ICTWorks

How ProjectFOCUS is Bridging Digital Divides with Bicycles

Wayan Vota — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Across colleges in North America, ProjectFOCUS is raising awareness and capital to invest in solar-powered, income-generating internet cafes in Uganda with amazing, replicable computer lab fundraising skills.

But they're not just about fundraising or computer technology, they're also innovators in ICT4D. On June 5th, when they opened the Lyantonde Internet Center in cooperation with ICOD, they used bicycles to extend the reach of the Internet Cafe beyond it's physical office space. Watch the opening ceremony video to learn how:

By donating bicycles to farmer groups' elected "information agent" in the five villages of Luwama, Kyewanula, Kitazigolokwa, Iwensinga, and Lyantonde, ProjectFOCUS is increasing information dissemination among farmers in rural Uganda.

So the next time you're wondering how you can expand the impact of a computer lab, don't forget the basics like facilitating transportation to and from the cafe. A simple bike race and donation can change the whole perception of Internet access in rural areas.

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The Bi-Weekly ICT4D Retrospective: Important Links for Aug 17-31, 2010

Ritse Erumi — Tue, 31 Aug 2010 11:00:44 +0000

Sending MMS your way: On August 26, the good folks over at FrontlineSMS, upped the ante with the addition of MMS capabilities to the latest release of their software. Imagine the doors this will open up for health-care delivery, disaster management, eLearning...

Facebook is the mobile internet

The Facebook Factor: According to a recent report, the mobile penetration rate in Africa stands at 47% and there seems to be a significant growth in the number people accessing the web...to use Facebook! Do you see a correlation between Facebook use and mobile web adoption rates?

eDevelopment Defined: Are you working with "ICTs for development" or working for "development with ICTs"? Read IICD's take on the matter.

Quality Assured. Genuine Product: The war against the proliferation of fake medicines could take a new turn with the introduction of a new service that allows people confirm the authenticity of a drug via SMS. Learn more about .

Techno-Optimism: The ICT4D Jester speaks once again.

1,000 Telecentres in Rwanda by 2015? Paul Barera, Executive Director of Rwanda Telecentre Network (RTN), hopes to reduce the digital divided by deploying 1,000 telecentres by 2015. An upcoming handbook provides a case for why and how this ambitious goal will be accomplished.

e-Voting boosts economies: African ICT firms are reaping economic benefits from the transition to e-voting.

m4D. Apps4D. ICT4D. Confused, yet? This Venn diagram provides some clarification.

Finally...the ICT4D Spotlight of the Week: The Talking Book
The Talking Book is a programmable audio computer that shares locally-relevant knowledge and improves literacy. While many of you are already familiar with this project, they've had a pretty busy summer.

P.S. We would like use this spot to plug people, projects or organizations that are using creative yet appropriate ICTs in the field of international development, please leave us a comment if you would like to be highlighted.

To get these links faster, follow me on Twitter: @RitseOnline

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10 Worst Practices in ICT for Education

Wayan Vota — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Michael Trucano, a recognized expert on deploying ICT in education, recently blogged about Worst practice in ICT use in education:

Here's a list of some of what I consider to be the preeminent 'worst practices' related to the large scale use of ICTs in education in developing countries, based on first hand observation over the past dozen or so years. I have omitted names (please feel free to fill them in yourself). The criterion I used for selection was simple: The given worst practice was easily observable in multiple prominent initiatives, with (one fears) a high likelihood of re-occurrence, in the same or other places.

As one of his humble understudies in ICT4E, I found myself in agreement - these are worst practices that are repeated again, and again, and again, when technology and schools are mixed. As you read them, please think about how you'll NOT let these practices happen in your next educational deployment:

Worst practice in ICT use in education

1. Dump hardware in schools, hope for magic to happen
This is, in many cases, the classic example of worst practice in ICT use in education. Unfortunately, it shows no sign of disppearing soon, and is the precursor in many ways to the other worst practices on this list. "If we supply it they will learn": Maybe in some cases this is true, for a very small minority of exceptional students and teachers, but this simplistic approach is often at the root of failure of many educational technology initiatives.

