Mozilla Kenya

On the 15th, sickness 16th and 17th days of January 2016, a meetup that marked the beginning of a one year research project that will be run in Kenya was held. This research will be achieved through a joint effort between Mozilla and Digital Divide Data (DDD). It is worth mentioning that a few other communities were represented at the meetup as well. These are Lake Hub, Mombasa Tech and Jamlab. Members of these communities who were present are also Mozillians.

The research basically aims at understanding how low income earners acquire and adapt to digital phones. It goes further to identify whether this adoption leads to improvement of their lives in one way or another or not. It will be run in 5 locations namely: Mombasa, Kilifi, Webuye, Kisumu and Nairobi. A sample group of about 150 individuals will be used where first time digital device users will be considered. These will mostly be individuals earning less than five dollars a day that have used or own a feature phone and have never owned a smart phone.

Half of the group will be guided on how to use the devices (referred to as being put under treatment), and the other half left to figure out things on their own. Interventions will be run in intervals throughout the year to gather data, insight and find out about any existing problems. Important factors like the level of education, age, gender, ability to read and write will also be quantified. At the end of the study, a clear picture of how the phones have improved and can improve the lives of low income earners should be painted.

The three days meeting served as a good avenue for roles to be further expounded, plans to be made and most importantly for the team members to build a rapport. This is an overview of what took place during that period:

Day one

Arrival at the meeting venue was at 9:00am on Friday the 15th with people who traveled from far having checked in at the hotel on the day before. A little bit of tension ran across the room as people became accustomed to a number of strange faces but the familiarization happened faster than would be expected. Probably because of the warm personalities all around the room and some really cool group ice breakers. Within no time, it was apparent that everyone was geared towards playing their part to ensure that the research process went smoothly and achieved the best results.

The team began by confirming that the main agenda was clearly understood and that the topic was formulated in a relevant way. This included the understanding of any relevant open research that was formerly carried out by Mozilla Foundation and DDD.

A general understanding of the target groups was done with angles from which to approach the topic being lengthily discussed. The meeting came to a close at 5:00PM with everyone having been given a lot to think about for the next day.

Day Two

The ideas were many but we had Bobby and Laura from Mozilla moderating and ensuring that the team adhered to relevant topics and that all the key points and issues were documented. The following are some highlights of what was generally discussed:

i. The features of a Digital device that can improve an individual’s life.
ii. The advantages and disadvantages of Digital Financial Services (DFS).
iii. Questions that would be most relevant to ask during the interviews.
iv. The future of Digital Financial Services in Kenya.
v. The impact of Digital devices and Digital Financial Services in low income earning communities.

Individuals were then divided into teams and left to discuss the topics for a while. Afterwards, presentations of what each team arrived at were made and questions asked and answered. The day ended with a talk from DDD staff (Joash Mango, Duncan Washington, Dobbz Mkolwe). These are individuals that understand the research process in depth as it is majorly a part of their line of work. In the end, everyone had a lot of insight into things like; how the research process will ensue, the general conduct of a good interviewer plus a few challenges that are typical of the research model and solutions to them.

The meeting ended at 5:00PM with an agreement that the team would reconvene later at 8:00PM for dinner. Everyone went home fed, happy and ready for the last day of the meeting.

Day three

1.Role picking was finalized, each individual specified the areas of participation in which they were most comfortable with.
2. More solutions to existing and possible problems were formulated.
3. Group photos were taken. Thank you Laura for the awesome photos.
4. The meeting was officially concluded.
5. Goodbyes were said.

The conversations continued and have been taking place on online platforms. Slack, Github, Email, Skype, Telegram, WhatsApp.

Overall (TL:DR)
1. The first meetup for the Digital Skills Observatory (DSO) project was held on 15th, 16th and 17th Jan 2016.
2. The meetup marked the beginning of a one year research project that will be run by the Mozilla Foundation and Digital Divide Data (DDD).
3. A lot was discussed. Meetup was insightful and a success. Great team! There was no shortage of intelligence.
4. Rapport was established. Friendships were made thanks to some really cool peeps and cool icebreakers.
5. Everyone psyched up for the research, great findings can be expected in January 2017.

