Items by AfroMusing

Afromusing

• TED Fellows and Moving Windmills

  Posted: July 29, 2010, 4:47 am by AfroMusing

  July has been a whirlwind month, piggy backing on an even more hectic June. I got to spend some time in Kenya in June with the wonderful Ushahidi and ihub community, where we hosted several events to highlight our software projects. SwiftRiver amongst them. Before that it was DLD women in Munich (+ World Cup ofcourse!) I made great friends and learned the word ‘Bombastisch’ – Thank you Lukas.

  From July 10th to the 16th I had the great fortune of spending time with the TEDGlobal 2010 fellows and attend the TEDGlobal 2010 and even spoke during the Senior fellows mini conference. It was a blast to say the least. I am still decompressing and reliving that week in my mind.

  I wanted to share with you pictures of the TEDGlobal 2010 fellows, and to point you to their profiles in TED.com.
  They are an amazing group of people who greatly inspired me during that week. From Adital’s ‘windlight’, David Gurman’s art installations, Teru Kuwayama’s photography, Roshini’s documentary… it goes on and on. I feel lucky to have met them and I hope you get to know more about their work in the coming months.

  Moving Windmills: Back in 2007 at my first TED ever, I met a young man we had profiled on Afrigadget. William Kamkwamba.
  I took this pic of him and Simon Mwacharo.

  Fast forward 3 years later, after the book he co-wrote with Bryan Mealer topped Amazon’s recommended lists, he appeared on the The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and now… his book is out on paperback. It is available on the Kindle store for you ipad toting hipsters.
  Note:
  - There is a whole new chapter in the back about his adventures post-book.
  - He graduated from African Leadership Academy prep school in Johannesburg in June.
  - He’s going to Dartmouth in the fall
  - He just built and electrified a new school in his village with the help of NGO BuildOn.org
  - He’s building his parents a new business, a maize (corn) mill that will permanently lift them out of poverty.
  - His book has been chosen as the mandatory book for incoming freshman at several U.S. schools and he’s coming in mid-August to visit them.

  Amazing.

• Kenya: How to get Safaricom 3G on your iPad

  Posted: June 15, 2010, 2:16 pm by AfroMusing

  1. Get a new sim card. Do not cut it just yet.

  2. Turn SIM PIN Request off (On Nokia E71 go to Settings, Phone, Security, Phone & Sim Card, PIN Request set to off)

  3. Add credit *141 voucher number #

  4. Purchase a data bundle by texting the word ‘Activate’ to the appropriate short code. i.e

  5. Text 450 to get the balance of the data bundle

  6. Once you’ve added credit to the sim card, you are now ready to cut the regular SIM into a microSIM.
  Instructions are on this link. You just need a pair of scissors and an exacto knife to trace out the microsim shape on the regular sim.

  At this stage, you can also create a regular sim template using the same instructions on Hijinks, as you will likely need it later.

  7. Fit the microsim into the ipad tray, you might need to gently hammer the Microsim into the little ipad tray it so it lays flat. Insert the tray into the ipad slot.

  8. You can put the new MicroSIM into the iPad and voila’! you are connected to Safaricom 3G.

  The tricky part now is how to recharge your account when you run out of credit. The fastest way is to MPESA your MicroSIM number, though that would mean you would be using the more expensive 8 kes per MB instead of the cheaper rates afforded by bundling. At this point, you can remove the MicroSim, fit it into a template created step 6, put into a regular phone, add credit and text ‘activate’ for the appropriate short code and for the bundle you prefer.

  On the iphone, you can use the SIM applications to check your MPESA and Safaricom credit balance, that is not currently possible on the ipad. You can view and even send the request for balances, but there isn’t a mechanism to display the response from Safaricom. I am hoping someone can come up with a solution for this, if you know how, please comment or get in touch.
  
  Update with info from @69mb:
  Re: Topping up, its possible from a postpaid line to topup a prepaid line with a data bundle from the *200# menu. So if you’ve got a postpaid line / a friend with one you can mpesa their bill for the bundle. Sucks this isn’t also on the *100#

  Update 2: Safaricom has MicroSims available. Via @blongwe and @whiteafrican. Yet to find out whether topping up issue is easier on the special MicroSIMs.

  PS: Rates on Orange look better, here is a grid (thanks Charles!)

• We loves the penguin

  Posted: June 14, 2010, 12:15 pm by AfroMusing

  
  
  
  Ushahidi_maimi 2
  
  Originally uploaded by Ushahidi
  

  Henry Addo, a true Ubuntu enthusiast and Me.

  Taken in Miami during the Ushahidi strategy meeting in April.
  
  

• World Cup 2010: Pics taken at Cairo Airport

  Posted: June 12, 2010, 10:53 pm by AfroMusing

  Taken at Cairo Airport just as the game was beginning. Later peeps, let me rush to the gate so i do not miss my flight!

  Go USA!

• Nokia: Bicycle Charger Kit for Mobiles

  Posted: June 3, 2010, 10:57 pm by AfroMusing

  *Cross posted on AfriGadget.

  There was a major announcement today from Nokia about the release of cheap phones for the emerging markets, featuring dual sims and the ever useful LED flashlight. What is even more interesting is that with the launch of the phones, a bicycle charger kit. According to CNET Asia, the kit will be available by year’s end.

  Rounding up the announcements today is the Bicycle Charger Kit, which comprises a charger, dynamo and phone holder. When docked to the latter with a 2mm charger jack, the electrical generator will produce energy to juice up the handset. According to Nokia, the dynamo starts charging when the speed of the bicycle reaches 6kmh and stops when it hits 50kmh. It matches the efficiency of a normal charger when the bike is traveling at 12kmh.

  The bicycle charger kit will be useful to many people in Kenya and other emerging markets, its only a matter of time before it is repurposed to charge other devices like small radios. All in all the phones seem AfriGadgetty, what with their dual sims; perfect for markets where people have more than one carrier – thinking of Nigeria here, where its not uncommon to see someone with multiple phones because of varying network coverage/dependability + LED flashlights, it is clear that Nokia is making products that have utility for millions of people around Africa. Personally I can’t wait to try out the phones and mobile kits as soon as I can get my hands on them. Come to think of it, this is hardware localization, something that could go hand in hand with the software localization we are clamoring for in the African market.

  For modded bicycle posts from the AfriGadget archive, click here.

  Many thanks to my friend Cyrus for the heads up, I think he has just inspired me to blog again.

• The last few weeks in picture slideshows

  Posted: February 19, 2010, 3:56 am by AfroMusing

  I’ve kinda been traipsing about, by the time I upload pics, blog/tweet, its time to catch another flight.
  Below are several slideshows from here, there and TED 2010…

  ORD Camp Chicago Jan 28th 2010

  Berlin – Transmediale Festival
  Feb 2nd – 7th

  TED Feb 10th 2010

  TED Feb 11th 2010

  TED Feb 12th

  TED Feb 13th – Last day with the Fellows…

  PS: I took too many pics, and therein lies the problem, can’t really sort through all of them. Whenever possible, I took a pic of the speaker’s name then the images from the talk.

  Excellent coverage of TED 2010 is available on the TED blog and on Maria Popova’s Brainpickings.

  PS: For my flickr friends, its probably easier to browse my photos by sets or collections…

• Transmediale: The future of Tech in Africa

  Posted: February 9, 2010, 11:17 pm by AfroMusing

  Written for the Transmediale festival in Berlin – Feb 2nd -7th 2010

  The transmediale festival is examinining futurity now what the ‘future’ as a conditional and creative enterprise can be. At its heart lays the intricate need to counter political and economic turmoil with visionary futures. With FUTURITY NOW! transmediale.10 explores what roles internet evolution, global network practice, open source methodologies, sustainable design and mobile technology play in forming new cultural, ideological and political templates.

  What follows is my perspective on where the future is headed, particularly as it regards thinking of futurism, technology and Africa.

  Before I get to the five ideas that shape my perspective on futurity in Africa, I found myself asking, where are the African futurists? In the discourse of futurist manifestos, there is a dearth of the African perspective. Perhaps its a hold over from the old and tired meme of colonization, post-colonial construct that characterized the 20th century.
  or
  

  Or perhaps its because African futurists are few and far between. This remains an open question for many Afrophiles I encounter.

  Let me begin with a big disclaimer. When I speak of Africa, its a major generalization, though in the technical space many of the trends we see appear to be similar in several countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. Kindly allow me to generalize by using the term Africa to refer to the grouping of countries comprising, Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Zambia, Nigeria and Ghana. Many examples that i will refer to will be from East Africa, particularly Kenya.

  There are five points i’d like to make.

  1. There is a new meme emerging. As we begin 2010 in earnest, Africa is growing, and some might even say it is experiencing a renaissance of sorts. The future of the web is already here, and it is in Africa.

  The growth of mobile phone tech has been explosive. 550% in the last 5 years. The word leapfrogging doesn’t even begin to describe the transformative effect mobiles have had in Africa. Its been revolutionary. It has led to innovations that have applications around the world. Case in point, MPESA (#MPESAishowdoit) a service that started with 52,000 subscribers in April of 2007, it currently has 8.5 million users and processes nearly 10 percent of Kenya’s GDP in transactions that average less than $20. Since its launch, the cumulative amount of money transferred from person to person is 300 Billion kes. When it comes mobile money, the third world is first That this innovation took hold in Kenya first before its adoption in other parts of the world like Afghanistan is something that no futurists could have foreseen.

  Many new users of the internet will experience the web through their mobile phones. The development of user interfaces and key research is happening in Africa, with Nokia and IBM setting up research centres on the continent, and home grown innovation hubs such as ihub present exciting possibilities.
  My colleague and friend Erik Hersman wrote that if it works in Africa, it works everywhere, from current events in the African tech space, we could go further and posit that If its awesome in Africa, its awesome everywhere.

  2. The promise of technology for social change. With the influence of writers like Dambisa Moyo challenging previously held beliefs about aid, and pushing the idea of microfinance aided by technology in the form of projects like Kiva, we see the potential of technology being used for real social change. Making Africans less poor by investing in their enterpreneurial drive as opposed to financing dictator’s lavish lifestyles. There are myriad organizations incorporating mobile tech in provision of services. Its not just mobile, just as Twitter aims to be the pulse of the planet when it reaches a billion years; We are seeing use of crowdsourcing software Ushahidi as an interesting indicator of what can happen when information is crowdsourced and visualized. Tighter coupling of the SMS realm, mobile and the cloud are exciting prospects in Africa.

  3. Note: The knowledge economy is not an enclave of the west. The myths about the developing world being left behind have already been debunked by noted statisticians like Hans Rosling. It is a fact that technology is transforming Africa, and it has an important role to play in increasing GDP. As the tech space grows and matures, there will be more localized applications to help increase efficiency and overcome bottlenecks. There is alot of room for growth here, we will see the continued growth of Mixit (SA stats and Africa growth for this innovative application -stats) Pesa Pal, OboPay, Black Star Lines and other companies betting on the mobile and tech growth opportunities in Africa. Students in Africa will have to rise up to the occasion to provide these localized applications. We are clearly not there yet, but i would wager that the brilliant minds in African universities will step into the Global economy and fill an important gap.

  4. I grew up in a country where authoritarianism/post cold war stupor? was the other of the day (80’s and early 90’s). There was a sense of oppression, even artistically there wasn’t as much self expression as we’ve seen in the late 90’s and early 2000’s (noughties). There was the age of conversation – with forums and IRC. This gave way to the age of participation, with blogs twitter and social networking, characterised with co-creation and well, the mashup culture (and LOLcats) For African’s online this trajectory has closely mirrored the global phenomenon of social networks, though it was only accessible to the well heeled or diaspora Africans. The problem was basically a lack of large pipes connecting Africa to the world. This is changing. With the arrival of Seacom cable in September 2009, streaming a you tube video is no longer an exercise in futility. What this means is we are likely to see the age of participation and co-creation as more new users get online. Twitter-like services are gaining popularity with the growth of Naija Pulse (uses Laconica) and aggregation services like Afrigator just to name a few. Take for instance KBC – Kenya Broadcasting service – When I was growing up it was the only tv station. Now they have a twitter account for their breakfast show and for some strange reason asked me a trivia question without giving me a prize.Its a new time. You’ve got foursquare, we’ve got smoke signals – Just kidding, there is growing use of google latitude. Hipster Kenyans with smart-phones were turning on their google latitude to find out where their friends are and where the party is during the holidays. One guy and his dad use google latitude to pinpoint their locations and triangulate the nearest bar to meet up for after work drinks. With the introduction of low cost GPS enabled phones in the African market, we are going to see some interesting uses of this technology and innovations that we cant completely foresee.

  So what else is in store. I am going to harken to Clive Thompson’s observation about twitter, that it gives the user some sort of prio-perception/ social sixth sense. I do have to mention too that Clive Thompson also wrote about the point in social networks where the conversation stops because the social network gets too big.

  5. The internet has enabled the diaspora to keep in contact with their countries, and with this comes the cultural exchange that’s been part of globalization in general. Project Diaspora is a great example of this. Teddy Ruge and his team are using the internet to support a community whose only source of income is from back breaking work at a stone quarry. The diaspora is part of the solution to poverty in Africa, and the internet is the medium.

  There are transnational activists (some of them are my friends) participants in what Ethan Zuckerman calls the polyglot internet,
  and whom David Sasaki calls ‘Believers without Borders’. They are participants in the mashup culture and could even be called cultural mashups if there was such a term. They may have been born in Africa, but; are global citizens by identity.

  This cultural mashup sees an exciting time revealing itself through the retelling of old stories with technology, breathing a fresh perspective into African identity and self expression online. We already see this with the emergence of African Digital Arts, Animations made in Kenya (Just A Band) Senegal (Tree Lion), and the incredible creativity seen as part of the brand tourism around World Cup 2010 in South Africa.

  The old memes are almost dead or as Fergie of black eyed peas would say, its so 2000 late. The new meme of Africa is unfolding in front of us. Technologically and culturally the future of Africa is absolutely refreshing.

  Below are the slides

  Transmediale: The future of Technology in Africa View more presentations from JulianaR.

  - Many thanks to Jepchumba for helping me out, and the Transmediale organizers for inviting me.

• Africa Gathering: Mobile Cloud Computing – A concept

  Posted: December 22, 2009, 1:16 pm by AfroMusing

  Simeon Oriko is a student at University of Eastern Africa – Baraton, and today he is talking about the Mobile Cloud Computing paradigm. He starts by saying that web experience cannot be superimposed on mobile phones. It can be terribly frustrating to find information using mobiles. For rural areas where he often does IT outreach to students at schools… if the information they need to fulfill their dreams is available online, and the students do not have computer access; they should still be able to find that information through mobiles. There is a long way to go.
  He goes through the 4 problems of mobile web.
  - Storage in mobiles is paltry
  - Flaky connections particularly in rural areas
  - Small display screens (I should also add differing display screens. @cellstories had to deal with this when the Droid came out)
  - Flaky browsers. So many to choose from, optimized for different devices.

  Solutions
  - Put the processing in the cloud. Think Amazon EC2. Put the storage there too so the mobile acts as a dumb terminal of sorts. Storage space on mobiles is still quite expensive, but storage online can be very cheap, and processing information online is much easier that on mobile phones.
  - Create a common platform that all mobile phones can share. Its tedious to make apps for the myriad OSs like Android, Iphone, Symbian, J2ME
  - Integrating solutions like PesaPal

  Think of the potential of processing information on the cloud and delivering it through mobiles. With the increase in mobile subscribers forecast to reach billions in future. Think of the young people who have dreams of being a pilot, a doctor…whatever. Can we meet the challenge of providing this information through mobiles? Can we develop applications that meet our local needs of educations on basic phones?

  Attached is his presentation… I was greatly inspired by his talk… off to lunch to chat about this some more.Mobile Cloud Computing.pptx

• Solantern: There is no longer a reason to use kerosene for lighting

  Posted: December 21, 2009, 5:25 pm by AfroMusing

  Today at The British Council in Upper Hill Nairobi, I reconnected with a TED Global 2007 friend Joseph Nganga. He has a company called Renewable Energy Ventures (KE) and is currently a reseller for an innovative lighting solution called ‘The Solantern’. He was kind enough to give me a brief demo over lunch and I got to play a bit with a new solar device. It’s wonderful to see this device, because 2 years ago in Arusha we had a conversation about solar energy, gadgets, etc… I commend him for getting his business going, do look out for more collaborations from his company on a consumer guide for solar gadgets.

  The ‘Sun King’ consists of a polycrystalline solar module, cable, a stand and a ring of LED lights. It can work as a small torch, a task light, and a hanging light.

  Below is the video with a brief overview.

  Solantern from afromusing on Vimeo.

  It retails for 25 usd/ 2000 kes and you can call +254 721 211 406 to order.
  Email: info [at] africarenewables [dot]com
  Twitter: @thereva

  Physical Address:
  150 James Gichuru Road Opposite Lavington

  PS: I would dissuade anyone from getting the Safaricom ZTE Simu Ya Solar. Its shoddy and a waste of money at 3000kes. I bought one in August of this year and its Kaputt now. A much better gift is this solar lantern which is priced quite well at 2000kes. I will be testing it further this christmas, but from initial looks of it, the module is sturdy and the design is quite functional.

• CPH Day 2: Climate Drama

  Posted: December 16, 2009, 6:31 pm by AfroMusing

  From the briefings at the Tcktcktck Fresh air center, this ‘Hopenhagen’ is turning into a ‘Nopenhagen’. There were some NGOs whose access to the Bella Center (The center for climate change talks where world leaders etc are in) was revoked, and they planned a protest. BBC has some disturbing video of the Danish cops battling with protesters. It is a scary situation, and that is why I am not trying to go out there to find out what’s up. For now I will be holed up with the Global voices crew here and follow the events in safety. I know the smell of pepper spray (2007 Kenya elections melee…I am not getting reacquainted with it again)

  There doesn’t seem to be a workable deal that would take into account the developing countries’ vulnerability to climate change (think Maldives and Madagascar) with money allocated for helping them deal with climate change. Without this it is unlikely that the poor countries will agree to any deal. It is a standoff, a mexican standoff with no one as a clear winner, but the climate ofcourse as a clear loser.

  Just hearing that people pepper sprayed on the bridge near the Bella center. There is just too much drama here. That aside… as the plane circled in to approach the runway at Copenhagen airport, I saw a glimpse of the offshore wind power turbines. It is a magnificent sight.

  cc licensed photo by Pastalane.