2. Design for OECD learning environments, implement elsewhere
With the best of intentions, and often 'assisted' by vendors, many groups (including many governments) have sought to simply transfer ICT-related models and practices from classrooms in industrialized countries to less developed education systems in other parts of the world. Sometimes this works, but unfortunately many places roll out programs and products that have at their core sets of assumptions (reliable electricity and connectivity, well-trained teachers, sufficient available time-on-task, highly literate students, space to implement student-centric pedagogies, relevant content, a variety of cultural norms, etc.) that do not correspond with local realities. The result is often (and not unsurprisingly) not very good.

3. Think about educational content only after you have rolled out your hardware
Deploying lots of computer infrastructure in schools is expensive (and complicated). So expensive, in fact, that many critical complementary investments (in training, in tech support, in content, etc.) are 'postponed' until a later date. Sometimes this is a calculated bureaucratic maneuver/risk -- the thinking is that, once the hardware is in place, the need for content will be more clear, and it will be easier to make the case for related funding at that time) -- and other times this is simply a lack of good planning. But it is a fact that, in many places, only once computers are in place and a certain level of basic ICT literacy is imparted to teachers and students is the rather basic question asked: What are we going to do with all of this stuff? Related to this ...

4. Assume you can just import content from somewhere else
Some places recognize the need for quality educational content from the start, but assume they can simply import it from somewhere else. In addition to obvious potential cultural issues, the successful integration of content developed elsewhere into daily teaching and learning practices is inhibited by a lack of clear understanding by teachers of the relevance of such materials to the required curricula. Much effort typically needs to be expended to map this content to explicit objectives and activities in the local curricula. (And of course: Teacher training helps too!)

5. Don't monitor, don't evaluate
This should be self-evident. That said, there are only a handful of really credible, rigorous impact evaluation studies done of educational technology initiatives in developing countries. Most evaluation work focuses on (perceptions of) changes in attitudes as the result of the use of educational technologies, and the success (or lack of success) in meeting varius simple metrics (number of computers installed, number of teachers trained, etc.). Such information is important, of course, but it is hardly sufficient. What is the impact of ICT use in education? If we don't evaluate potential answers to this question, rigorously and credibly, all we are left with is well-intentioned guesswork and marketing dross.

6. Make a big bet on an unproven technology (especially one based on a closed/proprietary standard) or single vendor, don't plan for how to avoid 'lock-in

Let's acknowledge that the speed of technological changes almost always outpaces the ability of educational planners to keep up. In response, some policymakers seek to get 'ahead of the curve' by placing large bets on new, largely unproven technologies in an effort to 'leapfrog' what is happening in other education systems. In other cases, education systems effectively outsource most of the capacity to manage activities in this area to a vendor or other third party. There are potentially valid reasons to pursue such courses of action in some cases, but they are inherently very risky, especially if clear plans are not made on how to 'exit' such decisions and relationships.

7. Don't think about (or acknowledge) total cost of ownership/operation issues or calculations
What does ICT use in education cost? Some people would have you believe it is only the initial cost of hardware. Businesses have long known that this is not the case, but many education policymakers seem not to have grasped (or willfully ignore) this fundamental issue. We know that "total cost of ownership or operation" (TCO) is often underestimated, sometimes grossly, when calculating costs of ICT in education initiatives in developing countries. Estimates of initial costs to purchase equipment to overall costs over time vary widely; typically they lie between 10-25% of total cost. That said, there is a dearth of reliable data, and useful tools, to help guide education decisionmakers in their assessments of the true costs of educational technology initiatives.

8. Assume away equity issues
One compelling justification for large-scale investments in the use of ICTs in education is that theycan help address equity issues related to the 'digital divide'. That said, introduction of ICT in schools often exacerbate various entrenched inequities in education systems (urban-rural, rich-poor, boy-girl, linguistic and cultural divides, special needs students -- the list is long). Things can be done to mitigate such challenges, and indeed pro-equity approaches of utilizing ICTs are possible, but they don't happen without careful proactive attention to this issue.

9. Don't train your teachers (nor your school headmasters, for that matter)

If there is one clear lesson from the introduction of educational technologies in schools around the world, it is that teacher training is critical to the success of such initiatives. Outreach to teachers, through both regular technical and pedagogical support and on-going professional development, should be seen as cornerstones of any large ICT investment in schools. And: Targeted outreach to school principals is often crucial if teachers are to have the necessary freedom to take advantage of new opportunities offered through the use of ICTs.

