One of the debates that rages amongst the developers, designers, and strategists across the African blogosphere is what types of web and mobile applications are being built in Africa. When we look at the available web applications and mobile offerings around the continent, we generally ask ourselves two questions:

• Why are there no new ideas coming out of Africa?
• Should we be developing applications for Africa, or should we be building applications for the global market?

These are very important questions, for they represent the overall web application direction within Africa. They should also raise the question amongst developers of whether or not they are really trying to meet the demands of African web and mobile users.

1) Why are there no new application ideas coming out of Africa?
Background reading:
Uno de Waal

It really isn’t that I’m negative about South African webdevelopment, it’s just that we’re producing crap clones of products that are already out there, while I think we can do much better.

John Wesonga

Africa and Kenya specifically cannot be empowered using technology when the mindset we have adopted is one of reuse rather then revolution. If we are truly to be the next frontier of untapped technology then we must strive to build skill and nurture innovation from the onset.

Both Uno and John are concerned that we have a culture of copying and customizing not of invention and innovation. Are we? By and large the answer is “yes”. But that leads to the second question, because there might be a real reason for the direction that we see things going.

2) Should we be developing applications for Africa, or should we be building applications for the global market?
Some examples of this would be:

• Muti – an African Digg/Reddit
• Afrigator and Amatomu – African Technorati-type applications
• Zoopy – an African YouTube

Sometimes repurposing of a good idea and customizing it for a local demographic is just what is needed.

All of the examples listed above do an outstanding job of allowing a local community to own their own web-space, with content and conversations specific to them, instead of just being a tiny voice on a much bigger platform, lost in all the noise inherent to the web.

However…

While there is a need for region-specific applications, there is no reason why African developers cannot create global products.

For instance, I read a great article by John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing. In it he talks about the need for an application that marries up the best parts of a CMS/CRM/Accounting stystems in order really create and utilize a marketing plan. Something like this is needed for small and medium-sized businesses.

What you have here is someone stating that there is a possible need (do your own analysis first) and outlining the types of workflow and application tie-ins necessary to achieve it. It’s basic, but it’s an idea.

There is no reason that a web application developer in any city in Africa could not develop this type of application just as well as their counterparts sitting in the US or Europe.

While I want to see continued development of applications that might repurpose ideas from well established web apps for Africa, I too would like to see some real original work being done that is for a global audience.

As you might have realized from past posts here, I enjoy computer gaming. I just recently came across a new game called “The Village” that is being created to simulate a third-world village. Your goal is to use your entrepreneurial spirit to raise this village out of poverty.

It’s a “multiplayer online real-time strategy game that immerses the player into the role of an entrepreneur building companies to bring prosperity to the villages of the third world.”

At first glance you might find this concept superfluous. After all, what practical use can gamers in the West have on the real problems in places like Africa? Let me try and explain why I think it could be useful…

It’s not just about playing a game – it’s about attention, ideas, and change through collaboration.

Attention
Getting the attention of people in the West in this time of overwhelming media blitzes is difficult. People are interested however, and creating one more avenue for people to find out about the situation in places like Africa is a good thing. Gaming opens up the world to a whole new demographic, and a game like the Village provides a non-overt educational component.

Ideas
Assuming the Village is an open enough game, there could be some very creative business, engineering and technological ideas that come out of it. If done right, the game could become a platform to test and prove out ideas before doing a pilot project or investing in a business in real life.

Collaboration
This is where the idea behind the Village truly comes into its best light. Collaboration player-to-player and between players and real world villagers is highly intriguing. The idea of drawing a line between those in the developed world and those in the developing world is very attractive. Think micro-level investment and idea sharing.

If the Village is developed to be fun, open and has the right type of interaction levels between users and people on the ground in the third world, it could be a very exciting project indeed. I particularly like the idea of it being a solution for education and for growing wealth through investment. In this case it’s not investment just by large organizations, but by ordinary people (just like Kiva).

If you are interested in helping, find out how you can here.

(hat tip GlobaLab)