Before the COVID-19 pandemic, fake news was mostly a nuisance and in some cases could be used to sway political opinions. Now, it is a matter of life and death. - Tefo | Continue reading
For a decade and possibly longer, South Africa has had some large data breaches and data leaks. Unfortunately, no one could be held accountable for these, but that's about to change. - Tefo | Continue reading
For some, a crisis is an opportunity to make as much money as possible by any means necessary. Even if it means exorbitant markups and being liberal with the truth. - Tefo | Continue reading
There is still a lot of education to be done before we can tilt the scales and capture the value of the digital economy across Africa. - Tefo | Continue reading
Many people still think there will be a time where we "go back to normal." I think they are in for a shock. - Tefo | Continue reading
If one had to scrape the web and collect all the articles, podcasts, and videos published about Africa and its people and then feed that into a machine learning algorithm and train it to give feedback on the sentiment of all that content, what would it say? - Tefo | Continue reading
The good thing about the COVID-19 pandemic is that it has exposed and laid bare the failure of most (if not all) African governments to generally provide for their citizens. One example is how online learning is barely happening for most of Africa's youth. - Tefo | Continue reading
Often when Artificial Intelligence is mentioned, many people think this means eventually software and robots will replace humans. The reality is more likely that AI will augment human ability, not replace it. - Tefo | Continue reading
It is rightfully said that policymakers and business leaders need to make "data-informed decisions." This is good, however, even with data, it is important that they know what data they are looking at, how it was collected, and from where it was collected. - Tefo | Continue reading
It is very easy to get lost in the blurring lines between work, family, and leisure when working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic. It's always good to remind yourself to log-off. You are only productive anyway when well-rested. - Tefo | Continue reading
Failure, lack of imagination, and bad governance are not inherently African. In many years past, the ones who came before us had great foresight, imagination, and vision to develop our various nations. Along the way we seem to have lost the vision for a better Africa. - Tefo | Continue reading
Without data and basic enabling technologies such as broadband Internet access for citizens, Africa's policymakers can talk about "4IR" all they want and it will be just that, talking with nothing to back it up. - Tefo | Continue reading
A lot of the digital transformation that has happened since the beginning of 2020 was already valid and being advocated for in the late 1990s. Somehow, executives didn't buy into it, it seems that a crisis is a great motivator for action, or is it necessity? - Tefo | Continue reading
When it comes to software development projects, there are bare minimum standards you should be adhering to. In 2020, you really shouldn't be battling with things that were last solved a decade or more ago. - Tefo | Continue reading
There is a quote that I have seen attributed to Neil deGrasse Tyson, it goes something like “The good thing about science is that it's true whether or not you believe in it.” During this pandemic, it is even more evident. - Tefo | Continue reading
It's appealing to claim that your organization, project, or startup is serving "Africa" as a market. However, the reality is probably that you are serving only several countries on the continent. Sometimes, not even serving one single country fully, maybe just several cities. Afr … | Continue reading
I don't know about you, but since the lockdown started in South Africa I find myself putting in more work hours than normal. I don't know if it's because there are no clear boundaries but it lays the foundation for a thesis that tech startups should think of working more remotely … | Continue reading
We serve the world better if we mostly stick to our areas of expertise, and where we have no expertise, we are better off asking to understand. The alternative is we reverse thousands of years of human progress and start questioning things that have made sure we are alive today l … | Continue reading
The idea that is usually attributed to Charles Darwin, i.e. "the species that survives is the one that can adapt to and adjust best to the changing environment," also applies to startups. In an uncertain period we are in, only the fastest to adapt will survive. It is brutal, but … | Continue reading
During these uncertain times, especially if you run your own tech startup (or any type of organization for that matter), all I can tell you and promise is that it will all pass. It sounds cliche, but it is true. - Tefo | Continue reading
It is probably obvious by now, our personal and work lives won't be the same after we contain the COVID-19 pandemic. For starters, many people are realizing it is ok (what some of us have long known) to conduct most (if not all) meetings via video or teleconference. - Tefo | Continue reading
As the coronavirus pandemic continues across the world, several countries (including in Africa) have started passing laws "to stop the spread of COVID-19." Some of these laws include fines and jail terms for spreading "fake news," we need to be careful with such laws as it is a s … | Continue reading
