Trips especially educational are more than an adventure but the nurturing of the mind. With this resonating in my thought, pleasure quickly faded away when I commenced preparation for the Lagos trip. I said to myself, other shenanigans must not overshadow the actual goal of the trip.
My trip to Lagos to represent TIIDELab at the OSCAFest with all sense of responsibility gave me the privilege to connect with like-minds and potential mentors. It was also an avenue for networking with other participants to unlearn and relearn some of the things I thought I knew or better still know some things from a different perspective.
CEO Tech specialist/founder of TIIDELAB Mr Kadir Salami (L), Facilitator at TIIDELab Miss Grace Ejegwa (M), and The business development lead of TIIDELab Mr. Pishikeni Tukura
Anxiety suddenly gripped me. Not only because my high expectations might not be met, but also because of the promise I made as an ambassador of TIIDELab not to let them down. I also felt nervous about travelling in the company of some of the Techspecialist executives. But their simplicity and humility were a great help in relieving my anxiety.
We arrived at Lagos at about 11 am on the morning of 19th February 2020. It didn’t take so much time before we got settled. A yearning for the feel of the new environment led us to a restaurant popularly known as Amala Yahoo Spot where I got my first Amala experience. I must add that it is a top-notch Amala spot in Lagos.
TIIDELab fellows at the talk section with MR Pishikeni
A talk session with Mr Pishikeni Tukura was an unforgettable experience. It provided a platform for us to tell our stories and familiarise ourselves with each other. Mr Pishikeni further encouraged us to always present and uphold morals while engaging in any conversation because you probably don’t know who the next person is.
For the subsequent days, we were occupied with the purpose of the trip which is the Open Source Community Africa Festival also known as OSCAFest. Open source is computer software where the source code is distributed under an open-source license, allowing anyone to study, change, improve and distribute the software. The open source community is a group of people that came together with the aim of creating awareness of open source and advocating contributions to open source projects.
The conference was action-packed; starting from the registration to the various workshops I attended. I’ll be talking about a few of them below.
Me(L),Eriol Fox(M) and Ms Grace (R)
OPEN SOURCE DESIGN WITH OSS HUMANITARIAN TECH TOOLS by Eriol Fox
Eriol Fox took us on UI/UX designs, the different aspects and stages of product designs, and documentation. She also gave us the 5 core design activities that aids in developing open source which are:
Empathy Mapping(consider how other people are thinking and feeling)
Define the problems(understand your biggest challenges)
Ideation(develop ideas on how you could solve the challenges)
Storyboard(define your idea and how it works step by step)
Sketching and Prototyping(manifest your ideas on the user interface)
Me at I AM REMARKABLE session with Gen Ashley
I AM REMARKABLE BY Gen Ashley
“The most powerful relationship you will ever have is with yourself.” It was a moment of self-discovery as my attention was drawn to the remarkable and special things about myself. It seriously felt like I was getting to know myself for the first time. It is easy if you also want to experience it.
Firstly, pick a book and a pen. Then write the things that you think make you remarkable, you can start with “I AM REMARKABLE BECAUSE……”
The conference also featured keynotes from different speakers like:
LEADERSHIP TALK BY Marlene Mhangami
‘’THE SOUL NEVER THINKS WITHOUT AN IMAGE’’
‘’IN ORDER TO HAVE SENSE OF WHO WE ARE, WE HAVE TO HAVE A NOTION OF HOW WE HAVE BECOME AND WHERE WE ARE GOING’’
She explained different concepts of leadership and talked about leaders as imagined being, as weavers and leaders as creators. Finally, she said as future leaders, we need to be curious, humble and open.
HOW OPEN SOURCE CHANGED MY LIFE BY Ben Lesh
I was fascinated by Ben Lesh’s story of how he was self-taught. According to him: “To learn, I answered other people's questions. I answered 507 questions reaching 17 million people.” He stressed the importance of being involved in the open-source community. Although contributing to open source doesn’t pay, it does have its reward.
He talked about how open source got him a job at Netflix, Google and Citadel. And how it connected him to a lot of important people. Some other things he said that got me were “MAKE A NAME FOR YOURSELF BY MAKING THE WORLD BETTER FOR OTHERS” and “INVOLVEMENT, NOT CODING, PROPELLED MY WAY TO SILICON VALLEY”. So let’s all get INVOLVED.
we and the Director General of NECA
During the course of our journey, we paid a visit to the NECA House and met with the Director General, Mr Timothy Olawale and his Team. We pitched an idea we are working on at the TIIDELab Fellowship and we also appreciated them for their sponsorship of the fellowship.
The representatives of TIIDELab with the community and engagement officer, Michelle, during a tour of CC Hub, Yaba, Lagos
Also, our Tour of Co-creation Hub (CC Hub) was an experience to remember, as the community and engagement officer of CC Hub showed us around the place and briefed us on their activities and programs.
As wonderful as the experience was -leaving me with a yearning for more of what I learnt has contributed in no small measure to shaping my thoughts and approach towards issues. Seeing how young people are making waves and achieving things in the tech world also really inspired me and I am motivated to do more. I think the OSCAFest has helped to move Africans from the BILLION USERS to the NEXT BILLION CREATORS.
My profound gratitude goes to the management of TIIDELab and everyone who has contributed in one way or the other in choosing me as a participant in this great event.
Thank you all once more.