What Made 2011 Awesome: From My Perspective
We are almost half-way through the first month of the year and I just wanna retrace my life in the past year (2011) and touch on the awesome stuffs that happened in the course of the year. Better late than never. The past year was really a successful one for me. I learnt a lot and I developed myself widely.
Conferences/Seminars Attended
1. Python African Tour (Accra and Kumasi)
2. Mobile Web Training
3. G|Ghana 2011
4. Population Council Open Data Conference/Contest
5. Barcamp Kumasi
6. Coder4Africa
The Awesome People I Met
"At any given time, we are becoming the average of the five people with who we are closely associated with." - I don't who said this
This quote makes me understand that if I want to be successful, I have to be surrounded by successful people. I met a lot of great people in 2011 and I even hope to meet more of such people. People who are passionate and determined to make impact in the environment in which they find themselves.
Folks from the Python African Tour
1. Gameli Adzaho - He's got the STEAM (Science, Technology, Entrepreneurship, Africa, Media) @gamelmag
2. Doris Anson-Yevu - She's such a great photographer. @kafuiday
3. Henry Addo - Henry works with the vast Google APIs like he was part of the development teams that work on the APIs at google. Most of the code he's written is helping Africa in diverse ways. @eyedol
4. Kamon Ayeva @kamon
5. Emmanuel Okyere @eokyere
6. Nnenna Nwakanma @nnenna
7. Bayo Opadeyi @boyombo
The awesome people from the first Mobile Web Training
1. Florence Toffa @florencetoffa
2. Max Froumetin
3. Franco Papeschi (such an awesome dude. UX/UI and business expert) @bobbywatson
4. Nii Quaye - The best SMS App developer in Ghana.
5. Francois Daoust
Enthusiastic Coders met at Coders4Africa
1. Kwame Andah - Coders4Africa co-founder, @KreativeWaves
2. Ransford Okpoti - Hard-core PHP coder @ranskills
Ato Ulzen-Appiah - He is the Ghanaian Developers' Vic Gundotra (well, sort of). I mean, somebody to talk about Google products for you to fall in love with. More #vim @abocco
Nana Sarpong - Nana is an iOS App developer (Nkyea Learning Systems). I met him one afternoon in his office and he gave me an advice on how profitable it is to develop for iOS devices. I am still preparing towards that. Develop these apps does involve a huge investment. :) @nanasarpong @nkyea
Amma Baffoe - I met Amma at Barcamp Ghana '10, KNUST Tech Fair. She is so creative and is an amazing communications fellow at Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology (MEST). @ammabaffoe
David Osei (Dropifi, CEO) - In simple words, Dave knows so much for his age. He can really research and I really admire that. He has been a source for most of my information. He's the only person I know who reads in his sleep. I guess that contributes to him being a polyglot programmer and an astute entrepreneur. Check out the team behind the hot and new Dropifi.
Mac-Jordan Degadjor - A Ghanaian Social Blogger, Writer, IT Professional and a Digital Activist. He is such an amazing writer/blogger and so inspiring. @MacJordan
Kava Amazing Sey - A great web/graphic designer. I draw a lot of inspiration from his works and I take tips and directions from him. I hope to intensify all that. @kavamedia
Albert Yaw Opoku - He never gives up! :-) @AlbertYawOpoku
Pierre Brunache Jr - Hmmmm, Pierre is too much. He is so passionate to help people (students, as far as I know) at no cost. He's doing so much here at KNUST, he's urging students to add value to themselves by providing a platform and opportunities to students for mobile application development. We get to work on internationally outsourced projects. And the awesome part, wait for it, we get paid in dollars. It's so amazing. @pierrebru
Robert Okine (aka Braa Bobby) - Bobby + Pierre is fireworks. Bobby is a senior member at KNUST and with him around and in support of our projects, we are always so certain that the school will adopt solutions we develop. He is the "go to man", if you have an idea, just walk up to Bobby and he will gladly and passionately help you refine it. @bobby4tweet
Things Learnt / Knowledge Acquired
1. With knowledge gathered from Pierre Brunache and Robert Okine, each day, I think like an entrepreneur.
2. I have established a vibrant network of professionals in my areas of interest which include Information, Communication and Technology, Entrepreneurship and Business Development.
3. I have attained some amount of spiritual growth. I have also come to know that I must take the things of God seriously. I ain't going nowhere without the knowlege of Him, His guidance and protection.
I Promise to Change
Well, one of my resolutions for 2011 was to engage in active blogging. Honesly, I totally sucked at it. Most of the time I wrote on some random topics which I never got time for myself to edit and publish. This time around, that is really gonna change. I have really become so passionate about reading and writing.
Reading has really had a great impact on me. It has broaden my knowledge and generally, the way I think and perceive things around me. It is really a beautiful thing and I am not really gonna just let it go just like that.
In 2011, I kept my head down, staring at my phone most of the time. I barely socialised with the people around me. I am looking forward to changing that but I am still not sure whether that is really a smart decision after all. Well I guess it is, of course I have to get to know the people around me, it's a good thing. What scares me is that when I get my Amazon Kindle Fire, I might not be able to change from being *anti-social*. I might be more interested in seeking out more knowledge from books than socialising with people who only give a sh*t about their CWAs.
In a nutshell,
I really am grateful to all the people I met and had time for all my questions. You all rock. I hope that we stay tight together and discover ourselves as we live our lives. More #vim to us as we contribute our quota to develop our sinking country. The list of the people I met throughout the year is incomplete, I am sure. These are the ones who have been on mind throughout most part of the year. If you didn't appear in the list, please don't hate me. Your time will come, :-)