  That Denmark generates 25-30% of their energy from renewable energy is commendable and is often an example to many countries, and probably the reason why COP15 is being held here. I spoke with a local Danish citizen and he expressed his dissatisfaction with the progress towards targets for increasing the %. I am not sure what % of energy generated in Kenya is from renewable energy, but I can tell you this… I am quite envious of the Danish 30%. With all the craziness happening now in CPH, It helps to refocus on the specific ways that we each can contribute positively to the environment. It is unlikely that some substantive agreement will be reached this week at COP15 talks, so its probably more useful to focus on what you and I can do and the technology that can help.

  I am going to start with taking a ride in a hybrid bike by MIT, then continue planting trees during the christmas holidays in Kenya.

  For COP15 updates, I am checking the Dot Earth blog, Tck Tck Tck and ofcourse Global Voices Online.

  PS: I saw a christmas tree with lights connected to a bike, so when a child pedals, the christmas trees light up! A festive example of using human power! Sorry, no pic, its snowing a lot here.

• Random: Enroute to Copenhagen

  Posted: December 15, 2009, 10:42 pm by AfroMusing

  This week began rather uncharacteristically… On Saturday, I dashed to Eldoret to attend a friends’ wedding. I learned that the airport code for Eldoret is EDL and not ELD. ELD was already taken by Eldorado in the US. I still think ELD is a fitting airport code for Eldoret, who do you renegotiate with? On sunday, I missed the flight back to Nairobi by 5 minutes, because there was a marathon starting around the same time. Making lemonade out of lemons… here are a few pictures of Kenya’s future gold medalists.The start of the race was rather rough, an athlete fell and bruised his knee from all the shoving to get to 1 million Ksh prize at the end of the marathon. My uncle stopped to give him a ride, and luckily I had a portable first aid kit, so he was bandaged up in no time. In the distance, you could see the Sports Minister’s (Hellen Sambili) helicopter which was rather snazzy. I asked the athlete in the backseat whether there was an ambulance, he said there probably is, but he is not sure where it is stationed. I think a better use of the helicopter would be to act as a air-ambulance of sorts for the athletes, rather than a floating spectacle. We also need better roads such that when there is a race, when one road is closed, we have an option to still get into Eldoret town. Not that stopping to enjoy the race is not a good thing… it is. But it should be optional. A girl can dream.

  Back in Nairobi, finally boarded the flight to Zurich, which was delayed by more than 45 minutes, meaning I would miss my connection. That is why I am typing this at Zurich airport. The roaming wifi is so slow, I had to use the voucher for free wi-fi. Problem is the voucher is only good for an hour. Enough time to just look through emails, download docs and get berated on twitter about my carbon footprint

  So, I will be in Copenhagen later today for some Ushahidi meetings, get caught up on the COP15 talks (which were thrown into disarray last week, and this week, the G77 negotiator walked out of the negotiations with some African countries in tow.) Still hoping that ‘Nopenhagen’ does not become the pun of the week. Denmark has already embraced’Hopenhagen’ (There is a Danish person somewhere grimacing at this chicanery- sorry!). I shall cover what I can on this blog, but do check out the Global Voices aggregator for COP15, which collates posts from GV authors in Copenhagen.

  Remember the quote about a lie going around the world before the truth has its pants on? Solana writes about the fake press release that ended up on WSJ about Canada’s allegedly shifting policy to a more positive one that supports a reduction in greenhouse gases and contribution to a fund for poorer nations facing climate change.

  PS: I covered the plenary meeting on climate change in 2007 for Global Voices, this was a meeting that led to the Bali talks (nothing much happened there because of GW & US’s throwing a wrench in the talks with a last minute proposal that basically scuttled any movement) The talks here in Copenhagen have an air of hope because Barack Obama has indicated a change in attitude. Problem is the change in attitude also needs to happen in the House and Senate back in the US. All in all, I look forward to seeing what comes of this…

  Note to self: Find time to see Bjarke Ingel’s building. Below is his TED talk “3 warp-speed architecture tales”

  Update: Arrived safely in Copenhagen. Tired… will blog/tweet tomorrow. Cheers!

• Shop online using mobile money: PesaPal is Live!

  Posted: October 26, 2009, 11:35 pm by AfroMusing

  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

• Its 2009, mobile costs should be lower. Yes, its a bit of a rant.

  Posted: October 10, 2009, 5:28 am by AfroMusing

  *Yes, its a bit of a rant.
  Let me just admit upfront that my mobile bill this month shocked me. So much so I was looking at every charge with a fine toothed comb, all the while wondering, how the heck did it get this way?! Yes, I made some calls to Kenya and sent text messages, roamed at times… Well, that was not surprising, done all that and more (I am not going to talk about the time a friend and I got lost in Helsinki, had to use the iphone maps to navigate – that bill was epic). Well, here is my beef. It used to cost .15 cents to SMS to Kenya, now it costs .20. This can add up really quickly, and is partly responsible for the increase in my mobile phone bill. Last I checked, the US touted itself as a free-market economics-competition will lead to lower prices for the consumer-so called western nation. Why then did the major wireless carriers all bump their SMS rates when all the gen x’rs Ys, Digital natives caught up with their world peers and increased their use of the SMS service?

  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.

• Nerds Need Art

  Posted: September 17, 2009, 6:27 am by AfroMusing

  Digital art.
  At Ars Electronica in Linz, I was struck by the amazing pieces exhibited, and more so by the Ars Electronica center. It is set very near to a bridge on the Danube river.The Exhibitions archive page uses a schematic of the center to give you an idea of what is curated where.

  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

• Mapping the traffic, not the roads…#ars09

  Posted: September 5, 2009, 4:19 pm by AfroMusing

  Over lunch, kinda distilled Ethan’s talk re:mapping the cloud. On the internet where we do not have to be cognizant of the roads…it is more meaningful to map the traffic.

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

  Free TV : Ustream

• Ars Electronica 09 – The beginning

  Posted: September 5, 2009, 1:09 pm by AfroMusing

  *Apologies for my absence on the blog… lets just say twitter sorta affected the blog, and I pretty much took the month of August off.

  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

• Land Grab Right on The Green Belt?

  Posted: July 29, 2009, 9:43 pm by AfroMusing

  Spring Valley Nairobi – An area that was supposedly protected by the Green Belt Movement is now being built up by a developer. The Green Belt Movement is the organization founded by the venerable Prof. Wangari Maathai, a nobel laureate and actually a heroine of mine. I ask about this because there are more questions than I have answers, when I drove by this area in late 2006 and late 2007 my impression was that the whole valley around the signboard was part of the Green Belt Movement protected area. At the time the whole place just had trees and a few vegetable gardens. Am I mistaken?

  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.

• Kenya Data Networks Opts for Solar Energy

  Posted: July 27, 2009, 3:40 am by AfroMusing

  About KDN: It is one of the first companies to invest in network infrastructure in Kenya, laying fibre before the Seacom cable arrived. It provides internet services to businesses and individuals. Well their Butterfly wifi initiative was flaky at times, but quite bold at the time (early 2008). I wonder how the service is stacking up against competition from the likes of Yu, Safaricom 3G etc?

  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…

• Tree Planting After Rhino Charge - Kenya

  Posted: May 29, 2009, 6:13 pm by AfroMusing

  The Rhino Charge event is an offroading and camping event that raises money for Rhino conservation in Kenya. It is an event that many in Nairobi look forward to every year. A group of Kenyans have taken the initiative to plant trees after the event. It is one thing to complain about deforestation, and quite another to come together and do something about it.
  Below is a picture of the saplings prepared for planting at Narasha Forest. How neat is that!!
  

  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.

• Support Maker Faire Africa

  Posted: April 9, 2009, 3:18 am by AfroMusing

  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
  

• Let Me Upgrade you…

  Posted: April 5, 2009, 12:28 am by AfroMusing

  I finally upgraded this blog to Wordpress Version 2.7.1. Initially I was worried about the theme not working with the new version, but seems like my apprehension was unfounded.

  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

• Recycle: Hand bags from Woven Sacks

  Posted: March 25, 2009, 1:50 am by AfroMusing

  Industrial woven sacks that are typically used to package fertilizer and grain are transformed into chic bags.

  Spotted October 2008 at Moyo Lake Gift shop in Johannesburg, South Africa.

  Unrelated PS: Architecture enthusiasts, particularly those interested in Nairobi, help us out with this mystery on flickr? We used to play a game we called ‘Wapi?’ which means ‘where’ in Swahili. I think we started this game in 2006, we’d post a picture on our blogs and have everyone guess as to the location. Steve had the most difficult ones, JKE and Mental too. Might be time to revive the game? *off to go look for an image to stump y’all with*

• Repurpose: Converted Shipping containers

  Posted: March 25, 2009, 4:20 am by AfroMusing

  Spotted in Nandihills, Kenya January 2009. I saw one just like this in Bungoma, but was not quick enough with the camera to get a good shot. Turns out Zain is using these as pre-fab offices in rural areas. I like the repurposing going on.

  Spotted in Nairobi, January 2008
  At Lagoon, a bar/nyama choma (roast meat) joint.

  Got more in your archives? If so, please comment?

• Broadband In Kenya: Small Businesses, Big Pipes

  Posted: March 17, 2009, 6:30 pm by AfroMusing

  **free flow thoughts on Broadband in general and the advent of SEACOM cable in Kenya**

  CC licensed photo by Leo Reynolds on Flickr

  The 3 SAT3 countries of South Africa, Egypt and Senegal could be said to have fibre optic connections to the rest of the world or what others may call ‘true broadband’, the rest of the countries in Africa have to contend with VSAT connections or have their internet traffic routed through the above named SAT3 countries.

  In the case of Kenya, fibre has been laid by companies such as Kenya Data Networks for communication within the country. The problem has been connecting Kenya to the rest of the world. That is where the bottleneck has been. The government of Kenya has been laying cable in many parts of the country, so is just a matter of time before high speed internet access is made available to urban areas and even smaller towns.

  Do note the VSAT connections can have broadband-like speeds, so what we should look at is the connection costs and amount of bandwidth available.
  For example, an E1 line (equivalent to the American T1) of 2 Mbps to ISPs costs 4000 USD in Ghana, Benin, Nigeria, 7000 USD in Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, 32,000 USD in Cameroon, 25,000 USD in SA.

  In residential access Telkom Orange charges about 5990 Ksh (approx. 75 dollars) for home access line of 256 kpbs downloads and 128 kpbs uploads per month. Many people use the Huawei wireless modems E220, E160 particularly in Nairobi with the 3G connections, utilizing a pay-as-you-go plan. Kenyan readers, how much do you pay for your internet access? what kind of speed do you get? Do you have a preferred service provider?

  By and large, broadband access is very expensive. There are also other projects like TEAMS and EASSY (Quasi-Govt. consortium: Telkom Kenya/Orange is a member, as is Safaricom and Econet) that plan to connect parts of Africa to the rest of the world by Fibre optic Cable. So far SEACOM has arrived first and the prospect of having more competition could result in the cost coming down. Though that may indeed take time. For now, companies herald the arrival of SEACOM’s fibre optic line because it would mean an increase in productivity for businesses that depend on the internet. For example, there is a young businessman in Nairobi with an IT outsourcing company, with his relatively decent connection, he still has to wait for more than 5 minutes to download a 26MB file. In a few months with the SEACOM cable reaching Nairobi, the same download could take less than a minute and he can move on to other tasks. He has employees who often have to upload files via ftp to servers in the US. With the faster speeds it will make their jobs that much easier. He is not even too concerned about the cost right now, the overarching benefit is well…broadband.

  CC licensed photo by Wesley Fryer on flickr

  There are other factors such as open access, latency, and reliability, but talking about that would be tantamount to counting chicks before they hatch no?

  As always, feel free to chime in with your thoughts in the comments or via twitter if you prefer to be pithy.

  PS: To keep up with the African Telecommunications Union conference, Becky Wanjiku is live blogging from Port Louis, Mauritius.

• Africa popping up in Trend Watch

  Posted: March 13, 2009, 1:27 am by AfroMusing

  Now this is positively surprising, though not to many Africa-watchers…
  Africa is hot for business now, and its popping up in Time Mag’s trend watch. Great to see that ideas espoused at TEDGlobal Arusha 2007 are reaching the ‘center’ from the fringes.

  It’s great to see Time magazine present some trends that are not obvious, well-worn, are already over. They take a chance in this list of ‘10 Ideas Changing The World Right Now.‘ The line up includes not your usual suspects. With any list like this, there is no telling which are likely, but they are at least plausible. Two extra points for a positive African scenario. The ten trends are featured in the pic below; details at the link.

  ”

  (Via KK Lifestream.)

  In the back of my mind I couldn’t help but wonder…what of the global economic crisis? Wouldn’t that put a dent in this positive outlook? Oz has a great run down of how the global crisis affects Africa.

  Blurb:

  1. A slump in external demand affects exports and remittances.
  2. A slump in external demand lowers commodity prices. Oil producing nations such as Nigeria are particularly vulnerable.
  3. Lack of credit is stifling capital inflows and trade finance in the more advanced markets – such as Nigeria, Botswana, Ghana, Kenya, Mozambique, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia.
  4 The region is not immune to financial problems of its own. Credit has ballooned in many countries. Banks’ loan books are often concentrated in commodity-related industries.
  5. Some retail investors borrowed heavily to punt on local stock markets.

  You can also follow OZ on twitter.

• \o/ Data Gathering With Mobile Phones

  Posted: March 3, 2009, 5:45 am by AfroMusing

  For those in the African technology space, the challenges of gathering data from the field in areas that are not quite ‘on-the-grid’ are apparent. Let me just keep it short by saying ‘Houston, we have a power problem’. Charging laptops when you are off-grid is not easy, but if you have a Nokia E71 that can stay for 3 days without needing a re-charge…well, you get the idea.

  Last October I excitedly proclaimed just how much I loved Nokia because they had a data gathering app for E71’s, which they were making available for NGO’s to test out. Please forgive me for not blogging about it. but you can find more info on the mobile active wiki, or watch this 2 minute you-tube clip on tracking the Dengue fever in Brazil.

  This brings me to the latest news from FrontlineSMS. FrontlineSMS forms provides a killer functionality of basically using SMS as the data carrying pigeon. This is how it works. The person running the FrontlineSMS hub creates forms with questions for the person in the field to fill in with information. The field agent only needs to have downloaded the forms client from [forms.frontlinesms.com], this will work on any Java enabled phone, which is preety much a whole lotta phones. They can then receive a form from the hub via sms, fill it in and send it back again via SMS. Hmm I like my data-pigeon metaphor! This eliminates the need for a GPRS connection. If the person is entering the data at a place with no mobile signal, the information is still saved in ‘offline’ mode until the phone has a mobile signal. I do have to point out that with \o/ forms you do not require an E71 or high end PDA like with the Nokia data gathering tool. I still heart Nokia, and would highly recommend the E71 if you need a smartphone.

  Read more about it over at Ken’s blog, Erik’s thoughts on the Ushahidi blog and Jon Thompson’s coverage on Aid Worker Daily.

  This functionality adds more fuel to the mobile => Cloud paradigm that I feel will redefine the participation and engagement with communities in rural areas. Once the information gets back to the hub, it can sync with a web app like Ushahidi or any other web enabled implementation that takes input from the Frontline SMS hub. The pretty graphs and visualizations are best presented on the web IMO. Personally, I am looking forward to using FrontlineSMS \o/ forms to plan a kick-ass tree planting party!

  PS: For \o/ users in Kenya, do note that FrontlineSMS works with the Safaricom E220 modem. If it works with the new USB stick version E160? kindly leave a comment.

  When I met Ken during the Plan International workshop in Kenya, he said something that I cant help but pass along.
  “Do not ask for permission, ask for forgiveness” Keep doing whatever it is you love to do, and do not be afraid to try something new. I think Tonee and I co-opted that for our new-years motto. Seriously though, if you have ideas for using \o/ in your work, check out [www.frontlinesms.com]. Ken and his team have built a very useful data gathering tool that could give your project even more reach. Plus, the folks in the forums are super-nice. Really.

• The Bold and The Beautiful

  Posted: March 1, 2009, 4:07 am by AfroMusing

   

• Lift09: Vint Cerf

  Posted: February 27, 2009, 8:20 pm by AfroMusing

  To say that I feel so lucky is an understatement. Let me just get this out of the way “omg omg omg I am listening to Vint Cerf speak!’
  Predictions
  There will be millions of devices plugged into the internet. For example a sensor for his wine cellar, E.gArch Rock – Actuator’s needed to make the sensor turn it back on.
  DNSSEC will have increased importance in the security of the web.

  Vint loves sensors. He goes through a list of sensors he could add to his wine cellar, even the wine bottles.

  IPV6
  It is my fault that we ran out of IP address space – Laughter from the audience.

  cloud computing introduces the internet problem all over again. How can clouds talk to each other?

  well, just watch this for yourself? I am seriously in awe. InterPlaNet sounds fantastically cool. In watching his talk, i am reminded to be curious, keep your mind expanding just like the universe is. I hope to see Interstellar internet at some point. If he’s not losing packets with InterPlanet, my guess is Insterstellar internet would be just as successful.

  Watch:

   

• Lift09: Natalie Jeremijenko

  Posted: February 27, 2009, 1:08 pm by AfroMusing

  Natalie would like imagine a future where environmental matters are not framed as something ‘other’ something far away. When a storm hits and a city is flooded, the act of nature can be framed as something that is part of climate change, yet it could be a failure of infrastructure.

  There was a time when there were 350 industrial chemicals in breast milk, because of industrial pollution.

  Children in America now have increased rates of Asthma, developmental delays, childhood diabetes and cancer. All these diseases can be traced to environmental contaminants yet peadiatricians are not trained to deal with these diseases, they were trained to deal with mumps and the like.

  The environmental health clinic ‘office’ was set up using left over plastic bottles with a polyresin-like ‘floor’. she had it floating on the Hudson river.

  She uses performance art to make a point about environmental issues. Case in point, she came up with a name-a-tadpole project where she assigned names of local EPA(Environmental Protection Agency) reps to the tadpoles. She then made a plastic container to ‘walk’ the tadpole. so when someone asks her “Why are you walking a tadpole?” or “what is your tadpole’s name?’ She can initiate a conversation about the environment, that could even lead to the discussion on why there is a 2 1/2 year drop in the age of puberty in young girls. All these things can be tied to environmental contaminants.

