PesaPal is a service that enables anyone with an MPESA or ZAP mobile money account to buy goods and services from approved merchants. Why should people with credit cards and paypal accounts have all the fun? For the 6.5 million users of MPESA in Kenya, PesaPal will be a welcome service, particularly to those without credit cards, but do have MPESA accounts. Granted the number of merchants available right now is limited, as merchants sign up there will be lots of choices for buyers as to the services and goods they can order with their mobile phone and the web.

PesaPal is a product from Verviant Consulting, a company that has made inroads in the IT consulting business, providing end to end IT support. This new product ushers in a new form of commerce. The CEO Agosta Liko recently spoke to Capital FM in Nairobi regarding the advent of fiber optic cable in Kenya, and the new way to do trade online…

“I call it ‘new commerce’ because e-commerce was the era of credit cards and all. We will own this era where I should be able to pay for mangoes from Mombasa and pick them in Nairobi. I see it becoming the way by which we buy,” he projected.
Mr Liko said this development would most likely be driven by increased competition, the need to ease the cost of doing business and remain competitive.
“From this point going forward, people are going to see how they can make money from the internet, how you can save operational costs and how customers will be willing to pay on time,” he said.

I see this a tighter coupling of the mobile phone and the cloud. Something I have alluded to in the past . Its gratifying to see homegrown solutions to the problem of trading online in a seamless way, we need not wait for Paypal to get its act together and include sub-saharan countries, we can just get on with business.

Online merchants, click here to register your business to accept PesaPal, and friends in .ke, sign up here for the service. Developers, do not fret, here is the info you seek, on how to use the PesaPal API.

Disclosure: Liko Agosta is a close friend of ours, and I bum off of the Verviant offices bandwidth whenever I am in Nairobi. I was a pre-beta tester of PesaPal

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The FCC (Federal Communications Commission) is compiling a report on competitiveness in the mobile market. Excuse me while I laugh up a storm. It is glaringly clear to many consumers in the US that there isn’t much competition to speak of. AT&T Bought Cingular, Sprint is supposedly to be acquired by T-mobile. Sad really, I used to work at Sprint when it was THE company to beat. A story for another day. Its 2009 for gosh sakes, our mobile costs should not be increasing! Besides, there are no SMS bundles for texting overseas, I am willing to pay 9.99 usd a month for an international texting bundle, just like I pay 4.99 for 300 domestic SMS. Do it T-mobile. Just do it already. We know the real cost to the Telco’s for SMS is darn near zero, so why rip us off?! Yes I know its for the money, but come-on…

CC licensed image by Cayusa on flickr. I wish he was chewing on a mobile, but hey, this works!

I started using Google Voice. This is helping me deal with SMS costs (pretty much free right now, even to Kenya. *Shh, don’t tell everyone*) though I am reluctant to make the full switch to that number because so many of family and friends have the T-mobile number. I still might, because the google number forwards calls to all your phones, allows you to screen calls, and transcribed voicemails. I hate leaving messages, and checking them too is rather tedious, so I absolutely love the transcription service. Think of it as Jott for your mobile phone (Whatever happened to Jott anyway?). Be warned, SMS to some countries is blocked, your mileage may vary.

Hey FCC, you can probe Google Voices’ practices all you want, but do listen to consumers like me who are sorely disappointed with wireless providers. Here’s an idea, force the wireless companies like AT&T, T-mobile etc to allow for number portability to Google voice. That would really irk them into behaving as they should. Treat Google as a player in the Telecoms market and usher in some real competition. How long do we have to wait? As it is, it will probably take awhile before the FCC concludes, ‘yeah, these guys are totally overcharging customers, tsk tsk tsk lets punish them’. We all receive letters in the mail telling us of some class action suit or credit from our wireless providers, to the the tune of a couple of bucks…all the while the big wigs at AT&T congregate in a dark club house, hold flashlights underneath their chins and go ‘Muahahahaha – got you suckas!’.

Let me stop here…before the rant on Wimax bubbles to the surface.

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The outdoor space atop the main gallery and before the future lab space seems to tie the old architecture of the church to the futuristic style of the Ars Center. Click on the image below for a larger size, the church is to the left of the future lab stairs.

It is one of those buildings that people either love or hate…I loved it. At night, the LED lights that line the outer glass wall change color. Something like a nocturnal visual surprise every time you glance at it.

The festival itself is something to experience. Since its now over, i would highly recommend visiting the Ars Electronica center to see some of the pieces that formed a benchmark of the festival. Besides, I am convinced that Linz would make a perfect location for any techy, futuristic or even a good action movie. Be it Minority Report 2 or next Bond 007, I can totally vouch for the stunning imagery it would evoke if someone like Daniel Craig would rappel down the Ars Center and straight into a boat on the Danube. (Spielberg, Soderberg, Wachowski brothers and whoever produces 007 – you are welcome )

Ahem, pardon my digression. Back to nerds needing art.

