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14:33
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
Read This Entry & More At Kikuyumoja's realm
…WONDERING!!!!!!!!! where the **** it has been:
The parcel.
The parcel containing a Nokia E71 and BH-903 the kind folks from WOM World/Nokia have given me for a short testing period….
..only to realize after 2 weeks of onychophagy uncertainty that the landlord (who lives downstaires in the basement) already received and opened the parcel a week ago - assuming it’s the phone he ordered some time ago.
Dude!
Oh, and did I mention it’s not the first time he did that? Yes….go figure… (that is, I don’t have any probs with ppl opening my mail - as long as everything stays intact & I am informed).
AOB: TwitterKeys are so ☠ …
  
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4:00
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
One of the guys that I’ve been fortunate enough to get to know over the years is Ken Banks. He’s a tireless believer, and more importantly practitioner, in the field of mobile phone as change agent in the world. His FrontlineSMS mobile phone software has been making waves from Chile to Nigeria, and it’s use is only accelerating.
Since its initial release in 2005, FrontlineSMS has been adopted by NGOs in over forty countries for a wide range of activities including blood donor recruitment, assisting human rights workers, promoting government accountability, keeping medical students informed about education options, providing security alerts to field workers, election monitoring, the capture and exchange of vegetable (and coffee) price information, the distribution of weather forecasts, the co-ordination of healthcare workers, the organising of political demonstrations, the carrying out of surveys and the reporting and monitoring of disease outbreaks.
As of today (9am GMT), the new and improved version of FrontlineSMS will be unveiled. The software will continue to be made available for free to non-profits, available in Windows, Mac and Linux formats in six languages; Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Swahili.
Knowing Ken personally has a few perks, like the chance to see the new version early and know the amount of work he’s been putting into making this come into being. On top of that, Ushahidi will be utilizing FrontlineSMS as an extension to the new version of the tool we’re creating - and I know that InSTEDD plans to do the same. You know you’ve created something remarkable when you’re starting to make an impact on the NGO and the technology sides of the world.
Keeping up with Ken is difficult, as he’s a road warrior constantly speaking at conferences or in the field with his software. My suggestion is that you join the his Social Mobile Facebook group, catch him on Twitter, or read along on the Kiwanja.net blog.
Ken, congrats on this, I know it’s been a long time coming. Next drink is on me! 
 
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20:25
From: dkFactor
Read This Entry & More At dkFactor
I suppose we can now officially thank government policies in African countries for their failure to expand fixed lines, leading to a projected 22% increase in mobile phone subscribers. 330 million people will own a phone in Africa, in 2008.
E-Governance is a term that has been loosely floating around, slightly misunderstood and highly underestimated. It refers to the use of internet technology as a platform for exchanging information, providing services and transacting with citizens, businesses, and other arms of government (Wikipedia). Basically, we would be facilitating 2-way communication between a government and its citizens using technology, a new philosophy that threatens to reinstitute a government by the people for the people (Like it was supposed to be).
E-Governance cannot exist without internet access - or can it? The same government forces that inadvertently choked land-lines, also cast their noose around internet access bottle-necking it into a snarled jam. For most Africans, getting online is just not worth all the trouble.
All hope was almost lost, when Mobile devices caught on like a wild-fire. These devices will enable new growth markets to leap-frog obstacles developed countries have had to overcome. While multi-media has always perceived to be the future, the real power lies in Text Messaging… 160 characters that will change everything and have major ramifications on public policy.
Here are just a few things for you to think about:
- Disaster & Crisis Alerts (Ushahidi)
- Health camps/vaccination Alerts
- E-Learning in Rural Areas
- E-Transactions (M-Pesa)
- Public Service Complaints about Service
- Employment Alerts
- Communication between health workers to help diagnose and prescribe
- … the list goes on
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13:36
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
 Twitter and Africa
Soyapi writes about the Potential of Twitter in Africa. Followed by a Twitter conversation of SMS and web costs in Malawi by Nchenga.
If you’re an African on Twitter, consider following the generic user “AfriTwit” to help us create an index of African Twitter users. Started by JKE of Kikuyumoja, see original post on AfriTwit here.
Mobile News
Ken Banks has informed me that FrontlineSMS has been selected as a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge, along with NMEM who used it to monitor the Nigerian elections. The Awards website should be announcing the finalists sometime soon. In a related story, Ken tells of how the UN is using FrontlineSMS to help with transparency in coffee markets in Africa.
The pan-African Blogosphere
Long-time activist African blogger Sokari of Black Looks has written a piece for the PBS MediaShift blog titled, “How Bloggers Covered Kenya Violence, Deal with Racism, Sexism“. It’s an interesting read and covers a lot of historical happenings within the pan-African blogosphere over the last couple years.
Finding the next Einstein in Africa
South African Neil Turok’s TED Prize wish to put 15 new African Institute of Mathematical Sciences opened around Africa. I’d suggest you watch the video of his talk, it’s an inspiring story and one that is happening right now and will soon spread throughout the continent.
Personal Stuff
I’ll be traveling to speak at the Global Philanthropy Forum, Web 2.0 Expo and Where 2.0 in the next couple weeks - all in the San Francisco area. If you’re there and want to talk African tech stuff, let’s get together!
Chris Schultz, a fellow white African, did an impromptu video spot with me a couple weeks ago where I talk about Ushahidi. Interestingly enough, I found out then that Vinny Lingham of Synthasite also used Chris’ Flatsourcing company to do some of their development work.
 
