James is an African Entrepreneur and ICT professional with vast experience garnered over the last 18 years. He is a blogger at wirejames.com as well as a small business consultant and mentor for upcoming entrepreneurs. As one of the pioneer internet practitioners in Uganda, he has seen the evolution of the Internet from a time when it was considered “of no significance” by the politicians to its current state where it is looked at as a strategic resource.
He is currently the Chairman of the Free Software Foundation for Africa (FOSSFA) and a member of the Board of NIC.ug, a body formed by the Government of Uganda to manage the .ug resource.
27Sep
Juliet has a background in journalism and has worked in the fields of communications strategy, publicity, branding and market research across East and Southern Africa. A lot of her work has involved the exploration of avenues for African development through the intersection of heritage, rights and digital technologies. She has utilised these skills in the advocacy of rights including for access to medication and for online rights. More recently she explores connections between online rights and social innovation in Africa.
Wakabi has led and coordinated ICT policy research across various countries in east and southern Africa. As Executive Director at CIPESA, he continues leading policy research and driving efforts for cohesive approaches in advocating for online rights and for the use of ICT in democratic processes and civic participation, and in promoting the right to information. He holds an MSc in Informatics (Örebro University, Sweden) and an M.A in Journalism & Media Studies (Rhodes University, South Africa) and a PhD in informatics with a specialisation in e-Government at Örebro University.Wakabi has also been involved in various collaborative researches with African, Asian and North American think tanks and NGOs.
Ashnah is the Programmes Officer at CIPESA. She holds an MSc in Informatics with a major in Electronic Government (Örebro University, Sweden) and a BSc in Computer and Management Sciences (University of Warwick, United Kingdom). Ashnah’s work experience is from a wide range of industries (in the UK, Spain and Uganda), from mobile telecommunications and engineering, to public relations and corporate relations, research, learning management, and information systems management.
Ahmed has worked as a multimedia journalist since 2012 with a focus on reports about Egyptian social and current affairs for online media. He has won international awards in the field of photography from UNESCO and UNAOC.