As the founder of Hive Colab and the director, respectively, Jon Gosier and Barbara Birungi are ardent about establishing a community for Uganda’s techies. The hub is a free space for all aspiring entrepreneurs and developers in the technology field. The only requirement for potential members is to be working on a new venture or seeking to develop a new idea.
At Hive Colab, there are conference rooms for meetings, Internet access, advisors, and an opportunity to engage with some of Uganda’s most brilliant thinkers and shapers in tech. We asked two of Hive Colab’s key players to share with us the hub’s history, special projects, notable apps, inventions and more. Here’s what they said:
AFKInsider: How did Hive Colab begin? Who are the participants, owners, and what are your specialties?”
Jon Gosier: Hive began in 2010 around the same time as the iHub in Kenya and a few months after ActiveSpaces/Limbe Labs in Cameroon. Its roots were in 2008, when Appfrica was first founded in Uganda. It had a staff (of which Barbara [Birungi] was the first) that moonlighted working on their own projects. So it was both a consulting firm and an incubator.
In late 2009 Appfrica transitioned to mostly consulting, and thus no longer needed an office. We decided to spinout the ‘incubation’ portion of our company to be separate. Since we no longer needed an office, but saw the value in having a ‘space’ that could be used by the community, we decided to re-purpose it. That’s when Teddy [Ruge] and myself decided that it should become a co-working facility. Teddy [Ruge] had shared notes with me about a place called ‘HiveColab’ that he had ambitions of building and together we came together to found Hive with Barb [Birungi].
In 2010, Hive was founded and began offering workspace, networking events, and other resources to Uganda’s finest technologists and innovators.
AFKInsider: As per my research on your website, Securing Water for Food is a challenge for developers to create a method of storing and obtaining water more efficiently. What apps have Hive Colab member’s created to improve the process of collecting and sustaining water in Uganda?
Barbara Birungi: Nakazade is a product for the mothers, infants and children below five years in Uganda that helps reduce on the maternal mortality rate and infant mortality rate. Nakzade avails information for mothers and Traditional Birth Attendants (TBAs) through SIM cards that are embedded with information on pregnancy care and health basic infant care health, contraceptive use, and immunization schedules.
Matibabu is a mobile application for early, non-invasive malaria diagnosis with a phone and custom piece of hardware (matiscope). Matibabu offers prompt, accurate diagnosis without painful needle pricks, power challenges, the need for trained personnel and shortened diagnosis time.
Road Conexion is an informative and reporting application that engages the citizens to make real time reports, attachments (photos), geo mapping and opinions on the road and transport projects being implemented around the country.
