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<p>Congratulations Ory!<br>
</p>
<p>best<br>
</p>
<p><br>
alice<br>
--------------------------<br>
</p>
<p><br>
Google recently appointed Ory Okolloh, an online activist and
co-founder of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushahidi">Ushahidi</a>,
as Policy Manager for Africa. <a
href="http://www.ushahidi.com">Ushahidi</a> is a famed crowd
sourcing site dedicated to information collection,
visualisation and interactive mapping.</p>
<p>Google’s appointment shows its confidence in Africa’s digital
growth and recognises the continent as a future tech giant.</p>
<p>Okolloh is a <a href="http://www.ted.com">TED</a> fellow, <a
href="http://www.globalvoicesonline.org/author/ory/">Global
Voices contributor </a>and a Harvard-educated lawyer. She
is a regular speaker at prestigious conferences such as TED, <a
href="http://www.weforum.org">World Economic Forum</a>, <a
href="http://www.poptech.org">Poptech</a>, CGI, <a
href="http://www.techonomy.com">Techonomy</a>, <a
href="http://www.mobilewebafrica.com">Mobile Web Africa</a>,
and the <a href="http://www.monacomediaforum.org/">Monaco
Media Forum </a>on issues around citizen journalism. She
has been very active in building Africa’s technological
landscape.</p>
<p>Okolloh comes into the role with a strong background in law
having worked as a corporate lawyer for an organisation in
support of entrepreneurs in South Africa. She has also been at
the helm of Ushahidi for the last three years. Okolloh steps
down as Ushahidi’s Executive Director and will take up her new
position in Johannesburg, South Africa mid January.</p>
<p>According to a recent post on her blog <a
href="http://www.kenyanpundit.com/2010/12/23/stepping-down-as-ushahidi-executive-director/">Kenyan
Pundit</a> she writes “the role will involve developing
policy/strategies on a number of areas of relevance to Google
and the Internet in Africa and will involve working with
different parties including government leaders, policy makers,
regulators, industry groups and so on.</p>
<p>“It is a huge opportunity to bring Google’s resources to bear
as far as the growth and development of the internet in
Africa. I’m very excited about the move and I hope I can
continue to lean on your support and insight in my new role.”</p>
<p><a
href="http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/google_hires_kenyan_activist_to_shape_africa_polic.php">ReadWriteWeb</a>
noted that Okolloh’s portfolio will include the whole of
Sub-Saharan Africa.</p>
<p>“Overall, I’ll be working to get more people online and
policies favourable to that, also (cultivate) support for
local content and an environment which supports innovation,”
she tells ReadWriteWeb.</p>
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