Inside Nairobi - the Next Palo Alto?

"IN the republic of innovation, life is unfair. A relatively small number of places — all in wealthy countries or in China and India — create nearly every important technological advance. Other places must be content with technologies made by others. Yet people in these areas are dreaming of more." (G. PASCAL ZACHARY, NY Times July 2008)

Nairobi’s challenges are many: Internet use is expensive and slow. Power failures. No world-class technical university. Political instability with associated widespread violence. However optimism breeds: Few wired phone lines or networked personal computers mean mobile phones are the essential digital tool. Four times as many people have them as have bank accounts. Text messages are far more popular than e-mail. Nokia sells brand-new phones here for as little as $33. In Kenya there are 10 million low-end phones waiting to be married to the Internet. Youthful community of programmers, bloggers and Web enthusiasts are emerging.

"Africa is a huge long-term market for us. We have to start by helping people get online, and the creativity of the people will take care of the rest.” (Eric Schmidt, Google).

Come and hear  how Google are starting to make a difference in Africa and share your ideas of what else we should do or should NOT do: What would you like to see Google do in this market that it has not attempted anywhere else in the world?