  Mice are great biosamples. Your urine sample may not really give you much info about your contaminants, but if you had a mouse in your house, checking its bio-profile would give you information about lead levels and other environmental counters.
  She set up a mouse trap and set up sections for mice to have a choice for drinking water with zoloft, plain water, vodka or gin. The mice drank the vodka. (please check her site for a better description of this project)

  The greenlight is a solar awning powered suspended domestic lighting fixture that uses vegetation to diffuse light and reduce indoor house pollutants.

  In the past when nuclear threats were a big issue, there were designs for bomb shelters, which were then included in building plans. What would a bomb shelter for the climate crisis look like?

  *If you have the Best of Technology Writing 2007, there is a good piece about her. Fascinating work.

   

• Why Localization Matters

  Posted: February 25, 2009, 6:50 am by AfroMusing

  Define:Localization
  “In computing, internationalization and localization (also spelled internationalisation and localisation) are means of adapting computer software to different languages and regional differences. Internationalization is the process of designing a software application so that it can be adapted to various languages and regions without engineering changes. Localization is the process of adapting software for a specific region or language by adding locale-specific components and translating text.”

  Whenever I think about technology and Africa, the importance of localization really sticks out in my mind. I harken back to the posts by Ethan Zuckerman and Koranteng Ofusu Amaah to revisit this issue. Ever had problems with images you uploaded to flickr?

  As a software designer, Koranteng understands how hard it is to get the details of localization right - full support for different character sets and text that reads right to left instead of left to right. But he’s also interested in the cultural details of software design, which can be so subtle that you’re unlikely to detect them unless you’re directly effected by them:

  Koranteng wrote:

  The first thing I very quickly noticed: somehow all the photos that I uploaded to Yahoo Photos turned out darker than on Flickr (the services both resize uploaded photos). The photo-resizing algorithm used by Yahoo Photos was giving worse results. This was noticeable to me because a large number of photos featured darker-skinned people such as myself. The originals were fine and where there were lighter skin tones everything looked good, but with darker skintones, the resized photos were not so good.

  Ethan noted that Koranteng found similar problems with Flickr’s flash plug-in and slideshow feature, as well as with Adobe Photoshops “Quick Fix” and “Auto Correct” options. Has anything changed since 2005 when Ethan wrote about this? I do not think so, but correct me if i am wrong.

  Localization matters because cultural sensitivity in technology is paramount to designing products that work as well as possible for all communities.
  

  Localization matters because, as this African technologist’s said…
  “if it’s meant to be local, it should be locally developed” - Paa Kwesi Imbeah

  So where are we today in terms of localization of software in Africa?

  The most successful story that illustrates what opportunities there are in solving African (sw localization) problems with African solutions is that of Ted Kidane of Feedelix. Feedelix is currently providing products that allow SMS editing in Hindi, Chinese and Ethiopic. Software made by an African and now providing products to the world.

  Another organization to watch and take note of is Kasahorow in Ghana. These guys are doing some incredibly cool stuff.
  

  Kasahorow has been working on the Africa keyboards to aid in writing African content, in African languages. They are doing this for all the major operating systems. More info can be found here, including a downloadable package that you can try out. If your main language is Akan, Gaa, Gbe, Hausa, Igbo, Kikuyu, Luo, Swahili, Tswana and Youruba be sure to download that package.

  Kasahorow is working on the ANLoc Project; a partnership with other organizations to address the issue of localization by creating locales, building tools, terminologies, standards, etc. More info about ANLoc can be found on African localisation dot net. Gotta love their tag line ‘The African Network for Localization’

  There is a firefox add-on that Kasahorow released: Ladies and gentlemen, the Akan Dictionary for Firefox 3.0. Dare I say, cool stuff indeed.

  Localization matters because it is empowering.
  If ANLOC can succeed in its mission to enable Africans to participate in the digital age by making it easier for people to use technology in the language they are comfortable with, this only bodes well for the preservation of African languages and even fostering innovation. Ideas expressed in many ways, not just in English. (Yes, i do enjoy pointing out the obvious sometimes)

  Like Jeremy Clarke of Global Voices put it simply: English != Global. The GV Lingua project, translates GV content from English to 15 languages, with Swahili and Polish translations having been added recently. Translations work best when the person has cultural context to allow for expressions in slang and language structures that are difficult to build into machine language. This is another example of localization + aggregation of content. Dare i say again, cool stuff indeed.

  Another site to keep an eye on is AppAfrica, If i am not mistaken, there will be a project to translate tutorials from English to Swahili on their code repository.

  On a global level, the ubiquity (firefox) experiment from Mozilla labs seeks to empower users and lusers heh heh to control the web browser with language based instruction. They want to make this available in more than 60 languages. Check it out here, and contribute to it if you can.
  Watch this clip of Aza Raskin showing how ubiquity works.

  
  Ubiquity for Firefox from Aza Raskin on Vimeo.

  All in all, in real estate they always say location, location, location…when it comes to African tech i would categorically say localization, localisation, localization. (thank the Brits and Americans for the spelling differences). I would like to hear your thoughts on localization, if you have other examples, and of course more on the mobile web, which I did not touch on on this post.

  PS: I am currently in Geneva Switzerland for the Lift Conference. The tag to follow on twitter, flickr and blogs is lift09.

   

• Small Scale Wind Energy - A call for papers

  Posted: February 20, 2009, 3:05 am by AfroMusing

  Via Afriwea

  An International Workshop on Small Scale wind energy For Developing Countries will be held
  September 14-16, 2009, Nairobi, Kenya
  The workshop will cover the following main themes:

  • Wind energy technologies, their perspectives and applications in developing countries,

  • Reliability of wind turbines, lifetime and strength of wind turbine components,

  • Low cost and natural materials for wind turbines,

  • Case studies, social and economic aspects of wind energy in developing countries.

  Abstract Submission

  Please submit a two-page abstract (700-800 words, in MS Word format) by e-mail to haqi [at] risoe[dot]dtu[dot]dk no later than March 15, 2008. Authors will be notified of the Committee’s
  decisions shortly thereafter.

  Registration

  All participants are requested to register before March 20, 2009. The registration fee is 200 EURO
  for participants from developed countries, and 1200 Kenyan shillings for the participants from
  developing countries. After March 21, 2009, the registration fee increases to 350 EURO (developed
  countries) and 3000 Kenyan shillings (developing countries), respectively. The payment of the
  registration fee should be made either by credit card (Euro, Master or Visa), or by bank transfer.
  Finally, after June 15, 2009, we take additionally late-registration fee of 70 EURO and 1000
  shillings, for developed and developing countries respectively. The registration includes the access
  to the sessions, coffee/refreshment and lunch/dinner.

  Download the Workshop2009.pdf here.

  PS: please stop laughing at the logo. My explanation, a lion was standing near a wind turbine, it farted a lightbulb or had a brilliant idea.

  Tweet This Post 

• South Africa: State of The Mobile Web

  Posted: February 18, 2009, 3:08 am by AfroMusing

  Via ICT4D on Twitter

  The Opera Mini mobile web browser is gaining popularity even in my household (ahem Nokia E71), and the latest numbers from the State of the mobile web indicate the stats for SA. I did not find any stats on Kenyan usage, i suspect its still not a ‘critical mass’ to warrant inclusion in SMW. Would be curious if anyone has mobile web stats from Kenya, please share, because Tim Berners Lee said so!

  Download SMW PDF here and read a summary with highlights and pretty graphs here.

  From the report:

  In 2008, we saw strong growth in Opera Mini usage all over the world, in both developed and developing countries. Social networks and search engines were competitive, as Opera Mini users determined their preferences.

  emphasis is mine
  I would not be surprised if traffic from the developing world eclipses that of the developed world in the coming years. If over 80% of BBC mobile site’s traffic comes from Africa…we are likely to see more dominance of mobile web usage by my fellow Africans.
  I heard this bbc stat last year and cant for the life of me find the document it was mentioned in. Halp?!

  Snapshot: South Africa (# of unique users)

  • Live is back on the list after a six month absence.

  • In December, neither Gmail no webmail.co.za are on South Africa’s top ten list.

  Top 10 sites in South Africa (# of unique users)

  1) facebook.com

  2) google.com

  3) wikipedia.org

  4) yahoo.com (up from 5)

  5) gamejump.com (down from 4)

  6) my.opera.com

  7) mxit.co.za

  8. youtube.com

  9) waptrick.com (up from 10)

  10) live.com (back on the list)

  Top social networks in 2008 South Africa
  • Facebook was the preferred social networking site for South Africans in 2008.

  Web site Growth rate in 2008 (users)

  facebook.com 187.48%

  peperonity.com 66.44%

  mocospace.com 189.98%

  hi5.com 59.84%

  I am shocked, who are these people using hi5?!!
  It is quite likely that the stats for Kenya would indicate Facebook as the top site, would love to see how Zuqka is fairing on. @kahenya i am sure the TOS for Zuqka would definitely trump FB’s current heavy handedness?

• Women Inventors and Innovators: Meet Bola Olabisi

  Posted: February 17, 2009, 5:34 am by AfroMusing

  Global Voices had a wonderful meme that I marginally partipated in. I say marginally, because i did not exactly teach someone how to blog, though i added my 2 cents to a question posed about twitter, and was so glad to know that my input was helpful, and even more elated that the person I sorta ‘taught’ how to micro blog is an inspiration to many African women including me.

  Pic of Bola at TED Global Arusha

  I was fortunate to meet Bola Olabisi of GWIIN (Global Women Inventors & Innovators network) in Long Beach during TED 2009. She is one extraordinary person. If you were at TEDGlobal 2007 in Arusha, you may remember her talk about women entrepreneurs and innovators. If not, click here for my post and here for Ethan Zuckerman’s blogging awesomeness.
  I wrote of her TED talk:

  Hers was a very inspiring talk because she exemplifies action. She saw something that wasn’t being done and just got on with making change happen.

  To get updated on her organization’s work check out GWIIN. It will have a blog in future. Meanwhile, follow her on twitter. She is [twitter.com] Tweeps, please welcome her.

  So her statement about twitter was ‘I am still trying to figure out twitter’
  This was my brief response, keeping in mind that she has an E71/s60 Nokia phone, and I hope its also helpful to others reading this blog.

  1. Only follow people you are interested in. To message someone, type @ afromusing and short message following. This will be seen by all your followers. to direct message (without all your followers seeing d afromusing…

  2. You can download an app for your e71 twibble so you can see your twitter stream on your cell phone. (this uses your data connection, so be sure you have a data package or a wifi-capable phone)

  3. For a desktop client, use http://www.twhirl.org/ this allows you to share links, which you can shorten or [www.feedalizr.com] which can aggregate all your other social networks (plus it is an app made in Capetown SA)

  4. I have intentionally omitted the section on updating your twitter using SMS because I think that functionality was disabled for countries other than US.

  5. You can tie your twitter acct to your facebook account with the app [apps.facebook.com] such that when you update your twitter it updates your FB status too.

  Happy tweeting…and a belated Happy Valentines! Add more tips in comments.

• TED 2009 Reframe: Tim Berners-Lee

  Posted: February 5, 2009, 2:19 am by AfroMusing

  Tim Berners-Lee is simply one of the fathers of the www(world wide web). He is credited with inventing it, and he currently heads W3C

  His talk at TED today looks at the history of putting data on the web. It is still difficult to explain what the internet is, and just how difficult it was to put together back then. It turned out to be a much bigger thing than he thought.

  Data drives our lives now. Linked data drives it even more. The more things you have to connect together, the more powerful. Need an example? Wikipedia => Dbpedia

  DBpedia is a community effort to extract structured information from Wikipedia and to make this information available on the Web. DBpedia allows you to ask sophisticated queries against Wikipedia, and to link other data sets on the Web to Wikipedia data.

  Tim’s suggestion: Do not hug your data, provide raw data before the pretty website. Funny, I hugged the internet this a.m in his name! (on twitter)

  *my battery is almost out, please hop on over to Ethanz for more TED2009 coverage. Thanks!!
  http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog

  Updated on March 13th 2009 - The 20th anniversary of the www creation. TED.com posted his talk… watch below or on TED.com.

• TED 2009: Wired For War

  Posted: February 4, 2009, 10:55 pm by AfroMusing

  From pwsinger.com
  “Dr. Singer is considered one of the world’s leading experts on changes in 21st century warfare. He has written for the full range of major media and journals, including the Boston Globe, L.A. Times, New York Times, Washington Post, Foreign Affairs, Current History, Survival, International Security, Parameters, Weltpolitik, and the World Policy Journal.”

  Dr.Peter Warren Singer studies and writes about war. He was recently on the Daily Show with Jon Stewart, to talk about his new book ‘Wired for War’ If he cranked TDS’s geekometer to 11, It is quite likely that the geekometer here at TED will break.

  If Moore’s law holds true, robots will become even more powerful than they are today. There is a revolution in the instruments of war. They affect not only the how, but the who of fighting wars. It changes the experience and identity of the warrior. You have to think of other countries working on robotics. What does this mean about the state of education, science and tech in America. As sw has gone open source, so has warfare. The components can be sourced from around the world. Bad guys can also make drones just like Hobbyists (like GeekDad) do.
  2 trends
  -Reinforcement of power of individuals against govt.
  - Al-Qaeda 2.0 and a shift in tactics of terrorist organizations that might use robotics in their attacks. ‘You do not have to convince a robot that they will get 72 virgins for their sacrifice’

  The future of war will also be a youtube war. The war will be recorded, most of the footage gathered by drones. This is typically termed as ‘war porn’. It will affect the public’s experience of war. When war becomes like an espn sportscenter version, it loses its humanity. Drone pilots also have high PTSD levels because of the difficulty in separating the experience of killing people, then having to continue with real life, go home and have a normal evening with the family.

  What is the message we are sending by using machines? But when you ask people in places like Lebanon, the perspective is that use of drones is cowardly, not willing to fight mano a mano.

  There are now wrinkles in the rules of war. What happens when drones misfire? How do you prosecute a robot for war crimes? Is it just a product recall issue? (as pointed out by a scientist PW singer interviewed).
  The challenge: Are we going to face the reality of dealing with 21st century war? or are we going to be in denial because it all sounds too sci-fi. Is it the machines or is it us who are wired for war?

• TED 2009 - Reboot: Juan Enriquez

  Posted: February 4, 2009, 10:26 pm by AfroMusing

  Juan has a research and investment firm called Biotechonomy, which invests in new genomics firms.
  From TED
  “Juan Enriquez thinks and writes about the profound changes that genomics and other life sciences will cause in business, technology, politics and society”

  Juan gives an update on lifesciences advances that have lead to tissue regrowth, molars, ears and even bladders to replace catheter bags.
  He mentions advances in robotics such as Boston Dynamic’s Big Dog robot. (check you tube for a video of Big Dog’s amazing capabilities. It can carry loads, and self corrects if it is destablized e.g by kicking it - hard)

  He touches on evolution and thinks we will advance into Homo Evolutis that takes all the trends in lifesciences, robotics and evolution into something quite…well futuristic.

• Nairobi Skyline

  Posted: January 29, 2009, 10:11 pm by AfroMusing

  
  For the Nairobi architecture buffs…enjoy

• A Roof is a Terrible Thing to Waste

  Posted: January 22, 2009, 2:44 pm by AfroMusing

  (Via www.treehugger.com/business_politics/.)

  A 650 KiloWatt Solar Array Completed in Hawthorne, California: “

  Lithographix, Thinksolar, and Pacific Solar Energy
  There are many green things you can do with a giant commercial building’s roof. From painting it white to reflect the sun’s rays, to building a green roof, to installing a solar array to generate electricity. Lithographix, a printing company, went for this last option and now has the first commercial solar array in Hawthorne, California.
  …

  I can only dream of doing this one day… However, last month during the holidays, my uncles & aunts put together some money for a solar system for Granny C, pics and a more detailed post is forthcoming.

  PS: Happy new year, may 2009 be truly brilliant.

  Song of the Day: Nairobi by Sauti Sol, featuring Stan. Why? one line…’Nairobi, kuna solar sana! kijijini ni ku poa sana’

• Milking The Rhino - Screenings in Africa

  Posted: January 7, 2009, 3:19 pm by AfroMusing

  Happy New year!

  Late last year, I wrote about the film Milking The Rhino, and promised to update once a screening of the film is confirmed in Nairobi.

  I am pleased to invite you to the premiere film screening of Milking The Rhino

  Tuesday January 13th 2009 at 5 p.m

  Goethe Institut - Corner of Loita/Monrovia Street Maendeleo House
  Nairobi.

  Cost: Free

  The film will run for 85 minutes and there will be time for discussion following the screening. Some special guests featured in the film will likely be in attendance, Dr. Helen Gichohi, President of the African Wildlife Society in Nairobi and if possible, a representative of the Lewa Conservancy. Do join us for a discussion on community conservation, environment and film.

  I will have some cool MTR buttons to hand out, and believe me, it would be well worth your evening to attend this screening.

  You can RSVP on the facebook event page if you will be there.

  January 28th 2009 - Accra, Ghana

  EcoLab Conference
  Hosted by The Society for Conservation Biology and Ecological Lab Unit of University of Ghana. MTR will be screening with a reception to follow.

  *Many thanks to KikuyuMoja, Barbara Reich of Goethe Institute, Xan Aranda of Kartemquin films, William Deed of the Mara Conservancy and last but not least Jeannie Magill the executive producer of MTR for making this happen.

  Do come and milk the rhino!

  For info on other screenings in US and the rest of the world, please check the MTR website.

• Lets talk about phones baby! …

  Posted: December 5, 2008, 9:57 am by AfroMusing

  Lets talk about you and me! Got your attention you Salt and Pepa loving peeps?O.k. Its been awhile since I mused on mobiles, but this is as good a time as any to get back to my ‘wag of the finger’ ‘tip of the hat’ thing…Indulge me.