10. ___

[I thought I would leave #10 blank as an acknowledgement that there are many additional worst practices that merit mention, but I have run out of space. Do feel free to submit your candidates below.]

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3 Reasons Why the Kenyan Mobile Tariff Price War Matters to ICT Companies

Wayan Vota — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Kenyan consumers are rightly excited that the mobile phone company Zain, now owned by Bharti Airtel, has kicked off a price war with just announced unprecedented low and permanent new tariffs of Kes. 3.00 to call and Kes. 1.00 per SMS message to any mobile network in Kenya. This huge price reduction caused such a storm of traffic on Zain's network, they actually had connectivity problems with other mobile phone companies.

Safaricom, the dominant mobile phone company in Kenya, is responding with the "Masaa Tariff" - Safaricom customers will be able to make calls within the network at between Kes. 2.00 to Kes 4.00, with Kes. 2.00 per minute now the lowest calling rate on any mobile network operator in the Kenyan market. Orange/Telkom Kenya has matched this pricing and other mobile phone companies are expected to follow suit with their own price decreases in the coming days.

This price war is an obvious benefit to all Kenyans in lowering the barrier to using mobile devices, but what about its impact on ICT companies? How does the mobile price war help ICT adoption and sales volume beyond just dropping call and SMS costs? Here's three ways:

1. Visible Impact of Good Government Policy

The mobile phone price war started when the Communications Commission of Kenya (CCK) cut interconnection tariffs by 50%, based on a report that determined the existing interconnection rates were way too high. A second tariff lowering will occur in 2011.

This immediate price war is a big, bold validation that lowering government-controlled tariffs directly benefits its citizens where there is already a decent level of competition. Hopefully the regulators in other countries who control mobile and Internet rates will realize that lowering those rates is a net benefit for everyone

2. Stimulate More Services & Innovation

Now that voice and especially SMS are no longer the fat cash cows of quarters past, Safaricom and Zain will need to bring more services and more innovation to the mobile subscriber to maintain their revenue per user. This means more than just M-PESA and its clones, but also new data services and even whole new solutions.

For ICT companies this is an opportunity to sell new mobile services to these companies and their subscribers - Safaricom and Zain will be hungry for new ideas. It's also an opportunity to build on the new services they roll out, with value-added solutions. Many have already done this with SMS, data, and M-PESA and your underlying connectivity costs are only going to drop, increasing your profit margins.

3. Increase Customer Respect

Last but not least, ICT companies as customers of the mobile companies should start to see more attention paid to them. Each business subscriber is going to be come more valuable, as they are the high-usage and high-income clients in Kenya. This will only be more apparent when mobile number portability comes to the Kenyan market.

For larger ICT companies (and even small ones) it is a good time to review your current contracts with mobile providers and see if you can reduce costs and increase services. You may even get the mobile company representatives to have a bit of humility. Or as this tweet from Rombokins says:

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ICT Companies Cashing in on Electronic Voting Initiatives

Wayan Vota — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Raila Odinga registering to vote in 4 minutes flat

Regardless of their political affiliations, ICT firms should be pushing electronic voter registration and voting in every country of Africa. Why? Not only does it increase participation in the elections process, and make it more transparent, it also makes great business sense.

Here's an example from Business Daily Africa: the Kenyan constitutional referendum earned several suppliers of technology goods and Internet services millions of shillings when the Interim Independent Electoral Commission (IIEC) used electronic registration and voting in 18 constituencies.

Nokia, the largest handset manufacturer, supplied IIEC with 18,000 mid-tier mobiles worth Sh38 million, according to documents seen by Business Daily. Listed telecom firm Safaricom provided 100 megabytes (MB) of data for each of the mobiles, earning it over Sh2 million in the two-day process.

Apart from handsets, the IIEC staff used laptops and other peripheral devices to conduct voter registration, voting, and tallying of results. The electoral body has said it plans to spend about Sh32 billion in a step by step process to build the infrastructure that would see Kenyans vote electronically in 20,000 polling centres around the country by 2012.

Now that's a political change I think every ICT company can vote for!

