A multitude of voices improves ideas and creates honest and actionable feedback. Build your ideas at the Innovation Expo September 17th.
Power in Numbers in Nairobi
This week I had the opportunity to interview Erik Hersman (White African), one of the founders of Ushahidi and the guest on the next episode of Digital Homesteading.
In 2008 he was watching from afar as his home in Kenya was descending into violence following a contentious election. He talked to his digitally-talented friends and asked what can we do to help?
In three days, they built Ushahidi, meaning “testimony” in Kiswahili. It’s an open-source platform that allowed Kenyans to report incidents of violence via simple technology like email, text message or web forms. The technology was nothing special. In fact Erik said that it could have been built five years earlier. What was special was that suddenly the mass of participants created data that was large enough to highlight important trends. Anyone could visually see where violence was erupting and like a firefighter engage before it spun out of control. Ushahidi enabled predictive response instead of reactive response.
From Nairobi to Port-au-Prince to Cairo
While engaging residents of Kenya created an opportunity for large-scale adoption, Ushahidi took things a step further and opened up their platform to the world. Soon the platform was used in crises around the world from the tsunami in Japan to the earthquake in Haiti. In the words of Clay Shirky, what was technologically boring (SMS, web forms and email) became incredibly interesting when a large number of people came together to collaborate and dream up new use cases for people in their society.
Opening up an idea for feedback, iteration and improvement ensured that Ushahidi improved and could be applied and modified for specific communities. In essence it is a flexible idea that could not be snuffed out.
Solopreneurs
A challenge as an individual in a rural area or working independently is we live in a box. How do you know if your idea is good, if it will work for a specific audience or if someone else is doing the same thing?
There are enormous challenges to collaboration and feedback and as people with ideas know, your loved ones are the worst possible place to go for feedback. Honesty is essential in developing your idea and unless you have the harsh comments and suggestions of fellow creatives or potential users, your idea will never reach its potential.
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Launching Your Idea
Knowing the value of collaboration and the difficulty in finding it as an entrepreneur, we decided to partner with the Enterprise Institute to host the 10th Annual Innovation Expo.
This one-day conference is all about creating collaboration in the Midwest and this year we are bringing in an A-list of speakers that are both inspiring, experienced and ready to help. With a reception to meet the speakers and an opportunity to meet local entrepreneurs through our demo and student pitches, this event will help you share your idea and most importantly bring it to life.
Basically, I think you should come and I know you’ll enjoy it. Please visit the Innovation Expo website to learn more. Register before this Saturday, September 1, to get the early-bird rate.
A Special Invite
If it wasn’t enough to attend an awesome conference, we also have a special invite for our blog readers. We will be having a “pre pre-party” to listen to Pamela Slim speak and to meet other speakers. This small event will be at our office and is open to anyone who has checked out the 9 Clouds Academy. If you want to attend, just register for Innovation Expo, put in your name and email at the 9 Clouds Academy page and we’ll send you an invite.
Open Up Your Ideas
Wherever you are, whether rural South Dakota or rural Kenya, your idea will only improve with oxygen. Don’t hide it under a bushel, no. Let it shine, let it be shared and let it be improved with feedback. Even if it’s killed after sharing it, you know you are saving time by asking now rather than stewing on it for months or years.
We want to help you find other collaborators, so whether it’s at the Innovation Expo or virtually, let us know how we can help and we’ll do our best to pay testimony to your idea.
