Covid-19 Digital Health Innovations: The African Context
By Chukwuka Okwuosa, Nailah Ramsoomair, and Chidi Oguamanam
“Dealing with health and economic challenges of Covid-19 has made one point abundantly clear for African countries...
WIPO Special Committee on Genetic Resources, Traditional Knowledge, and Traditional...
The World Intellectual Property Organization’s specialist committee charged with negotiating text-based instrument(s) for the effective protection of Genetic Resources (GRs), Traditional Knowledge (TK), and Traditional Cultural Expressions (TCEs), on Friday June 16 2017 concluded its 34th session with partial agreement on its mandate and on the fate of the committee and its work program.
Gender Equality and Women Empowerment in Southwest States of Nigeria
By Esther Adekunbi
Gender equality
is a very important issue in today’s world, while also a fraught debate. Gender
equality can be achieved when men and women...
US Fails to Block Progress over Genetic Resources Text at WIPO-IGC...
Photo credit: Image by Ville Oksanen via Flickr (CC BY-SA 2.0)
By Chidi Oguamanam, cross-posted from ABS Canada.
After six days of deliberations (June 24-29, 2018) to secure...
Maker spaces in developing countries: Sites of innovation despite simultaneous challenges
by Mohamed Hosny
In the past few years, there have been several initiatives to help entrepreneurs introduce new creative and innovative products that break from...
Canada’s 2017 Copyright Review: Reflections on the Congress 2017
By Sileshi Hirko
Introduction
The last week of May 2017 was a week of great academic activity in Canada, Congress 2017. This event is run by...
Meet our New and Emerging Researchers Group
Open AIR’s New and Emerging Researchers Group (NERG) embodies Open AIR’s commitment to the mentorship and development of students and early career researchers. Open...
Makerspace Sustainability: mAkE Project Launches Open Catalogue of Business Models (OCBM)
By Chris Armstrong
The African European Maker Innovation Ecosystem (mAkE) Project, of which Open AIR is part, has launched its Open Catalogue of Business Models (OCBM)....
Understanding the Dynamics of Knowledge Transfer in Nigeria’s Otigba Hardware Cluster
So what is the Otigba Computer Village? Oyelaran-Oyeyinka in 2006 described it as the biggest ICT hub of West Africa – perhaps the biggest ICT market in all of Africa – because of the size and the volume of business activities carried out on a daily basis within the cluster. The research I have been conducting looks at the knowledge dynamics at play in the informal ICT businesses in the cluster, with a view to understanding how these dynamics drive informal enterprises’ innovation and scaling-up. While other studies of the cluster have evaluated the size and capacity of the cluster, the evolution of the cluster, mode of operation, performance, sustainability and constraints, there are no studies looking at how the local businesses identify new and useful knowledge. With over 5000 businesses in the cluster, there is bound to be knowledge exchange either through spillover or conscious transfer. How is this happening?
June Open AIR Network Meeting in Cairo
When SSHRC and IDRC awarded sizeable, prestigious grants to support Open AIR in its third phase of research, the Network’s leadership promptly organized a face-to-face meeting at its North African Hub, the American University of Cairo. While a great strength of Open AIR is its ability to coordinate its research and administrative tasks remotely across its various hubs, personal meetings are invaluable when the Network needs to deal with specific overarching strategic issues.