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ICT Enabled a Safe and Clean Constitutional Referendum in Kenya

Dinfin_Mulupi — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

The relative calm surrounding Kenya's constitutional referendum held on August 4 is a stark departure from the violence that marred the infamous 2007 general election. The proposed constitution would limit presidential power and institute land reform, among other changes. One factor that may have contributed to the peaceful vote was the use of information and communications technology.

Officials used e-mail, the internet, and SMS text messages in all phases of the referendum process – voter registration, campaign and actual voting. Such technology has helped contribute to the perception that the process and results were fair, unlike in 2007, when disputed results sparked violence. It also helped officials take swift action against hate speech.

Exceeding Goals for Voter Registration

Kenya’s Interim Electoral Election Commission sought to create transparency in the referendum process. For the first time ever, it conducted the electronic registration of voters in 18 pilot constituencies across the country. The 10-day exercise targeted more than 1.8 million voters in 1,400 registration centers. By sending an SMS text message with their identification card or passport number to 3007 from any network, Kenyans received a text message response confirming that their registration was valid.

Electronic registration helped the election commission surpass its target of registering 10 million people. At the close of the registration exercise,12,656,451 citizens registered to vote. Prime Minister Raila Odinga described the electronic voter registration as revolutionary compared to the old manual system of voter registration. The old system, he said, was "susceptible to abuse by partisan electoral officials."

The proposed constitution was distributed widely in an effort to reach as many citizens as possible. The group that drafted the constitution, the Committee of Experts, made their e-mail addresses public and would occasionally receive questions from the public seeking clarification on certain clauses.

In the run-up to voting, Kenyans used the internet and mobile phones to spread the draft constitution, known as a Katiba. To see the apps developed for the constitution, click here.

Monitoring Hate Speech

Nearly 4,000 people were deployed across the country to monitor the circulation of hate messages and the use of hate speech in public. These “peace committees” were formed as part of The Uwiano Platform for Peace, a joint initiative of the National Cohesion and Integration Commission (NCIC), PeaceNet Kenya and the National Steering Committee on Peace Building and Conflict Prevention.

Red and green voting factions

The peace committees used voice recorders and mobile phones to monitor and relay information to a 24-hour station at the NCIC offices. The NCIC received thousands of SMS messages reporting incidents of violence, hate speech and other activities that threatened peace. The committees created pages on Facebook to spread the message of peace.

Comments made by politicians in political rallies were also monitored as were leaflets asking some ethnic communities to leave certain areas. Some of the leaflets retrieved contained threatening messages telling some communities to “leave in peace or leave in pieces.”

One government minister has been suspended for allegedly using hate speech. President Mwai Kibaki took action against Dr. Wilfred Machage, the assistant minister for Roads, pending the determination of a hate speech case in court against him. Machage was charged with four counts of incitement to violence and was accused of uttering inciting words likely to stir ethnic hatred on June 10.

Machage is accused of saying: “Wa Maasai chenu hakiko Rift Valley, mashamba yenu yote yataenda kwa serikali.” (“You the Maasai, all your land in Rift Valley will be repossessed by the government”). The Rift Valley is an area where violence flared after the 2007 election.

Steps Toward Credible Voting and Election Results

The election commission monitored the registration and polling using Blackberries donated by the United States Government. The Blackberries provided field personnel with telephone, SMS and e-mail access to headquarters from any location in Kenya. The built-in global positioning system capability was supposed to accurately map all registration and polling locations throughout the country.

Eager to know results of the polling, Kenyans have been keeping in touch with the tallying by texting to 3007. Eighty percent of the constituencies were expected to convey their results using a new Electronic Voter Tallying system. Out of 27,689 polling stations, results from 21,000 stations were transmitted electronically to the constituency tallying center and the national tallying centers. To ensure that the relaying of the results runs smoothly, 210 ICT officers have been deployed across the country.

As of this writing, the constitution looks to have passed and peace seems to have won out against violence.

This article was originally published by AudienceScapes as Kenya’s Referendum Shaped By Technology. AudienceScapes publishes research and reporting on media and communication technology in developing countries.

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Apply Now: 2010 Legatum Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship

Wayan Vota — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 07:43:09 +0000

Does your company demonstrate visionary leadership, innovation, and strong growth? Does it have revenues of between US$ 2-25 million? And does it impact the community through job creation or improved community living standards? Then consider applying for the 2010 Legatum Africa Awards for Entrepreneurship.

