COLLECTIVE CHARTER

Objective

The collective takes its name from the hut of the Baka people who are the most numerous representatives of the group commonly known as "pygmies." These are known to have conserved to a certain extent the forest as a privileged living space. The mongulu are the huts that they build when they move The mongulu are the huts that they build when they move in order to change their hunting area during the year. The hut thus contains a set of tools serving the Baka community. Inspired by this we want to construct mongulu as a space where each member of the Cameroonian community can pick up and find a useful tool.

Vision

To become in a long term, an essential actor of the digital in the Cameroonian community in France with a strong anchorage on our values..

Values

• Humility and recognition in the service of the common - the "bakas" are today a people marginalized in Cameroon (no national identity card, land/hunting area problem) even though they hold an essential place in the history of Cameroon. On the one hand, because they are most certainly the first inhabitants of Cameroon and on the other hand the central role they played in the establishment on the spot of many ethnic groups called "Bantu" ... Using the name of their hut as a collective name is therefore a way to way to pay tribute to them as Cameroonians for what they have done for us and to inscribe ourselves in this logic for in this logic for the duration.
• Empowerment and emancipation of women through technology - in "baka" society the construction of mongulu which is however the dwelling place is carried out only by women. This gives them a certain power in the social organization, indeed the technique of construction is known only by them, it is not a simple It is not a question of a simple separation of the tasks. This is why one of our founding members is a woman.
• Free software - we subscribe to the values that support free software and we believe that it is one of the keys to emancipation through digital Cameroon. Indeed, we believe that to innovate and adopt digital solutions to the Cameroonian context, we need to "appropriate" them (in the etymological sense of the term, that is to say, to etymological sense of the word, that is to say, to make them our own), which requires the ability to study, understand and modify them without limit. And only free software, it seems to us, satisfies these 3 conditions. This is why all the tools developed within the framework of this collective will be free.

Approach

In order to fulfill its vision, the collective relies on members who have joined through the recommendation of an existing member. The collective is open to all individuals who are Cameroonian or closely related to this community and possess digital skills such as development, networking and infrastructure, data, artificial intelligence, user experience and interfaces, as well as communication and media, among others. Once this step is completed, members are invited to participate in:

• Work & Eat Together sessions, which are physical meetings (held in Paris for those in the Île-de-France region) taking place on the last Friday of the month. The idea is to leverage remote work to collaborate in the same space.
• Monthly debrief sessions, which are virtual meetings held on the last Sunday of the month (unless it falls on the day before a public holiday). In such cases, it will be rescheduled to the last public holiday following the Sunday. During these sessions, a review is conducted on ongoing/completed tasks within the projects, as well as technological advancements from the past month.

It is also during this time that a new project can be proposed. The presentation format is completely open, but the project can only be integrated into Mongulu if it meets a set of criteria, including:

• The primary intention of the project is not to seek financial profit.
• The name of the project must be in a "dialect" of Cameroon and have a maximum of 2 terms separated by dashes for example mtchoun-mouh.
• The project must benefit in a "practical" way to the Cameroonian community in France.
• The level of complexity of the project must not be high and ideally be able to quickly (over a few months) lead to a Proof of Concept (POC). months) lead to a Proof Of Concept (POC).
• The financial cost of setting up the project (infrastructure) must be minimal as far as possible with mandatory participation of the project owner.
• The project agrees to have its code passed in GPL license and use preferentially free solutions free solutions if integration is needed.
• The project must clarify the skill requirements in the collective allowing it to start or develop the project.

These criteria are decided on a consensus basis during the meeting. The project that does not pass this phase has the have the opportunity to retry 3 more times before being definitively rejected.

Once the project is accepted, it is integrated into the github space of the mongulu project and members who wish to get involved are integrated into it. members who want to contribute are integrated into the project, they form a working group. All investments are welcome: it can be can be sharing experience on a similar problem, code, designs or even advice. These contributions will be highlighted at the monthly meeting where each working group will present its the developments made. If the maintainer does not contribute to the project during the first 4 months, his project will be automatically archived.

Interest in joining the group

• Contribute with your peers to improve your community by directly leveraging your skills
• Learn new technologies that you would value in a professional project or simply simply out of curiosity by directly participating in a project rather than courses and tutorials
• Discover other ways/methods of working in digital thanks to monthly meetings where is presented the context of members' work
• Expand your network whether from a personal or professional point of view (entrepreneurship, reconversion, evolution)

And in Cameroon?

Our focus is mainly on France, however, we plan to be a known and recognized player in the local recognized player in the local digital innovation ecosystem. To do so, we are already in contact with local digital startup incubators such as digital startups such as JABASPACE or ACTIVSPACES . One of the focuses we currently have is conducting amazing workshops with the community of these incubators where interested members would present a mongulu or non-mongulu project they have been working on in order to to stimulate debate and questions on the spot. This will also be an opportunity for them to give us this type of presentation presentation to us in order to get feedback from us as well.