Today we woke up to the tip that the website of one of the largest internet service providers in the country, Zimbabwe Online (ZOL) had been hacked. Checking the website, we got the screenshot below:

This year, again, BarCamp Zimbabwe and the ZOL Jumpstart Challenge were a success. A big success. While BarCamp was held at the same venue as last year, we decided to take it outside and what a refreshing atmosphere full of networking, learning, mobile talk, gadget talk, discussions about mPayments, cloud computing, social media and everything that we [...]

Zimbabwe Online (ZOL), the ISP that has the largest number of Wi-Fi hotspots in Zimbabwe, has slashed the prices of its Wi-Fi internet service. The service has effectively become one of the lowest priced internet packages in the country. But the slash is coming with some not so good news; ZOL is killing the 15 minutes free trial it offered customers on its ZOLspots (ZOL hotspots).

We just got news that Zimbabwe Online (ZOL) has been acquired by the Liquid Telecommunications Group. ZOL is now officially part of the Liquid Telecom Group. From the information available to us so far, ZOL will remain an independent company in terms of branding and operations.

Nearly 2 weeks ago, we had our first ZOL Startup Challenge final where 3 talented winners were chosen from a very strong field. Since then the dust has settled and a number of people have made comments on the Challenge and process. I thought I’d give some thoughts as the idea originator, main sponsor and one of the four judges.

We’re here at the Crowne Plaza in Harare and the winner in the ZOL Startup Challenge 2011 has just been announced. It is the Mukela Travel team. The prize money for Mukela Travel is US $10,000. Of that, US $5,000 is cash and the other half in Internet services.

A lot of startup applications have been coming in for the US$ 25, 000 Startup Challenge which is being run alongside BarCamp Zimbabwe 2011. Since an event of this nature has not happened in Zimbabwe before, the following practical pointers can bring applicants and prospective entrepreneurs up to speed on the elements found in a good pitch:

On 3 August (just some 9 days away), BarCamp Zimbabwe will be held in Harare. The event is for tech startups, geeks, entrepreneurs and generally the whole tech community in Zimbabwe. We’re excited about it. We’ve longed for tech startup events like this one and we feel this will take tech in Zim to another level. It will spark bigger things, bigger events and hopefully attract some investment into great ideas and great people.