It's a little surprising that Joburg has only recently set up its own dedicated tech incubator. Widely recognised as the economic hub of the continent, never mind the country, the opening of the JoziHub in February this year has given the city some sorely needed geek cred.
Situated at the popular 44 Stanley complex, in Milpark, which is close to both Wits and the University of Johannesburg, the JoziHub is a joint venture between non-profit technology innovation house Praekelt Foundation and search engine giant Google.
The vision for the centre was developed by Gustav Praekelt, who has drawn on the experience of project partners like Google and the Omidyar Network in supporting other hubs such as the iHub in Kenya and the Co-Creation Hub in Lagos, Nigeria.
"We're very connected to the network of hubs across Africa, and Erik Hersman of the iHub in Kenya is a friend and was an inspiration for how we want to set this up," says Praekelt. "As a matter of fact, we incubated at the iHub, so I have personal belief and experience in the power of technology hubs in incubating businesses."
A creative space
The JoziHub will emulate these models where applicable, with its basic point of departure being the creation of a common space where entrepreneurs, individuals and start-ups can gather to access shared resources and capital.
The centre will almost fulfill the role of a multipurpose space, with certain areas for resident members - essentially start-ups that have a dedicated desk and workspace - and then open areas where paying and visiting members can gather for collaboration.
The space will also be used for hackathons and similar events that promote technology development to the public at large, but especially to school groups, and other public events such as hosting local TED talks.
"The JoziHub is particularly aimed at university students, post-grads and entrepreneurs, but we will definitely have outreach programmes for high school students in the vicinity," says Praekelt.
The types of projects he hopes to see emerge from the JoziHub would be those that address the problems the country faces, particularly utilising mobile technologies and capabilities.
Addressing SA's problems
"Some of the problems we face are around education and health, and we think we can do interesting things there. We have 100% mobile penetration in South Africa. Surely we can find some kind of technological solution that will improve the state of education. I'm not saying we will solve the problem, but we could at least improve the mechanics, whether that's transparency or measuring schools and teacher performance, or improving communications between teachers, parents and children."
Other focus areas that have been identified are women in technology, and government and transparency.
Praekelt believes a lot can be done to help improve government service delivery, and that this needn't be done in a critical or adversarial fashion.
"We think this is a hugely exciting space and these projects could include anything from participatory democracy and monitoring and evaluation, to democratic participation. And we've actually secured funding for that stream, and we have follow-on. So if we identify great start-ups, we have seed funding we can give to get them off the ground."
He's confident JoziHub will attract the necessary talent and corporate support to get it off the ground successfully, although he cautions that there could be challenges in nurturing the start-ups. The nature of start-ups, he says, is to fail ? few companies are able to turn their success into million-dollar payouts.
Some of the problems we face are around education and health, and we think we can do interesting things there.
"It's hard. So I don't want to create this impression that it's going to be easy and will net you tons of money. I think that's a goal, and one way we will measure impact, but it's not the only way. If we can get people to believe in the power of working together and gain experience, that's already a huge part of what we're going to be doing."
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