Co-creation hub’s monthly developers’ meetup to hold next week and will be anchored by Google. Google wants to share it’s plan for the developers community and how its technology can help startup launch and get revenue. They will also use the opportunity to answer questions. Will Google eat my startup (Mocality, OSM?)?

Date: 2^7th January 2012

Venue: CcHub, 6^th Floor, 294 Herbert Macaulay Way, Sabo, Yaba

Time: 5.30pm

Discussion will focus on the following:

• Google tools and APIs
• Youtube in Nigeria and opportunities in New media
• Entrepreneurial Opportunities in Nigeria with Small and Medium scale businesses using Google tools
• The Google Technology User Group
• What to expect in 2012

About GNBO and what Google is giving

“We are providing an easy and free end-to-end website solution that will enable small and medium businesses in Nigeria get online. We are giving away for free; an easy-to-build and maintain professional website, a sub-domain (e.g., mybusiness.gnbo.com.ng), webiste hosting for the life of the website, a local business listing on Google Maps and Places.  If a user decides to purchase a customised domain name (e.g., mybusiness.com) they will also recieve for free 10 customisable email accounts (to match the domain), Google Apps for up to 10 users.  Additionally, businesses will also have access to other tools, resources, and training that we are providing to support the process of creating a web presence.” -  Google

Here’s what you get:

• Free easy-to-build and maintain, professional website
• Free matching mobile website
• Free gnbo.com.ng sub-domain
• Free website hosting

And when you purchase a customised domain name*

• 10 Free email accounts (@yourdomain.com)

Google’s Country Manager, Juliet said “The number of Nigerians online has grown by 81% every year in the last 10 years. The numbers are expected to continue increasing”

Google has also partnered with Ecobank, MTN and vendors to make the service successful.

What does this mean for Web Designers?

Well, the picture is getting clearer, web design has become a commodity and the earlier developers get to start consumer internet service the better. For high-end clients, and those who do not know about this initiative, they can still employ the service of web design consultants. Also, the service is just for basic web pages and not for database driven site, so, I still see developers getting jobs from clients who need advanced web development.

What will Google Benefit?

Well, it’s a long-tail thing…Google is a search (advertising) company, searching Nigerian local contents has been a major headache for Google, with this initiative, more businesses will come online and when people make searches about a business, they can link to their official site and as well get advert served on the search result, with this, Google will make money. This is business, every business will implement whatever strategy to sustain, grow and increase its market share. Google is simply doing what it feels will help it secure Nigeria’s boom internet market. If a Nigerian business had launched similar initiative, I’m sure small business will be glad to cash in. Google has done same in the UK and got a whopping 100,000 businesses online, same initiative was recently launched in Kenya and other African countries will follow.

The Benefit for Businesses

For small businesses that have found it difficult to cough out 50,000 (average cost of web design in Nigeria) this is an opportunity for them to get a website at almost no cost to them. It will also increase their business in the long run as their businesses will now be “Googlable”, which means more deals and money.

The Benefit for Internet Users

For everyday internet users, their quest is to get the information they need when they search, they don’t want to know if you got the site for free or paid huge amount to get it up. Since the site is also mobile-friendly, it will serve internet users right as most searches in Nigeria are made through mobile phones.

If you are interested in getting the free website, go to the official website: gnbo.com.ng

8 South Africa
6 Kenya
5 Nigeria
3 Ghana
2 Uganda
1 Senegal
1 Malawi
1 Togo
1 Tanzania
1 Republic of Guinea

Afrinolly, the Nigeria/Africa entertainment app, with two others were announced winners at G-Kenya.

Entertainment/Media/Games

Afrinolly – Nigeria Team:FansConnectOnline LimitedAfrinolly brings African movies to your pocket, allowing you to watch movie trailers, read entertainment news and gossip, track celebs, listen to music and share it all with your friends.

Social/Communication

Olalashe – Kenya Team:David Lemayian, Capefield Ltd.Olalashe (which means “brother” in Maasai) is a geo-alert application that can help you communicate when you’re in trouble, through a widget that can send your location and a pre-set message to your ‘In Case of Emergency’ contacts with the push of a button.

