Imagine holding BarCamp at a beach hotel – a perfect get-away excuse from the hassle and bustle of Nairobi. This may be possible from next year, courtesy of brand new Skunkworks-Mombasa branch.
A group of coast IT professionals, formerly called "tee-em", has decided to adopt Skunkworks "brand" seeking to collaborate and synergize with Nairobi-based Skunkworks-Kenya. "We will be needing a wiki for that, but will look into it, will try get a page setup on http://wiki.my.co.ke from the Nairobi guys," reads a message on their member's mailing list.
Greeting the news, Josiah Mugambi said, "I was wondering how long skunkworks would get less Nairobi centric and this would be a good idea. Then later maybe a Skunkworks Nakuru, Eldoret, Embu, Kisumu... and I can't resist this one: Skunkworks Kogelo."
On use of the "Skunkworks" name, Michuki Mwangi said "You are most welcome to organize and have a Skunkworks-Mombasa in actual sense you can adopt the name since no one has trade mark rights over the name other than Lockheed-Martin."
Their coordinator, Arthur Simiyu, hopes they could BarCamp next. He invites coast-based techies to their meeting scheduled next Saturday at the Kenya Industrial Training College(KITC), opposite the Kenya Revenue Training Institute (customs) along the Mombasa - Malindi Road from 2pm.
And Riyaz Bachani promises them hookup with Mombasa Polytechnic techie community and says that he looks forward to attending their meetings, if scheduled on weekends.
We welcome Skunkworks Mombasa wishing them well in crystallizing and nurturing emerging innovation. While remembering that skunkworks, work under very difficult conditions to produce amazing results.
Alex Gakuru