For small and medium-sized businesses from across 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa, the Legatum Africa Awards offer validation that you operate a truly sustainable and innovative business and are a role models to Africa’s aspiring entrepreneurs. And there is also prize money - a Grand Prize of US$100,000 and five runner-up prizes of US$50,000 each.

The 2010 Africa Awards programme builds upon similar competitions in 2007 and 2008, and is accepting submissions from Botswana, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.

If you think you qualify, apply today! The application deadline is August 31 and 2,000 companies have already entered.

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ICTworks Interview with Clement Nyirenda, a Malawian ICT Blogger in Japan

Wayan Vota — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Now what could be more surprising than a Malawian blogging about ICT in his country while studying in Japan? How about the high quality of Clement Nyirenda's ICT Blog posts? As a frequent reader, I've always had a few questions I wanted to ask him, and recently got the chance to quiz Clement on his life and work.

Clement Nthambazale Nyirenda in Japan

1. So how does a Malawian wind up in Tokyo? How did you get a Japanese Government Scholarship?

Many people, both Japanese and non-Japanese, usually ask me the first question. My interest in Japan dates back to the early 80s during my primary school days. Just like many developing countries, Japan's high-tech products such as cars and motorbikes are very common in Malawi. At that tender age, it was my wish to study in the country that produces all these products.

This interest, however, died down when I doing my undergraduate studies in Electrical Engineering at the University of Malawi. After completing my undergraduate studies, I saw at least three yearly invitations for the Japanese government scholarship applications but I did not bother to apply because I was scared of language problems. Besides that, some people told me that life in Japan is very tough for foreigners because Japan is a closed society.

Instead, I got a scholarship from the African Network of Scientific and Technological Institutions (ANSTI), a UNESCO project, which enabled me to pursue a Master's degree in Computer Engineering at the University of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa from 2004 to 2006. My work involved the application of fuzzy logic in communication networks. It was during this period that I realized that the Japanese have been doing a lot of exciting work in the field of fuzzy control for many years.

As my MSc research was drawing to a close, I sent an email, attaching my CV, to Professor Kaoru Hirota, a seasoned researcher in fuzzy control, at Tokyo Institute of Technology, expressing my interest to study under his supervision. He encouraged me to apply for the Japanese government scholarship at the Japanese embassy in my home country. I applied for the scholarship through the Japanese embassy in Zambia, which was also responsible for Malawi at that time.

In July 2007, I attended interviews along with 4 others competing for one slot. Two days later, I received a phone call from the Japanese embassy in Zambia, notifying me that I was successful. In April, 2008, I arrived in Tokyo to study in Professor Hirota's lab at Tokyo Institute of Technology, initially as a research student for 6 months and later as a PhD student for 3 years. I am now in the second year of my PhD. If all goes according to plan, I will graduate in September 2011.

2. Coming from Malawi, Japan is a massive culture shock. What's one difference related to ICT4D that surprised you?

Yes, Japan is huge culture shock. And true to the words of some people that I met when I was an undergrad, Japan is still a closed society, more especially in the Tokyo/Yokohama area. In the Kansai area (Kyoto, Osaka, Kobe) area, people tend to open up a bit more. It is, however, very interesting to see deep cultural values persist despite industrialization.

In terms of ICT4D, there are many surprises, but the biggest and perhaps the most fundamental one concerns the bandwidth of the Internet connections. Here in Japan, I have a 100Mbps fiber connection in my apartment, for which I pay slightly more than $40. On the other hand, the cost of dial-up Internet at one of the major ISPs in Malawi ranges from $12 to $70, while basic 64kbps and 128kbps wireless connections cost US$250 and US$480 respectively. If in Africa we can have access to extremely cheap and fast Internet, there would be many opportunities in the ICT4D realm.

Making Clement happy is easy

3. Did your family join you in Tokyo? If so, or not, how has that impacted your studies? Would you advise others to bring their family when they study abroad?

Yes, my family joined me here in February 2009. Before they joined me here, I was always worried about their welfare in Malawi. I used to phone them almost every day. Now that they are here with me, I am relieved.