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13:02
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
Read This Entry & More At Kikuyumoja's realm
Life’s little pleasures….an upgrade from a 2GB microSD card to an 8GB micro SDHC - Secure Digital High Capacity memory card.
Please note the tiny card reader (about 1″ long) which will be attached to my keychain. This way, exchange of data will be much easier and faster and I can still use the “old” 2GB card as a portable memory stick. New 2GB cards currently sell for around 8,- EUR, so it doesnt really make sense to sell it again on eBay & Co.
The upgrade is just very sweet. It enables me to carry around LOTS of music (right in my phone = mp3 player) and to still keep enough free space for videos, images or even navi maps.
And since these card are hot-swapable, you can just flip them out and put in another one if you need more memory space.
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18:23
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
Quick Hits
AfriGadget’s second monthly BBC/PRI interview with The World is now live. Juliana, one of the editors who also blogs at Afromusing, was interviewed this month. You’ll hear her start talking at about 17:15 in the podcast.
A scathing commentary of the US State Dept document that showcases their lack of understanding regarding mobile payments and remittances.
“What Microloans Miss” interesting article in the New Yorker on microfinance.
“The RateMyCop Saga” - Hold on, if you’re doing nothing wrong you shouldn’t be worried right? Ahh, it’s fun to watch others eat their own dogfood sometimes… On another note, Godaddy really sucked on their decision to act on this - scary really.
My SAP Global Survey, and another interview on technology in Africa with ScribbleSheet.
Random Thoughts
If you’re organizing a grassroots event, AirBed and Breakfast is a brilliant tool to use for the out-of-towners.
I read a post recently where the author was relating a conversation between him and an “old school” journalist at a newspaper. This journalist thought it was important that newspapers tell more stories than those that a particular person was interested in, to give them a broader perspective of the world. However, it seems to me that blogs are a lot more like radio stations than newspapers. People “tune in” to the things they want to read.
 
