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  1. Catherine Nassimbwa; The Brain Behind the Jaguza App

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    Catherine Nassimbwa is one of the Ugandan Women In Technology that is proving to other ladies that technology is not only for the male gender and neither is it for the boring ladies. She describes herself as a lover of Technology, Entertainment and Design and yet amidst all this she is her own boss, the CEO of Jaguza, a web and mobile e-Commerce application designed to connect service providers to clients who seek the services they provide like Online ticket booking, event advertisement.

    She pursued an online course in Human Computer Interaction under the instructorship of one Professor Scott Klemmer at Stanford University. Catherine, like any other student received a couple of assignments while pursuing this course and, it was in these that she was tasked with designing an application by her then professor. She saw it fit to design one that impacted her lifestyle in terms of time management and how she went about her daily businesses.

    It was out of the necessity to help movie goers access online contents that slowly by slowly the pieces of the Jaguza puzzle fell into place. With a committed team under her umbrella this puzzle is now a reality and the four people who have helped her make this possible are; Allan Muhumuza (A Java Web Application Developer), John Paul Otim, Edward Ssemuwemba, and Timothy Asiimwe (Android and iOS Mobile Application Developers

    At 27 years of age, Catherine Nassimbwa is working tirelessly to achieve her goals jumping one huddle at a time. She holds a Bachelors of Science Degree in

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  2. M - TAMBULA: Making All Voices Count - A Grand Challenge for Development

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    Innovative idea / concept & how does it promote transparency and accountability?

    Uganda faces many challenges, one of which is poor public service provision. This system seeks to avail location and directory information about all available public services, provide alerts for epidemics and disease breakouts, HIV Counselling and first aid tips by use of web and mobile technology, Interactive Voice Response coupled with Geo Location, USSD and SMS platforms. There is currently no system thats able to provide all this information because information databases either don’t exist or they are outdated. There is some information that not even Google an provide.The information that is availed is based on what exactly is on ground. The system creates a platform for feedback flow of information between the government and the citizens and also the statistics from the system show which public services are lacking in provision. This way, the government is made more accountable and can also be able to ascertain which services need to be improved and how they should be improved.

    What does your government engagement strategy entail?

    We are currently working on a partnership with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology, Ministry of Health, and Ministry of Public Service to ensure that we are able to provide updated information and to also create the feedback platform with the government. At all stages of this project, we are looking to involve key government players.

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  3. The WITU Meet And Greet Cocktail

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    Theme: Defying the Odds
    Date: 29th November 2013
    Venue: Hive Colab, 3rd floor, Kanjokya House
    Facilitators: Lena Kemigisha, Viola Nuwaha and Victoria Mbabazi

    Concept:

    There are limited opportunities for ladies to network and thus we wanted every lady who attended this event to walk away with something that adds significant value to their lives. To possibly learn from or share their story or gain insight into the unique journeys of different women who have succeeded in their fields of expertise, get acquainted with the various career opportunities that are favoring women today, to understand what challenges are being faced and also better their leadership skills from the experienced women leaders in our society.

    This event was organized in such a way that every lady could be comfortable in meeting and socializing with other ladies in different fields of expertise in order to pave way to professional and social associations.

    Goal:

    The WITU Meet and Greet Cocktail was tailored to provide actionable strategies and pathways for women at all stages of their careers or academic journeys to successfully position themselves to be the change they have dreamt of being in the world.

    Proceedings:

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  4. The 20 Youngest Power African Women

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    These are 20 women,all under age 45, who wield enormous influence in African business, technology, policy and media. They are change makers, trendsetters, visionaries and thinkers, builders, and young global leaders. They are at the vanguard of Africa’s imminent socio-economic revolution and its contemporary renaissance.

    Ory Okolloh Kenyan. Founder, Ushahidi

    A Harvard-trained lawyer, activist and blogger, Kenyan-born Ory Okolloh spearheaded the founding of Ushahidi, a revolutionary crowd sourcing utility that enables citizen journalists and eyewitnesses all over the world to report incidences of violence through the web, mobile E-mail, SMS, and Twitter. Earlier this year, Okolloh assumed a new position as Google’s policy manager for Africa, and she is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential women in global technology.

    Chimamanda Adichie Nigerian. Writer

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  5. Why Newsrooms Need More Women in Technology Roles

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    The news industry has been calling upon the savviest techies in the world to help make sense of how the explosion of digital technology is impacting the news business. Coders, programmers and data scientists are forging innovative ways of gathering, distributing and paying for news coverage.

