If I'm remembering this correctly, I first heard about Jonathan Gosier from Nathaniel Whittemore, the Social Entrepreneurship blogger at Change.org. Nathaniel and I have known each other forever and ever, and he's the kind of guy who really lets you know about someone when he thinks that someone is awesome, and when he does this, I pay attention.

Gosier heads up Appfrica.org, which is described on the site as a facilitator and incubator "for entrepreneurs in software in East Africa and Uganda." They "offer 24 hour facilities with a solid internet connection, servers, software and computers that will students and entrepreneurs a safe place to develop their ideas in a constructive environment alongside industry professionals outside of school."

Further, the site adds: "Appfrica Labs has also started an International Fellows Program which brings developers from all over the world to work alongside local Entrepreneurs as peers and mentors."

Gosier is also working on a book, Muxtionary (housed online here), that is, in his words, "All about the future I don't want to see for Africa.   It's what I'm working against.   In short, it takes place in a future world utopia where Africa is still on the bottom and very-much like it is today."

I very recently discussed Appfica with Gosier, and some of his other accomplishments, which include a TED Global Fellowship. Enjoy.

I'm curious about how Appfrica Labs started. It seems like you've got so much going on. Now there's the Fellows Program - and you are a TED Global Fellow. You're busy to be sure and I'm curious about how it all started up.

Well, I moved here pretty much a year ago exactly. My girlfriend worked at CARE and then took a position as the Regional Africa Manager for an NGO called Water For People. This required her to relocate to Uganda for the next three years.   I was a techie in the States bored with my jobs and lack of opportunity there, so I decided to come here and try to start something productive.

It seems like that's happening. That sounds like a story that resonates at various levels for a lot of the folks NetSquared is in touch with: "I was doing X, Y, and Z and then I decided I needed to do something bigger, I saw an opportunity, and I did it." And your story has taken place on an global level, which is very interesting.

It all started with the blog which originally I just started writing to help me learn more about the African tech scene. But then I noticed I was getting a lot of traffic, so I started taking it more seriously. The idea to start Appfrica Labs came out of [Barcamp] Campala which I put on pretty much a month after I landed in Kampala.

So at Barcamp Kampala (or Campala as we called it), about 80 to 100 hungry software developers showed up. They had never done anything like it before. They were mostly students but there were also CEOs, administrators, and leaders from the industry (like Joseph Mucheru from Google East Africa). Unlike most events here, everyone was an equal, it didn't matter if you were a student or millionaire, everyone had equal control. That seemd to really resonate. One of the things the crowd kept mentioning was that there was a lack of mentors and access to capital for software developers. I decided to start Appfrica Labs out of those discussions.

How did that ultimately happen - starting Appfrica labs from that point? Did you do it all on your own or did you seek out partnerships and sponsorships?

No. Sponsorships were impossible to find. People were like, "You want to do what?! Where?! Get outta here." So I bootstrapped it. I literally spent all my savings trying to start this incubator thing. Around the same time I was invited to Google's Barcamp Africa thing (in October). I made a lot of contacts there and it really helped to boost the profile. I was making a lot of deals happen based on the fact that people simply thought Appfrica was biger than it was with the blog, and my developing software with the two guys I was paying at the time. Right around the same time I ran out of cash I met the people from Kuv Capital (in January) and they saw what we had done, the promise of what we could do, and they invested.

It's an "American Dream" story... in Africa.

[Laughts] The African Dream

Yes, totally. And that's interesting, because it sounds like you're trying to replicate this dream for Africans by way of bringing the attention of Western Investment by engaging these cyber/web/computer entrepreneurs. How is that mission working thus far?

 It's going well, in fact, our first start up just got invested in, Status.ug a mobile-social network. I understand that people have no reason to really think this is a good idea in Africa, we've got a horrible track record over the last fifty years in both the private sector and the NGO side. But, the message of groups like this one is that everything has changed and no one sees it yet. There's a lot of promise; there's a new generation that grew up with access all the same software and ideals about tech that I had growing up in the U.S. They know that the only thing sperating them from the rest of the world is where they were born and they are as enthusastic about changing perceptions about Africa as I am. My goal is to help kickstart the same energy surrounding the dotCom boom in the US and Euope in East Africa, specifically.