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12:39
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
I’m at the “Mobile Phones: International Devices of Mystery” at SXSW. It was a hard choice to make between this panel and the “Hardware Mashups: Introducing the Long Tail of Gadgets” panel. The deciding factor was Nathan Eagle, of EPROM, being in the mobile phone session. He’s been in Kenya for the last year or two, doing some really amazing stuff with mobile phones and getting university students excited about developing for it.
Nathan Eagle - EPROM and MIT (Lives in Kenya)
Matt Jones - Dopplr (used to work for Nokia)
Jennifer Bove - Huge Inc
John Poisson - Radar.net
Michael Sharon - Socialight (South African)
A last minute addition is John Poisson, of Radar. I’m really glad to see him though, as I’ve been following Radar for a while now and think it’s a great application. This makes sense, as he just said they started with mobile as being the primary experience, then the normal PC web. He also strongly believes that mobile apps should work across all carriers and platforms, and that that’s hard to do.
What are the most interesting and unexpected things you’ve seen?
Nathan Eagle - using mobile phone credits for money. Transferring airtime in Kenya (Mpesa). He tells the story of using Mobile phone credits to pay for matatu rides and paying for groceries at the local duka.
Jennifer Bove - Got a message from the Italian government saying not to visit Rome as the Pope was dying.
Matt Jones - the designers for mobile phone manufacturers should live/work in their same environments as their users, not in their “Volvo estates.”
What are the most common phones you see?
Nathan Eagle - Cell phone alley in Nairobi, where you can see the hackers their put together a GSM phone for a grand total of $!2.95. Most of the phones are pre-2003 in a lot of places in Africa. You have to think about the phones that were used in the West in the ’90s.
Matt Jones - You need to look for the “universals”, the things that everyone has. High-end phones and their projected uses really only reside in the minds of the product managers at the manufacturers.
The “road to free”
It varies between countries and regions. It can cost around 20 cents in Kenya to send SMS between competing carriers. Also, think about the flat-rate data plans in the US vs other parts of the world. The path to free in developing regions tend to go different ways, like Mxit in South Africa using Java and the data layer.
Nathan brings up the use of “beeping and flashing”, also known as a “Scottish Call”. Ring once = yes. Ring twice = no. User groups decide on the way they will communicate without paying anything. Quasi-conversations for free. This happens all over the world, not just in Africa.
Question Time:
Someone asked whether there is a future for creating a mobile social application for Africa. Nathan thinks that would be a good idea, but that his students just want to create Facebook apps. The biggest problem is if it’s based around SMS, then you have to really provide strong incentives to get people to use this relatively expensive medium. (note, again there is a real opportunity around the future use of Java apps on phones in Africa, like Mxit is doing in South Africa.)
How do you see video usage in Europe and Asia? Matt Jones answers that they’re seeing more peer-to-peer MMS sharing of video between friends, and they can be very viral. How that moves from this p2p darknet to the internet (ie: YouTube) is still not all there, but it’s starting to percolate up.
How do you monetize in the mobile space? Poisson states that it’s still being figured out, but buying apps probably won’t work. Sharon mentions the “Call Me” service in South Africa, and how they monetize by putting ads in the short SMS message (of which there are about 20 million being sent out per day). It sounds like advertising is the main model right now.
How about mobile payment?
“With things like Mpesa minutes/credits are acting as a surrogate to money, so carriers can just print money. After all, they just create more airtime.” - Nathan Eagle
Twitter in Africa Sidenote:
I just chatted with Blaine Cook of Twitter. I had heard that that some South Africans were having their SMS messages throttled for Twitter. It’s true, they are. The limit outside of the US is 250 SMS messages outgoing from Twitter per week. It makes sense I guess, since they’re eating the cost on those messages and not at the same cheap rates they get in the US.
 
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11:37
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
The mobile applications space is getting more attention each day. Ken Banks has written up a good piece, in which he applies the long-tail theory to mobile applications in areas like Africa.
Finally, we’re left with the simple, low-tech, appropriate technology solutions with great opportunities for rapid, hassle-free replicability among grassroots NGOs, represented in green. These projects generally get the lowest level of publicity, if any, since few have an international profile of any kind. Notoriously hard to communicate with, and with little or no money, it’s perhaps no surprise that most of the attention on the long tail is elsewhere.
What Ken is getting at is an important concept, one that too many of us forget as we generally have access to the more powerful phones. Whether it’s dealing with NGO-related initiatives, or traditional business projects, we need to be reminded that creating platforms for the lowest common denominator will have the greatest impact in the shortest amount of time.
Interestingly enough, we see this with an application that is “big” in the West: Twitter. It’s a simple concept based on 140-character SMS messaging and a simple way to share and follow communications by others. Of course, they’ve added additional web and email functionality to it, but the base concept is so simple it’s almost painful.
When we apply these same thoughts to Africa, what do we get? Unfortunately, not that much (yet). The top three that come to mind are Ken Banks with his FrontlineSMS tool for non-profits utilizing basic SMS services, Wizzit a South African mobile banking solution that uses USSD, and Manobi that offers market and trading information for Senegalese farmers.
The good news is that we’re only scratching the surface. I hope that more tech savvy developers will create applications that work at the end of the long-tail, there’s a lot of people just in Africa waiting for better mobile services.
Further resources:
 