  First, I have been accused of hating on the Iphone a bit too much and being a Nokia fan girl. Those accusing me of this may be on to something. Here is why. I have previously wagged my finger at Apple for tying their beautiful device to a crappy provider like AT&T and ranted about my misgivings with the 1st gen Iphone.You see, i have had first hand experience with this monstrosity of a telco named AT&T. When I became blinded by the 3G speeds and the GPS on the new Iphone, i succumbed to the hype, the hipster call of duty and got the 16GB model of Iphone. First, the process of activating the phone at the Apple store did not go well, plus the ‘genius’ who was assigned to me was saying rather daft things like ‘i am required by Apple and AT & T to ask you whether you will be traveling out of the continental US’ and some other drivel all culminating in her telling me that I would have to get my phone activated by AT&T. After this that and the other, i finally got the phone activated and after even more drama that i shall save you the pain of reading and weeping, i was able to port my old phone number from T-Mobile. Let me just warn anyone reading this. Learn from my ginormous error people, do NOT for a moment think of switching from T-mobile to AT&T not even for the Jesus phone, Buddha phone or ‘There-is-no-deity’ phone. T-mobile is a far better company to deal with than AT&T, so save yourself the headache. I am glad to be back in the T-mobile fold thank you very much. Lets not even talk about unlocking your phone so you can use it when you travel, that would just be rehashing my old rant on this very point. Again, i learned first hand why I have unkind words for AT&T. In order for you to get decent rates when roaming, you have to sign up for a monthly roaming service where you pay an addition $5.99 so you can save a few cents on a pre-existing exorbitant roaming charge. So if you were to receive calls in say…Finland, if you had the roaming service it would cost you $1.19 per minute, if not, it would be $1.99 per minute or something close to that. Same applies if someone leaves you voicemail. You would still get charged at the roaming rate. T-mobile does not charge you a ‘roaming service’ fee. Data roaming is also very expensive. Do not dare get lost and use your Iphone maps for directions. You will flail, cry and quite likely faint when you receive your bill.

  This pairing of a beautiful device with a crap company had me all worried when Apple announced that they would be making inroads into various parts of the world including Kenya. In the case of Kenya, Orange Telcom is the carrier of choice. Rebecca wrote about this in Network world August’08. Please be warned the following quote is plain and simple self promotion…But do I say?

  Telkom Kenya will start selling the iPhone in Kenya next month after launching the Orange mobile phone service.
  Orange entered into a contract with Apple that gave it the right to sell the iPhone in Kenya and the sale will commence once the service rolls out, said Njeri Rionge, chief commercial and marketing officer at Telkom.”My concern with the iPhone is the return to the old telecom hegemony where you are tied to one carrier because of a contract (since the telecom subsidizes the hardware), this system can be very annoying especially with the freedom that Kenyans have enjoyed in terms of their ability to switch carriers easily,” said Juliana Rotich, a Kenyan technologist.

  Did you buy an Iphone in Kenya? What was your experience with Telkom like? Inquiring minds would like to know.
  Ahem. moving along..

  Second, the authoritarianism of the walled garden approach taken by Apple, particularly with DRMed songs on Itunes irks me to no end. I try to buy songs from Amazon MP3 store and would encourage all who believe in freedom, truth and chocolate to do the same. Yes hyperbolical of me, but dude, i wouldn’t want to be in your shoes when you use up your ‘authorizations’ from Apple because you switched between one too many computers/iphones. Lets not even talk about Apple yanking useful apps like Tether that would help you make the most out of that 3G data speed you are paying an arm, leg and pancreas on your Iphone data plan. Yes you can jailbreak it using Pawnage and get apps on cydia, but I digress.

  All this brings me to my new device of choice.The Nokia E71, and my new device of drool and gadget lust, the N97

  *cc licensed pic by JKE on flickr

  Just so you know I am seriously getting rid of my Iphone. Yes, i will miss the nice lines and one touch ease of interfacing with the web, the sleek simplicity of apps like Twinkle, Brightkite and even FB for Iphone. I will be content with Twibble and locr. I never got comfortable typing on the Iphone, sometimes I still pine for my old Q with the wide QWERTY keyboard, so E71 with its slimmer frame is a good compromise. The E71 is a phone that truly gives you wings…(sorry Redbull) You can travel with it, stick a local sim card and get talking, emailing, fringing, tagging photos with locr, mapping your way with the super fast GPS all the while having the freedom of having whatever blinking ringtone you want on it. I know you do not care, but I am indulging today aren’t I? My current ringtone is the song Gongo Aso by 9ice. I have the freedom to change it Moloko’s ‘Fun for me’ or Morcheeba’s Enjoy The Ride (Silver Saver Mix). Try doing that on the Iphone…you would have to pay Apple to create a simple ringtone?!! When Wired’s gadget lab proclaimed this phone ‘Best of Test’ I wholeheartedly agreed then and still do. On the podcast I think the guy said ‘This phone is not for everyone. It is for people who want a higher level engagement with their phone’ I haven’t even touched on the barcode reader! You know what, just head on over to Juergen’s for a complete rundown of E71 awesomeness if you haven’t already.

  The Nokia N97

  CC licensed pic by Inky on flickr

  From the looks of it, this could be THE phone that combines the best of ALL worlds, at least while the Morph concept phone remains just that. A concept.The N97 has a full QWERTY keyboard, touch screen, Micro SD slot and generous memory - 32GB onboard memory, you can add 16GB on the Micro SD card slot. For more spec-goodies see the Data_Sheet_Nokia N97.pdf. I care about the 32GB memory because if you truly want an Ipod replacement such that you would have one device to rule them all, and have access to your substantial collection of music, space matters. If for some odd reason you’d want to listen to Longomba’s ‘Vuta Pumzi’ while you recall the good times circa 2005-’06, or early 2000s Kenyan rap that sounds rather bad right now, yet at the time you were bobbing your head going…’oh this is nice’ well you’d have the freedom to. Wings from Nokia i tell ya. Wiiings! Caveat: The N97 does not have a flashlight. Readers of this blog know that i have this thing for Nokia phones with flashlights, and believe that it is The.Best.Feature.Ever! so on this one point, i am going to ding the N97 just a peg. If someone can hack the Dual LED camera flash to act like a flashlight when i type a combination of keys…well it is quite possible that I would sign over an IOU stating my infinite adoration to the person who hacks this. Yes oh yes, BET ON NOKIA.

  I am looking forward to being in a country where i can switch mobile companies vuka/unvuka as I darn well please. Kenya, see you in a bit.

• Sandbag Homes

  Posted: December 4, 2008, 2:18 am by AfroMusing

  
  
  
  Sandbag homes
  
  Originally uploaded by PRI’s The World
  

  Seems like a really good idea in low cost housing…Its the brainchild of a South African architect and a builder. The World.org has a story on this.
  Audio
  Link to more pics.
  I didn’t catch the name of the architect, please comment if you know more. Thanks!
  
  

• Why I Blog About Africa

  Posted: December 3, 2008, 6:02 am by AfroMusing

  On Globalvoices, Elia translated a meme that is going on in the African francophone blogosphere, a meme that i hope can spread in the English speaking blogs of Afrophiles and Kenyan bloggers.

  So here is the question that Théophile Kouamouo came up with.

  Why do you blog about Africa? Do we blog for the diaspora and for the world at large, cut off from our contemporary on the continent? Is blogging about Africa done in the same way as blogging about Europe or Asia? Does the African-oriented blogosphere have something specific to offer to the world version 2.0?

  I blog about Africa because it is fascinating, fantastically diverse culturally, beautiful and cool. Like other Kenyans who grew up watching URTNA on the one TV channel (gosh I am old!), I am fascinated by the different types of music from Cameroon (Zangalewa!! eh eh eh - Kibe Zangalewa!), the chilled romantic grooves of Madagascar, Tabu Ley of the country then known as Zaire, Jolie Detta of Congo -even though I thought that was only music for my parents, to my current obsession with Kizomba music from Angola. I really could say more, but i will be brief Being an Afrophile is musically, intellectually and artistically very interesting. There is so much to learn! Not only from the past, but also from the present, how we are innovating and reshaping our continent positively. I touched on this awhile back in the post ‘Memes, Markets, Africa’. Without further ado, I tag:

  Forota

  Sci-Culturist

  Mweshi

  Rafiq

  So why do you blog about Africa?

• Lake Victoria Potential Source of Regional Conflict

  Posted: November 24, 2008, 11:16 pm by AfroMusing

  Lake Victoria Potential Source of Regional Conflict: “The so-called ‘scramble for fish’ in Lake Victoria is turning out to be a source of conflict between nations bordering the lake and could potentially threaten regional stability. In the past month alone there have been several incidents around the lake that have heightened tensions between Uganda, Tanzania and Kenya. It is now apparent that”

  (Via kenvironews.wordpress.com/.)

• Contribute to a book on Wind Energy…

  Posted: November 21, 2008, 6:32 am by AfroMusing

  *Image by Warren Rohner
  From AfriWea

  There is an opportunity for African authors in the RE field to contribute to the World Wind Energy Association yearbook:2009/2010

  WWEA is accepting contributions from the African continent, with a goal of creating comprehensive country reports and project examples of wind energy.

  The yearbook will include special reports in the following areas:
  1. Policies
  2. Community Power Approaches and Social Acceptance
  3. Industrial Trends
  4. Financing
  5. Grid Connected Systems and Wind Farms Onshore and Offshore
  6. Integrating Renewable Energies
  7. Small Scale Wind and Hybrid Systems
  8. Wind Assessment and Prediction
  9. Education and Training
  10. Research and Development of Technology.

  Dates, Deadlines and Information
  - Final abstract deadline: 11 December 2008
  - Final paper deadline: 15 January 2009
  - Abstract and paper format: Word-Format (unformatted)
  - Final paper maximum size: Five pages A 4

  Please send your abstract, further requests and the paper to:
  WWEA Head Office, Frank Rehmet, Chief Editor
  Tel. +49-228-369 40 80 Fax: +49-228-369 40 84
  E-Mail: fr [at] wwindea [dot] org

• Milking The Rhino: Conservation, Community and Empowerment

  Posted: October 30, 2008, 3:27 am by AfroMusing

  Last month, I was very fortunate to attend the premiere of the film ‘Milking The Rhino’ at the Gene Siskel Film center in Chicago.

  This film left an big impression on me. Long time readers of this blog know that I do have granola-head, green thumb, renewable-energy obsession, tree-huggery tendencies, so no surprise there eh.
  Without giving too much away…the film opened my eyes to the link between Kenya’s history and our attitudes towards conservation. Before the British came, Kenyan communities had traditions around hunting wild animals (These traditions and folklore still persist - I visited Samburu in 2006 and learned a wee bit about this). I would posit that it was sustainable, because there was some balance between the hunting that was done and the populations of wildlife. When laws were enacted to forbid Kenyans from hunting…something they had been doing for millennia, that relationship with the natural world was broken. Why would one want to protect something that they are not benefitting from? Wildlife started to be seen as a nuisance. Granted that there is demand for ‘exotic’ skins, tusks, and bone from wild animals particularly in Asia; one of the factors behind poaching in the parks, there are instances of communities killing wildlife because their crops were destroyed by animals such as Elephants. Still, our attitudes towards conservation and environment bear some reflection.

  The film profiles two communities, one in Kenya, at the Il Ngwesi lodge and the Lewa Conservancy, and another in Namibia. The narration is brilliantly voiced by a Kenyan Munyikombo Bukusi, a very talented guy. This film had me making plans to visit Il Ngwesi Group Ranch, if you need a place to get away and relax your cares away…Il Ngwesi lodge looks like just the place to go.

  The blurb from the film’s site gives you a glimpse into the documentary…

  A ferocious kill on the Serengeti… warnings about endangered species…
  These clichés of nature documentaries ignore a key landscape feature: villagers just off-camera, who navigate the dangers and costs of living with wildlife.
  The Maasai of Kenya and Namibia’s Himba – two of Earth’s oldest cattle cultures – are in the midst of upheaval. After a century of “white man conservation,” which displaced them and fueled resentment towards wildlife, they are vying to share the wildlife-tourism pie.
  Community-based conservation, which tries to balance the needs of wildlife and people, has been touted by environmentalists as “win-win.” The reality is more complex. Charting the collision of ancient ways with Western expectations, MILKING THE RHINO tells intimate, hopeful and heartbreaking stories of people facing deep cultural change.

  The film will premiere on PBS Spring 2009, hosted by Terence Howard (the famous actor - Crash, Hustle & Flow etc)
  Till then, the following festivals and screenings are your best chance of watching it. If you cannot wait, you can purchase the DVD for $25.00 from Kartemquin films, just contact Xan. I would highly recommend the DVD.

  Screenings:

  November 2nd 2008 3pm: Chicago Humanities FestivalChicago Cultural Center

  International Premiere
  International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA)
  November 2008

  Washington, D.C. Premiere : D.C. Environmental Film Festival
  March 11 - 22, 2009

  *I will update this post if there will be screenings in Kenya. (I am asking about this and hoping we can arrange one soon)

• Geo-Engineering - A Big Ridiculous Idea?

  Posted: October 27, 2008, 1:27 am by AfroMusing

  In the September 10th 2008 issue of the Economist, there was an article about Geo-engineering, describing the ‘Transactional Analysis’ document from the Royal scientists…
  In the paper, the idea of planting trees was was ‘alluded to but not discussed’.

  A second idea for scrubbing excess carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, alluded to in the Transactions but not much discussed, is to plant more trees. In principle, any old trees would do—although they die and rot, more forest cover would lock up more carbon dioxide. However, genetically modified trees might grow faster. Such trees are being developed to help the lumber, pulp and biofuel industries. But fast-growing forests could also be planted in order to capture carbon dioxide quickly.

  Funny, this is the idea that seems doable yet it is not given much attention. Amongst other benefits, trees would help reclaim water catchment areas that are dwindling as we speak, and while we are at, why not encourage planting indigenous trees to enhance plant diversity?

  It warms my heart when right wingers like Pat Robertson can sit with Al Sharpton on a setee by the beach, and proclaim that they see eye to eye on the climate crisis. The ads just point people to visit wecansolveit.org. A website will not a crisis avert. Granted they are are trying to create a community/movement, but that wont do much in my opinion. The ads would have been more effective if they pointed out one demonstrable action that people can take (I’d suggest urging people to plant trees) AND visit wecansolveit.org. Al, I love you, but please find a more practical way, or change ad agencies.

  Planting trees; though quite obvious seems to make much more sense to me than giant rotating cylinders that create the ‘magnus effect’. It makes more sense that putting sulphur in jet fuel, flying in high altitudes and polluting the atmosphere so the sulphur crystals can reflect the sun’s rays off the earth. Don’t get me wrong, I would really like to believe that I am open-minded the big ideas put forth in the transactional paper. I do agree that the climate crisis is one big ginormous problem that threatens the future stability of the world, heck my grandma told me climate change is real. What is being done NOW to adapt to climate change? What are we doing to reclaim our rapidly deforested areas? Big questions. Yet, we can start with simple, yet obvious actions like planting trees.

  In the quest to make it a cool thing to do (Gardeners and tree huggers are hardly rock stars) perhaps borrowing an idea from Joi Ito, he tags photos on his flickr stream with ‘freesouls’ How about we begin a tag ‘greensouls’ where you take a picture of someone/yourself planting a tree, upload to flickr, tag it and if you can, geo-tag it as ‘greensoul’?

  Oh, if you can find a trader who can help monetize the tree planting to carbon credits, I would very much like to assuage my carbon guilt. I seem to have added it to my catholic guilt so now I have much more guilt than I know what to do with. It does not help that some friends keep chiding me about my carbon footprint.

• Nairobi Hilton Hotel: Before and After

  Posted: October 24, 2008, 3:26 am by AfroMusing

  Hilton Hotel Nairobi Under Construction 1968?
  The first picture was originally uploaded by ART NAHPRO, and submitted to the Nairobi Architecture flickr group. The ‘after’ pic is one I took January 2007.

  Update: Here is another picture from January 18th 2008 - Gives you another view.

• Of Redesign & Afrigator 45 best in Africa

  Posted: October 20, 2008, 6:01 pm by AfroMusing

  You might notice the snazzy new design, and the realignment of things on my blog, I just completed the redirection of the RSS feeds on Feedburner, so please note the new RSS feed link. The old feed link should redirect to the new one, but in case it does not, please just re-subscribe.

  If you ever need to redirect feed links, check out this post for the short instructions.

  The theme of the blog is based on Firebug, it was customized and given the ‘Mweshi treatment’ by the talented designer Mulumba.

  I switched hosting companies from Locomotive Media, which was actually powered by wind, to Dreamhost. I racked my brain quite a bit about this, but the fact that Dreamhost offsets its carbon emissions made my decision easier. Granted I would prefer to use a data center that actually uses renewable energy like I did before, Dreamhost offers a very good deal and gobs of space for further growth.

  It is quite an honor for me that my blog is on the list of Top 45 Female African bloggers, I am so excited! The email Lester sent had a really cool picture that captures my excitement. Yay! to blogging, and here’s to a relaunch of Afromusing. Thanks for the honor AfriGator, and thanks to Mweshi for helping me switch hosts. Cheers!

• Connecting Green Dots in Capetown SA

  Posted: October 19, 2008, 4:22 am by AfroMusing

  Last Saturday I had the privilege of meeting with the green bloggers in South Africa. Rafiq Phillips was the best guide anyone could ask for, a TEDster, blogger and twitterer extraordinaire I am thankful to him for showing me around Cape Town.

  Blogging about the environment is a multi-faceted endeavor, because it is such a broad topic. This was reflected in the concerns brought to the table by bloggers, and when you visit their blogs, you will see that each of them writes about the environment with a different style, and that they have varying concerns. From Green building techniques and green-tech on Carbon Smart, to reviews of eateries and films on Relax with Dax…The South African bloggers have passion for the environment and are part of the ‘green movement’ happening world wide. The question I was asked was, how come the bloggers in South Africa are the most active African writing about the environment? Part of the reason is the digital divide. The internet penetration rate in South Africa is relatively higher compared to other Sub Saharan countries. We have not seen more ‘green bloggers’ emerge in other parts of Africa in as big a way as they have in South Africa (particularly Cape town) I am no social scientist, but I do hope that as internet penetration rates increase in Africa, that we have more people writing about issues relating to the environment.

  We discussed the business of blogging briefly, particularly whether to accept advertising on your site, particularly whether you can do this effectively without compromising your ‘voice’. For example if you do not condone the actions of a multinational company, yet when you have google ads, their ad could appear on your site. How do you manage that effectively? This remained an open question, though Wanda of UrbanSprout suggested having control over which ads can appear on your site with whichever method of ad service you pick.

  Another issue was brought up by Rafaela of greenflavour, about using blogs for environmental activism. The resulting actions such as cease and desist letters from companies that try to sue you for stating an opinion. I did mention Eff.org as a resource, and checking the Berkman Center for Internet and Society on guidance in terms of law and free speech online.

  Rory of Carbonsmart challenged all of us that we need to show transformation, to show that the environmental movement is happening, and that people are thinking about their impact on the environment and doing something about it. To this end, Rory has began a mapping project called ‘Greening Africa’. The map was mentioned on an earlier post on GV enviro.

  Glen of Urbansprout is considering creating a map of the information contained in the exhaustive directory of green businesses. He and Wanda created the directory from scratch and it is currently part of the Urbansprout site. It is a good resource for the many football fans flocking to South Africa in 2010 for the the world cup. Do bookmark Greenstay.co.za, as he gets this project together.