Productivity

Shoppers’ Delight – Kenya Team:Elan Telemedia Ltd.Shoppers’ Delight is a shopping application that allows shoppers to compare product prices across different area supermarkets. The app also helps shoppers discover bargains and relevant sales, and access maps and health information.

Note: You will need your Google account to activate it. Enjoy!

For the question market above you can mark who’s gunning for the hearts of developers after Nokia and Google as you please or know. Generally, developers are early adopters, gadget-freaks, experts with local knowledge and influencers. This I think these 2 companies recognized and moving fast to capture their hearts before their competitors.

Google has been the most serious of these companies by organizing tech events, sponsoring events and getting the industry engaged! You could argue that they are doing it for their bottom-line, sure, they are but one thing you must not forget is that, these events take us into their world, giving us first-hand access to their technology and infrastructure and giving us opportunity to become as big as our imagination can travel! No, company on earth (maybe NGO) will hold you by the hand and say this is how to build companies that can compete with us and probably defeat us in the market place. The decision is usually left to the entrepreneurs to take; you said you want to successful, uhn?  The question is, how bad do you want it? Can you sacrifice your school for the success you dream of? Can you sacrifice you regular pay check for your vision? Can you dedicate 10,000 hours to learn an art and become expert/world class in it? Are you ready for a fight for the long term? Like Seth Godin said;

“Most people are searching for a path to success that is both easy and certain. Most paths are neither.”

So, Google can give you the platform, technology to sharpen your skill and increase your imagination but may never show you how to become mega successful just as you were not taught how to become a billionaire in school.

Look at this scenario; You set up a site on App Engine hosted for free, make money from Google Adsense, develop better business model, make million dollars, buy better servers, gain 80% market share, beat Google at their game (globally or in your local market) become a multi-billion-dollar company, get into Forbes Billionaires’ list, have lunch with Bill Gates, Larry Page, Mark Zuckerberg, Warren Buffet, Mike Adenuga or even Barack Obama. All these are possible through the path above but will Google or any company tell you these? No! Your gut (and maybe me, J lolz) can tell you!

Nokia on the other hand has been trapped in its past success but the revolution currently sweeping the company can bring about a change. They tested the water by sponsoring mobiFest (We were a partner) last year, organized mobile app development training in April and planning to organize version 2.0 probably next month, have sponsored Social Innovation Camp and Garage48. The company as much as I can tell (After having a chat with their developer outreach department and other key people driving African strategy in the company) is ready to engage the community and move to the next level.

I still wonder why Microsoft is still trapped in the old-school, yea…old school! The usual corporate event, enterprise this and that. I mean get involved with the coders who can build on your technology to address the market more than you can like do. I don’t want to be offensive but history has shown that innovation don’t usually come from those who are hyper—comfortable. Get involve with guys that are hungry for success, empower them and see them help you sing your praise.

Our local giant?

It’s no doubt that companies like; Socket Works, Sidmach, Chams and a host of others are local giants, but really they are far asleep on their regular cash flow from government contracts and other big-ticket deals. I’m not be too concerned with these guys because really, what have they built or innovated? They keep build apps on solutions that are everywhere and earning far too much for what they do.

So, my main concern really is to see you and I, yea… I mean the under 30 guys, who might still be single or married (maybe) and hungry for success and recognition. Get your hands dirty doing neat stuffs. If you get help from Google, Microsoft, Nokia or anywhere, embrace and let your imagination run weird!

According to Official blog post:

Developers submit their apps to one of three specially-designated ADC categories beginning June 1st at 12 AM GMT. An application may only be submitted to a single category.
Categories

Entertainment / Media / Games
Social Networking / Communication
Productivity / Tools / Lifestyle

To determine the winner, there is a two round submission process. All apps that want to be considered for the competition, must be submit by July 1st, 2011. There are three competition regions — West & Central Africa, East Africa and Southern Africa. Applications will then be reviewed by our judging committee for the top three apps in each region by category (27 in total). Those who reach the final round, will be awarded Android devices and given six weeks to make their apps even better. Finally, our winners in each category will be announced September 12th and will be awarded $25,000. A combined total of $75,000 will be awarded.
Timeline

April 14th: Competition opens
June 1st: Submissions open.
July 1st: First round submissions are due at 11:59 PM GMT.
July 15th: Finalist applications announced.
August 30th: Finalist applications are due at 11:59 PM GMT.
September 12th: Winners are announced.

