Community building for capacity building

Abstract

Technology hubs---labs committed to fostering local technology and entrepreneurship communities---are newcomers in local African ICT ecosystems. While research has focused on the organizational structure of labs, the degree to which they fuel start ups, and surrounding institutional contexts in which they operate, less is understood about how each operates as a Community of Practice (CoP) from social learning theory. And yet, the creation of such a community of practice seems central to building local ICT capacity. Drawing on data from Liberia's iLab, we describe how it functions as a CoP and identify some next steps for supporting its community.