  There were so many other great conversations, but the consensus was that this was the first of many such gatherings for bloggers who share a concern for the environment to meet, exchange ideas and collaborate on various initiatives. I would like to thank each and every one of the bloggers who attended. I hope that this is but the beginning of many more meetups. I left encouraged, and inspired by the environment bloggers of the Mother City.

  Links to their blogs are listed here (in no particular order).

  Rory Carbon Smart

  Dax Relax with Dax

  Glen urbansprout

  Wanda Urbansprout

  Cecile Dream in Green

  Candice Aspirant Locavore

  Raffaella Green Flavour

  Tracy Capetown Oracle and EcoStreet

  Update: One more link…Ian ‘GreenMan’, I have been reading his blog for years and can’t believe I forgot to include a link.

  The wiki is available for future meetups and as always if there is a blogger interested in joining the Global voices team for enviro-bloggers, please let me know.

  Pictures of Capetown are posted on the flickr set ‘I love Capetown’. Thanks again to the enviro-bloggers in South Africa for their time and for their hospitality.

• Remote Mobile Hack for Water Pumps

  Posted: October 13, 2008, 1:22 pm by AfroMusing

  Via Jan Chipchase

  Farmers were tired of waking up at odd hours to irrigate their farms, so one of them created a mobile app that allows remote control of water pumps
  Jan notes that there is a commercial version, called Nano Ganesh.

  The impact of this, particularly when combined with cheap and reliable services like Village Connection should not be underestimated.

  Indeed. This hack reminded me of the brilliant Morris Mbetsa from Kenya who made an anti theft device that is controlled remotely via mobile phone. When the technology platform allows for people to write localized applications, amazing things happen. This is another reason I like the Nokia S60, because it allows for anyone to create hacks such as this. Now that is transformative technology.

  I am currently reading Jonathan Zittrain’s book ‘The future of the Internet and how to stop it’ In the first few chapters he mentions ‘generativity’ and how it is part of the internet. To paraphrase, it is the ability for 3rd parties to create and innovate on top of a platform. In light of the S60 Nokia platform and the open source nature of the Symbian and Android…perhaps the mobile world is set to have platforms that encourage innovation around the world. Just like the story from India and Kenya are interesting, I think there is definitely more to come.

  PS: I am currently at Mobile Active 08 ; a conference bringing together many of the people using mobiles for social change. You can follow the proceedings on http://twitter.com/mobileactive

• Nairobi: Recycling center overwhelmed

  Posted: September 25, 2008, 5:29 pm by AfroMusing

  The Karen Langata District Association (KLDA) runs a bottle bank at the Langata Link complex where residents of Karen and Langata can drop off empty glass bottles for recycling. Lately they have been receiving huge amounts of bottles and the glass company responsible for collecting these is not able to cope. They are looking for groups / organizations interested in collecting the bottles to contact them on tel. 891784 or 020-2304844.

  (Hat Tip B - From Kenya Buzz)

• Nokia Takes on Apple’s Digital Music Dominance

  Posted: September 19, 2008, 8:35 pm by AfroMusing

  Nokia Could Loosen Apple’s Grip On Digital Music:

  For years, Microsoft and others have attempted without much success to shake Appleâ??s tight grip on the digital music scene. From subscription services to the Zune, companies have searched for the winning alternative to the iTunes, iPod bundle. Analysts now believe Finlandâ??s Nokia may have a good shot of chipping away at Apple dominance.

  More than 80 percent of people would pay for Nokia’s Comes with Music service - particularly when it feels like they are getting tunes for free. Nokia says it will launch the handsets Oct. 17 in Britain.

  Strategy Analytics said cost and selection trump brand - even ones so tightly woven as Apple, iPod and iTunes.

  Nokia Comes With Music effectively bundles a year subscription of music downloads (PC and mobile) into the price of a handset, analyst Pitesh Patel told Cult of Mac.

  Patel said Nokia - the largest handset maker - could overwhelm Apple’s iPhone.

  Nokia’s strong distribution and handset marketshare means that it currently sells more music playing devices than Apple, the Strategy Analytics wireless analyst said.

  ….

  It turns out that brand is irrelevant,said Patel.

  “

  (Via Cult of Mac.)

  I often tell my friends to ‘Bet on Nokia’, and it seems like this is another reason to continue to do just that. It will be interesting to see how this plays out, though I would expect Nokia to continue its world dominance, and expansion in emerging markets. If Nokia can grab some of the Digital music market share, even better.
  Why am I rooting for Nokia over Apple? Because Apple, with its DRM and charging 99cents to create a ringtone( and only from songs bought on itunes) smacks of authoritarianism. Let alone the complete handset lockdown of the Iphone, with threats to turn it into an ibrick if you unlock the device then install a sw update. Sigh* With Nokia, you get an unlocked phone that affords you much freedom. You can use whatever song you want as the ringtone (at least that is the case with the E71), you can use your phone as modem, tether it to your laptop. This is particularly important when you are not in broadband rich areas, but are in a wireless-signal-rich locale.
  Speaking of the E71 do check out JKE’s series of E71 reviews. 1 mobile blogging, 2, 3 pics , 4, and stay tuned because the man is not done reviewing this phone.

  I often have to remind myself to buy music from the Amazon mp3 store instead of Itunes, because I believe DRM (Digital Rights Management) that Itunes still saddles on music is just plain wrong-headed. I am not about to be left in a lurch like the Yahoos who bought tunes from the Yahoo store (forgive me…I couldn’t resist!) To be fair, Itunes does provide DRM free music, but good luck finding the ‘itunes plus’ versions of the songs you want.
  So in conclusion…AFM recommends you Bet on Nokia and buy your music on Amazon mp3 download/or other DRM free service. You do reserve the right to ogle at Iphones, but only John Oliver, Anthony Bourdain and Joseph Kabila reserve the right to be awesome.

• Back to School - Chip in for Glady’s school fees

  Posted: September 19, 2008, 3:01 am by AfroMusing

  I struggled with whether to blog this or not, but decided that Kenyan bloggers are a wonderful bunch and would welcome an opportunity to do something good for a fellow Kenyan. So much so that its not a good idea for this to be something that just a few blogger pals do, but that we get others to chip in.

  For those of us who grew up in Kenya, we understand that the KCSE (Kenya Certificate Secondary Examination) is one of the most important tests for all students in the Kenyan school system.The pressure, the frayed nerves, the ‘trans-nighting’. Imagine the test being 1 month away and you are being kicked out of school because the school fees have not been paid and you do not have means of raising the Kshs 43,000 ($615) so you can take the exam. This is the situation that Gladys finds herself in. We have a short time, and I believe we can get her fee paid so she can sit for her exam. Josiah - The Alpha Quadrant got the ball rolling and has provided all the info we need in order to fulfill this through the remittance service Mamamikes, with the money going directly to her school. For Glady’s privacy kindly email jmugambi at gmail dot com or myself afromusing at gmail dot com and we can give you her full name and details to enter in the mamamikes page for fee remittance. Might change the post to include all the info, but for now lets just err on the side of privacy. Lets get Gladys back to school now shall we?

  Kshs 5530 donated already, Kshs 37470 ($535) to go.
  Update 9/25/08: Amount remaining is Ksh 27400 and pledges from the community total Ksh 20,000
  

• Opportunities for Physics students interested in RE (Renewable Energy) - Africa

  Posted: September 18, 2008, 5:01 am by AfroMusing

  Please see the info below, you can send an email to Spelly DOT Ramoshaba AT za DOT fujitsu DOT com

  I am looking for Physics students who are interested in Masters and PhD
  studies in the field of renewable energy technologies, ICT and/or material
  science (building materials). I have lucrative bursaries for the students of
  up to R100 000pa for Masters and R150 000pa for PhD for the period of 2
  years at masters and 3 years at PhD. The bursary will increase annually
  based on certain deliverables from the student. There is also an opportunity
  for them to do contract work for Eskom with us and top up their annual
  bursaries to above R250 000 for PhD and above R150 000 for Masters. I am
  trying to get some people from previously disadvantaged groups but I do not
  know anyone there, so if you know someone who might benefit from this
  lucrative offers, even if its not someone from previously disadvantaged
  groups, give them my contact details below.

  This is a very urgent call because the money is lying somewhere and we need
  to provide proof of students registration to get it to our account.

  I will appreciate your assistance.
  Cheers
  Sampson Mamphweli
  Researcher (Renewable Energy)
  Fort Hare Institute of Technology
  Tel: +2740 602 2311
  Fax: +27866659221
  Mobile: +27822140367

  Usual disclaimer: I am just passing the information along, please do your own due diligence when contacting the person.

  Update: The Acumen fund fellowship program is accepting applications, the deadline for that is October 20th 2008. For more info, click here.

• Monday September 22nd - One Web Day

  Posted: September 18, 2008, 3:27 am by AfroMusing

  If you celebrate Earth Day, spend a lot of time on the internet be it for work or play…It only fits that you’d participate in One Web Day. Makes even more sense if you experience withdrawal symptoms when your internet service goes down, or you find yourself doing ‘broadband over breakfast’ multiple times a week.

  Earth Day was the model when I founded OneWebDay in 2006, says Susan Crawford, a professor of law specializing in Internet issues at the University of Michigan. In 1969, one man asked the people to do what their elected representatives would not: take the future of the environment into their own hands.By 1972, the United States had a federal agency devoted to protecting the environment, the E.P.A., and today a worldwide citizens movement has put the environment front and center politically. According to Crawford, peoples lives now are as dependent on the Internet as they are on the basics like roads, energy supplies and running water. We can no longer take that for granted and we must advocate for the Internet politically, and support its vitality personally.

  The Internet has also become the means by which citizens around the world build movements to hold their elected leaders accountable and support those who represent their interests; it is also increasingly the medium through which citizens interact with their governments. The theme of this year’s OneWebDay is online participation in democracy, coinciding with the U.S. elections.

  The online hub for OneWebDay 2008 is www.onewebday.org. There, anyone can: plan or find out about activities in their community; learn ten things individuals can do to support the web; contribute their own stories; read posts from 100 OneWebDay ambassadors; and learn about Internet advocacy groups.

  I know its late notice, but perhaps the good folks at Skunkworks can organize something in Nairobi so we can be on the map too? More info on how to get things going on this link. There is a list of 10 things you can do for the web, one of the first is to use a standards compliant web browser like Firefox or Opera. Who is still using IE and why? I grit my teeth each time I am forced to use it.
  Grab the button for your blog/site here.

  As African bloggers what do you think we should do on One Web Day(complementary to the 10 suggested ideas)? You know we need better internet Infrastructure like yesterday…

• Film Competition by World Bank - Social Dimensions of Climate Change

  Posted: September 15, 2008, 8:40 pm by AfroMusing

  Crossposted on Global Voices.

  The world bank has a call for submissions of short 2-5 minute documentaries that show the social effects or aspects of climate change. The deadline for the competition is October 24th 2008. They would like submissions from developing countries (particularly from the youth), covering any of the following categories.

  - Conflict: As climate change results in scarcity of resources and economic and, in many cases, political instability, how may it lead to social unrest and armed conflict?

  - Migration: Are there any links between climate change and population migration?

  - Social Policy: How do governments prepare effective social policy to meet climate change challenges?

  - Drylands: What is the social response in drylands related to climate change?

  - Urban Space: How do climate change adaptation measures take into account the needs of the poor in the urban environment?

  - Rural Institutions: How do local level institutions in agrarian societies build capacity to handle risks associated to climate change and deliver solutions?

  - Indigenous Peoples: How are Indigenous Peoples responding and adapting to the impacts of climate change?

  - Gender: Are there different implications of climate change for men and women, boys and girls? How or where can instances of this be seen?

  - Governance: How can social accountability be promoted in climate action?

  - Forests: What are the threats and opportunities for local communities in efforts to reduce emissions from deforestation and degradation?

  - Human Rights: What are the human rights implications of climate change?
  More information about the competition is available here.
  Below is the call for submissions video.
  

• Yes We Can - In other languages

  Posted: August 29, 2008, 7:50 am by AfroMusing

  While watching the Democratic National convention, and twittering with other citizens of the world, we started translating the phrase ‘Yes We Can’ to other languages. Here are the translations we gathered.

  Ndiyo tunaweza’ - swahili

  DNA of Soulfege
  In Ga “Ehh, wo ba nye!”
  in Akwapim Twi “Yiu, ye be Tumi!” en Anglais: YES WE CAN!

  Kaysha
  french:”Oui nous pouvons” lingala:”e, to koki” portuguese:”sim podemos”

  Kui/MJY/MamaJunkyard
  ‘we fit do am’ -Pidgin English for Yes We Can. The ‘t’ is silent.

  There are 2 t-shirt designs that my twitter friends and designers came up with…
  Kaysha designed this

  and the venerable David Kobia designed this one.

  click on the respective images to buy the t-shirts. I recommend wearing both, just because you can

  Please chime in comments with more translations of ‘Yes We Can’ in whatever language you speak.

• Ory’s Video on TED.com

  Posted: August 29, 2008, 2:44 am by AfroMusing

  crossposted on the Ushahidi blog

  Ory Okolloh is not only a blogger, founder of Mzalendo.com, co-founder of Ushahidi and colleague, she is also an inspiration to all of us. Below is the video of her talk at TEDGlobal 2007 - Arusha Tanzania.

  The making of an African Activist

  Ory, we are sambazaing this whether you want to hide or not

• Berkman Luncheon Series - Innovation in Sub Saharan Africa

  Posted: August 28, 2008, 3:51 am by AfroMusing

  Friend of the blog Ethan Zuckerman will be speaking on September 2nd 2008 at the Berkman luncheon series, so is Eric Osiakwan of AfriSpa. The event will be webcast live at 12:30 PM Eastern Time (US) Bookmark the link and tune in if you can.

  The Climate of Innovation Around Information Technology in Sub-Saharan Africa
  Ghanaian internet entrepreneur and researcher Eric Osiakwan and the Berkman Center’s Ethan Zuckerman will discuss the climate for innovation around information technology in Sub-Saharan Africa. Eric and Ethan will talk about projects to improve connectivity to the continent and the business models these projects are pioneering, novel uses for mobile phone networks and the use of citizen media as a political force on the continent.

• Solar Map SF

  Posted: August 25, 2008, 5:32 pm by AfroMusing

  This is the San Fransisco Solar Map.
  

  You can enter your address and it would give you relevant information such as the potential size of a PV system, and its approximate cost. This is definitely an example of how technology can be used to help people make informed decisions about renewable energy.
  More on TreeHugger

  Before you ask…when are we going to have something similar for Kenya/Africa? Soon, very soon. I refuse to use the phrase ‘Watch this space’. So ‘Soon’ it stays.

• 419 - Faith Orphan Home

  Posted: August 21, 2008, 7:05 pm by AfroMusing

  These 419 scam emails are often the source of much hilarity….This one cleverly appeals to your concern for Orphans and apparently emphasizes that you are a child of GOD, and inheritor of the orphanages’ late founder?! Who falls for such ploys?

  I’m the Director of Faith Orphan Home charity and humanitarian foundation. This letter comes to you simply because of the circumstances surrounding the death of our late founder we need your help to save the life of this children and i know as a child of GOD you will handle this process with me in one faith.
  He established this foundation to help less privileged minority people and orphan children in our society which we were doing marvelously before his unfortunate death in 2005, i have been called upon to conduct a standard process and to provide the beneficiary to our late founder since he was a foreigner i will need your help on this process with the Bank here in Ghana.

  This involves private funds deposited in a foreign currency account with The Bank in Ghana, as a miracle from God the bank contacted me a month ago as the director of this foundation and a trustee to recommend a next of kin to the funds since he (Our Late founder) died intestate and nominated no successor in title over the fund deposit made with the bank amounting to (Nine Million United States Dollars) The essence of this communication with you is to request that you provide me with information/comments on any or all of the issues below as regards nominating you to inherit the fund left behind since you are a foreigner hence eligible to stand for claim of the funds.

  I have therefore contacted you to be legally nominated as next of kin (inheritor) to Our Late founder after all inquiries and investigation even with the relevant embassy has yielded results showing that there is no known or living next of kin. You are required therefore to answer this questions to enable me make my recommendation to The Bank in Ghana

  Can you confirm your willingness to accept this inheritance if you are legally and legitimately nominated through my recommendation to the bank and approved to stand as inheritor to this funds, Would you agree to donate 50% of this inheritance to our charity organization for the continued upkeep and securing of a better future for the orphans in our care, if you are officially recommended to the bank in my powers to stand as the Inheritor?

  Please write and let me know your interest towards the issues mentioned. You must appreciate that I am constrained from providing you with more detailed information at this point. Please respond to this mail as soon as possible to afford me the opportunity to provide you with more information on this matter and upon your consent proceed with the recommendation to the Bank as the inheritor of the funds.

  Thanks for your care.

  Pastor Samuel Kojo

• Kenyan Stories - A Documentary by Carol Pineau

  Posted: August 11, 2008, 12:47 am by AfroMusing

  Last year during TEDGlobal Erik, Ndesanjo and I were rather stunned to be invited to a press conference where President of Tanzania Jakaya Kikwete, Dr. Larry Brilliant of Google.org and Bruce McNamer of Technoserve announced the ‘Believe Begin Become’ business plan competition. The competition ran in Kenya, Tanzania and Ghana. From the 5000 submissions entered in Kenya, 100 were selected as winners and a movie about them is currently being made by Carol Pineau. Carol made the highly acclaimed ‘Africa is Open for Business’ documentary, and also spoke about entrepreneurship during TED.
  To view a full list of the 100 winners, please click here. There are businesses that range from Biogas production,rural cyber-cafe’s to high end Art galleries. Just reading through the list inspired optimism in me, and I think there are some really good ideas showcased there. There is also a blog, do check it out here.

• Monday Inspiration: Corneille Ewango

  Posted: August 5, 2008, 3:58 am by AfroMusing

  The botanist Corneille Ewango talks about his work in the Congo to protect the forest giraffe or ‘Okapi’. He touches on the effect of the war, mentioning the mineral coltan which is used in electronics like your cellphone. Do note that coltan has fueled the war in the Congo for many years.

  He also goes over his life story, which personifies courage and endurance in the face of difficult circumstances.
  If you are not able to view the video, you can read a summary by EthanZ.

• Memes, Markets and Africa

  Posted: July 31, 2008, 9:50 pm by AfroMusing

  I’ve been on the road since late last month, and I am afraid this space has been left quite neglected. So if there are any remaining readers…heres to a comeback.

