This is my second visit to Tirana for OSCAL conference, an annual celebration of open source technology in the capital of Albania.
Aside from excellent content, the conference is distinguished by two reasons. Most of the participants and the organizers are under 30, and the gender gap is about the same split. Anyone who participates in Tech related events in other countries know that it is (unfortunately) unusual, and I was interested to dig beneath the surface to find out more.
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First, why am I including Kosovo in this article along with Albania? I understand the geographical, historical and political reasons, it may be a good idea bad / but my reasons are more convenient and simple.
twice, I attended OSCAL I met significant amounts of people working on impressive projects of the two countries, and in some communities they are both closely aligned and working together. Second, while both countries are worthy of coverage, I do not know if I had enough material to warrant separate articles. Finally, they are interesting points of comparison, two countries which are close to each other, but managing the technology revolution in different ways.
Waiting for the great leap forward
Albania and Kosovo are the same, there are smaller local and regional successes, but nobody has reached international success. This is an important factor for internal and external actors, I feel one of the main reasons tiny Estonia became successful is that the country has confidence.
He permeates the entire community and you should not underestimate the importance of this.
Follow the well trodden path
The cultural hangover long the communist era is that of the study, to get a good job and stay safe reliable and stable government. The younger generations are sure to begin to reverse this trend, but their parents will always encourage them not. This means throwing away a career to make a big bet on your own business is considered an unusual thing to do.
Albi Zhulali directs Startups.al and his new company, Softmogul raised funding of Israeli investors. Despite the relative success, he told me that his parents still do not understand what it does, and why.
My parents ask me. When will you have a good job with the government or as an accountant?
Blerta Thaçi is one of the organizers behind 'Girls Coding Kosovo ", an organization that helps women in Kosovo to build confidence and skills in programming. She cites this as a motivating factor for starting the project. She noticed that many women would study programming and technology, but few are found in the workplace, encouraged by their families and other outside forces taking a "normal" job.
She wanted to know what happened to them along the way, and help them move forward.
Thanks to his work, not only have more women coders in Kosovo have found roles within companies, but they also gained exposure to other "women code" groups worldwide. Exposes participants from a small country with people and ideas of a global community.
Gender
diving On the subject of culture, and even more in the issue of gender, which is where this trip begin.
During OSCAL I was drawn into an interesting discussion when a woman volunteer conference came to a presentation on matters of gender diversity in the technology sector (I think from a nonlocal speaker). She said in a small room with other volunteers and stakeholders, "What is she talking about? There is no question of diversity, just look around OSCAL. "
I get the feeling that maybe OSCAL (and some other events in the region) are not representative of the technology sector more widely, but it was a statement that I think.
has the post-communist era in Albania and Kosovo means that these countries began the modern era from a cleaner slate than most other European countries established? with the possibilities that technology provides able to be taken advantage of by a more diverse group than in other places of history and the world?
I was told by people who lived under communism that he was (in theory) a more egalitarian society, especially among the genres. some women think that (in some respects) things were a little more equal, and in some countries, the gender balance has shifted towards the back, perhaps in others, it continued to go with the women who refuse to let go of the opportunities they had.
Aneida Bajraktari, Startup Weekend Tirana organizer put more bluntly,
Many men in Albania are lazy, women are used to working hard and advance things.
I do not think I'm qualified to dig further into this issue as it goes beyond technology. Yet it is interesting to see how, in different parts of the world, the possibilities offered by technology and denies.
funding gaps
There is a lack of Angel and intermediate investors in the region, people leave the start events full of ideas and struggle to take away unless they have other income sources to tide them. Finally, an idea can attract funding abroad or local, but in the meantime there is little help.
Lindita encourages local business owners to think about investing in ideas and local entrepreneurs more regularly than they do now, that the tax breaks starting side would do much to encourage large ideas to develop.
Vazgen Spiru Modeer and Jakob of Swiss Contact echo those views. Swiss Contact realizes an entrepreneurship program in the region supported by the Government of Switzerland - to help people in Albania find greater sources of international funding for projects. But many have dropped-off until you are ready for this level of investment.
Open to the need
Under OSCAL I helped run a workshop. It took place in one of the computer labs at a private university. The computers were running Windows Vista with 1GB of RAM, even the installation of basic tools caused about memory problems.
With Windows machines and Mac unaffordable for many people, this has caused many to turn to open source software. This is not only a compromise, people embrace open source and culture with open arms. Albania and Kosovo are full participants ambassadors and volunteer programs for Fedora, Mozilla and other open source projects.
In Kosovo local projects go further and further. As Kosovo is not recognized as a country by many other countries (including some of its neighbors), it is difficult for citizens to travel without much paperwork. But the Internet has opened them in other ways, and the country has attracted an incredible level of interest in the foreign press, community members and leaders.
Ardian Haxha, co-organizer of the Software Freedom Kosova Conference is also involved in Pristina hackerspace that raised $ 17,000 on Kickstarter through the international press, and then had to channel the money through US intermediary m has said,
We are a young country, full of young people who were born with, and live on the Internet. We are 40 percent unemployed and nothing to lose by trying ideas and projects.
Since hackerpsace Pristina started, two more have opened, and the Kosovo Software Freedom conference is one of the largest in the Balkans, attracting international speakers from around the world.
Search Beyond
For those of you used to see larger startup ecosystems and successes, investigations sometimes what happens in small countries may seem insignificant in comparison. I encourage you to look more closely, while countries like the US, UK and Germany are more competitive, they also offer more opportunities.
The entrepreneurs, activists and community leaders in countries where it is harder work and few people even understand what you are doing and why deserve your attention too. Take the time to look beyond your own backyard and you never know what you might find.