“I believe in the power of ideas. I believe in the power of sharing knowledge.”
― Ory Okolloh
“The city of Johannesburg built an app because they are getting so many complaints on Facebook and Twitter about potholes. The app allows you to report a pot hole and take a picture of it. Then, you can actually track the progress in terms of the repair, when it happened.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Technology is the perfect refuge for African capability stifled elsewhere by badly run governments and years of misplaced foreign aid. Ubiquitous connectivity in a world without legacy infrastructure, together with the potential to learn coding or anything else online, has allowed technology entrepreneurship to flourish.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Life is too short to play-act if you don’t have to.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Press and Internet freedom correlate against economic and social success, GDP, innovation, number of patents filed, and educational attainment. The more freedom there is, the more information, the more choice, and ultimately, more power for each individual.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I didn’t grow up in the slums or anything that dire, but I know what it is to grow up without having money or being able to support family.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I probably can win a prize for the most ways to use a Harvard Law School degree because of all the things I’m doing.”
― Ory Okolloh
“That’s one thing you Americans take for granted, you know? That you can grow up, you know, not so good circumstances, and you can move. Just because you are born in rural Arkansas, whatever, that doesn’t define who you are.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Blogging requires consistency, and you need to have some time on your hands, which I don’t really have.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I always ask the question: As more Africans are going online, are they finding content that is meaningful and relevant to them, or are they just consuming from everywhere else. As Africans, we have the capacity to generate our own content.”
― Ory Okolloh
“At any one particular time, there is something in my life that is suffering as a result of my many responsibilities; most of the time, it’s me.”
― Ory Okolloh
“If I were to have an epitaph, I’d want it to read, ‘She did stuff.’”
― Ory Okolloh
“I’m concerned about what I see is the fetishization around entrepreneurship in Africa. It’s almost like it’s the next new liberal thing. Like, ‘Don’t worry that there’s no power because, hey, you’re going to do solar and innovate around that.’”
― Ory Okolloh
“We can’t entrepreneur our way around bad leadership. We can’t entrepreneur our way around bad policies. Those of us who have managed to entrepreneur ourselves out of it are living in a very false security in Africa.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I always tell people that I am most proud of the fact that the Ushahidi story has provided an inspiration to other techies in Kenya and Africa as an example of the kind of talent the continent holds.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I wish I had not believed that my work would speak for itself; the working world requires a bit more than that.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I resigned from my position as Ushahidi Executive Director and member of the Board in 2010. However, my role as a co-founder and my journey as a woman in the technology space means that I remain inextricably linked to Ushahidi, for better or worse.”
― Ory Okolloh
“The idea that either individuals or organisations are ‘too big to fail’ or that the tech and start-up sector is somehow different is wrong.”
― Ory Okolloh
“In Kenya particularly, we have a lot to say – we’re sort of obsessed with politics. We have three nightly news broadcasts, predominantly bad politics.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I think that we have been able to demonstrate that we cannot just consume software, that we can create software that can be used all over the world, that we have that kind of talent in Africa.”
― Ory Okolloh
“When I was in law school at Harvard, the Defence of Marriage Act (DOMA) in the U.S. was a big thing. I remember the fight between the army recruiters and Harvard University due to ‘Don’t ask, don’t tell.’”
― Ory Okolloh
“If you want to amplify the data that you have, you need media, you need lawyers, you need the judiciary. Especially when governments try to shut down a particular website or when litigating on an issue.”
― Ory Okolloh
“As I see it, tech in Africa 1.0 was the mobile-phone boom, and version 2.0 was about new apps developed in response to local needs. Tech in Africa 3.0 should be about those who are successful in transforming the chatter into real opportunities.”
― Ory Okolloh
“An absence of credible information prevents citizens from participating in public decision-making, particularly on key issues of concern such as education, health, and governance.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Omidyar Network first supported Africa Check in 2014 when they were a team of just three dedicated people intent on building a more fact-based environment for public debate in South Africa.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Anyone who has been successful and has knowledge to share is a potential mentor.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Ninety percent of my mentors have been male, most of them with very little in common with me on a personal level – from life experience, work experience, backgrounds, etc.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Technology influenced me in that it gave me an opportunity to have a voice as a woman. I think it’s because the barriers to entry tend to be a bit lower.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I’d like to see technology to move beyond the hype and be considered part of infrastructure… the way you see access to water. I would like it to move away from apps and mobile money. So that everyone has their TV and their Wi-Fi, and it’s just ubiquitous. I think that’s where we should be headed.”