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23:25
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
Read This Entry & More At Kikuyumoja's realm
If these pictures are anything to go by - then I want one those new Google phones based on Android.
Now! :-)
@D: what about the E61i? (someone pls combine a 5mpx cam with a qwerty(z) keyboard & I’ll go for it…)
YouTube directvideo link
Nokia’s new N96
Seriously, what I miss about the new range of Nokia & SE phones is a decent keyboard. Sure, you may also go for a touchscreen interface + keyboard as on the iPhone, but I am not yet convinced of these technologies (~ what about dust? tactile feedback? + the downsides of the iPhone e.g. non-removable battery, iTunes, etc.).
Nokia’s & SE’s new phones are said to be made for the internet and/or provide multimedia comfort (DVB-H receiver, short range FM-transmitter, audio & video playback, video recording), but when it comes to actually using them you’re really punished with an old fashioned T9 keypad. Entering longer text is a pain and makes only sense while using a foldable keyboard (video) (like Nokia’s SU-8W).
Don’t get me wrong: for consuming multimedia/inet content, these phones are just great. But interacting with others from phone to phone (except for direct bluetoothing or sms/mms) still requires another approach, I’d say. Best example: Fring! Fring is an awesome messenger service that now also offers direct file transfer. Now imagine you’re chatting with someone over Skype or ICQ and have to enter text by using a T9 keyboard only…
Well, I keep coming back to my N95 albeit its horrible design (slider, case, keypad layout) because it has a decent camera and enables me to record anything while on the go + even editing it on the phone. Now that’s something really sweet considered it’s just a phone.
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15:04
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
Read This Entry & More At Kikuyumoja's realm
Just a short longer note on something I would actually like to expand into a post for Afrigadget: mobile phone repairs.
Back in 1998 when I first started fixing my mobile phone, things were a bit simpler. Fast forward in 2008, mobile phones have become a commodity and there are at least two or three guys in most rural towns (in Kenya and elsewhere) that will know how to fix such a phone.
So why blog on it? - Because it’s the way ppl are looking for alternative solutions on how to fix an advanced mobile phone based on SMD technology that makes the story interesting.
mobile phone repair booth in downtown Nairobi, picture taken in May 2006
In a world that has become more and more modular, where spare parts are exchangable or product life cycles reduced to a lifetime of about 2-3 years (best example: printers), not all is waste or wasted, and many things may often be repaired with simple and sometimes even very rough methods. Ask any mobile phone repair shop @ Moi Avenue Nairobi and they will tell you how they managed to save this or that phone. This, to me, is especially interesting, as they are using similar tools like other jua kali fundis in Europe - in a different environment. Whereas phones in Europe are often owned and used by one person only, phones in dev. countries are often shared between family members or friends. No wonder Nokia came up with two new phone models for emerging markets the other day, offering more than one phonebook / user profile on a single phone. Hence the need for a different approach to service repairs…or not?
What you see above in the pic - and I desp. tried to get a decent pic of such a booth back in May 2006 when I last tried to cover this subject - are normal flasher cables. Serial & parallel cables, like datacables, ppl use to connect a phone to a computer to unlock a handset, flash the firmware or run some tests. Your handset is blocked by the network? Don’t worry, just reprogramme it (illegally) with a new serial number (~ IMEI). These are things done everywhere in the world - in the Middle East, in Asia, in Europe, Africa, etc. - only: they are all based on reverse engineering.
Modern phones come with some more sophisticated algorithms and require a slightly different equipment - but that’s just a question of money and consequently there are, again, a few guys who will own a Twister Flasher or a BB5 unlock box in town (I really dig this microscope, sigh :-)
Coming back to the initial question - why is it so interesting? Well, because manufacturers like Nokia or SonyEricsson create service manuals for their phones (which are then circulated over the internet), giving the schematics and parameters of each and every part. But they usually don’t train those jua kali fundis. And a licenced Nokia Service Center? Apparently, they often do apply the same techniques and may or may not be equipped with special and better service gadgets. And they are expensive.
In other words: it’s cheaper and much more interesting for manufacturers to produce new phones than to train service staff on how to fix a mobile phone. Simple, new or refurbished phones are sold for something like 20,- EUR. And yet there’s this huge demand for quick & cheap repairs all over the world. This also applies to other electronics, cars or even lighters.
Anyone out there remembers how we used to refill one-way lighters with Butane gas (using a chopped nail and balancing the firestone on the forefinger while reassembling everything)? Back then lighters were sold for something like 25/= Kshs. and a refill was available for 10/= Kshs…
Now, while reverse engineered / alternative / jua kali (phone) repairs are interesting and will most def. make a good story on Afrigadget, I am constantly asking myself how manufacturers like Nokia will profit from this niche and use such knowledge for further engineering? Yeah, well, maybe Jan Chipchase’s research may be part of that, but then: who will fill this gap between new products and broken gadgets (leave this market to jua kali fundis and private individuals only?) and will a break-even point be the only criterion to define this approach on when it makes sense to invest in new equipment? What about environmental damage (during production) and how is this accounted for?
The fast growing mobile phone sector is an interesting example to see how the world has changed, and I am currious to see when the majority of customers in places like Nairobi will prefer buying another phone instead of having the old one repaired.
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12:36
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
I’m currently at DEMO ‘08 in Palm Springs, California. Mike Stopforth and Juliana Rotich are here too as part of a panel that will be speaking on Africa and what’s important to know about it as an emerging market. That happens tomorrow, so today I get to just sit back and watch some of the new products being introduced.
Here are a couple that I find interesting so far:
Skyfire
 Both a well done demonstration, and a really impressive looking product. Skyfire allows you to see the full PC web on your mobile phone. It handles all types of complicated things, ranging from ajax to Flash to DHTML. They showed us live head-to-head results versus the top phones and other mobile web browsers including the iPhone and Opera Mini. Honestly, the had me when they pulled up a complicated site like ESPN.com so quickly on it. It’s launching in public beta today, so give it a try.
SpeakLike
 This is a real-time automated translation service. It allows you to chat with people and translates back and forth in real-time. This is a very intriguing product, you type text in your language, and others see it in theirs. I don’t know about you, but I can think of a number of ways that this could be highly useful in Africa. I’m going to talk to them at their booth to find out a little more about available languages, and the ability for users to adjust the settings to take into account local language differences.
Kids and Education
Leapfrog just announced a new product called “Tag”. It’s a small pen-like device that reads their specialized books and has allows children to interact with books in ways that I’ve never seen before.
Education.com launched a new “school finder” feature that looks good too. They’re starting to call themselves the “WebMD of education”. They seem to have the right type of content and connections, so I can see how that could be true.
Favorite moment so far: demonstrator for Taktumi curses as his presentation doesn’t work…
Other bloggers and resources at DEMO ‘08
Marshall Kirkpatrick of RWW
Frank Gruber of Somewhat Frank
Shel Israel of Global Neighborhoods
DEMO 2008 Toolkit by RWW
Live video from DEMO 2008
Twitter updates (seem broken at the moment) but most people are sending comments to @Demo08
 