Do you have the balls? Go start coding!

***Thanks to Truston for the head up.

Google turned on its search engine last year to get a new Country manager after Nyimbi Odero was employed by Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC). The search has been a tough one I guess particularly because Google wants to a Nigerian to be the new country Manager.

The choice is indeed a wise one looking at the new Manager’s profile and achievements. Juliet was the GM, Strategic Business Unit for Chams PLC, has worked for Microsoft for six year and has run her own business.

Profile at a glance;

She holds an Executive MBA from the London Business School, a Post Graduate degree in Computer Science from the University of Cambridge, UK; and obtained a Bachelors degree with 1st class honours in Computer Engineering from the Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife. She is a recipient of the London Business School Global Women’s Scholarship, and at Cambridge University she received two scholarly awards – Selwyn College Scholar and Malaysian commonwealth Scholar.

Juliet worked with Microsoft UK for 6 years, initially as a Program Manager managing Strategic Projects for MSN Europe, Middle East, and Africa (EMEA).  She received the Microsoft “Ship-IT” award for successfully launching the new MSN online subscription business in the UK, Spain, Italy, and Germany. She is a pioneer member of the African Computer Network for Developing Countries sponsored by the International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP), Trieste, Italy in 1995. This project started the Nigerian Universities Network (NuNET) initiative. She also worked with the Shell Petroleum Development Company as a Performance Monitoring and Quality Assurance Supervisor from 1995 – 1997.

In 2005, she left Microsoft to start SI (Strategic Insight) Consulting Ltd UK, focused on providing collaborative programs that connect African Business leaders and Professionals with their global counterparts. The SI team clients are made of an eclectic mix of organisations including MSN, BP (British Petroleum), Royal Bank of Scotland, Harvard Business School alumni club, representatives from all banks in Nigeria, the Central Bank of Nigeria etc.

She was quoted as saying “It’s a very exciting time for me to join Google. At least, amongst other initiatives, it will afford Nigerian enterprises the advantage of growing and at the same time engage their customers online world, she said. “The internet is set to play a critical role in the country’s socio-economic development; Google is committed to investing in Nigeria and to making the internet accessible and relevant for all Nigerian users.”

I believe she merit the post and I expect to see her perform going forward. In case you want to meet her, get ready to attend G-Nigeria holding next Month.

By Raphael Afaedor

Barcamp Nigeria 2011 was held on the 11^th and 12^th of March 2011 at the Center for Information Technology & Systems of the University of Lagos under the theme ‘Technology business models’. The event was streamed live via Ustream.tv and on Twitter. Sheriff Shittu of Webtrends Nigeria & Kayode Yussuf  did a phenomenal job putting it together.

In the west they have watches, in Africa we have time; so naturally, it started with a bit of a delay. That apart, things went rather smoothly both days, with all the basics, like food, refreshment, technology and other relevant infrastructure all in place and functioning like a Swiss watch. Even the NEPA behaved. The atmosphere was homely and welcoming.

On day one, Chika Nwobi, who founded and IPO’d MTech gave a talk on business models. He drew almost exclusively from the work of Peter Drucker and was to the point and very insightful. Lola Masha of Google Nigeria also came around and had informal chats with just about everybody.  With my group, she talked quite a bit about the fact that Googles strategy for Africa is really to participate actively in the local tech scene and drive its growth, as against just to come and seek profit. Not that one expected her to say anything else, but it is heart-warming to see a global tech giant thinking about taking an African market very seriously.

QluQlu was given the opportunity to introduce its www.QluQlu.com.ng, a marketing platform for local Nigerian businesses to reach their customers. It works by sending an email to subscribers about discounts of between 30 – 70% on goods and services in Lagos. The subscribers can then print out a coupon and go enjoy the discount at the Merchants shop, while paying the discounted price. QluQlu hopes that users can now discover new things in the city while enjoying discounted prices. It also hopes that by serving deals of interest to mainstream Nigerians it can grow an appreciation of the internet as a medium of doing business among mainstream Nigerians.