The Equity Group Foundation/Mozilla Digital literacy Training Event

Nov 17 2014

Brenda Nyokabi

The London-Based User Research group, store in conjunction with Equity Group Foundation set up a series of event s dating 12th and 13^th November and 21^st and 22^nd November with the aim of promoting digital literacy in Kenya .This event attracted community support from Mozilla Kenya (both the Nairobi and Mombasa community), the Mozilla Uganda Community and of course, Equity bank.

Day One

The Morning Session began with a short introduction done by the event facilitators, Ben and Laura, who expressed their appreciation for the turn up, as well as taking us through the purpose of the event .Since the event leaned more on group participation than a conference style setup, the attendees were separated into five groups .First order of business was to start by identifying potential target group (common mwananchi) who could or require the use of a smart phone. Additionally, the groups were expected to identify their attributes and their immediate environment. This was done with the aim of identifying whether the target group would require the use of smartphone apps to improve their day to day lives.

By the end of this session each team had identified the following target audience:

Team Awesome: Young Entrepreneur

Team Msafiri: Matatu Drivers

Team Mama Mboga: Mama Mboga

Team Smart: Students /High school and College who is a Business Entrepreneur

Team Kanyari: Primary School teacher who owns a small business /kiosk

The Afternoon session commenced with Ben explaining what web maker project was all about .He was able to take us through all the tools on the website here and show us how easy it was to teach anyone how to use the web. Tools that were demonstrated include thimble (Simple Web Editor), X-Ray Goggles (Code Viewer), Popcorn maker (Video, audio and images Remix Tool) and Appmaker (Mobile App maker).

Later on, he gave us an opportunity to go through the Prototype Web Maker App on the Firefox developer device .The Web Maker app was created for the purpose of promoting web literacy all over the world. Each group was required to learn and test the app and figure out how their target group could use it as an everyday tool. As a small exercise, each individual was given a blue and pink sticky note to write what they would like to teach and learn by the end of the event. The notes were later displayed on the glass window

After the day’s event, we got to take a group photo and interact before leaving.

Short Review on Web maker App here

Test Drive Web Maker App here

Day Two

It was the start of the second day and the excitement was still in the air. The turn up was as good as the previous day and included new attendees .After an amazing Breakfast buffet, we all settled down to get back to business. The morning session‘s agenda was quite simple: To come up with a step by step activity list that would portray how each group would go about teaching its target group on using the smartphone apps to improve their day to day activities .Each group was requires to jot down each activity in a piece of paper and expound on it. For the better part of the morning the teams engaged into frivolous discussion with the occasional help from Ben and Laura

After a long lunch break, we assemble back in the hall to present our activity plan .Each group was requires to give a break down on the how to go about the process, and in some cases, make a small sketch about it. These sessions involved a lot of interaction between members, question and clarification of points. Laura then gave each group a piece of paper to write down the resources that would be needed for the user research project that was scheduled for 21^st and 22^nd of November .The groups are requires to do a field work on their target audience and execute the activity plan discussed that day.

With the help of Laura (Equity Foundation Group) and her team, all groups were able to decide on the perfect venue to carry out the research and the type of resources required for each group to successfully facilitate the project. A timetable was set up for all activities that will be done on 21^st and 22^nd of November.

The Equity Group Foundation gave a short vote of thanks to everyone who showed up for the event and were pleased by the progress we made in two days .Firefox devices were handed out to participants, as well as t-shirts ,stickers and key chains .

After the event, there was a cock tail party that saw everyone socialize and make new friends.

All in all, the event was a great success .We would like to appreciate the participants who that turned up for the event , the Mozilla Mombasa Community and Mozilla Uganda community for showing their support that lead to the success of the two day event. Moreover, we would like to appreciate Bonds Garden for the impeccable food and excellent service that accompanied it

MozillaKE November 8th 2014 Community Meetup

Nov 16 2014

Brenda Nyokabi

Once again, cure the Mozilla community held a Mozcoffee on the 8^th of November with the aim of following up on the last meeting, physician as well as to discuss the community agenda list. The venue, of course, was Debonaire pizza. Fourth time in a row and the turn up was excellent with additional new faces.

Status Updates

The meeting started off with the status updates of previously discussed agendas. Partnership with institutions such as Nairobi Dev. School & Nairobits is underway with a high probability of success. School of Open, together with Mozilla Kenya will initiate partnerships with high schools & primary institutions for the Web Maker and related project. Alex volunteered to meet with our School of Open contact, Simeone. The Maseno event organized by Mozillan FSA ,Newton was a success .However more support was needed in terms of Mozilla contributors showing up for such planned events

Despite having only 800 words left to translate the L10 team was concerned that it would take longer than expected due to certain issues such as lack of synchronicity between translations, slow or no internet and lack of time.

