Sunday, 28 July 2019
Fortune/Jeremy Khan: Africa Is Tech’s Next Great Frontier, Github A.I. Expert Says
The
bleeding edge of technology innovation is increasingly shifting from
Silicon Valley to places that are also at the frontiers of economic
development, including sub-Saharan Africa, says Omoju Miller, who works
on machine learning at software development platform Github.
Miller, who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, told the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference that both demographics and geography will drive technology vendors to focus on frontier markets.
Africa will soon host most of the world's fastest-growing economies. Sub-Saharan Africa will be home to more than 90 cities with populations in excess of 1 million people. More than 60 percent of the population in the region is under the age of 25 and the continent is already home to half of the world's users of mobile payment solutions, she said.
Those figures will increasingly drive the world's largest technology firms to invest in Africa. And it will mean that more and more innovations will be born in the region, she said.
"We are the at edge of another kind of technology frontier, and this time around, it is not happening in San Francisco, it is taking place in Africa," she said.
Miller used examples from two recent trips to Africa to illustrate her point. She said that she recently visited Nigeria with Nat Friedman, Github's chief executive officer, because the software repository's data told it the country's coders were adopting open source software at a faster clip than anywhere else.
In another trip to Kenya, Miller detailed how seamlessly she was able to access all the same kinds of mobile apps and services she did when back home in San Francisco, including booking taxi rides on Uber and booking food delivery with Jumia, the company that bills itself as Africa's answer to Amazon, and which was originally incubated by German startup factory Rocket Internet.
Then, when traveling to the Maasai Mara nature reserve, she recalled passing through numerous rural villages. "We are talking about very small villages and yet in these small villages you can still use mobile payments," she said. "This is going to radically change what the technology environment is going to look like."
This story has been updated to correct Miller's title at Github and that she visited Kenya as well as Nigeria.
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Miller, who grew up in Lagos, Nigeria, told the Fortune Brainstorm Tech conference that both demographics and geography will drive technology vendors to focus on frontier markets.
Africa will soon host most of the world's fastest-growing economies. Sub-Saharan Africa will be home to more than 90 cities with populations in excess of 1 million people. More than 60 percent of the population in the region is under the age of 25 and the continent is already home to half of the world's users of mobile payment solutions, she said.
Those figures will increasingly drive the world's largest technology firms to invest in Africa. And it will mean that more and more innovations will be born in the region, she said.
"We are the at edge of another kind of technology frontier, and this time around, it is not happening in San Francisco, it is taking place in Africa," she said.
Miller used examples from two recent trips to Africa to illustrate her point. She said that she recently visited Nigeria with Nat Friedman, Github's chief executive officer, because the software repository's data told it the country's coders were adopting open source software at a faster clip than anywhere else.
In another trip to Kenya, Miller detailed how seamlessly she was able to access all the same kinds of mobile apps and services she did when back home in San Francisco, including booking taxi rides on Uber and booking food delivery with Jumia, the company that bills itself as Africa's answer to Amazon, and which was originally incubated by German startup factory Rocket Internet.
Then, when traveling to the Maasai Mara nature reserve, she recalled passing through numerous rural villages. "We are talking about very small villages and yet in these small villages you can still use mobile payments," she said. "This is going to radically change what the technology environment is going to look like."
This story has been updated to correct Miller's title at Github and that she visited Kenya as well as Nigeria.
More must-read stories from Fortune Brainstorm Tech 2019:
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—How Spotify “playlisting” turned an unknown artist into a star
—U.S. risks falling behind in crypto, warns ‘Crypto Mom’ SEC commissioner
—Verizon executive calls for federal privacy rules on 5G
Get Fortune’s Eye on A.I. newsletter, where artificial intelligence meets industry
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Saturday, 27 July 2019
The New York Times/Jeffrey C. Mays: Trump Attacks. De Blasio Strikes Back, and Hopes Voters Notice.
Few
people, especially politicians, can stand to be insulted. But when it
comes to barbs fired by President Trump, Mayor Bill de Blasio cannot
seem to get enough of them.
Treated as
an afterthought among 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, Mr. de
Blasio has embraced every affront from the president as an opportunity
not just to fire back, but also to present himself as a capable antidote
to Mr. Trump.
The latest example came
this week, after the president cited viral videos that showed police
officers getting water dumped on their heads, and suggested that the mayor was to blame for creating a lawless environment in New York City.