The good thing about Japan, which might not be the case in other countries, is that the government gives child allowance even to foreign children whose parents total income is lower than a certain threshold. As of this year, this allowance is 13,000 Japanese yen per child, which becomes 26,000 Japanese Yen for my two kids. Furthermore, foreigners, who are legally staying here, can also apply for government housing. Competition is very tough, but you lose nothing when you try luck. As I write, we are staying a government house, for which the monthly rent is 90% lower than the previous apartment. It is also more spacious.

I would certainly advise others to bring their family when they study abroad.

4. Did you find a community of Africans in Tokyo? If so, how is it different than meeting other Africans in Malawi - like are you friends with those you may have not noticed if you were living at home?

Compared to people from other continents, there are fewer Africans in Tokyo. I have good friends from Ghana, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Zimbabwe and many other African countries. Because we are very far from home, we behave as if we come from the same country. If we were in Africa, that would not happen.

5. How do you plan on transferring your PhD experience to your teaching at Malawi Polytechnic?

For the time being, it will generally be very difficult to transfer my PhD experience to my teaching at the Malawi Polytechnic. The major reason is that in my Electrical Engineering department, we only offer BSc programs. The knowledge that I acquired at MSc level was enough for teaching courses in these programs. With a PhD, I would love to work with postgraduate students, more especially research students in Communication Systems and Computational Intelligence, which are my twin research fields.

I am looking forward to seeing the Malawi Polytechnic launching a Masters program in Communication Systems in the near future. With that program in place, it will be easy to work with some of the students on Computational Intelligence based topics in Communication Systems. It is much easier and cheaper to employ lecturers in Communication Systems than in Computational Intelligence, which is still at a nascent stage. By the way, the latter is my major passion.

Advanced ICT swarm intelligence

6. What aspects of Swarm Intelligence and Fuzzy Logic tools can we apply to ICT4D?

Swarm Intelligence (SI) is the property of a system where collective behavior of simple agents causes coherent solutions or patterns to emerge. SI is generally inspired by the interesting aspects of social insect behavior such as self-organization, decentralized control and shape-formation, in order to solve difficult computational problems. Some of the major research directions are Ant Colony Optimization (ACO) and Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO). ACO has been successfully applied to difficult discrete optimization problems while PSO has been applied to continuous optimization problems.

On the other hand, fuzzy logic, proposed by Prof. Zadeh in 1965, is a multi-valued logic derived from fuzzy set theory, aimed at dealing with reasoning that is imprecise. In contrast to Boolean logic, fuzzy values may have a truth value that ranges between 0 and 1. It manipulates linguistic concepts to help engineers to build intelligent control systems, expert systems, prediction systems and many other systems.

My research focuses on the development of SI based multi-objective fuzzy systems for communication networks mainly in the areas of congestion control, routing and self-organization.

In terms of application in the context of ICT4D, there are many potential applications. For in stance, I know a company which is already using SI in radio network optimization. As the uptake of mobile phone technology in the developing world continues to increase exponentially, SI optimization techniques, if adopted properly, may help to ensure that the quality of service is not compromised.

In future, as e-learning systems become more ubiquitous in the LDCs, even at community levels, adaptive collaborative techniques, which will enable different students or members of the community to choose different learning sequences, will become necessary. SI is one of the tools which can be used to create such systems. Simple fuzzy logic tools can also be customized for important ICT4D applications in telemedicine and health care information systems, mapping and protection of natural resources, forecasting weather patterns and pest outbreaks, and so on.

It is also worthy pointing out that, depending on the problem, fuzzy logic and SI approaches can be hybridized with each other or with other Computational Intelligence paradigms such as Artificial Neural Networks (ANNs) and Evolutionary algorithms in order to combine their respective strengths.

7. With so few African bloggers, what was your inspiration to start writing? What African or ICT4D blogs or writers do you read regularly?

I was inspired to start writing by two Malawian colleagues, late Mangaliso Jere, who used to work for an ISP in Mzuzu, and Soyapi Mumba, a Software Development Manager in Lilongwe. Mzuzu is a city in Northern Malawi while Lilongwe, Malawi's capital city, is located in the Central Region. I used to enjoy reading their articles and ultimately decided to start my own blog. I wrote my first article in March 2006. Back then, I was using Google's Blogger. In 2007, I moved my blog to a self-hosted Wordpress blogging platform and, since then, it has kept on growing. I use the money that I make from adverts and other forms of sponsorships to pay for hosting and domain fees and, of course, my labor.