― Ory Okolloh
“People thought I wrote in a very ‘masculine’ way.”
― Ory Okolloh
“The increasing diversification of media ecosystems after decades of state control, along with new digital tools that allow for greater citizen engagement, have led to a dramatic reshaping of the dynamics between citizens, media, and government.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I think the Internet is having an impact in very diverse ways anchored around amplifying voice, from enabling what I like to refer to as micro-activism.”
― Ory Okolloh
“21st-century activism is different perhaps in the sense that the individual can be more present in the process, especially via social media, but the underlying drivers remain the same as desire to change the status quo.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I want my work at Google to have a long-term impact on the tech scene in Africa and to result in millions more Africans not just going online but having an amazing experience once they do. That’s what drives me every single day when I get to work.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I think the Internet is a key driver of opening up opportunities, which impacts many things, including development – I will repeat that I am not a fan of looking at technology or the Internet in Africa through the lens of development – we love the Internet for sake of the Internet.”
― Ory Okolloh
“As much as innovation is important, I think we also need to just make stuff. If we look at Kenya, where I’m from, as an example, we are importing everything down to toothpicks.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I think a lot of Africans in my generation, and especially those of us who have spent time overseas before coming back, are quite comfortable moving between the two worlds, though always with a lens of, ‘What can we do to help our countries or regions?’”
― Ory Okolloh
“The depiction of Africa has changed in the media in that it is not always poverty, disease, and so on.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I think there’s sort of an extra oomph with the younger people coming up. They’re writing. They’re communicating. They’re sharing, and they are very much technology-driven.”
― Ory Okolloh
“All of us salute the ITU’s excellent work in the telecommunications space. It has set standards which encourage investment in infrastructure and ensure that a call made from Europe or America connects smoothly in Kenya or anywhere in the world.”
― Ory Okolloh
“The Internet Governance Forum – which brings together NGOs, government officials and companies – needs to do a better job of including representatives from Africa, Latin America, and Asia and addressing their issues.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Let’s make sure that the Internet stays open to those who need it the most.”
― Ory Okolloh
“While I am a huge proponent of us as Africans telling our own stories and countering the negative stereotypes out there since no one else will, I am also cognizant of the power that the mainstream Western media still has on shaping perceptions of the continent.”
― Ory Okolloh
“As a young African, the sense of opportunity that fills my head on a daily basis is, I suspect, reminiscent of how young Africans felt at the cusp of independence.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I have a very introverted real personality.”
― Ory Okolloh
“If you know anything about Ethiopia, they are very security conscious, a very closed environment. It’s a repressive place were journalists and bloggers are arrested all the time.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Most entrepreneurs think capital is the biggest problem they have – but it’s not. You can have all the capital you want, but if the market fit and ability to adjust are not present, your startup will likely not succeed.”
― Ory Okolloh
“We are raising a generation of children who may not know how to mobilize without Facebook.”
― Ory Okolloh
“For Ghana to suggest that they will turn off the Internet, in addition to other countries that have done it like Uganda, Zimbabwe, DRC, Burundi, Chad and others, that’s worrying.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Beyond providing some level of scrutiny of Kenyan MPs, we built Mzalendo to demonstrate that there is only so much bemoaning you can do about your representation.”
― Ory Okolloh
“It’s one thing to tell people to make informed decisions, but that’s difficult when there is no information.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I spent a lot of my early blogging career sort of highlighting all the ills of the government in Kenya and all the corruption and problems.”
― Ory Okolloh
“I’m not sure I’d be as successful as I am as a woman in a profession other than in technology. Because it tends to be a bit neutral. If you have the tools, if you can code, it’s a lot more sort of merit and recognizes talent.”
― Ory Okolloh
“Whether you are planning a safari, doing a homework assignment on Botswana, or promoting your local business, Street View will allow you to experience a slice of the country.”
― Ory Okolloh
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