Erik Hersman
Erik Hersman is a widely respected technologist, blogger and commentator who specialises in the impact and application of technology throughout Africa. Raised in Sudan and Kenya and a graduate of Kenya's Rift Valley Academy, He runs two popular websites - WhiteAfrican and AfriGadget, a multi-author website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. AfriGadget was named one of Time Magazine's "Top 50 Sites of 2008".[1]
Erik is also the Co-Founder of Ushahidi ("testimony" in Swahili), a groundbreaking crowdsourcing website created to map incidents of violence during the 2007–2008 Kenyan crisis. Ushahidi has since been used around the world in a wide range of initiatives from reporting violence in Madagascar [2] to election monitoring in Afghanistan.[3] In December 2009, the Omidyar Network announced a significant investment of $1.4 million to support the continued growth of the platform.[4]
Erik Hersman's work is widely recognized among the technology, development and humanitarian communities, and in 2008 he was named a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow.[5] In the summer of 2009 he was awarded a TED Fellowship,[6] and the following year named a Senior TED Fellow.[7] Married to Rinnie with three young children, he moved back to Kenya from his Florida home in December 2009. He founded the iHub, Nairobi's Innovation Hub, in March 2010 - an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in Nairobi.
Erik Hersman is the co-founder of BRCK, a 'backup generator for the internet'.