Erik Hersman (born 1975) is a technologist, blogger and commentator who specialises in the impact and application of technology throughout Africa. Raised in

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

and

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

, he is a graduate of Kenya's Rift Valley Academy and

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU) is a public research university in Tallahassee, Florida. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida. Founded in 1851, it is located on the oldest continuous site of higher education in the st ...

, he runs the websites ''WhiteAfrican'' and ''AfriGadget,'' the latter being a multi-author website dedicated to showcasing African ingenuity. ''AfriGadget'' was named one of '' Time's'' "Top 50 Sites of 2008". He is co-founder of ''

Ushahidi Ushahidi is an open source software application which utilises user-generated reports to collate and map data. It uses the concept of crowdsourcing serving as an initial model for what has been coined as "activist mapping" - the combination o ...

'' ("testimony" in Swahili), a

crowdsourcing Crowdsourcing involves a large group of dispersed participants contributing or producing goods or services—including ideas, votes, micro-tasks, and finances—for payment or as volunteers. Contemporary crowdsourcing often involves digita ...

website created to map incidents of violence during the 2007–08 Kenyan crisis. ''Ushahidi'' has since been used for reporting violence in

Madagascar Madagascar (; mg, Madagasikara, ), officially the Republic of Madagascar ( mg, Repoblikan'i Madagasikara, links=no, ; french: République de Madagascar), is an island country in the Indian Ocean, approximately off the coast of East Africa ...

and election monitoring in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan,; prs, امارت اسلامی افغانستان is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. Referred to as the Heart of Asia, it is bordere ...

. In December 2009, the

Omidyar Network Omidyar Network is a self-styled "philanthropic investment firm," composed of a foundation and an impact investment firm. Established in 2004 by eBay founder Pierre Omidyar and his wife Pam, Omidyar Network has committed over $1.5billion to n ...

announced an investment of $1.4 million to support the continued growth of the platform. In 2008 Hersman was named a Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow. In the summer of 2009 he was awarded a

TED Fellow TED Conferences, LLC (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an American-Canadian non-profit media organization that posts international talks online for free distribution under the slogan "ideas worth spreading". TED was founded by Richard Sau ...

Fellowship, and the following year named a Senior TED Fellow. Married to Rinnie with three young children, he moved back to Kenya from his

Florida Florida is a state located in the Southeastern region of the United States. Florida is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the northwest by Alabama, to the north by Georgia, to the east by the Bahamas and Atlantic Ocean, and to ...

home in December 2009. He founded

iHub iHub is an Innovation hub and hacker space for the technology community in Nairobi. It was started in March 2010 by Erik Hersman, a blogger, TED fellow, and entrepreneur and acquired by Co-creation Hub (CcHUB) in 2019. This coworking space, ...

, Nairobi's tech innovation hub, in March 2010 – an open space for the technologists, investors, tech companies and hackers in Nairobi. He is the co-founder of BRCK, a 'backup generator for the internet' and one of the first hardware startups in Africa, which raised $1.2 million in July 2014.

References

External links

White African

AfriGadget

Ushahidi

BRCK
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Hersman, Erik 1970s births Living people Chief executives in the technology industry Kenyan bloggers TED Fellows