Juliana Rotich: Ushahidi founder

To bringing my cultural research project there are some terms that need to be defined that will help throughout the whole project.

Culture: 
according to Merriam-Webster dictionary culture is the act of developing the intellectual and moral faculties especially by education, or for a more brief definition the beliefs, customs, arts, etc., of a particular society, group, place, or time. While watching the Ted Talk: Globalizing the local, localizing the global, it is said that culture is meeting the challenges of expectations of those around you to keep your individual identity as well as keeping true to traditions. People today are wanting to be individuals and be different, but it is necessary to have a local identity.

Technology: 
According to Merriam-Webster dictionary the use of science in industry, engineering, etc., to invent useful things or to solve problems. In the Ted talk; The magic washing machine, Hans Rosling talks about how todays society lives mainly without technology even as simple as a washing machine. However he predicts by 2050 a majority of families will be at the top producing energy, they will though have to reduce unnecessary energy waste and turn into green energy.

Gender 
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary gender is the state of being male or female. in Helen Fishers ted talk, Why we love, why we cheat,she starts with love. Love is when you take on special meaning, a center, a consist of loving one person over another. She states that gender can be seen from the differences in the brain activity between the two different genders (men and women.)


 

With terms that can be helpful defined to the best of my ability, the start of my research can now begin with topic choosing. I am interesting in seeing African women working with technology. I have decided to do my research on Juliana Rotich. She is the Co-founder of Ushahidi and BRCK inc. She was born in Kenya, after high school she moved to the United States to continue in her education and follow her passion of computer science. Juliana was born in 1977 and is currently still alive. Her culture is different then mine because first I grew up in the United States and she was raised in Africa. She also had to up and move her life to the United States where she knew nobody, whereas I moved myself two hours from home and where a good portion of students from my high school were also attending. rotich

Useahidi was developed in 2008 to map reports of violence in Kenya. The goal of the company is to serve people with limited resources. BRNK inc. is also located in Africa, the device created is able to connect to networks, local devices, have a backup power source, it is a mobile WiFI device, that has the ability to connect to internet in areas that have very little WIFI abilities.

My difficulty with interviewing her is that even though she is alive and able to be found she is a sought after Keynote speaker and on the head boards of her companies mentioned. There is a possibility to connect with her through Twitter, Linkedin, Facebook, but from initial research it seems to be that contact may be difficult. I found Juliana from the Women Role Models Project site.

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