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17:00
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
Read This Entry & More At Kikuyumoja's realm
Qik. Streaming video right from your phone.
Saw some live coverage from the MacWorld earlier this week where ppl used this service to directly stream video from their phone to qik.com. Something like YouTube, but with the difference that everything is streamed live from the phone (Nokia N95) onto their servers. Meaning: you’ll need a decent broadband network connectivity for this to work fine.
(browser screenshot via browsershots.org)
Signed up for this service (which is still alpha) on tuesday evening and just received an invitation. Don’t know about 3G speed outside, but here @home with DSL 2048 kbit/s down & 192 kbit/s up maximum speed it’s just very charming. Haaiaa. Will need to test it again outside tomorrow in daylight and see how it is performing.
And yes, I am bit shy on camera. That’s why I haven’t really made use of seesmic so far (the “video twitter”). You may have seen it in action earlier last month when Robert Scoble blogged about it.
Why is it interesting? After all, I wouldnt want to put myself online. It’s interesting because a) it enables true LIVE coverage and b) memory space is limited on some phones, so with a service like this, ppl can just report until the battery is drained. As for the “live” part: I pressed the F5 key to refresh the user page right after I had stopped recording and there it was, my video. Dead simple.
Which phones are supported?
The latest Nokia range, imho those who are based on the S60v3 platform.
Citizen Media, here we come… muahahahaha!
(video isnt included at this time as i just can’t stand the way the “embed object” code is implemented in WP + my video plugin doesnt support qik so far..)
EDIT: Loic just twittered that Seesmic is now compatible with mobile phones via Shozu.com. Shozu! Has anyone tried it so far? Had it running on my mobile some month ago but it quickly drained the battery, also due to some autostart scripts that load when the phone boots (!) up. - I guess all these tools only make sense when your phone is within a 3G or better network and when everything is interconnected, i.e. feeds that pull content from your various multimedia resources online and aggregate them on your blog. Should be an interesting task for a WP plugin (hint, hint :-)….something that pulls content from your video & microblogging platforms and creates a blog post out of it. In short: what I would like to have is a smooth way to blog-on-the-go and have it appear on my own blog (and not somewhere on flickr, vox, seesmic, qik, YouTube, etc.). Possible? Maybe one day (soon).
EDIT 2: QIK works fine even via a normal (= slow) GPRS connection! Awesome. I will use it more often now.
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15:32
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
Things are happening very quickly with Ushahidi. We just launched yesterday and there are already thousands of people visiting the site. That’s good, but not good enough.
What we need from you, more than anything, is to get the word out to your family, friends and acquaintances in Kenya. Call, email or SMS them today!
There is continued refinement and improved functionality being added all the time. Here’s a quick rundown of what we’ve done and are doing.
- You can now SMS your report to +447624802635 with your mobile phone.
- You can email your reports and images to tips@ushahidi.com
- We have added a “Peace Efforts” button to highlight the good things that are happening.
- The “How you can help” page has started. The first is a way to send money via MamaMikes.com that will be distributed by the Kenyan Red Cross.
- There are new buttons (with copy/paste code) for you to add to your websites on the about page.
Image by usumdelphini89 via Flickr
Other happenings:
Daudi Were and Ory Okolloh continue to foster relationships with NGOs in Kenya through the NGO Council. If you can help them, or would like to offer your assistance, please let us know.
Joshua Wanyama of AfricanPath has offered to help grow and manage images on Flickr of the post-election crisis in Kenya. You can find the Kenya Post-Election Pictures 2008 Flickr group here. Consider sending yours in and tagging your images with “KenyaElection2007″.
A big thanks to all the bloggers who have covered the launch of Ushahidi:
Digital Activists Find Ways to Help Kenya
Ushahidi: What Social Media Can Be
Ushahidi.com on KenyanPundit
Free Speech (and business) Made Easy
More ways to Help - Kenya’s Post Election Aftermath
Digital Documentation of Post-election Violence in Kenya
Technologies Role In Reporting Violence In Kenya
Ushahidi by Mweshi
Ushahidi: report acts of violence in Kenya
“Bear Witness”
Nigerian Digerati Need to Create Web Tools Like Ushahidi
Technology for Advocacy in Kenya Crisis
Ushahidi by Alfajiri
Can I Get A Witness!
Ushahidi by Ntwiga
Concern over under-reporting of dead prompts digital project in Kenya
Kenia: Zeitzeugen gesucht
Kenya: A tool for reporting acts of violence
Working to track the violent crimes in Kenya
Swahili bloggers:
Una ushahidi wa yanayojiri Kenya?
Ushahidi + Ukurasa Maalum Wa Kenya + Action Alerts Blog
 