Do you think that this sector will essentially bring an industrial-type revolution to various countries in Africa? Is this the sort of thing you're talking about when you say things have already changed?

As far as your first question, I do think that in many ways there is a pending tech boom from Africa. It's one of the few areas where people here don't really have a huge disadvantage in comparison to the rest of the world. All they need is access to the same time, resources and capital that everyone else does and they can also craft brilliant ideas here.

What I mean is that there's this sort of old way of doing things that has gotten people no where. People here aren't stupid, they know this. They know some of their leaders are corrupt and that it's holding everyone back. What I mean is that the younger generation really wants to change things. There are a lot of we call 'social entrepreneurs' who never get any attention, they don't even realize that they could probablly win contests or get awards. They just do it because they made it and they feel they have an obligation to help someone else make it.

Regarding access, it sounds like access is what is enabling these various changes - the desire of young peope for change and the ability to move forward with development in this realm. In addition to what you're doing in the field, what interesting initiatives do you see happening that are making this access possible? How is Appfrica drawing enabling access?

Since I know the tech arena best, I'll talk about those things. Apart from universities and NGOs, there's actually a lot going on here. One of the guys who works on the Appfrica Blog, Derrick Kwagala, has used his own money to start a software literacy training center. He runs it at a loss, but he does it because he knows a lot of kids here who have dropped out of school and don't have any employable skills.   Rather than these guys going out to get jobs as taxi drivers or manual laborers, he helps them learn soft skills and even things like web design and Flash. I think the access to this type of knowledge and mentorship is far mor important than anything else (captial or bandwidth.) At Appfrica Labs, I try to apply all three. Mentorship being the biggest, most challenging thing. The capital is easy if you do your research and show you're trustworthy. It's rather low-cost to operate here which means some people see it as a great place to just throw money at ideas to see what works.

Also, I read a book called OUTLIERS recently by Malcom Gladwell. In it he talks about the 'time' spent doing things as one of the main things that seperates successful people from everyone else. I can see how that applies here. Education is only about reading, writing and repeating facts. It's also about experimentation. I borrowed the idea of 20% free-time from Google, but the developers here have all the time here in they want to work on their own ideas, try new things or just play with technology.

It's funny - I just read OUTLIERS as well, and an article he had written partially rendered from the arguments in the book which appeared in the New Yorker - where he ultimately makes the argumenet that progress is made when access is provided and when archaic structures of selection are successfully second-guessed and re-articulated. It sounds like this is what you're participating in doing - and also what a lot of folks in this arena are trying to do. Are there OUTLIERS-lifting factors - beyond what you're doing - that you're also seeing come more often to the continent?

Well, I'm not sure about that. There's still sort of the 1800's British-style education going on here, at least in Uganda. Kids simply do learn to repeat. There's not enough emphasis on creative thinking or individualism. That is changing but there's also some cultural things tied to it. For instance, it's just part of the culture here to do things as a community as opposed to doing them on your own. Now, no one can say whether this is good or bad, it's just the culture, but when it comes to doing things like using a computer for the first time, it discourages the kid who may be interested in that. It's not part of the culture here (in Uganda) to be too different from the masses. This also discourages girls from entering tech. But again, the new generation is breaking a lot of those old ways of thinking.

Is this all terribly exciting to be on the front lines of?

Yes! I'm amazed by the ammount of talent and tenacity here. Some of the guys I meet are nothing short of brilliant, they just lack opportunity.

Tell me a bit about this TED Global Fellowship. How did this come up? Obviously from your work, I can only imagine, but what's that process like? What do you hope to bring from the experience to Appfrica?

Actually I have no idea what's in store for me there. [Laughs] I just applied because I've seen TED videos that literally changed my way of thinking and I just wanted to be a part of it. I didn't really know if I stood to gain anything at all. I know there's a short talk all the Fellows will give, there will also be some contributions to the TED blog. I suppose a lot of people watch TED so there's just the exposure factor. I hope that I can make a geniuine case for investing in Africa as apposed to just giving it money. I saw Jacquline Novogratz from Acumen talk about 'patient capital' and that thinking is what I apply to Appfrica Labs. 'Patient Venture Capital' if you will. A lot of people don't believe in the future of Africa, I do, and there's no sense complaining about what people are or aren't doing for you. Just follow through and keep doing it until everyone wakes up to all the opportunities here.