  I had the chance to speak at TTI Vanguard early this month and my topic of discussion was Innovation in Africa[pdf pg 10 and 11]. I gave a brief overview of the tech landscape in Africa, and engaged mostly in conversations around what is happening now. Since then, the article ‘Inside Nairobi, the Next Palo Alto?’ by G. Pascal Zachary in the NY times became the 7th most emailed article in the NYT world business section, spurring some discussion around the theme of Innovation, ‘light tech’ and localization of technology in Kenya.

  As we all know there is this persisting perception of Africa as this sort of backward mess. Ethan Zuckerman has been writing for a few years about ‘rebranding Africa’ and more recently he wrote about David Weinberger’s Ninja Gap. Do read the whole piece, the bit that is relevant to this post is in part…

  Context matters, Galtung argues. If we’ve got a mental image of Africa as a backwards and technically retrograde place, we’re likely to miss stories about innovation in mobile commerce (see the lead story in issue 407…) or success in venture capital. Galtung’s fifth maxim is closely linked to the idea of cognitive dissonance - it’s uncomfortable to attempt to resolve new information that conflicts with existing perceptions, beliefs and behaviors.

  Well, its quite an experience to have an encounter with someone who clearly brings this cognitive dissonance to light…I wont go there though. Suffice to say Africa, we have a long way to go. The overarching meme about Africa is still one of poverty, corruption, despots, famine and stunning sunsets…yeah, you know. Oh perhaps the stunning sunsets meme is one I would totally agree to and actively propagate, but I digress.This is with no small thanks to foreign correspondents who cover African news with the aforementioned brushstrokes.

  So, while we African bloggers and digerati wrestle with not quite so positive images of Africa, debate Aid Vs Trade, couple that with our current reality of immense potential that is muffled by worrisome politics, rising inflation, environmental degradation and many other factors; I am
  trying to think of the bigger picture, a way to wrap my mind around things.

  Years ago, my friends’ mom told me about a ‘bad-good-shot’. When you swing that golf club and you know that you missed the green by considerable measure, yet the ball hits a tree and deflects onto a reasonable section of the course, then you get to make a better than expected shot. There are some projects and tech that arise out of challenges like dearth of broadband, and in reaction to the bad choices our leaders make. In Africa, we get some of those really bad shots, sometimes, something good arises out it and perhaps we can position ourselves for a much better shot at prosperity. I do not know if we can, but we can definitely aspire to it.

  I think TEDGlobal Arusha had started that rebranding process, by bringing to Africa a mix of intellectuals, scientists, technologists…you name it; to experience an alternate African reality of sorts. Last monday, I was reminded by Sean to not underestimate the value in bringing prospective investors to Africa, so they can have a different context, and perhaps get over that ‘cognitive dissonance’. As I look back to TEDGlobal, I remember that I was in awe of my fellow Africans, I was inspired by them, and felt that we had just gotten to the ‘jumping off point’. I am still inspired by their talks as they are released on TED.com. Well, December 30th 2007 came, when the meme of ‘Kenya’s potential’ suffered quite a blow. It will take awhile to rebuild that confidence in my mind, let alone the minds of others. I think other countries in Africa have a positive meme attached to them and boy, am I envious. My Ghanaian friends, please guard the positive meme of Ghana with all you’ve got. As a Kenyan, and also as an African I still believe that we can redefine/ we are redefining what it means to be African.

  When it comes to markets and the potential in disruptive technology, I would strongly suggest you subscribe to Sean Park’s blog, and Bankelele’s too. These guys give you the meat and potatoes when it comes to evaluating not only the economics but the potential in mobile banking and other sectors of African/Kenyan economies. Because aspirations are well, good and awesome (really!), but at the end of the day, fundamentals of investing should always be rock solid.

  So there is the perception problem, but that can be tackled by hard data. Speaking of market data, AfriMonitor launched earlier this month.

  It will be a great resource as the bid to rebrand Africa continues. Various conferences will be happening throughout the year, and will be invaluable in bringing together many of you who see this alternate African technological reality. I am still bummed that I did not make it to Barcamp Nairobi in June, but I am making every effort to make sure I do not miss the next one. Last but not least, I just want to salute Wilfred Mworia, all the geeks and volunteers at Ushahidi, Josiah Mugambi, Dorcas Muthoni of Linux chix Africa, Riyaz, all the Skunkworks geeks, Kasahorow crew, JAB, techies in Kenya, Ghana, South Africa and other African countries. Here is to not just the next Palo Alto, but the next Nairobi, Accra, Abuja, Capetown, Johannesburg, Lusaka etc.

  Thank you Hash for the cool graphics, they are based on one I found on Memehuffer

• Opportunities for Entrepreneurs

  Posted: July 31, 2008, 5:48 am by AfroMusing

  Two opportunities I would like to pass along, the first is SEPS (Sustainable Energy Project Support) call for applications.

  Now in its fifth year, WISIONS, a Wuppertal Institute initiative that is funded and supported by the Swiss-based foundation ProEvolution, has launched its annual call for applications for Sustainable Energy Project Support (SEPS).

  WISIONS invites the submission of proposals from now until 18 August 2008. The total grant fund for financial support of SEPS projects in this, the 5th round (2008), is €500,000 (across all projects). Partial funding of projects is possible.

  We are looking for promising concepts and innovative projects with an integrated approach in the fields of renewable energy and energy efficiency. Our main goal is to identify environmentally sound projects that use modern existing technologies, demonstrate the advantages of sound energy solutions and integrate local people, enabling acceptance and further replication.

  The deadline is August 18th, and you can download an app here.

  Via AFriWea

  SeedCamp for the entrepreneurs in Europe

  From securing funding to developing the right network, young entrepreneurs in Europe face challenges in building globally competitive technology businesses. Through the provision of seed capital and a world class network of mentors, we want to provide a catalyst for Europe’s next generation of entrepreneurs.

  The deadline for this is August 11th.

  Via Park Paradigm

• Just-A-Band Performance Friday August 1st ‘08

  Posted: July 31, 2008, 5:09 am by AfroMusing

  The Band, as I get to call them, will be performing on August 1st at Kwani LitFest. This is one event I did not want to miss but hope that my friends and readers in Kenya get to go and enjoy. If someone decides to stream the event (hint http://www.ustream.tv/) please oh please let us diaspora folks know.
  More info on location and times, please check out the JAB blog. Just this once I will give them a pass for not tagging the location of the event in Google Earth, it seems they are hard at practice.

  For the diaspora folks in Washington DC, if Jay-Z makes you ‘get that dirt off your shoulder’, if you like John Legend, Youssou Ndour, Alek Wek, Tyson Beckford and other gorgeous African stars, check out the Africa Rising concert at the Kennedy center.

  Enjoy…

• A Macbook Sleeve You Should Buy.

  Posted: July 31, 2008, 4:18 am by AfroMusing

  When I attended the GV summit I counted myself quite lucky to meet so many bloggers from around the world, including contributors to Global voices online. The gift of a macbook sleeve from Bolivian project ‘Voces Bolivianas’ was one of the many highlights of the summit. It was such a moving gesture that some of us were fighting back tears of appreciation. You see, the Global voices logo was hand-stitched onto the sleeve, and Eduardo and his team lugged this big huge bag all the way from Bolivia to give each one of us a choice between the 15″ sleeve and the smaller 13″ sleeve.

  The sleeve is lovely, it is made from traditional Aguayo textile, and I have to admit I treasure mine a whole lot.
  You can buy one for yourself, and in the process, help support a very worthwhile project that is reaching out to underrepresented groups in Bolivia, getting them to share their opinions online through the use of blogs and other participatory media.
  The colors are just lovely…get one!

  PS: Only available in the US…

• GV Summit Budapest

  Posted: June 27, 2008, 11:53 am by AfroMusing

  
  I am at the Global Voices summit, regarding citizen media, democracy and technology.

  I will be covering the following sessions using the live blogging tool CoveritLive on this blog and also on the GV summit blog. Please bookmark the event homepage [summit08.globalvoicesonline.org]
  - Twitter feed is [twitter.com]
  - The timezone for the live sessions is GMT+1
  June 27, 2008
  11:30 - 13:00 Session 2: “Citizen Media and Online Free Speech”
  MODERATOR: Mary Joyce.
  SPEAKERS: Ory Okolloh (Kenyan Blogger), Wael Abbas (MisrDigital, Egypt), Mehdi Mohseni (jomhour.org, Iran), Amine (digiactive.org, Morocco), Oiwan Lam (Global Voices, Hong Kong), Au Wai Pang (Singapore)
  Citizen media allow for more active and open participation in political processes, but threats of censorship and oppression discourage citizens from expressing their own opinions. This session will present case studies from Kenya, Iran, Egypt, Morocco, Singapore, and Hong Kong.
  

  15:30 -16:30 Session 4: “Frontline Activists meet the Academy: Tools and Knowledge”
  MODERATOR: Ethan Zuckeman.
  SPEAKERS: Roger Dingledine (Tor), Nart Villeneuve (Citizen Lab), Isaac Mao (Digital Nomads project, China), Robert Guerra (Privaterra, Cuba), Danny O’Brien (Electronic Frontier Foundation)
  The tools to circumvent web filtering and other methods of online censorship exist, but they don’t always reach the people who need them as easily as they could. How can we facilitate better coordination between the developers of these tools and the anti-censorship activists that need them? And how do we facilitate the flow of feedback from the activists back to the developers so the latter can design more appropriate tools?

  June 28th 2008
  11:30 - 13:00 Session 2: “The Wired Electorate in Emerging Democracies”
  MODERATOR: Solana Larsen.
  SPEAKERS: Daudi Were (Kenya), Onnik Krikorian (Armenia), Hamid Tehrani (Iran), Luis Carlos Díaz (Venezuela)
  The rise of blogging, social networking and micro-blogging services like Facebook and Twitter, video- and photo-sharing sites like YouTube and Flickr, and the spread of mobile technology have given ordinary citizens the means, at least potentially, to participate more fully in the democratic process. This session looks at the impact these tools have had on recent elections in Kenya, Venezuela, Armenia and Iran and poses the question: is citizen media having an actual impact on democracies in transition?
  

• I phone Odds & Ends

  Posted: June 9, 2008, 10:07 am by AfroMusing

  Well, last october I let out a little rant about the Iphone, and how it did not make sense to me to buy it at the time. Basically, no 3G, not unlocked, i didn’t complain about the lack of a GPS chip though I should have…and we all know Wimax is a dream that will be realized in Uganda and other developing countries eons (in tech years) before the US. So later today, we find out if I and other demanding folks will get what they’ve been waiting for since bread was first sliced, paradigm was shifted, calories became free and all that good stuff.

  Gosh there are always rumors with these Apple products…this one got me all Hallelujah-ing, and this one brought it down to ‘hmmm, really?’ type of mood. This mockup (via cultofMac)is just flat out hilarious….
  

  Here is a URL i will probably be refreshing quite a bit today…The cult of mac Live blog of WWDC 2008 Keynote. Refresh and try to keep your underarms dry… I am using extra strength underarm deodorant to stave off the sweats. Heh.

  Mea Culpa: 6/22/08 - I was upgrading wordpress…cleaning up spam and inadvertently deleted your comments, sorry about that.

• Just-A-Band Interview Part II - Animation

  Posted: June 1, 2008, 7:38 pm by AfroMusing

  This is the last part of the JAB interview, the first is here. It was fun reading JAB’s responses, and I hope you enjoy this last bit. Before we get to that, here is one more pic of the trio.

  Iwinyo Piny & Animation in general.

  The chicken or the egg question: Which came first? The animation or the music?

  BILL(Blinky): The music. We used to jam in campus. And that’s where everything else spun off from.

  JIM: The music came first, definitely. As always, it was a random happenstance (our music usually is). Then Dan went, “We could do a cartoon…”, and here we are.

  DAN: The music was there first, but I can remember some occasions when the animation influenced the song, especially the lyrics, coz there was supposed to be more words that would have made it clearly a song about a girl, but when we talked about the video concept allowing for a broader interpretation, the lyrics were trashed (after which one station told us they couldn’t play our song coz it didn’t have any lyrics! Haha!).

  What is your animation history?

  DAN: I did this one month crash course in animation right before starting Uni, and when I met Jim and Blinky I talked trash about how we could do these huge animated videos, even though I had never actually done anything… So we started Iwinyo, and I was thoroughly humbled. I guess it came out OK, though. It was a learning experience.

  JIM: If there ever was a time that we had internal fights, it was during the Iwinyo phase. I think we’re over that now.

  DAN: Or at least we’ve figured out some “Constructive Anger Management Techniques.”

  JIM: I have absolutely no idea what he means…

  DAN: *blink*

  (Does rendering take forever?)

  Rendering? That depends on what programs/methods you’re using… As the 2D guy, I lack the patience that the 3D guys develop whilst waiting for the goodies to iva[ripen].

  I personally really like animation because of the freedom it allows you in terms of following your ideas. And I like 2D for its much more human feel, 3D can be kinda plastic. I really hate how long it takes to make, though. I see Jimmy dropping live action videos and photography projects like bunnies…

  I taught animation and cartooning a bit and I work as a freelance animator to pay them bills, and so I’m all up on Kenyan animation, where it could go, what stories we could tell… but that’s a long story.

  JIM: Photography and video are somewhat more immediate, which makes me look hard-working. It’s just that projects get finished real quick.

  What kind of software do you use to create the animation? and is uploading videos onto YouTube (from Kenya) as torturous task as I experienced or do you have a secret high speed bunker where we can mooch off of justabandwidth?

  JIM: Adobe Flash and Adobe AfterEffects.

  DAN: Drawings for the 2D are done on paper, and scanned or redrawn on comp. For the next animated video we’re doing, for the track called FunkyFineBeautiful, we have a new collaborator who kicks butt at 3DS Max. As for the uploading, we mooch off our friends’ high speed connections…

  Your YouTube tag is justabandwidth which is very cool. Could one presume that you are total geeks?

  BILL: We seem to attract an intelligent crowd…I prefer to be on my computer than at a party…

  DAN: Haha! Ms Interviewer, it’s like you know us! Yes, at least two of us are total geeks (the other one is in denial).

  JIM: As in?

  DAN: As in, whilst some of us spend all day turning pale indoors with computers and pencils as our only companions, others manage to maintain some kind of engagement with the outside world. Game recognize game, by the way, so should we assume that [Ms. Interviewer] is also the “bookish type”?

  JIM: So all that nonsense about Bill preferring to be at the computer is a lie. He’s the most outgoing chap. I think it’s strange how it’s never been cool to be a geek (only for a brief moment, when Pharrell and company emerged, then he sold out and became cool)? I mean, everyone else has had their moment in the spotlight; the skaters, the punks, the thugs, the gay boys and girls (heady times, the 80s), the Goths…I feel disenfranchised.

  I am a total geek. I did every geek thing a human being can possibly do; the braces, the spectacles, being bad at sports (except swimming, for some strange reason), being good at computers, going to cinemas to actually watch movies instead of making out at the back, actually using my library card, studying IT in college etc. If there are types of geeks, I guess I’m the finally-at-ease-with-it kind of geek.

  BLINKY: You should see my primary school pictures… then you wouldn’t talk like that… I only go for parties because…

  DAN: Geeks are so cool nowadays. The days of warrior kings and sportsmen politicians are gone! Now it’s like, “Bow Before My Fearsome Intellect!”

  I found the use of pictures in the video quite interesting, what is the name of the street at [1:08] of Iwinyo Piny? (I have taken pics of that street but can’t remember the name for the life of me??! What of the one at [1:33] placemark?

  JIM: That would be Kenyatta Avenue – one of the cuter streets in town. 1:33 is the street that connects City Market to Koinange Street, I have no idea what it’s called; but it’s very textured.

  Have you guys ever been jacked? There is a depiction in your video, of a guy being mugged and his shoes being taken. Was this a form of commentary on the crime problem in Nairobi?

  DAN: Not recently. As a young person living in Nai, I think you just have to get jacked at some point. We added that bit in the video just for laughs (the video has had a lot of very cool interpretations by people and I’m always scared of telling people what we were thinking as we made it coz it’s so underwhelming… When we’re coming up with images most of the time it’s just like, hey, this would look cool! And then sometimes it comes with its own deeper meaning…)!

  JIM: Incidentally, I lost my phone on Friday, and two weeks before I lost my ID and elector’s card. And I also lost my wallet the other day (in a bank!) – I’ve been on a roll. The bank called me the other day to say they’d found my stuff lying around in the banking hall. Thankfully, all those incidents weren’t the mugging kind; they were the pickpocket kind (sigh) – which is slightly more embarrassing because it makes people think you have no sense of self-awareness whatsoever.

  In 2004, it was more of a problem than it is now, which is not to say that it doesn’t happen anymore. People actually wear gold chains and earrings and watches on the street these days, because cases of mugging have decreased. Pickpockets still rule, damn them all to Eternal Hell. As for making commentary, I remember Daniel just thought it’d be funny. Does that count?

  BLINKY: I used to live in Eastleigh, It was hard to keep your new shoes, coz at one point, I was sneaker jacked, and it wasn’t funny.

  I found out about your band through the blog Sukuma Kenya. What are your thoughts on blogging? How do you feel about your own blogs so far?

  DAN: I had never heard of that blog before today, but I looked and I thought it was kind of surprising to see Iwinyo right in the middle of a lot of politics! Haha!

  I think the Net in general has really helped get the word out, Facebook and YouTube and such. Blogging has really helped add a more personal vibe to everything (especially the band blog, I think the other blogs are more like manifestos of some sort but the band’s blog is just goofing around…). I think it really helps to have an online presence as it allows you to present your stuff the way you would want it done, not in a control freak kind of way, just in the sense that, for example, I doubt that we could find a media house that would indulge our fake bio.

  JIM: Except for the very cool people at Kwani Trust who just slapped it onto their site as is. Sukuma Kenya? That’s so cool. I didn’t even know that exists. Say hi to them. Blogging feels a bit self-indulgent sometimes – I use my blog to provide alternative material about the process of making pictures, and the mental stuff that happens before and after. Sometimes people ask me tough questions, and I ask everyone what they think – then I plagiarize the answers I receive and generally look smarter.

  We used to run an underground arts-and-culture type web magazine thing a few years ago, it was called LabelRevolution, and the thing we enjoyed the most was the community feel of the site. So we try to be very inclusive about everything we’re doing, because that’s how we make our music. The only reason we’ve come this far (admittedly, not THAT far but…) is because we make people feel like this is something anyone could do. Whether that’s true is another matter entirely.