Day two focused on Mobile. And both Google and Nokia made presentations on their focus on Nigeria, and for that matter Sub-Saharan Africa. I missed the Google presentation but it was later described by many a participant as very good. What was noteworthy from the Nokia presentation is that the Ovi store allows developers to keep the lion’s share of revenue generated from the sale of their apps.

The significance of having a gathering where the tech ecosystem comes together to fraternize cannot be overemphasized. It is an opportunity to learn new things, meet like-minded people and an opportunity to gain visibility. At Barcamp 2011, notable success stories such as Chika Nwobi, Yomi Adegboye  and Ahmad Mukoshy  were present to inspire the next generation of tech entrepreneurs. Also, QluQlu managed to get some press for its new discount deals serving website.

On a personal note, I am grateful for the opportunity to attend and meet so many people passionate about technology and its use in Africa. And to the organizing team I say Kudos! Full disclosure: The writer is affiliated to QluQlu.

View The Photo Album here

Facebook has surely become a power-house, big enough to take on almighty Google! Since the start of the battle to take over the social web, both companies have been slugging it out with each other. Recently, Google dropped Facebook from auto-syncing with Android contact API, sure you can say that’s the 1st in the year 2011, Facebook playing its own card too have just retaliated!

On Facecbook platforms, millions of developers build apps and make money off them. Most rely on Google adsense to make money while others (like Farmville) use Facebook credit. In Facebook credit deal with Zynga, it charges 30% of transaction; which is good enough considering the infrastructure it’s providing. As it is now, it does not seem Facebook is charging any percentage from ads revenue through ad-networks but providers MUST adhere to it strict rules available here. The list of prefered ad-networks is available here too.

Considering the history of Adsense, I think Facebook is suppose to have it at the top of the bunch but we can’t discount the current power-struggle between the two companies.

Facebook has(seemed) won the social web, Google is well positioned for the mobile web.  The question really is who will win the INTERNET?

The area: Engineering

Simply put, Google engineers make computers do amazing things. Populated by extraordinarily creative, motivated and talented people, our Engineering team gets excited by developing new applications that really make a difference and are used by millions of people. We’re driven by Google’s mission to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful. If you seek to tackle such challenges as building a highly scalable computing infrastructure, novel storage systems, innovative user experiences or the next big application that will change the world, then this might be a perfect fit for you.

The role: Developer Relations Program Manager, West Africa

As a Program Manager in Developer Relations, you will be responsible for making developers in the region successful by building applications and businesses on Google’s developer products and APIs. You have a strong software engineering background and are an active participant in local technical/developer communities. You will coordinate and execute both online and offline outreach and support programs in the region. This could include responsibility for large-scale Google developer events such as Google Developer Days or DevFests (i.e. large budget, high attendance, high visibility), as well as having responsibility for content on code.google.com and regional developer blogs.

To achieve your goals, you will work with cross-functional Google product teams, local volunteers, and external vendors. Additionally, you will manage relationships with, and foster creation of, local developer communities, both formal (Google Technology User Groups) and informal (discussion boards, casual meet-ups, non-affiliated user groups). You will meet with local developers and businesses, promoting Google technologies to them.

The Developer Relations Program Manager helps bring awareness to Google’s mission, open web technologies and our developer products within the developer community.

Responsibilities:

• Plan and run regional outreach and support programs, including large-scale public events
• Meet with external developers, businesses and technical executives to advocate their adoption of our developer products, explaining business and technical value propositions
• Own regional developer blogs and ensure publication of frequent, high-quality content
• Lead cross-functional project teams and act as the liaison between other global Developer Relations teams and the various developer product and Engineering groups in the region.
• Build and manage relationships with local developer community, industry influencers and bloggers

Requirements:

• BA or BS university degree preferred, ideally in Computer Science or Software Engineering
• Proven experience in a technical role in internet and/or mobile industries strongly preferred
• Experience with conference presentation or other technical public speaking
• Experience as an active participant in technical/developer communities
• Strong project and program management skills as well as excellent communication skills

Click here to apply