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TED2009 Senior Fellow '09

Kenya, United States

Founder / AfriGadget/Ushahidi.com/White African

Websites

Bio

Erik Hersman was raised by missionary parents in Africa, and spent his childhood traveling between Sudan and Kenya. The bridging of two worlds, African and American, has always been at the forefront of his work. In January 2008, Hersman, along with several other African bloggers and techonologists, built Ushahidi ("testimony" in Swahili), a website created to map reported incidents of violence during the post-election crisis in Kenya. Currently, Hersman works with a team of programmers to use what they learned from building Ushahidi to create a free and opensource engine that makes it easier to crowdsource crisis information and visualize data. It is now running in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Hersman writes two technology blogs, AfriGadget and WhiteAfrican. AfriGadget is a multi-author website that showcases stories of Africans solving everyday problems with creativity and ingenuity. WhiteAfrican is his personal blog, dedicated to high-tech mobile and web projects happening all over the African continent.

Q&A

What projects are you working on now that are most meaningful to you?

That would have to be Ushahidi. I'm working full-time on a project that aligns my work within the African tech-space. There is nothing better than working on a project born in Africa with real-world implications. We're exporting African innovation, and that's exciting.

Besides your work, what issues/ideas/pursuits are you passionate about?

Since I can't pursue all good ideas, I'd say that I'm really keen on answering a couple of major questions. Big ideas, like how technology can really help to change Africa. Beyond my own projects, it's about what people really use and why. It's looking at big ideas that bypass government inefficiencies and spread like wildfire across Africa.

What do you do for fun?

I read, write, take pictures and love a good strategy game. Basketball is the sport I like to play, but I still only turn on the TV for the Rugby World Cup. Most of all, I like to spend time with my family. There's nothing better than being smothered in little-girl kisses after weeks on the road in Africa.

Recount a surprising anecdote about yourself that few people know.

Growing up in Africa, you learn to be comfortable with certain things and scared of others. I'm actually okay with the big cats, elephants, rhinos and such. However, a healthy fear of hippos was imprinted upon me at a young age. I can run and climb a tree to escape one on land, but heaven help me in the water. I still don't like going out in a rowboat in the larger African lakes and rivers.