  BLINKY: I blog sparingly of late because I tend to expose myself a lot in my writing, I’m trying to find a method of detaching myself when I do. I don’t want to have the whole world know about me.

  I would like to thank JAB for sending me the images from their initial storyboard, as it gives us a glimpse into their lovely animation work. The image on the left is one that shows the progression of sketching the old man’s hair.

  Keep an eye on the Just-A-Band Blog, Kenyanimation Blog, and Jim’s blog for more updates. Jim will post another AfriGadget soon. (I wont reveal what it is, but it will definitely be ingenious). Thanks guys for indulging my ‘random and loopy’ questions!

• Interview with Just-a-Band on Kenyan Animation and Music Part I

  Posted: May 28, 2008, 10:07 am by AfroMusing

  I was listless, down out depressed, with chicken, egg and crossing of roads questions weighing on my mind; when my fingers as if they had a series of self-cordinating nanobots, tipitty tapped their way onto a blog called Sukuma Kenya. There, I found a pebble shaped like a play button on a retro CD player encased in a rectangle of sorts with a cryptic ‘You Tube’ logo on the bottom right. I touched the pebble. Holy haberdashery! I touched it!

  My fellow Africans, that is how i came to make an interweb acquaintance with Just-A-Band. JAB is defining Kenyan animation and Kenyan techno music with aplomb, piercing wit and style…what follows is the result of smoke signals encoded with morse code and for some strange reason, un-encrypted. Enjoy it, or the chicken gets it. Wait, the egg gets it! oh what the hell…something will get it.

  Just A Band is composed of?
  BLINKY: Jim, Dan and Blinky.
  

  JIM: There’s also our various alter egos – so that’s 2,303 of us in total.

  Is the blog Kenya Animation also part of Just-a-Band?
  DAN: Kenyanimation isn’t actually a Just A Band project, but I work as an animator, and I put up my JAB animation projects there. That blog was set up to bring together animators and animation fans who are from/work in Kenya, just to show people that there actually is such a thing as Kenyan animation, and hopefully be a launching point for bigger local projects, which haven’t had a chance so far coz people don’t really know that a scene exists! The other guys on the list (filterene, Bint Ali, Achoko, Majiqmud) are my collaborators on that project.

  You band bio is so creative (it informed my lame intro above…i couldn’t just say ‘here…an interview’ now could I?). It reads like a great fantasy graphic novel; have you guys thought of making one? When can we get our hands on it? In the CD liner notes - any fun stuff to look for?

  BLINKY: Hmm…it just may happen, really haven’t thought about it. The bio was kinda influenced by (at least I thought) by a George Clinton album cover, it had a really long narrative detailing the bands overindulgence on drugs and stuff till it sounded surreal. We get to introduce the gang that contributed to the album’s final sound in the Scratch To Reveal CD liner notes, very fresh cats if you ask me.

  DAN: Actually, the bio came about because we thought that the real story makes for a pretty dull read. I still have the notebook page where we start off, “In 2003, three young men met…”

  JIM: Now that you mention it, the fantasy graphic novel does sound cool. I think of our bio as a parallel story that’ll run alongside the much more drab reality – we plan to update it each time we do something new.

  The liner notes on Scratch To Reveal are slightly nonstandard. The cool thing about being unsigned is that there are no marketing-types breathing over your shoulder, urging you to standardize your output. It was actually Dan’s idea to do the liner notes in a different way – I’m ashamed to say I was one of the people who asked, “Do WHAT?”, but once we tried it out, it actually felt much more relaxed and true to the way the music was made.

  DAN: We’d been talking about expanding on this story from time to time, on certain projects. The liner notes on Scratch To Reveal are just us being overwhelmed by actually making an album, and our collaborators and such. But later this year we’ll probably do another project, maybe an EP (Just A Band meets The Sinister Synthesizer!) that will expand on the Bio story and if it gets printed, as opposed to just going online, you’ll get a bunch of cool liner notes and art and stuff…

  I saw that Daft Punk made a movie! Electroma! (Two if you count the one that went with Discovery – Interstella 5555) and I can sooooo see Just A Band doing some Psychedelic 88-minute Experience (at some point). But first things first, we have an album to push (I think one of the reasons we get so psyched up for JAB stuff is coz it could go so many ways, it’s always exciting to sit and plan out projects…)!

  
  The album cover for your CD has an arresting image…is there a story behind it? Did the idea pop into your mind or was it an organic, incremental idea that morphed from something? What is your creative process?

  JIM: This is definitely a morph – the original blurry concept was to have angry, cathartic energy of some kind on the cover; and cables. Cables are always cool. The images I have in my head always morph into something else by the time they’re finished. The final image ended up being something rather calm and contained – whilst retaining that arresting vibe you’ve mentioned. Of course, Lenny (the model) helped a lot – I chose him because he’s like visual play-dough and he likes to know what we’re aiming for visually. I explained the general idea to him – and played loud drum and bass and clashy electro during the shoot.

  My creative process; I typically see the visual in my head – slightly foggy around the edges, but there nonetheless. Then I work to transform that foggy visual into something real. It feels like I’m cheating, sometimes, because all I’m doing is translating the sketch that’s already in my head. In the process of doing that translation, many things change (somewhat like a multi-branched sequence of little decisions on execution) and the final results usually surprise me just as much as anyone else.

  I have only listened to one song from your newest album, is the music on Scratch To Reveal kind of in the vein of Iwinyo Piny or are there more varied sounds?
  BLINKY: I’d describe the album as adventurous. We all bring different influences to the Just A Band table plus an unwillingness to stay within proscribed boundaries, I’m influenced by acoustic guitar stuff, funk, jazz, hip-hop and dance stuff, everyone else’s influences are evident all through the album.

  DAN: The first single, Fly, is up on YouTube and is pretty different, a bit more aggressive and obviously scifi as opposed to Iwinyo’s flirtation with spacey sounds.

  JIM: Somewhere towards the middle, the album reveals a softer core; comes back to earth, if you will. Some people have found this surprising because the overall look of the album says – electronic – so having pianos and strings in the middle could be a bit bewildering for some.

  I see Daft Punk is an influence on your music; what are your thoughts on the Gorillaz? Would you work with Damon Albarn if he asked? What other types of music/musicians do you gravitate towards? Graphically speaking… which animators do you like? Cartoons? Which ones??

  BLINKY: I know for a fact that [Albarn] did some stuff with Fela Kuti’s band mates on a trip to Nigeria, so we wouldn’t be the first African peeps he’s working with, but I’d be absolutely down for it! I’m currently jazzed by Citizen Cope, Raphael Saadiq, Lupe Fiasco, John Mayer, Jamiroquai, St. Germaine, Van Hunt, Foreign Exchange, Bob Sinclair and Asa. I’m abit out of my waters with the animation vibes, though I like Aaron McGruder of The Boondocks fame.

  DAN: DEFINITELY we’d collabo with Albarn (right after we regain consciousness)… Every project he does is SO DIFFERENT, from the Mali Music albums to Blur to Gorillaz…very much the kind of thing that we hope to do, as well.

  I have a HUGE crush (creatively, hehe) on Björk. She pushes boundaries both musically and visually, stretches your imagination… We are all influenced by Parliament Funkadelic and their many spinoffs –

  JIM: Are we? I just think that George Clinton guy had cool outfits. So, maybe visually.

  BLINKY: George Clinton is cool!

  DAN: I think they’re our spiritual ancestors in the genre of musical Black scifi! We like old funk bands, Jamiroquai, Basement Jaxx, Jaga Jazzist, acid jazz, French House, Van Hunt and a lot of neo-soul artists, rock dudes like RHCP and Incubus, Madlib, Timbaland and the Neptunes (N*E*R*D was one of those moments of WTF is this??), a lot of stuff. I like comical old ska, garage rock like the White Stripes and The Hives and these new dancey rock bands like Franz Ferdinand. But I think the best music is the stuff you can’t really describe…

  Graphically, I’m very much into manga and anime, in terms of the stories, culture, even the shortcuts they take to meet their crazy deadlines! A random list of favourites: Samurai Champloo, Mind Game, Triplets of Belleville, Studio Ghibli films, Satoshi Kon’s work, Genndy Tartakovsky, Jamie Hewlett’s Gorillaz work is really well designed and moves so fluidly, The Boondocks. Ralph Bakshi’s confrontational movies from the 70s are a huge creative inspiration for what I’d like to do in animation in future.

  There’s an animation director called Koji Morimoto (he did the Beyond segment in The Animatrix), he makes my eyes water. Also off The Animatrix, the World Record segment was done by another new fave, Takeshi Koike, who is actually a celeb in Japan! How interesting, celebrity animators… I would like to go study at the feet of Moebius, the French comic book artist. And a lot of movies and books (I may be a bit of a junkie). We also keep an eye on the graphic design and motion graphics scene, and that’s always a visual overload.

  JIM: Daft Punk’s Discovery was one of those albums that really excited me (and it still does). Frankly, I like the visual detail of the Gorillaz more than their music. In fact, I really don’t think I like their music. But I like the way they work so hard on the supplementary material that helps you form an opinion about a band, the back story, the promos. I like people like Madonna and Björk for putting in extra effort and really being in control of their image and sound, and giving people some fantasy to believe in – however slightly.

  When I was a kid, I loved the musicians who went beyond the music and created lush record covers, and placed their music in some kind of fantasy literary context. Or even the people who explored themes other than the usual “love, girls and sex”. I love the way the disco dudes touched the sky and went beyond to other planets. Why confine yourself to dull old Mother Earth?

  These days it’s “Hi. I’m X and I have a great body. You want to have sex with me. I also sing.” or the other equally drab approach: “Hi. I’m exceptionally gifted. I will numb you into submission with my technical wizardry. I will now play the Euclidian scale with my teeth.”

  I think Europeans are better at it than the Americans (with the exception of people like Madonna, as mentioned above). Americans are very literal about their music – Band X fits into this genre and you shouldn’t ask where they’re from or why they’re doing this. Europeans are very cool about alter egos and costumes and silly things like that.

  From your Kenyanimation blog, it appears you are working on another project - Two Countries; will it be a CD & animation type thing? When can we expect to hear of a premiere?

  DAN: So, when we started off with Kenyanimation (which is not a Just A Band project, actually) we wanted to actually make something under this new group. The idea for this short animated movie was lying around in someone’s sketchbook, so we decided to make that. It’s kind of like a Gado cartoon come to life, political commentary vibes, but with a bit of Tom and Jerry thrown in, and (hopefully) a Just A Band score (as in, a proper “classical” score, which would be a new thing for the band).

  The project has stalled for a bit as people get more involved with their various hustles, but we’ll get it back on track soon, and as it’s just a short, it could be done by year’s end. As for how we’ll put it out, I’m not sure yet but maybe we’ll try some festival screenings and so forth.

  Do you perform live shows? If so, where can we catch you guys?

  BLINKY: Coming soon to an area near you.

  DAN: We’re actually working on the live shows now, figuring out venues and instrumentalists, and all the cool fun stuff like projections, or not. We will be unveiling the whole shebang in August. Details will be on the site/YouTube/Facebook.

  JIM: We’re working on making it something interesting – because I am skeptical that Kenyans would be OK with sitting around for several hours watching a bunch of geeks fiddling with guitars. So pom-pom’s, dancing, makeup, lights, psychedelic footage and action – on a shoestring budget, as always.

  *To order the CD ‘Scratch To Reveal’ send an email to jab [at] just-a-band[dot]com, they will personally ‘hawk’ it over to you. For us online folks, they will have their music on itunes or calabash soon…
  **Part II will be posted as soon as you thaw from the JAB burst of ice cold freshness. It will have more questions about the animated video ‘Iwinyo Piny’.
  

  More info on JAB’s You Tube profile and Facebook.

  A related aside, Jim is a blogger-DIY kinda guy, check out the AfriGadget post on him ‘Building The Sun’.

  A non related aside, do join us over at the Ushahidi Facebook Group as we continue building the next version of the Ushahidi engine.

• Xenophobic Attacks in SA - How to help

  Posted: May 26, 2008, 9:12 am by AfroMusing

  When events happen that shock us, sadden us and make us generally quite depressed, it is heartening to find a way to channel those feelings into assistance. United For Africa uses the Ushahidi engine, and they’ve populated the ‘How to Help’ and the Donation sections of the site. So when you read reports that make your heart sink, you can make a difference. Most of the links on the ‘How to Help’ page are for local donation/assistance centers, though for the online/diaspora folks, you can donate online to the South African Red Cross Society using your credit card.
  

• Ushahidi: Thank You!

  Posted: May 22, 2008, 10:26 am by AfroMusing

  crossposted on the Ushahidi Blog.
  During the month of March we appealed for your help with Ushahidi’s entry into the N2Y3 Mashup challenge. It is with your support that we are delighted to announce Ushahidi’s participation in the last phase of the mapping challenge. We could not have made it without you and we sincerely Thank each and every one of you for your votes, your encouragement and most of all for your ideas.

  David and Erik will be going to San Fransisco next weekend to participate in development sessions with other technical experts, product managers, and engineers. It will be a great opportunity for Ushahidi to get some funding towards further development of the Mashup. Wish them luck would ya?

  For now, we just wanted to thank you again for your support. A big part of Ushahidi is your participation, and with that, we are looking forward to making this project an even bigger success.

  Asanteni Sana!! [Thank you very much]

  **More updates will be posted on the Ushahidi blog and also on the NetSquared blog. Ushahidi also has a twitter channel http://twitter.com/ushahidi for bite-sized updates.

• Pic of the day

  Posted: May 7, 2008, 5:56 am by AfroMusing

  This picture was taken by Adriankoto, who writes on the blog Harinjaka [Malagasy]. He is the founder FOKO madagascar initiative which has been active in planting trees particularly in rural madagascar. More on his awesome work here[English].

  PS: I know i haven’t been blogged about solar energy for awhile, doesn’t mean i have lost my mojo, I am just re-charging. ha!

• Nokia Debuts Phones for Emerging Markets

  Posted: May 1, 2008, 10:13 am by AfroMusing

  
  The Nokia Event Site announces the debut of new phones designed for the emerging markets like Sub-Saharan Africa. Nokia put alot of thought into the functionality that they added, which makes me want to give one of these gems a whirl. I am a sucker for features such as FM Radio, and there is just something about a phone with a flashlight…that is absolutely genius IMO. You would think so too if you were in upcountry Kenya (around 2005i  sh), torch/flashlight batteries are dead and you uhhm lets just say you need to walk from point A to B in the dark of night…then your cousin says “Here! Use my phone, it has a flashlight!” Indeed not all heroes need wear capes. Before i get all mushy about inanimate objects, here is the blurb…

  While features like phone-sharing, cost monitoring and flashlight remain relevant to consumers in entry markets, Nokia continues to add new functionality, such as mega pixel cameras, FM radio with recording functionality, email and Bluetooth connectivity technology to mobile phones targeted at consumers in entry markets.

    while on the site, and if you have a decent connection, do check out Julius’ story; on how he uses his Nokia phone in Kapenguria, Kenya. I am still admiring this silhouette image of Julius and his phone.

  If you have an N95 or other Nokia phones that have video recording capability, record your story and submit it to the www.nokiaproductions.com, where noted film director Spike Lee is going to review  the entries (includes music, photos and text) then weave your bit (if chosen that is…) into a film to be released later. (Hat tip Shel Israel via Twitter)

• Andrew Mwenda arrested by Ugandan Officials

  Posted: April 28, 2008, 7:34 am by AfroMusing

  Update:04/28/2008 “Andrew is out of jail on Bond, he has to report to the police tomorrow.”
  Thanks for the good news Emeka

  This piece of news via the TED blog is terribly worrisome. Andrew Mwenda, arguably Africa’s most refreshing intellectual and journalist, has been arrested by Ugandan officials. More here.

  This is utter injustice, and i am not even sure where to begin. For now, highlighting it on this blog seems to be one way, please highlight it on yours too, and I am sure some initiatives and online campaigns are being organized. Keep an eye on the TED blog for Updates.

  Below is a picture i took of him last year at TEDGlobal. He is the one in the middle with glasses,looking at the Mamamikes remittance site, and speaking with Segeni.
  

• Ushahidi Voting - 2 days left (We need your help again)

  Posted: March 19, 2008, 8:51 am by AfroMusing

  Today, I had to walk my friend through the ballot process for the NetSquared challenge. The 29! stars we are so very thankful for were part I of the challenge, we now need you to add Ushahidi to your ballot and submit 5 projects. This is the most crucial part of the mapping challenge. The following instructions (also blogged by Erik) should help.

  How to vote:
  1. Create an account (or Login if you already have an account) at NetSquared.org
  2. Vote for Ushahidi by clicking here, then click the red ‘Vote for My Mashup’ button.
  3. Vote for at least 4 other projects. Just make sure you choose a total of 5 minimum.
  4. Click ‘View/Cast Ballot’, or click here: [www.netsquared.org]. Be sure Ushahidi is listed as one of your chosen projects.
  5. Click ‘Cast Ballot’ on your screen. That’s it!”

  (Via White African.)

• Friday fun: Kisangani on TDS

  Posted: March 14, 2008, 6:56 am by AfroMusing

  

  Screen shot from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart. Noticed that the city ‘Kisangani’ in DRC (Democratic Republic of Congo) is displayed for afew seconds the spinning globe graphic at the beginning of the show.

  Is Kisangani a place in the coastal province of Kenya too?

• Shindana Kuunda - Google East Africa Gadget Competition

  Posted: March 12, 2008, 7:57 am by AfroMusing

  
  Google announced a competition for students in East Africa to build gadgets (as in software). I am blogging this here just in case the skunkworks crew hadn’t seen this already. The competition is open to university students in Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda, Uganda, Ethiopia, and Burundi.

  The deadline for this is March 17th; so if you have some great ideas, you can still submit them for consideration. The categories/types of software gadgets and apps that they are looking for include:
  (1) Best Gadget UI
  (2) Best Local Content Gadget (Most Locally Useful Gadget)
  (3) Best Education Specific Gadget
  (4) Best Procrastination Gadget
  (5) Most Technically Sophisticated Gadget
  (6) Gadget Most Likely to Get International Traffic
  (7) Best Social Gadget

  What the winners get:
  “Six students will be awarded prizes. Five students will receive a $350 USD stipend and 1 student will receive a $600 stipend. All winners will receive a Google t shirt, pen, and notebook valuing $7 USD (£13).”

