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, officially the Republic of the Sudan, is a country in Northeast Africa. It borders the Central African Republic to the southwest, Chad to the west, Libya to the northwest, Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the east, Eritrea and Ethiopi ...

and

Kenya Kenya, officially the Republic of Kenya, is a country located in East Africa. With an estimated population of more than 52.4 million as of mid-2024, Kenya is the 27th-most-populous country in the world and the 7th most populous in Africa. ...

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

Florida State University Florida State University (FSU or Florida State) is a Public university, public research university in Tallahassee, Florida, United States. It is a senior member of the State University System of Florida and a preeminent university in the s ...

, 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'' ("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 digit ...

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

Madagascar Madagascar, officially the Republic of Madagascar, is an island country that includes the island of Madagascar and numerous smaller peripheral islands. Lying off the southeastern coast of Africa, it is the world's List of islands by area, f ...

and election monitoring in

Afghanistan Afghanistan, officially the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central Asia and South Asia. It is bordered by Pakistan to the Durand Line, east and south, Iran to the Afghanistan–Iran borde ...

. 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 US$1.5billion to no ...

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 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 U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders the Gulf of Mexico to the west, Alabama to the northwest, Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia to the north, the Atlantic ...

home in December 2009. He founded iHub, 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 Living people Chief executives in the technology industry Kenyan bloggers TED Fellows 1975 births