Kisumu hub for their proffessional photography services on the house. They made us look good we didn't even need make up for the photos \o/
We can only but look forward to generating more awesomeness from Kisumu \o/
The event was kicked off by GDG Kisumu's Lead Organizer on an introduction to what a GDG is. She took us through Google's official definition of a GDG and after deliberation and brainstorming it was unanimously agreed that we would kinda tweek the definition on the website to our GDG not just being for developers/techies but also for tech enthusiasts who may not necessarily have the developer skills but who may have the eye for how tech can be applied to our everyday lives. She went ahead to encourage the audience to join the mailing list and like the Google page in order to have their ear on the ground on the community's happenings. She then introduced the seed team that had worked together to make the event happen.
The floor was then handed over to GDG Kisumu's Co-organizer +Adhiambo Dorcas who took the attendees through all they needed to know about and all relevant resources on the Africa Android Challenge 2014. The well-done slide presentation highlighted the key dates that everyone needed to have in memory including but not limited to the deadline date for Round 1, which was in 1 week's time and the date for the shipping of goodies - hoooooraay to the shipping of goodies \o/\o/\o/
After that the Lead Organizer was back on stage with an introduction to Android development using AppInventor. This was after advice by the outgoing Google Student Ambassador for Maseno University and also GDG Kisumu's official Consultant, +Odede James, that since it was just but one week to the deadline of Round 1, AppInventor would be the best tool for especially beginner programmers to use to develop their apps.
Our Consultant who is also the Co-founder of Lakehub +Odede James then took us through a brief session on Google's Student Ambassadors' Program and encouraged the audience to apply since all Universities, Colleges and Institutions of Higher Learning in Kisumu lacked them except Maseno University.
After +Odede James we took an hour break to distribute AAC swag, awesome t-shirts designed by +Ilyes Boudjelthia from GDG Algeria, and have lunch together as we contemplated on how the day was fairing on.
After the break it was +Odede once again explaning to us the importance of UX/UI in our android apps. Still on UX/UI It was a pleasant surprise to behold the Founder of Kenya's first rural tech hub in Kisumu, Lakehub,Evan Green-Lowe who expounded on the subject matter. Now we understand why we should round the corners of our buttons and not have them as right angles \o/. Evan also took us through what is currently going on with Lakehub and in what ways we can contribute and work together. It was a real eye opener on the possibilities of tech in Kisumu.
The event ended with a vote of thanks by the Lead Organizer who ended up thanking everyone -including herself :-) - for the role they played that ensured the success of the event. We went home to awesome sweets and biscuits from +Adhiambo Dorcas as we took group photos with our magnificent AAC and Google swag.
This report would not be complete without honorary mentions of two wonderful people without whom the event would not have been as successful.
1. +Mike Ochieng of Maseno University City Campus for making our venue and technical equipment possible. Whatever we needed he was more than willing to arrange for.
2. +Kisumu hub for their proffessional photography services on the house. They made us look good we didn't even need make up for the photos \o/
We can only but look forward to generating more awesomeness from Kisumu \o/
Check out our photos
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