Ben and Laura (The London-Based Mozilla Community User Researchers), in conjunction with Equity Bank called for community support by having Mozilla Contributors showing up for the Research event scheduled for 12th and 13^th of November 2014. Attendees are required to show up in time since the event will be starting early.

Our main focus this year was basically on L10n, Firefox OS and Web maker where we made tremendous effort as a community. Moving forward, areas that need more focus in the remainder of the year include:

Mozilla WebDev

Digital literacy – Web/Firefox usage, privacy, email

FSA & Firefox Clubs

Intro to programming

HTML5/JavaScript basics

Programming – JS, Playdoh, Gaming

Appmaker – Engage Nairobi JS community

Firefox OS Africa

In order to get ready for the release of the Firefox OS in Africa, Mozilla Kenya decided to organize two events:

Firefox OS community sprint –This was to finish translating the remaining Swahili words In Firefox OS and test it on Firefox devices

Firefox OS L10N Sprint for East Africa region. This event is meant to bring localizers from East Africa with the aim of translating and testing Firefox OS

Since, the Sprint East Africa event is going to be on the ground, Nairobi to be specific, the event will be organized by Mozilla Kenya with the help of interested community volunteers.

In conclusion, the Meetup was a great success with some of the items on the list having been clearly discussed .We would like to welcome our new contributors Ivy, Rispa, Susan, Nate and Dennis (resurfaced contributors) for joining the community.

Get all links to the etherpad below:

Saturday’s Agenda List: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/remo-community-meetup

Telegram Agenda List: https://etherpad.mozilla.org/community-kenya-coordination-plan

Dinner At Fogo Gaucho With Mozillians from user research division-London

Nov 12 2014

kelvin munene

November 10^th was an awesome day. The 10^th anniversary of Firefox coincided with dinner with Laura and Ben (Mozillians from user research division-London) at Fogo Gaucho Nairobi Kenya. Pure coincidence though. I thought I should mention.

Anyway…

Laura And Ben are visiting Kenya with an aim of carrying research on digital literacy and to understand how Mobile Webmaker can empower the next billion web users, there and more specifically how to drive digital inclusion in emerging economies and lower the bar for local content creation. The team is currently running a research trip in Bangladesh, in urban and rural locations with various user groups.Other countries of action are Kenya and India. They are also working on a challenge to empower communities to take part in this research in their home countries.

The team is especially interested in empowering new smartphone users to create and distribute locally relevant mobile apps. During 2014, this team will be studying motivations and constraints for creation in emerging digital economies, then prototyping and testing several software and teaching hypotheses in order to find solutions.

The dinner was mainly to introduce this concept to us (the Kenyan community), see how we would contribute to make this a success and to meet the Kenyan community as well. And Fogo Gaucho provide the best venue to wine and dine as we tried to brainstorm on how their objectives would be met and how best these objectives would be collected and disseminated all around the country.

Now the Meaty part…

Fogo Gaucho is a Brazilian restaurant located in Westlands Nairobi. Serves different cuts of meat- beef, chicken, fish, prawns, pig, goat and even crocodile meat prepared by Brazilian chefs. Mouth watering huh!

Dinner was at 8 and around 10 of Nairobi community members showed up. We got to know more about the research project and we had a chance to give our ideas on how best the research team would carry out their research. We all pledged to attend the boot camp, code named Equity Group Foundation/ Mozilla digital literacy training program that would be happening later on in the week.

The night wouldn’t have been complete without celebrating Firefox 10^th anniversary. We didn’t sing happy birthday but we took photos wishing fire fox a happy birthday.

Cheers.

Shaping the Future – A Free, Open and Secure Web for all!