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8:34
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
While blogging, emails, Twitter and the internet are doing a great deal of good getting the news out of what’s going on in Kenya to the rest of the world, I find myself troubled. You see, the communication that needs to be happening is at the grassroots level. Everyday Kenyans do not have access to any of these services.
Let’s put our minds and capabilities towards solving real problems for people beyond the technologically elite.
Take the current state of affairs in Kenya as an example. With every problem comes an opportunity. In this case, we’re talking about finding a way to open up better communications to not just the African digerati and blogosphere, but the everyday Kenyan as well.
The primary means of communication during an emergency in Kenya is via SMS - on their mobile phones. Some of the problems with the current structure of mobile communications in any African region during a crisis:
- Many disbursed one-to-one communications (SMS)
- Lack of reports from people on the ground - traditional media can only cover so much. If there was ever a need for citizen journalism, then this is it. (this goes beyond what Ken talked about in just citizen monitoring of the polls)
With the just the two problems outlined above, it’s possible to see what kind of technology solution might be useful. That’s the type of service and/or platform that we should be building towards. Beyond the usefulness of such a service in a crisis, it would likely be a profitable business venture in less trying times.
[Check out two good posts on Kenya from a technology angle by Joshua Goldstein at Harvard’s I&D blog and Mark at Mashable]
Another good tech idea from Ory at Kenyan Pundit:
“Google Earth supposedly shows in great detail where the damage is being done on the ground. It occurs to me that it will be useful to keep a record of this, if one is thinking long-term. For the reconciliation process to occur at the local level the truth of what happened will first have to come out. Guys looking to do something - any techies out there willing to do a mashup of where the violence and destruction is occurring using Google Maps?”
 
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9:22
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
If you’re in Kenya and have news on the elections, you likely have no voice or no way to tell the world. Spread the word to SMS your news to the Mashada forums via their SMS hotline.
Send your SMS to +44 762 480 2635
This is exactly what I was talking about it my last post on why the internet matters in Africa. Technologists finding ways to keep communicating. Even better, this is something that anyone in Kenya can use, not just those with access to the internet.
 
