Code, Culture, and Community: What applications tell us about local challenges
In her blog series, Alice, our Lead Africa, tells us all things Code Blossom from her point of view: From exciting events happening in our community, to personal stories from her or our students. Stay tuned for this inspiring blog series - you won’t want to miss it! Today, Alice tells us about how the projects built in our community tell us so much about each local community.
“Code, Culture and Community”: When I think about this title so many images pop up in my mind - the visual mash-up of representations of each individual word as processed by my brain. At the same time, another thought also popped up, these things Code, Culture and Community could not be more disconnected. I am learning though that nothing ever is as isolated as we think it is. That the expression of who we are is a combination of so many things, some of which we never dared to think about. In our last years’ hackathons, I was awakened to this exact interconnectedness. As each participant shared the backstory of the application they developed, what we got was a sneak peek into their local environment, community and what unmet needs were being expressed through their solutions.
Whilst reflecting on the diversity of the various applications developed during that hackathon, I realized that our global community here at Code Blossom gave us meaningful glimpses into our students’ day-to-day lives. But not only through their applications, but also in their everyday participation in the program.
Back to the hackathons, though: each and every application carried with it a/story that needed to be told. Some applications conveyed messages addressing stereotypical views on femininity and women in tech. Other projects shared the struggles and experiences of job seeking in an overpopulated third-world country such as Malawi. Whilst others put on display what different cultures value and how best to deal with these issues using technology.
All these applications were not just lines of code written to perform a certain function. Rather, they were glimpses into the developers’ stories, lives, and hopes of not only themselves, but also their communities. As well as representing what their environments have birthed in them. The projects expressed world views, perceptions, wisdom and knowledge of how best to tackle and deal with issues they are facing. Meaning that in the end, an application ends up not just being lines of code but rather becomes a platform representing something deeper in the real world. A platform of knowledge, lessons, insights, technical solutions, and humanity.
With the global stage already immersed in a vast category of applications, introducing these applications into the overflowing pool of others is a service to humanity itself. Because those, too, have been born out of their own back stories and inspirations, and oh how grand and pivotal they have been to our global society.
When you talk about an application such as Facebook, it’s clear that it brought its own mini social revolution in changing how people around the world connect and many more. There are so many challenges being faced in the world, and though some are being resolved, others still remain unattended to. And this is due to so many factors, one such factor is lack of insight into a particular challenge. I loved seeing the applications that were developed, and at the same time I noticed that I was now privy to certain insights. Continuing mine and other’s master classes into that particular subject matter, all of which came to the surface with a couple of hundred lines of code.
As an African woman in tech, I am very aware of the power of inclusion, in reference to those that are marginalized based on gender and other societal norms. As an inspiration, I will continue advocating for women and sharing the many ways that the tech sector can benefit from such undertakings. Being made aware of everything I have shared in the above paragraphs has also taught me that by bringing together this global community of developers, we are all inter-connected. Because as much as this fosters and encourages the introduction of newly discovered knowledge, it also brings an injection of fresh perspective we all could benefit from, including me.
I recently finished reading Atomic Habits (for the third time, I should brag). And in the last chapter, James Clear talks about the power of introducing a system of reflection and review for our habits that have become automatic. As I am finishing off this blog, it dawned on me that this is what inclusion can also do for us. Instead of getting comfortable with a working solution or with how we are doing things so far, we should pause and take a minute to reflect on what is actually working and what is not, so as to continue helping us grow. And now I am off to get started on my and Code Blossom’s continued goal for digital inclusivity around the world, till next time.