Nov 10 2014

bryan opiyo

2014 has been a fruitful year for Mozilla Mombasa conducting events centred around Web-maker, and as the year comes to a close Mozilla Mombasa is about to end the Web Maker Party Series with much euphoria. Still under the Web Maker Party 2014 Series. Mozilla Mombasa brings you “Shaping the Future with an Open Secure Web for all” an event under the Maker Party 2014 Series . Set to be hosted at The Lotus Hotel Mombasa from 9.00AM to 3.00PM on November 22nd as from 9:00am to 3:00pm. The event intends to have discussions based on matters Internet Security and focus on all aspects of security. A panel of Invited guests speakers from ISP’s (Internet Service Providers) and other well-known companies in Mombasa that focus on Internet Security shall be in attendance and we’ll all delve into matters security such as;

1. Cyber Security

2. Internet Security

3. Mozilla

4. Light Beam Project

5. Why the need for an Open Web?

We will share knowledge and insights that is bound to leave you with a better understanding towards an open and secure web; suffice to say with the increased cases of hackers in Kenyans twitter accounts, knowledge on how to protect our accounts may come in handy. Guess by now you don’t want to be left out, right? Register here:

You can start building the hype of this event by using the following hashtags

#internetsecurity #cybersafety #lightbeam

Remember a miss is as good as a mile.So register today.

18th September MozCoffee (The Mashujaa Edition)

Oct 20 2014

bryan opiyo

The long Mashujaa weekend began and in itself presented a great opportunity for the MozCoffee meetup. Mozillian Shujaas, unhealthy from various institutions in Mombasa came together to discuss issues that involved improving the Mozilla Mombasa Community, diagnosis Students and Reps as far as from JKUAT VOI and within Mombasa came to represent their various institutions, we also had the privilege of Mr.Abdulrahman lecturer from JKUAT Mombasa. So after a light banter and moments of acquaintance the meeting commenced.

The agenda was as follows

*An update on the efforts that have been made in reaching various learning Institutions in Mombasa

*Recruiting Reps from the Institutions that have come on board.

*Prospects of engaging with Taita Campus

*Social Media Engagement

*Blogging

*Planning events for the next quarter of the year

Alifya kicked in by informing us on the progress on reaching institutions of learning in Mombasa and having wider outreach across Mombasa. The team is constantly reaching out to institutions and so far a good number of the institutions are on board, as depicted in the community run events. However theirs still more institutions that need to come on board.

Said also pointed out that the online presence of the community needed to be felt more, and that the Mozilla community members (you and I) need to have a collaborative effort in pushing the message of Mozilla Mombasa; sharing blog posts to friends and peers out there, asking questions on the forum among others. Engaging in social media enables the community to reach a majority numbers of people and spread its wings on the Inter webs. It just takes that one tweet tag to a friend. However this should not only be online but offline as well.

Said

Having said that, in order for the presence of Mozilla to be felt in various Institutions. It was deemed important to recruit a representative from the institutions who would be the “Go To” person when Mozilla Mombasa Community would want to partner with the institution. Besides that the representative will also be in charge of starting a Firefox Club and churning out future reps in their campus that would later carry on the mantle when their time in the institution has elapsed. Musa Alfan offered to be a mentor for the reps.

Musa Alfan and Swaleh Abubakar consulting.

The following attendants that were present at the Moz Coffee volunteered to be representatives for their institution:

Kizzi Dimira represantative of The Kenya Methodist University

Fauzia rep for Mount Kenya University

Magambo rep Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology

Festus rep from Taita Taveta University College

We look forward to having reps from Technical University of Mombasa, Kenyatta University and Moi University.

Murad Swaleh airing his views.

Festus Langat from JKUAT- Taita Taveta Campus did share with us how Tech enthusiasts from the institutions have gone out into starting a Tech Hub. They hold Math competitions for high school students in order to get students be involved in the science & technology field. In being the change you’d want to see in the world; Taita Taveta is shaping up to be another avenue which will churn out future Technology and Science enthusiast.

Festus Langat from JKUAT Taita Taveta

In regard to blogging about the Mozilla Mombasa, we couldn’t go without notice the efforts that have been put out by Bryan who volunteered as a blogger earlier this year, being consistent on updating and spreading the message of the community and various discussions/ events that the community has had. Blogging on both the Community hub website and the Mozilla Kenya Community website has been an effort that we do appreciate. It was also proposed that members be active on sharing the blog posts and feel free to critique. For the coming year Magambo Gatobu volunteered to take on the mantle from Bryan and he will be the next Mozilla Mombasa blogger 2015.

Magambo takes up bloging for Mozilla Mombasa in 2015 :)

Then a brainstorming session followed in conclusion for plans on the next quarter of the year, we came up with different ideas of events centered on Mozilla, from Toto Web, Cryptography, Web developer tools just to mention a few.

Harris sharing his ideas.