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9:03
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
If anyone doubts the power of the internet in Africa, they need to look no further than what is happening in Kenya right now. Kenya is balanced on the precarious edge of a cliff that could quickly descend into even more riots, bloodshed and government heavy-handedness. The people I’m talking to via Skype/email tell me that there are gunshots going off as we type… This isn’t Zimbabwe (yet), but it is still bad.
(image via WIR Media - downloadable below)
As of yesterday there was a media blackout. The only way to get any up-to-date news for the past 24-48 hours has been through the blogosphere (like Kenyan Pundit, Thinker’s Room, Mentalacrobatics), Skype and Kenyan populated forums (like Mashada). The traditional media has been shut out and shut down for all intents and purposes.
Two thoughts were racing through my head last night as I was trying to sleep.
Internet Penetration
First, though the internet is good for us in the diaspora and a few in Kenya, it just doesn’t have the reach to the wananchi (average citizen) in Kenya. The government knows that shutting down radio, TV and print is still the most effective way to squash news.
However there is still the mobile phone, specifically SMS messaging. The problem with mobile phones is that they’re so disbursed - there’s no central core for users to all tune in to. Of course, that’s the strength in mobiles too. The trick is to leverage the strength without destroying the medium.
What Can be Done?
I went to bed trying to think of what I could do. Situations like this are where technology can really shine. The government can squash traditional media, but not technology that it barely knows exists.
Anyone can see that the problems in Kenya right now (both news blackout and general communication) also represent a real opportunity. There is a great need for a service that can’t be easily controlled by the government. How about a platform that serves as a centralized repository for on the ground reports from any Kenyan via SMS? The ability for people to upload videos and images with some text to a web-based and mobile phone accessible site.
Technology Being Used
I’ve been touching base with all of my contacts and these are the tech stories that I’m hearing:
- Phone cards are in short supply, so people are using Sambaza to top up their mobile phone minutes. (Kenyan Pundit)
- No one was able to get to the cyber cafes in Kenya to get on the chat, so David at the Mashada forums is working to create a way to post to them via mobile phones.
Further reading:
Downloadable news and pictures from WIR Media - read and pass it on (1.2 Mb PDF)
Ndesanjo has done an excellent job of hitting the major points of the Kenyan blogosphere over on Global Voices.
 
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9:16
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
Kenya is going through it’s second major election cycle. It has been 5 years since Mwai Kibaki was elected and Kenya is facing a test: can it have another free and fair election? December 27th (tomorrow) is the big day.
I’ve been particularly impressed with the AfricaNews.com media group. They use technology in innovative ways, creating real usable systems to report and connect with Africans on multiple platforms. In the case of the Kenyan 2007 Elections, in partnership with the Arid Lands Information Network, they have created a site where mobile reporters from around the country bring news about the elections.
SMS Polling
Media Focus on Development have created a full multimedia campaign, anchored by TV and radio shows, that use SMS messaging and the website as key touch points. I found the SMS surveys to be quite interesting. The questions were posed by the TV and radio personalities and people were asked to text in their simple “yes” or “no” response.
TV and radio have a much greater reach in Kenya than the web. Using these traditional media conduits as the anchor for their campaign is smart. I would be really interested to hear the numbers on how many responded to the questions. Did the campaign reach enough people to be significant?
Keeping an Eye on Kenyan Parliament
Of course, any mention of technology being used to monitor and report on the Kenyan political scene would be incomplete without mentioning Mzalendo. Created by Ory and M, two well-known Kenyan bloggers, Mzalendo is a usable database of information about politicians and their constituencies that any Kenyan can report into.
I’m still trying to find out if there are any organizations doing any type of mobile election monitoring, akin to what we saw in Nigeria using FrontlineSMS. If you know of any, leave a comment or email me.
 
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8:27
From: White African
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Africa’s Web 2.0 Sites (updated), originally uploaded by whiteafrican.
I was challenged by Riyaz and Sokari to come up with a list of “Web 2.0″ sites for Africa and make a collage. I chose to define that term rather loosely, so if the line is blurred it’s entirely my fault.
I’m sure I missed some, so leave a comment with the link if I did. I’ll add it in the next iteration.
You can see the larger sizes of this image on Flickr, where each logo has the link to the webite.
The “To Be Added” list:
MyVideo
TWAC
iJol
MyGenius
Helule
Blog247
YesNoMayB
employmint
ZoopedUp
Digspot
Vrinne
Student Village
LitNet
MobiMii
Wibble
Startpage
Share Surf
Blogs 24
Bongo5
Blog TZ
 
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20:13
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
Google has just announced their $10 million Android Developer Challenge. If you develop one of the top 50 applications, you win $25,000. That gets you into the round to find the best 20 of those 50, which will be divided for into ten $275,000 awards and ten $100,000 awards.
If you’re a developer in Africa, this is a GREAT opportunity for you. Submissions for the first phase of the challenge will be accepted from Jan. 2 through March 3, 2008.
 
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8:14
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
2go
Rafiq wrote a review of a new mobile service out of South Africa called 2go. It enters the chat/social network fray with fellow South African competitor Mxit (past with interview Mxit’s Darryn Foster found here).
FrontlineSMS
Ken Banks, creator of text messaging service FrontlineSMS, continues to try and raise awareness of his application for NGO’s in Africa. He has created a Facebook Cause that you can join to show your support and help spread the word about this free tool that allows non-profits to make a big impact using mobile phones.
Internet Penetration in Africa
The BBC has an article covering broadband penetration and internet usage in Africa.
“One of the biggest problems facing internet development in Africa is a lack of interconnectivity. More than 70% of internet traffic within Africa is routed outside the continent, driving up costs for business and consumers.”
 