The
president, Mr. de Blasio quickly replied on Thursday, “knows nothing
about New York City at this point.” Later that night, in an interview
with BuzzFeed’s Ben Smith, Mr. de Blasio challenged Mr. Trump to a
debate.
“I
challenge you, Donald Trump, to come to New York City, and I will
debate you about what’s right for New York City and BuzzFeed can host
it,” Mr. de Blasio said. “Because he doesn’t understand New York City,
and when his presidency is over really soon, he will not be welcome back
in New York City.”
Before he was an
official candidate for president, Mr. de Blasio told voters in Iowa that
Democrats would not win back the White House by focusing on Mr. Trump.
He criticized Hillary Clinton, his former boss and Democratic nominee
for president, for pursuing such a strategy.
Most
observers see Mr. de Blasio’s change of heart as part of a recognition
that he needs to find a way to draw attention to himself as one of the
last candidates to enter the race, one of the lowest in the polls and
one of the worst fund-raisers.
The only problem? It’s not working.
“Mr.
de Blasio keeps on looking for something magical that will allow him to
break through,” said Kenneth Sherrill, a professor emeritus of
political science at Hunter College. “You keep on throwing bombs until
one works or either your arm falls off. You have to admire his
doggedness.”
From
the start of his campaign, Mr. de Blasio has argued that he is the
candidate most familiar with Mr. Trump, a fellow New Yorker, and that he
has the grit to stand up to him. In his announcement video, Mr. de
Blasio talked about how he had stood up to Mr. Trump in the past on
issues that ranged from immigration to climate change.
“Donald Trump must be stopped. I’ve beaten him before and I will do it again,” Mr. de Blasio said in the video.
Mr.
Trump has not refrained from going after Mr. de Blasio, either. On the
day of Mr. de Blasio’s presidential announcement, Mr. Trump posted a
video that appeared to be filmed aboard Air Force One, in which he
called Mr. de Blasio the “worst” mayor in New York City history.
Mr.
de Blasio said the challenge he issued to Mr. Trump was not a stunt. He
wants to point out that New York City is one of the safest cities in
the country.
“Every time, he starts
it,” Mr. de Blasio said in an interview about the mostly online
confrontations between himself and Mr. Trump. “I think it’s important to
confront him,” Mr. de Blasio added.
Mr.
de Blasio met with Mr. Trump at Trump Tower shortly after Mr. Trump was
elected president. The last time the two men spoke was after the 2017
Halloween truck attack on a Manhattan bike path that killed eight
people, said Jacyln Rothenberg, Mr. de Blasio’s campaign spokeswoman.
“He
attempted what I think is false charm,” Mr. de Blasio said about his
conversations with the president. “He seems to be complimentary in
private and issues his broadsides in public.”
Otherwise,
Mr. de Blasio’s and Mr. Trump’s occasional social media volleys have
been their only contact, even if the president is never far from the
mayor’s public thoughts.
Mr. de Blasio has proudly criticized Mr. Trump in
front of black churchgoers in South Carolina, and to farmers in rural
Iowa. Mr. de Blasio even nicknamed Mr. Trump “ConDon” and hosted a raucous news conference at Trump Tower before announcing his candidacy.
Still, Mr. de Blasio only raised $1.1 million
in his most recent fund-raising report, placing him in the bottom tier
of candidates. And he has not reached one percent in any of the three
national polls and four state polls that Quinnipiac University has
conducted since Mr. de Blasio announced his candidacy May 16, said Mary
Snow, a polling analyst for Quinnipiac University.
Mr. de Blasio has reached one percent in other polls, but even Mr. de Blasio’s generally well-regarded performance in the first Democratic debate did not move his poll numbers.
“That
was a debate where Mayor de Blasio tried to stand out and make himself
known in this crowded field, and it didn’t resonate in the polls,” Ms.
Snow said. “The one thing we have to remember is how many candidates
there are.”
Mr.
de Blasio said he will not stop taking on Mr. Trump. “When Donald
Trump, the president of the United States, out of nowhere starts
attacking me,” Mr. de Blasio said, “I’m going to respond. I’m not going
to take that lying down.”
A version of this article appears in print on , Section A, Page 17 of the New York edition with the headline: Mayor Sees Trump’s Barbs In Tweets as Opportunity. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe
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