Thirty ideas from people under 30: The Social Media Stars

The Monitor interviewed young artisans, politicians, educators, entrepreneurs and faith leaders. And they have trenchant suggestions on how to improve the world. We'll serve this smorgasbord in bite-size servings of 3 to 7 profiles per day. Today's lineup of social media stars includes a Brazilian teenage tweeter, New York's web czar, and a Ghanaian blogger.

- Monitor staff and correspondents

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Mac-Jordan Degadjor is an Accra-based tech blogger and social media entrepreneur, promoting the use of locally developed mobile phone applications for the Ghanaian market. (Courtesy of Mac-Jordan Degadjor)

Mac-Jordan Degadjor: Blog man of Ghana

When Mac-Jordan Degadjor left his hometown of Accra, Ghana, for a university education in Russia eight years ago, Ghana was a technological wilderness.

Few Ghanaians had Internet access, and even fewer had their own computers.

Mobile phones were available, but all they could really do was make phone calls. Social media, such as Facebook and Twitter, were still years away.

But thanks in part to the promotional work of bloggers like Mr. Degadjor, Ghana is gaining attention as a growing center of high-tech innovation in Africa.

Degadjor – a 26-year-old social media entrepreneur with a passion for Internet and mobile-phone solutions – is one of Ghana's most prolific writers on technology, with an eye on Ghana's economic potential.

"People didn't pay attention to Africa, but today there are lots of ideas and projects being developed here," says Degadjor, whose macjordangh.com is one of the most popular and influential tech blogs in Ghana. "The time is coming when all the new ideas will come from Africa."

As a tech blogger, he has watched a slew of locally produced innovations, from banking transfers by mobile phone to instant crop price information for farmers on cellphones to online shopping for business equipment.

Now he is hoping to set up an innovation lab in Accra, affiliated with Nairobi's iHub, to help local software developers take their business applications to market.

"This is the time for people to step up, put their ideas forward," says Degadjor. "This is the future."

– Scott Baldauf

Next in the series: The Entrepreneurs