Our goal at Open Source Community Africa as always is to educate and support open source enthusiasts, contributors, and maintainers in Africa so they can maximize available opportunities to grow their respective careers. The entire community we're building is grounded on our vision to build the Next Billion Creators. To further support our community, we partnering with friends from the Open Source in Energy Access Symposium event and hackathon. Today we're excited to announce this partnership and share how YOU can benefit from it. There's also a very special gift at the end of this article, so be sure to read till the end :).
Introducing the Open Source in Energy Access Symposium
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Tips: A Symposium is a conference or meeting organized to discuss a particular subject. Energy Access refers to household access to a minimum level of electricity and cooking facilities that are safer and more sustainable.
Open source technology and tools have been integral to the Energy Access landscape for some time—however, it's only recently that practitioners and organizations have begun showcasing its benefits, particularly in enhancing interoperability, cost efficiency, and maintaining high quality. With open source, there's even more potential to help reach universal Energy Access faster.
The EnAccess Foundation is an organization that supports open innovation, collaboration, and interoperability in energy access with a vision to create a world where everyone at all socio-economic levels has access to safe and clean energy. As a part of their activities, they're co-organizing their inaugural Open Source in Energy Access Symposium (OSEAS) with the World Resources Institute, plus support from the World Bank on the 7th to 8th May 2024 in Abuja, Nigeria at the Bon Hotel Octagon. The event will serve as a hub for researchers, clean energy entrepreneurs and businesses, distributed renewable energy companies, global policy makers, government agencies, open source enthusiasts, technology innovators, and other relevant professionals to collaborate and share knowledge. Getting together in person to discuss challenges and collaborating on solutions will mark an important moment in advancing Open Energy Access.
While registration has since closed to attend the symposium, special recognition has been given to members of Open Source Community Africa who wish to attend the symposium. Kindly send an email to symposium@enaccess.org to indicate your interest and you'll be granted a pass to attend physically. If you'd like to learn more about the event, you can explore the agenda for both day one and day two on their website.
Open Source in Energy Access Symposium Hackathon
If you're a tech geek, developer, indie hacker, student, or frequent hackathon participant with open source and software or hardware skills, you can participate in the hackathon happening on the 9th to 10th of May 2024 (just after the main event). Here's a quick summary of the different challenges to be brainstormed and solved:
| Challenge | Description |
| MPM Plugin/Connector for Prospect | Add a Prospect Platform integration to MicroPowerManager (MPM), such that users of MPM can easily benefit from the advanced features of Prospect, without the need of manual steps. |
| Open Hardware Template Repository | Create a KiCAD template repository with certain features. |
| Port the OpenPAYGO Python library to other languages like JavaScript and PHP | Make the OpenPAYGO token functionality available in other programming languages. |
| Validation Algorithm of Energy Production Data | Develop, document, and publish a reliable and reusable model to predict the validity of user provided energy production data. |
You can learn more about each of the challenges on their website or Hackathon Discord server. If you're a member of Open Source Community Africa and you're interested in participating, kindly register using this form. Participating in the hackathon offers you a chance collaborate with various experts, garner new experiences, and win gift cards, electronic gadgets, and awards (valued up to 2000 USD) for all participants and the best team/solutions.
Conclusion
As a community, we intend to help integrate the art of open source contribution into the African tech ecosystem while strongly advocating for the adoption of open-source technologies and supporting the community with opportunities like these.
As promised earlier, here is the special gift:
If you reside in Abuja and would like to attend the Hackathon, we will cover the transportation costs of the first five persons to indicate interest (for two days—9th and 10th). To redeem this gift, kindly register for the hackathon first, join our community Discord server (if you haven't yet), search for bolajiayodeji, and send him a DM! This offer ends as soon as the first five persons are selected :).
We hope this partnership brings more opportunities closer to you as we continue to build and contribute to the growth of the open source ecosystem in Africa. Cheers! 🧡