There's a saying, "Africa's not for sissies", whichever way you view it, doing business on the continent is no kid's play (compared to North America and Europe). It gets even harder if you are trying to scale across different countries across Africa. - Tefo | Continue reading
The day 16 September 2019 will go down in history as possibly a very important date in the world, at minimum in South Africa. It is the day on which the High Court of South Africa ruled that the state is acting unlawfully when conducting indiscriminate bulk interception of commu … | Continue reading
It was always going to end up like this, with the web becoming slowly a replacement (in some cases) for the real physical world, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between what is real or not. Welcome to the post-truth world. - Tefo | Continue reading
Don't listen to the "fake it 'til you make it" crowd. Overnight success takes several years to materialize, even in this fast speed world of digital technology. - Tefo | Continue reading
.It has been an interesting week especially in South Africa. Although at first I didn't tweet about the issues happening in South Africa, I later decided to run a sort of experiment, at great personal reputational risk, to see if fact checking on Twitter can help curb fake news. … | Continue reading
Would it be an overreaction to say that one should be very careful how they connect with their telecommunications services provider? - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
I am still shocked that most South Africans are not shocked about the indiscriminate mass surveillance that has recently been revealed to have been carried out by the state. However, I am not surprised, there's just too much going on in South Africa at the moment. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
We have long passed the stage where Twitter is somewhat decoupled from real-life, what happens on Twitter is very much part of RL (real life), or is it? - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
There is nothing wrong in pushing for and aspiring to implement all manner of emerging technology solutions across Africa. However, can we please fix electricity generation, transmission and distribution first? - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
All the talk about the 4th Industrial Revolution, Africa's digital economy, startups and innovation, will remain just talk. Unless, the building blocks of terrestrial fiber and data centers on the continent are in place to ensure they all are sustainable. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
Those in support of constant and invasive surveillance by the state ask: "what do you have to hide?" when one opposes surveillance. However, they don't understand the second and third order effects of constant surveillance. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
If you scratch the surface, most of the "financial inclusion" offerings are just micro loans that run on a digital platform with fees and interest rates that keep their users in perpetual debt slavery. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
Be careful when jumping on the bandwagon on some narratives, especially when you know that, by any stretch of the available facts, they are not true. At some point the narrative will backfire. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
Nigerians generally get a bad reputation for cyber crime around the world. However, are they really the main culprits globally? - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
We are back to normal programming. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
From gene editing to tiny robot pills that roam inside your body diagnosing it and optimising, very soon our bodies will be software-readable. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
It looks like smartphone farms could be more profitable than livestock or crop farming, yes? - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
Digital music streaming revenues are going up year-on-year, however, music artists (generally speaking) complain about lower earnings directly from sales (streams) of their music. What's happening? - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
From power cuts to ransomware, it has been an interesting few days in Johannesburg. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
Please give us feedback on your thoughts regarding the newsletter, or if you don't have much time just hit the 👍 or 👎 at the bottom of each newsletter issue. Thanks. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
It's finally Friday, and for me that means family and reading (with a sprinkling of work here and there). Have a good one. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
If you remember anything today, it is that before installing any app or using it, take a few minutes to read the Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
Please take a few seconds to add iafrikan@getrevue.co to your contacts list to ensure you always get the iAfrikan Daily Brief in your inbox. Otherwise it could end up in your spam folder. - Tefo Mohapi | Continue reading
Insights and analysis into how digital technology impacts Africa. We promise to leave you smarter and asking the right questions every time after you read it. Sent out every Monday to Friday. | Continue reading