This has admittedly been a very busy year for me, and I have to admit that I did not expect it to be. With time, I’ve realized that being in the tech space can sometimes sap your sense of wonder. Or maybe its just me. If you are one of those people who feel mired in tech and sometimes feel like the ‘wow’ factor is gone when you see new innovations…and it elicits a bland ‘hmmm’ reaction and god forbid ‘meh’ – Well you need a healthy dose of art. Attending Ars Electronica helped me marvel again at what artists, architects, performance artists and idea mongers have to share. Below I will share afew of the pieces i particularly enjoyed, and provide some links to blogposts by the other wonderful speakers and friends from the Cloud Symposium.

Quartet.cc

Quartet is a Web-interactive robotic music installation. The machine you see in the live video feed is housed at an innovative museum in Linz, Austria, ARS Electronic. Seeing the machine live, inches away is an visceral experience that shows the real power of live music… and that robots can be a part of that experience. Visitors at the museum are able to enter melodies from a laptop in the museum for immediate interactivity

You play a short melody on the site Quartet.cc then you see the music interpreted onto the machine. Try it…

Since I have a thing for mobile phones (Nokia) I greatly enjoyed the robot controlled by bluetooth.
This is a picture of the phone.

This is the little robot it controls. How fun!

The Anoto pen

This is basically the livescribe pen on steroids. You can write and record audio which is digitized and transferable pdf docs or uploaded online. The steroids bit: The Anoto pen can be used to navigate a map, displaying relevant data on a big screen. For example, if you click on a specific point on the map of Linz, and would like to know the demographics of the region, you can tap on the legend provided on a page to give you stats on number of divorced people between the age of 21 and 45. This was preety cool because it combines maps, tactile input of using a pen and a digital display to add more data.

I got to play the loopscape game with the renowned tech journalist Cyrus Farivar. I really could claim victory, but really…it was a draw.

“loopScape” is an innovative video game for two players that blurs the conventional distinction between good and evil, between “my side” and “the opposition.”

The action doesn’t take place on a flat display but rather on a 360° band arrayed around the edge of a ceiling-suspended metal “doughnut” that’s circumnavigated during play. The object is to shoot down the opponent. But be careful! If a fired missile misses its target, it continues on its trajectory and threatens to strike from behind the game figure that launched it.

This loopscape game is a form of interactive device art, and for some reason, it brought to mind the idea of participatory art. Something that Wambui, Sciculturist and I were discussing at RAMOMA gallery in Nairobi. Check out this ‘Watoto Wa Kwetu’ piece by Wambui. More pics are on this flickr set. I think the loopscape game has participatory qualities just like the Watoto wa kwetu paintings, because both pieces are best experienced with others. There are some observations that Wambui made on the Watoto wa kwetu paintings that I would not have noticed. Do note that the paintings are done by a group of children, and not one artist. So, there is that aspect too.

This is just but a sampling of what was in store at Linz. I havent even touched on the animations. I hope you enjoy the perspectives shared by the others on the Cloud Symposium blog, videos posted there and the following links too.

Kristen Taylor – Mosaics, food and the cloud If you are wondering about her cool dress, its vintage. I had to ask I am not much of a beer drinker, so her suggestion to get some Secco (Austrian white sparkling wine) with our dinner was just invaluable.

David Sasaki – An outsider’s guide to Linz Indispensable. His talk about cloud intelligence provided the framework for discussion that day.

I keep digressing from this nerds need art theme, but hopefully i can tie it all together.

In the quest to not lose your sense of wonder, sometimes you need to look inward, be quiet and just think about the bigger picture. To find the creative place. If you’ve ever used the words ‘code is poetry’ ‘Math is elegant’ or ‘no doubt the universe is unfolding as it should’. There is this need to look inward, to find that inner muse and embrace the imagination. I think whenever you need to go to such a place, art can provide that gateway.

The Thinking Chair by Arthur Ganson

Where does inanimate material end and where does life begin? Arthur Ganson lets his “Thinking Chair” straddle the boundary between those two states. Through its movements—which resemble the gait of a human being walking on two legs—the chair exhibits animate traits. Arthur Ganson had the idea that led to this work while taking a walk. Near his studio, there is a small rock outcropping on a trail, which he likes to walk around in slow circles, deep in thought. During this walking meditation, each cycle finds him back in the same physical place but in a slightly different emotional place

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Read his essay here and you can catch the rest of the cloud intelligence symposium live stream here.

Free TV : Ustream

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Moving along…
I arrived at Linz for the Ars Electronica festival, not knowing what to expect. I had seen Georgia’s pics from last year, but really, I did not have any idea what this would be like. There is a ton of stuff going on. From animation showcases at the OK Platz, to one hour talks on Digital Art History, video installations, sculptures, performance art…Its a smorgasbord of nerdy, artsy and avant garde pieces. [Well, that video shows the 'Earth Angel' and that was definitely Avant Garde to me. Its a "sustainable pleasure" hand-crank powered device].

