Youthful application developers attend the 2015 Developers Circle
The developers’ circle is now rated as one of the most popular co-creation activities of the Namibia Business Innovation Institute (NBII). The circle – held at the Mobile Lab in the institute’s Innovation Village – was created to bring together mobile development agents to share and develop ideas into useful local mobile applications.
The event is mostly attended by youthful application developers from the three big universities in Namibia namely: Polytechnic of Namibia, University of Namibia and, International University of Management.
This year, two sessions have already taken place on 22 and 29 January 2015 respectively. Meanwhile, the group of participating people are keen to make the NBII Mobile Lab their daily co-creation area to develop relevant and quality mobile applications.
It has been generally acknowledged that the best ideas and designs do not always stem from technical people. In light of this, there was a request for NBII to initiate basic training sessions on java script and android platforms, in order to equip potential young innovators people with basic knowledge to enable application development. The training took place in early January this year, at NBII’s Mobile Lab.
At the second session of the year, the group began their first project of 2015, which was to develop an NBII Marketing App. The session was abuzz with positive energy as people jumped right in and began brainstorming and developing. The app is expected to be finalised by mid-April 2015.
Arguably, the enthusiasm displayed at the events could indicate that mobile innovation will finally hit Namibia and enhance its development. With around 2,35 million active customers for both Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM) and Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) combined (Minister of ICT, Mr. Joel Kaapanda, 2014), this would make sense. It is anticipated that the public sector will also soon join the fora as they seek to improve their service delivery to its citizens.
The Mobile Lab and its associated activities in Namibia has been made possible by partner institutions that include SAIS, SAMSUNG Namibia, Northgate Technologies, Telecom Namibia and MTC Namibia.
Go to NBII’s website for more information on Mobile Lab activities, or alternatively contact the team at the following details:
Leonard Imene
Mobile Lab Coordinator- NBII
Namibia Business Innovation Institute (NBII)
1 – 3 Glück Street, Windhoek West
Tel: +264-(0)61-207-2882
Email: limene@polytechnic.edu.na