One thing that I like about blogging is that it links me up with some very important and exciting people like you, Wayan, from whom I learn a lot. There are many ICT4D blogs that I like to read, but the ones that stand out are http://whiteafrican.com/ and http://www.afrigadget.com/. I also like http://www.kabissa.org/, an ICT4D network of1500+ organizations active throughout Africa.

8. Anything else…?

I would like to thank you for granting me the opportunity to be interviewed.

If you too would like to be interviewed, let me know!

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Gordon Brown Says Africa's Best Hope is ICT

Wayan Vota — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:00:12 +0000

Gordon Brown walking through Kibera Slums with Raila Odinga in 2005

It is interesting to hear Gordon Brown, UK's most recent past Prime Minister, talk about technology's opportunity in Africa during an address to the African Union:

"Africa's best hope for diversification into the high-value sectors is a massive acceleration in the use of IT ... 40% of people in Africa have mobiles, but only 10% have access to the internet which offers the chance of a technological leap in the provision of services and for business and citizens. I am working with some of you to bring together experts in this field for a major campaign and programme of work, because I truly believe that the rapid expansion of internet access in Africa could transform how Africa trades, learns and holds political power accountable."

Now Mr/ brown's speech was short on details - he only gave general pronouncements - but as we've discussed in the past, there are at least two ways the African Union can take ICT seriously:

Open and Competitive ICT Markets
Universal Service Fees used for Universal Access

On both of these points, Mr. Brown could be a great leader. He's had experience with the UK system of relatively open ICT markets and efficient USF usage. He could lead the African Union in a concerted and honest effort to liberalize ICT across national borders and create programs that actually increase ICT adoption in rural areas.

Success at either one would be a worthy post-Prime Minister achievement equal to anything Tony Blair has accomplished.

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Find Love and Money in Online Dating for Africans

Wayan Vota — Mon, 16 Aug 2010 08:00:00 +0000

Love is messy and very, very inefficient - just how many frogs to men and women have to kiss to find a Prince or Princess? This inefficiency just calls out for the automation, search, and long-tail power of the Internet, and for the most part that call has been answered in the major Western economies. Online dating and match-making sites are plentiful and profitable. But what about African dating sites?

Cyber connections on Dating.co.ke

If you are a Kenyan who wants to find a soul mate in your country (vs. a foreigner), Moses Kemibaro reports on what may just be your first choice:

Dating.co.ke is a fairly new and completely free Kenyan online dating web site. At this time, the web site is not yet monetizing traffic either through advertising or subscriptions. My friend took me through the web site and to be quite honest its of very high quality and quite easy to use. As of this writing, the site has almost 1,000 signed up members of whom at least 100 sign-in on daily basis. According to my friend the web site has been growing at a rate of 10 new users a day.

Checking out the profiles on the site, I agree - the people registered look high quality, even if their photos are not. Now I'd suggest they take my online dating photo advice: make sure its a close-up photo, you're looking good, and there isn't anyone else (or their arm) in the photo. And why does my advice matter? Well, here's the result of a Match.com date: Mrs. Vota

Cash connection waiting for you

Regardless of your marital status, if you are in ICT, you should be looking at online dating for several reasons. First, if you are a programmer or community builder, think about building a dating site for a target community. In the USA, we have online dating sites for everyone from religious, to ethnic, to regional, and language groups. And many of the sites are profitable too.

Next, online dating can be a driver of ICT itself. Just as too many Africans look to foreigners for love, many rural Africans look to larger cities for just the same reasons. And ICT can be a great way to make connections without the cost and risk of physical travel. In fact, where are the mDating applications? I say we need SMS:Love as much as any other text messaging solution.

Last but not least, online dating is often at the forefront of for-profit ICT innovation. Want to know how to monetize your online activities? Look to online dating, which has been charging for content and access from the start - and yet doesn't have any no-cost or NGO competition.

So go forth and explore this opportunity. And who knows what your return will be. I know I won the dating lottery with my entry.

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