    But most of the technologists and tech-savvy journalists shaking things up in the news industry are men.

    In part, this is because women are underrepresented in technology in general. Women make up just a quarter of the tech workforce in the United States and only 17 percent in Britain. In Africa, where women form a majority of the population and half of the overall workforce, they fill only about 15 percent of the tech jobs.

    Here’s why the news industry needs more women in tech roles:

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  6. African Digital Woman Announced

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    Dr. Dorothy Okello of Kampala, Uganda is Africa’s first-ever Digital Woman of the Year, an honor bestowed upon her at an Africa ICT Daysgala ceremony for the Digital Woman Awardfinalists that took place on 16 November in Yaoundé, Cameroon. According to Awardorganisers, Dr. Okello distinguished herself among a vast and talented pool of candidates from across Africa for her work to increase participation of girls and women in digital sectors in Africa and around the world.

    Dr. Okello holds a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Makerere University in Uganda, a Master of Electrical Engineering from Kansas University in the United States, and a Ph.D. in Electrical Engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada, where she received a Commonwealth scholarship. In May 2000, Dr. Okello founded WOUGNET (Women of Uganda Network) with several women’s organisations in Uganda. WOUGNET is an NGO whose purpose is to promote uptake of information and communication technologies (ICT) among women.

  7. WITU Meet and Greet Cocktail

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    The very first WITU Meet and Greet has been tailored to create a relaxed environment to enable you socialize and network. This is an evening for every woman; within and outside the technology field. We are giving you the chance to learn and share your story, gain insight into the unique journeys of different women who have succeeded in their fields of expertise, to get acquainted with the various career opportunities that are favoring women today, to understand what challenges are being faced and also better your leadership skills from the experienced women leaders in our society.

    This WITU Meet and Greet hopes to provide actionable strategies and pathways for women at all stages of their careers to successfully position themselves to be the change they have dreamt of being in the world.

    • Proudly Organised by Women In Technology Uganda
    • Date: Friday 29th November, 2013
    • Time: 5.30pm
    • Venue: Hive Colab, Kanjokya Road, Kanjokya house, 3rd floor

  8. 9-year-old girl creates app to coordinate play dates

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    After just coming off a summer filled with kids declaring their constant boredom, I’m sure that many a parent can appreciate the genius of a new app that is currently in development. But it took the insider knowledge of a kid to create the perfect app for coordinating play dates with other kids.
    Alexandra Jordan, 9, recently made headlines at the Disrupt Hackathon event with her creation, Super Fun Kid Time, an app made for scheduling kids’ play dates. As Alexandra explains in the video below, the app allows parents to enter information about their children such as where they go to school and who their teacher is to sort through a list of kids who might also be up for a play date. Presumably, there would be some security features in place to ensure that some random creep couldn’t get access to a class list and start harassing parents for play dates.
    Super Fun Kid Time emerged as an audience favorite during the event, partially thanks to Alexandra’s youth and fun-loving presentation. Check it out:
    http://www.mnn.com/family/family-activities/blogs/9-year-old-girl-creates-app-to-coordinate-play-dates

  9. Women Only Hackathon Looks To Create A New Programming Culture

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    But at almost every hackathon, women are under-represented. It’s just one symptom of a seemingly intractable issue: Women still make up the minority of workers in science, technology, and engineering fields.

    This is what sets apart DevelopHer, a hackathon that had more than 100 female participants this year. Organized by LinkedIn, DevelopHer is the only Silicon Valley hackathon that is exclusively for women.

    Now in its second year, DevelopHer sprung out of LinkedIn’s Hackdays, which bring engineers in cities across the country together for coding competitions. The first DevelopHer had about 70 participants-this year, the number jumped dramatically because the event (held October 25th and 26th) was timed to coincide with TechWomen, a U.S. State Department mentorship initiative that brings female STEM leaders from Africa and the Middle East to the U.S. A number of TechWomen participants joined in for DevelopHer, though none made it to the competition finals.

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  10. Young Entrepreneurs Turning Kampala

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    “Kampala is known as the capital of chaos,” says TMS “Teddy” Ruge, Ugandan entrepreneur, graphic designer and cofounder of Kampala’s first tech incubator, Hive Colab. “But out of that chaos, something rather surprising is emerging.”

    Young technologists from the Ugandan capital are taking centre-stage in the pan-African tech scene: Kampalans have won an Apps for Africa contest with a mobile app that measures foetal heart rates. They have established robotics workshops for school students, and set up Python coding lessons for girls.

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