The Golden Nica award was presented to several winners. I was very happy that HiperBarrio got an award for the new media training workshops they are running. Congratulations are very much in order for the whole team.

The wifi was flaky yesterday, this post was supposed to go up last night. Luckily, Ethan was on a decent connection. He had great links in his tweets. Here are the highlights:

Speeds of Time, Bill Fontana – a “sound map” of London by recording Big Ben from throughout the city. #ars09

Eduardo Kac’s “Natural History of the Enigma” – a synthetic, genetically engineered “plantimal”, Eduina – #ars09

#ars09 Iriz Pääbo doesn’t like hockey, but loves the soundscape. Her prizewinning film, HA’Aki

“Skhizein”, by Jeremy Clapin. The story of a man who is 91cm away from himself – won a distinction at #ars09. Trailer: (@Jepchumba & @justabandwidth, this is the piece i tweeted you about)

gorgeous installation – Nemo Observatory by Lawrence Malstaf – at #ars09. Video of the piece – a cyclone visualization:

#ars09 Three dancers, sealed in plastic envelopes, like meat at the butcher counter, very slowly moving within their plastic wrap.

I posted some pictures and 1 video on flickr,These are from the first day, with afew on the opening ceremony on the Danube river. They did a ‘Noah’s ark theme’ so that kinda explains the rhinocerous looking piece.

I will add more later today…and retrieve the blogging mojo

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The sign board is now an exercise in utter irony

Fence around the property

view from the road

view from the side.
All pics taken June 28th 2009.

Anyone with more info, please comment.

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Via Kenya Capital Investment Group

Kenya Data Networks, has opted to solve their energy problems by tapping the power of the sun. The KDN solar power plant generates 10MW of power, enough to buffer it from fluctuations in the grid which result in frequent brown outs. Last year, the cost of electricity increased by over 51% so its not only good for the environment, but I am sure it makes a whole lot of sense for the balance sheet of KDN. From the video they are already saving 50% on their electricity bill, I think this is a good example to other companies that they too can embrace renewable energy. Now if only Kengen could make plans to create a smart grid that allows netmetering…

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If you are attending the Rhino Charge, its not too late to RSVP on the Facebook event page,, kindly do so as the number of confirmed attendees will determine how many saplings will be made available. The District Officer has pledged to provide a sapling for each person who RSVP’s and shows up.
DATE: 1st June 2009
TIME: 10:30 am – 01:30 pm
LOCATION: Narasha Forest right behind the district forest office at Eldama Ravine.
DIRECTIONS: At the town, turn right after the Kobil gas station (DO NOT proceed towards Maji Mazuri – Timboroa – Eldoret Rd), through the town along the Ravine – Kamwosor – Kaptagat – Eldoret Road. After the river/bridge drive about 0.7 kms from town center on your left sign board, M.E.N.R. Eldama Ravine Forest Station.

I applaud the organizing team, lead by Gerald Chelelgo, the contributions of Kipkorir Chemirmir, and last but not least, the District Forest Officer Timon Mboga.

The idea of coming together during social events to do something positive for the environment is so inspiring to me, and I hope to join Gerald for the next excursion, and to incorporate this in future events i am involved in.

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Maker Faire Africa (MFA), a celebration of African ingenuity, innovation and invention, will take place August 13-15 at the Ghana-India Kofi Annan Centre of Excellence in ICT in Ghana’s capital, Accra.

As one of the contributing editors of AfriGadget, I am incredibly happy to see this event come together. When I started pitching in afew articles on Afrigadget, it was partly because I really liked Emeka Okafor’s idea of ‘A Make Philosophy for Africa’

A MAKE for Africa will be a non-limited set of values and practical ideas that evolve, germinate, propagate and replicate with informed nudges…

The upcoming event is Ghana is one giant nudge, that I hope you can support either by spreading the word – grab a badge here, or by donating a small sum towards making Make Faire Africa happen.

The Goal & MFA Supporters so far

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I activated several plugins: Notably..

– Tweet this so you can get your tweet on

- Mobile press to make viewing my blog on your phone that much more pleasurable. This plugin was created by the good folks at Younique, a social marketing company out of South Africa. @Tylerreed good stuff man. Mobile press works beautifully on Opera and Iphone. I would highly recommend it. Do let me know if you encounter any problem on other mobile browsers.

- Contact form in the About page

- I am still trying to figure out how to use Zemanta to deal bring in ‘related’ links for posts.

Goodies for you:
A wallpaper that my talented relative Jepchumba designed, click on this image to download it from flickr.

Link to Beyonce’s video. I shamelessly borrowed the title for this blogpost. Needless to say, the video has bsolutely nothing to do with upgrading wordpress blogs

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