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23:01
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
 If you run an NGO, or know someone who does, you’ll be excited to hear about nGOmobile. It’s a new initiative from Ken Banks of Kiwanja.net to help NGOs leapfrog the barriers to getting started using text messaging. You need to be operating a small to medium sized NGO in a developing nation to enter the competition.
How it works
First, take a look at the website. Next, you submit a short project description. The top 4 will be awarded everything you need to set up and manage your very own text-messaging project:
- A brand new HP Pavilion laptop computer - To help you run your messaging campaign from anywhere you choose
- A GSM modem - Send messages through the mobile network without the need for the Internet
- Office software - Word processing, spreadsheets, email - everything to help you run your project more efficiently
- A top-of-the-range Nokia mobile phone (or two) - A couple of cool Nokia phones to help you take photos and videos (and talk!)
- FrontlineSMS -FrontlineSMS is a great piece of software allowing you to run your very own text-messaging campaign from a laptop or desktop computer.
- $1,000 in cash
My Thoughts
NGO’s serve a specific role in Africa, generally a space that would be filled by governments in developed nations. Many of them are small teams of people with limited budgets, and this type of competition will provide a few of them the chance to get the equipment that they need to be more effective.
I’d like to know what nGOmobile will be doing to train the winners in order for them to have the most chance of success.
This is a neat project coming from someone who carries a lot of credibility in this space in Africa. Ken’s FrontlineSMS has been used by a number of organizations, most notably when it was used for monitoring the recent elections in Nigeria. I’ve interviewed Ken before, you can read it here or listen here.
You have from now until December 14th to submit your project ideas, so get started!
 
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14:42
From: Kikuyumoja's realm
Read This Entry & More At Kikuyumoja's realm
So you have spend US$ 599 on an iPhone and now you are pissed that HRM Steve Jobs reduced the price to US$ 399?
Well, dear Apple fans, rest assured: Nokia did the same with us last week by introducing another N95 with 8GB fixed memory (instead of a microSD slot), a bigger display, a much better battery and a slightly improved keypad on the front (which I personally think is the best improvement on this machine). Now what’s worse: a price drop, or knowing that your machine isn’t just *that* great and that it has been improved?
As for the iPhone: seems like the 599$ price tag is reserved for the upcoming 3G version. Eh?
I wonder what kind of effect this new version will have on the firmware of the previous N95. NOKIA! Aah…could you please remove the useless multimedia menu and reasign the button to something else? Thx..
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0:04
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
A Google rumor and a Google patent have had the tech world talking this week.
 Someone noticed that there was a patent by Google for a mobile component to GPay, their online payment system. It’s not a new concept, but it will be interesting if they do pull it off in conjunction with the rumor circulating about the new Google GPhone.
You see, there is a void in the market for a payment system that is accepted globally, but not necessarily tied to a bank or phone carrier. Any thoughts I have on what will eventually happen once they roll out any new device and/or payment system are pure speculation. I would like to believe that Google has a bigger picture in mind than just the US market when developing it though.
I’m sure the services work best together, but they would never tie a payment system to just one device. I’ll be happy to see either of them work in Africa. The GPay model branching out would make me the most excited though.
[I also find it interesting that PayPal is having some serious problems at the same time as rumors of this are coming out. PayPal needs some serious competition, and I hope this is it.]
 
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14:23
From: White African
Read This Entry & More At White African
 ChezolaPay is a new mobile payment service soon to be offered in Nigeria. The application was developed by a Canadian company, but will be rolling out in its first African country this year. In order to use it, you must have a GSM enabled phone and the money gets transferred via an SMS message. Your account is charged up via prepaid cards.
Going by their vendor list, the bank that will be handling the services will be First City Monument Bank Plc.
If you’re in Nigeria and are going to be using the service, take the time to look at the different types of accounts. You can choose from Individual, Family or Corporate.
My Thoughts
So, this is an interesting development, and a much needed step in the right direction. However, I don’t think this is the final answer for mobile payments in Africa. I stand by my earlier posts; African needs a mobile payment platform that is both banking AND carrier agnostic. I hope that someone like Herman Chinery-Hesse can actually develop his visionary platform.
(via Montreal Tech Watch, hat tip Heri)
 
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