Of course towards the end after informative discussions, there was time to make merry light banters and have a bite of the assortments of the Pizzas Inn. While at it Take selfies; Food Selfies included.

Belle and Jamila sharing a meal.

Mozillians do share too .Check out the photos, we are now on Instagram here.It was a succesfull meeting and a big thank you to the Mozillian Shujaas who showed up for the Moz Coffee, and Happy Mashujaa’s Day fellow Mozillians.

WoMoz at AdaCamp Berlin

Oct 17 2014

Ednah Kiome

Last weekend October 11-12, AdaCamp conference took place in Berlin, Germany at the Wikipedia Deutschland offices. AdaCamp is a conference dedicated to increasing women’s participation in open technology and culture: open source software, Wikipedia and other wiki-related projects, open knowledge and education, open government and open data, open hardware and appropriate technology, library technology, creative fan culture, remix culture,translation/localization/internationalization, and more.

Courtesy: AdaCamp

WoMoz was represented by Stefania Ioana Chiorean from Romania, Dian Ina Mahendra from Indonesia, Kristi Progri from Albania and Ednah Kiome from Kenya.

AdaCamp runs different concurrently sessions/discussions in which attendees decide on the session to attend. The greatest thing about this conference is the fellow adacampers(the attendees),You get to meet women who are doing great work, are passionate about what they do and from different countries, not to add you get to make life time friends.

Women & Mozilla

Some of the discussions we had included:

Non Coders and how to participate in open source.
Mozilla and Web Maker tools
Civic engagement and activism
How to create safer space/ communities
Introduction to Hardware
Feminism/ Talking to other women about feminism
Introduction to GPG and other privacy tools
Privacy and security-Debunking the nothing to hide myth
Sexism and diversity in open source
Fan culture as a gateway to open culture
Job satisfaction and negotiating pay
Bridging a gender gap to Wikipedia Contributors/Editing Wikipedia

Apart from attending the AdaCamp, I spared some time to visit some of Berlin’s attractions. Some of the places I visited included:

Berlin Wall Art

I had a great time, learnt a lot from the conference and made friends. All women in open source Technology should strive to attend AdaCamp Conference.

Holocaust Memorial

Berlin Radio Tower

13th Sep Nairobi Mozcoffee (The Debonair Affair)

Sep 28 2014

kelvin munene

Saturday afternoon and the turnout was great .The Mozilla meeting began with a bang, no rx and off course, pilule a slice of the Debonair pizza. Who could resist? Truth be told, ailment the pizza incentive was a good start to the Month of September but in as much as it was on the table, so was the agenda of the day.

For those who missed out on the meeting, the list looked like this:
• Web Maker Training updates and NairoBits
• JamLab Progress
• Marker party
• Kisumu Community Development Updates
• Brainstorm on new ideas
• FSA Program
• Localization

The Inside scope
NairoBits agreed to partner with MozillaKE on the Web maker training program that seeks to widen our reach in the community. With a vast community presence rivaling our own, it was seen as a step up idea and a good avenue to introduce the community to Web Maker tools. Previous Meet ups saw us discuss the importance of collaborating with the surrounding community. Talk about killing two birds with one stone.
The Jam Lab idea is still in progress as Alex sent out an email expressing our desire to partner with them concerning Mozilla web development tools. In order to fully dive in the spirit of collaboration, we discussed the need to come up with content useful for the web maker training exercise .Additionally, we had to identify contributors willing to volunteer fully and take on Mozilla Program that involve organizing of events and trainings. Follow up events will be necessary upon the completion of each planned event.
In regard to the Maseno Web maker party to be hosted by our very own Newton, a budding FSA, MozillaKe contributors in Nairobi offered to provide support on the upcoming event. Mozilla contributors who agreed to attend included Steve, Kev, Maryanne, Eugene and Vicky Alex made an important point about the growth of MozillaKe stating that each individual has the capacity to make direct contribution to the community.
Steve gave us an update on Mozilla Localization Project providing submission rights to any Mozilla contributor interested in being part of the admin. In order to prevent delayed development of this particular project, that any contributor with submission rights can push the code for scrutiny by all members.

On a lighter Note
As a random act of kindness, members attending the meet-up gave support to a young boy in need of medical assistance. In conclusion, “We must remember that one determined person can make a significant difference and that a small group of determined people can change the course of history” Sonia Johnson