  - More Information on the contest
  - Rules and fine print

  Other Info: Hash’s post on Google moving in East Africa. It is no wonder that one of the categories is ‘Best local content gadget’. I think that the market for localized, useful and contextualized software is huge. When you have African developers creating applications for use in their own communities…I would say “prepare to be amazed”. I am really looking forward to seeing the ideas and applications that come out of this competition.

  Hat Tip Think >>Innovate

• Ushahidi’s Netsquared mapping challenge (Action requested)

  Posted: March 3, 2008, 5:14 pm by AfroMusing

  

  We are upto 4 stars this morning, please help us by registering and voting for the Ushahidi project. Why? Because we want to continue mapping not only the violence, but also the ‘doves’ or peace efforts happening in Kenya. The last two months have been traumatic to our collective psyche, and we would like to be well equipped to continue this important project. While we will not hide from the trauma of the events; we want make Ushahidi even more relevant to other countries in Africa.

  Crowdsourcing further dev. by Hash
  Background info on the Ushahidi project.
  The NetSquared Ushahidi page.
  More about the NetSquared mashup challenge.

  Thank you for those who’ve voted for Ushahidi, lets get some more stars up there!

• Congratulations Neil Turok - Ted Prize Winner 2008.

  Posted: February 29, 2008, 5:30 am by AfroMusing

  In case you read this blog in time, you can watch part of the TED conference right now online [www.ted.com]
  

  “Neil Turok is one of the world’s leading physicists. He could easily just spend all his time in his lab, preparing to win a Nobel Prize. But he hasn’t done that,” said TED curator Chris Anderson. “He’s in Africa, where science education is in a pretty shoddy state, and he has decided to do something about it. He’s absolutely brilliant, and he’s taken that brilliance and leveraged that in a surprising way to help other people.”

  He founded AIMS - African Institute of Mathematical Sciences.
  His TED dream is that the next Einstein is African. The plan is to have AIMS in more countries in Africa, expanding mathematical and scientific research. Read more about it on Ethanz’s excellent blog.

  The TED Africa team was also introduced earlier during the conference. I think 2008 promises to be a great year for Africa in more ways than one. Inspiration and passion in whatever field we are in goes a long way to bringing meaning and joy in our lives, that is the reason why i love TED.
  Vusi Mahlasela is performing.
  From his second song about the beauty of Africa, and the challenges of post apartheid SA.
  Quotable: There is wisdom in forgiveness. if you don’t forgive, you are the one who is suffering the most, if you forgive you become more free. Vusi might as well have been talking to each and every Kenyan at this point in time. The road to reconciliation in Kenya is going to be long and hard; we will seriously have to look to our brothers and sisters in South Africa and Rwanda as we get back on the road to the Kenya we want.
  You can watch his performance from TEDGlobal 2007 below if you didn’t catch the live event.

• Noon Solar Bag

  Posted: February 27, 2008, 9:18 am by AfroMusing

  This bag looks very nice. Its like the BMW/mac book Air of solar bags; beautiful, but just a tad out of reach for this blogger, as it is definitely quite expensive. Doesn’t hurt to gawk a bit though…
  

  You can view more bags here.
  Hat tip whiteafrican!
  PS: My thoughts are with Kenya as always…the GV special coverage page for Kenya is back up.
  Amnesty International is appealing for action today to protest Human rights violations in Kenya. You can find more information and details on how to participate.

• Video & Short Summary: Chris Anderson on Charlie Rose

  Posted: February 24, 2008, 11:32 pm by AfroMusing

  Charlie Rose interviewed Chris Anderson of TED on his show…below is the video.
  

  There is another famous Chris Anderson, the editor of Wired Magazine and author of the popular book ‘The long Tail’…so just to make it clear, the Chris Anderson on the video is not the same as the Wired guy, though they are both just brilliant. The wired Chris Anderson spoke at a TED conference; his talk on Technology’s long tail is available on TED.com as are other amazing talks. I recommended his book on this post in 2006, and Erik did an interesting post on The long tail of Banking in Kenya. What is going to be the next big idea in business this year?
  On the digital activism front; i cant wait to hear about the ‘Cute Cat Theory’ by Ethan Zuckerman at Etech March 3rd. Ethan will also be live blogging TED2008 Conference in Monterrey from Feb 27th - March 1st. I would bookmark his blog/subscribe to his rss feed for his coverage and other Africa-watching-tech-digital-activism posts.

  I am becoming more cognizant of the fact that embedded videos are not easily viewable on mobile phones; and since some of this blog’s readership is in Africa, i will summarize a bit of the interview.
  You can read about Chris Anderson’s background on the TEDblog
  …
  Chris gives an introduction of what TED is, and mentions its rapid expansion. Just to paraphrase, TED (Technology Entertainment and Design) is about bringing together scientists, architects, artists, leaders - basically a diverse group of people from many fields to talk about their work and how it fits into the bigger global picture.
  Charlie says it sounds elitist to him: In response, Chris points out that it is indeed expensive, at $6000 a person to attend, but that the content is available on the internet for free. He touches on some of the speakers that have graced the TED stage including Craig Venter’s interesting research on creating synthetic lifeforms. Craig’s work could solve the energy crisis and global warming -more on that here. Chris also mentioned the Google founder’s talk several years ago, where Sergei Brin and Larry page talked about their company.
  Charlie asked about the TED prize, which Chris explained as not just a $100,000 award for the recipient to make his/her wish come true, it is also the commitment and assistance from others in the TED community that makes things happen. They cut to a video showing E.O Wilson’s TED wish for the Encyclopaedia of Life; Chris mention that it would be unveiled in march. Here is a link to the EOL site.
  Chris mentions some of the speakers and TED Prize winners lined up for TED2008, Dave Eggers, Neil Turok - A physicist who is setting up an institution for science in Africa…and Karen Armstrong. More info here.

  Charlie Wilson brings up JJ Abrams; (creator of popular TV shows Lost and Alias) and they cut to a video of JJ’s talk. Chris explains that JJ’s talk centered around the role of mystery/hiding in cinema, a technique used by the likes of Spielberg (You never saw the shark in the movie ‘Jaws’ till the very end.) They discuss a bit more on the mission of TED being ‘Ideas worth spreading’, and Chris notes that its about seeing ideas take shape, and in the coming years actually see the ideas in practice.
  Charlie asks “Why 18 minutes long?” - Because it is long enough not to be trivia, but short enough to hold your attention. This reminded me of Andrew Mwenda at TED Global last year who said; that a TED talk should be like a miniskirt - “long enough to cover the important parts and short enough to maintain interest”. Moving along…

  Chris talked about how the lives of the speakers at TED are transformed. Their work; which they have often been doing over many years without much exposure, gets recognized and becomes widely known. The example of Hans Rosling’s talk which has now been watched by more that a million and half people around the world.
  Chris also talked about the teaching profession and how the broadband and video revolution is redefining this role. He feels that we shall continue to see an explosion of knowledge that is far reaching.

  Charlie asked Chris about 3 people who changed his life, and Chris responded
  - His editor when he was a journalist showed him the importance of passion and enthusiasm for good work. Adding emotional richness to experiences is important and that is why they include musicians and artists as part of TED (I am paraphrasing!)
  - Jonathan Haidt, the author of ‘The Happiness Hypothesis’
  Charlie wraps it up and asks about the dates of TED2008 - Feb 27th - March 1st. Chris mentions some of the big questions anchoring the conference this year…a full list from the TED site include…

  Who are we?
  What is our place in the universe?
  What is life?
  Is beauty truth?
  Will evil prevail?
  How can we change the world?
  How do we create?
  What’s out there?
  What will tomorrow bring?
  What stirs us?
  How dare we be optimistic?
  And the point?

• Some notes on the DEMO video (long)

  Posted: February 21, 2008, 9:07 am by AfroMusing

  Well, when I started blogging I never thought a video of me talking at a panel was part of the deal, its quite strange watching yourself and getting self conscious about the whole thing. OMG mom! I am on the equivalent of TV! Lame lines aside; Erik has the video, I cant get myself to embed the video on my blog yet. I feel like Mike, that i could have done more. Some of the things I mentioned might seem a bit esoteric, so i will add some links and mention a few things i think i should have included at the panel.

  OLPC: This computer has been the subject of discussions with Erik, Steve, JKE, Maitha and others for awhile now, several years actually. Erik’s post in 2005, my post in 2006 and even more recently regarding the keyboard design. It seems like we have lived through the project since it was a concept to its current reality. My thoughts on it have fluctuated, from the posts I wrote in the past, I was really gung ho about the thing. I still am on some level, as I do appreciate that I wouldn’t be where I am, were it not for access to computers (and power actually) during my formative years. This is what i wanted to say…

  I was listening to the digital planet podcast (11/26) where they had a correspondent attend the launch of the OLPC in Abuja, Nigeria. You could hear the excitement and enthusiasm in the children’s voices as they spoke of what they would do with the OLPC. It was a great moment. Now to the questions that started popping into my head like Orville Redenbachers microwave popcorn. When Gareth Mitchell was talking to Bill Thompson, they mentioned how they attended the OLPC launch in Tunis and how a child was crying because they’d been given an OLPC to play with for a time, then it was taken away. That was not a good moment, rather sad really, that kid is probably traumatized right now wherever he or she may be. I mean isn’t that just a little cruel? I know i would wail like a banshee if i was in her shoes. The discussion segued into what it would mean for the children to have a laptop that they would call their own. This got me wondering, that perhaps one of the unintended consequences of the OLPC project is that it would enhance the idea of ‘mine’ rather than ‘ours’. In modern Africa do the age old African values of community and sharing still apply? Would the OLPC idea chip away at the ‘utu’, that is a societal benchmark? Is the Ndiyo project a better thought out model for computer literacy, what with the idea of USB thin clients that I am already a fan of?

  I should add that I think the Ndiyo model of networked computing could be well suited for school situations. This is because of two reasons.
  1. Cost - The class sizes in Kenya increased owing to the free primary schooling offered by the government. Having a networked model enables more students to get basic computer literacy, as they can share the computer lab resources. This is particularly apt i think because the OLPC project was geared towards schools in the developing world.
  2. This i already mentioned above…the idea of ‘my laptop’. The OLPC can be shared between students…but if you have a class of 30 children and 28 OLPC’s someone will undoubtedly get disappointed.On the other hand, as Steve mentioned in the post on OLPC Keyboard..i will reiterate his comment here, because i think its very important.

  Some thoughts: you ask “Maybe I am looking at this all wrong, Is Negroponte pimping the ‘education project’ in pursuit of…what?”. Well, maybe the answer is indeed in plain sight. Maybe he just wants to provide technology access to the masses like he keeps telling us he wants to.
  And here is another thought for you: if the OLPC team did indeed go to Nigeria to look for inspiration for the design of the product, it is heartening that they are looking to the populations that will actually use these products for design and usability clues instead of sitting in Boston or LA or wherever and saying “hey, thats what the kids/world/users/consumers need”.
  I have in the last month or so found myself increasingly frustrated with this attitude to design and product creation when I have to “fix” my computer for my 4 year old who wants to use it but cannot understand why in the world Windows keeps doing stuff and getting in his way.
  Find out what your users need and want and give it to them. End of story.

  Though i haven’t had a chance to play with the OLPC, I am sure its a fine product. From Steve’s comment i think the OLPC should just be marketed as a low cost computer for those interested to buy for their children/themselves, and not specifically geared towards governments purchasing them for schools. The Give one Get one campaign was nice…but how were the ‘given’ laptops distributed? What rationale? I don’t mean to sound ungrateful, but I think that at a price like $100 how about seeing some free-market action going on in Africa? That is a whole other AID Vs TRADE debate right there.

  On the power to charge OLPC: There is a larger question of power in Africa, which i won’t get into right now (though i will in the coming weeks) For a glimpse of the opportunity, Idris Mohammed mentioned the great opportunity in power generation during last years’ TEDGlobal. More here, and whenever his talk is posted, it will be on the TED site here. Erik did mention that there is a cranking device that can be used to power the OLPC, and browsing the power supply tab on OLPC news shows some novel and innovative approaches to solving the power problem. From a cow dynamo to something i like…the OLPC solar mesh repeater.
  
  OUTSOURCING:
  The company i referred to in the video is called Verviant. It is based in Nairobi and helps small to medium sized businesses in the East Coast of US to maximize on limited IT budgets. In speaking with Onesmus Kamau of Verviant, he indicated that the company was able to deploy a video management system that will save their client $500,000. It is but one example of the opportunity in outsourcing web development, database management, and software development in general. This infoworld article (albeit a few months old) mentions the hot spots for this being Ghana, Egypt, South Africa and Rwanda. I would also recommend watching Carol Pineau’s movie ‘Africa Open for Business’ if you haven’t already. The blogger Nii Simmonds, who will be speaking at SXSW writes about business in Africa,including outsourcing. His blog ‘Nubian Cheetah’ is a good resource, as is Emeka Okafor’s Timbuktu Chronicles. The PSD blog is also another good resource…(links to other outsourcing references are quite welcome, do chime in on the comments)

  Mobile Phone Tech: I think between Mike, and Erik we covered this o.k. A sim card/chip costs less than a dollar…and the phone with a flashlight that I was referring to in the video looks like this.
  
  On cell phone reach, here is one example of celtel’s reach illustrated in a post from a Zambian economist. My little screed last year about the iphone hints at the fact that i totally love the fact that you can choose whichever carrier you like when in Kenya/most parts of Africa. Its just a matter of switching sim cards and not having to worry about whether your phone will work or not. Most if not all the handsets in Kenya are unlocked.

  On the parting shot: Customization and allowing for grassroots creativity. I wanted to mention that this idea is illustrated best by Chris Nikolson,in an NYT article, and context was added by one of my favourite bloggers ‘African Uptimist. Please see this post. It has some great examples that show how the idea (a strategic one at that) is implemented in the field. I felt like my brain had some speedbumps and for some reason Chris Nikolson’s name completely disappeared from my head. I think his quote is so important, let me amplify it again here if I may…

  The best results are achieved when you move with the natural flow of grassroots creativity. Often, this means abandoning or suppressing preconceived notions, and building on spontaneous and creative adaptations of the new technology by local people to meet their needs.

  One more link…Guy Lundy’s ‘Future Fit’ - An African futurist to watch.

• Prize for Women’s Creativity in Rural Life

  Posted: February 18, 2008, 3:53 am by AfroMusing

  Deadline for this is March 31st.
  “The Women’s World Summit Foundation (WWSF) invites nominations for its 15th annual prize for women’s creativity in rural life, honouring creative and courageous women and women’s organisations working to improve the quality of life in rural communities around the world.”
  The nominations guidelines are posted on the WWSF site, do look through and nominate someone you know that deserves the award. For African organizations the prize is $3000 and for laureates its $500.

  Hat tip Solana!

  Something that might be of interest to US and Canada readers with teens in the house…
  “HERO is looking for 20 students (ages 16-19) from across the US and Canada to be selected as 2008 HERO Youth Ambassadors. Students chosen will travel to Africa in 2008. The deadline to apply for HERO is March 1, 2008.”
  More information on the program can be found on the BeingGirl website.

• Tag: My Week In Media

  Posted: February 17, 2008, 12:45 am by AfroMusing

  Shashank of ‘Somewhere in Nairobi’ tagged me in the meme that is ‘My week in Media’. Some of the longtime readers of this blog might know that I have a healthy appreciation, perhaps a sort of admiration of journalists around the world. Its probably because I just want a Thuraya Satellite phone like the ones they often carry with them.
  Shashank’s blog is one of my favorites, i remember laughing hard at the post God and Warlords’ - i.e comb through his archives. You can read the pieces that appear in McClatchy newspapers here.
  Sara Nics, who is a journalism trainer in Nairobi spoke with John Keating about the challenges of reporting on conflict. It gives you a glimpse on the situation the Kenyan media find themselves, the problem of media credibility the internal struggle with editors beholden to owners close to the politicians, and the changes in workplace interaction.
  I think Journalist-bloggers like Shashank, Rob Crilly, Sara Nics, Nick Wadhams, vigilante journalist etc, fill an important gap for Kenyan readers and bloggers who want the news straight up, and perhaps are not hamstrung by the current conflict, the way Kenyan journalists are. Reading the online editions of Nation media group and The Standard can be frustrating at times. They do not update their online editions as the news happens, and i often find myself checking BBC for latest information. By and large Kenya is a newspaper reading nation, but i do hope that one day we can also read more blogs by the noted Kenyan journalists to get their viewpoints and a glimpse ‘behind the scenes’ as they go about reporting.
  Boy did i digress…o.k on to the tag.
  What I’ve read:
  The Best of Technology Writing 2007, edited by Steven Levy.
  A quick review i did of it last year:
  “Excellent collection of tech writing. The piece on Natalie Jeremijenko was fascinating, and Farhad Manjoo can make net neutrality debate and AT&T’s ‘corporate toll on the internet’ read like an engaging conversation he is having with you. Joshua Davis as usual is superb writing about the DARPA challenge in the Mojave desert. If i recall correctly, Sebastian Thrun’s team won the challenge this yr. A dose of humour from Phillip Smith with ‘The worst date ever for an Apple tech’. Dont read this book before going to bed, your brain will get all atwitter and you wont be able to nod off. Its a great book for long airplane rides, substitute all the magazines you carry with you with this wonderful anthology. You will likely smile, go ‘hmm’, and probably do a ‘thinking man’ pose ala’ Rodin”

  Currently reading P.J. O’Rourke On The Wealth of Nations. Fave bit so far…”It was almost as though Smith, having proved that we can all have more money, then proved that money doesn’t buy happiness. And it doesn’t. It rents it.”

  What I’ve watched
  Not much telly, though i try to catch the Daily show and The Boondocks. A repeat of Gorillaz concert in Harlem on MHD channel has me transfixed each time. I watch all of it anytime its on. When i was in Kenya, I really enjoyed K24, and in happier times, couldn’t help but watch ‘Cobra Squad’ - I still want a t-shirt from that show.

  What I’ve listened to:
  Nothing new really, some of the ones i am digging are
  Habib Koite’s Afriki it is probably one of my favourite CD’s from 2007.

  Sia -
  Don’t be fooled by the album cover a friend looked at it and worriedly asked “Is she a 3 year old?” nope. Her music was described in last month’s wired mag as “…feisty, airy crowd pleaser of Jazzy electro-pop”. I just think her sound is cool.

  What I’ve surfed:
  Mostly Kenyan news, through Standard, Nation Media, blogs - which are aggregated and displayed on the global voices special coverage page for Kenya. When things get heavy and i need a mental break, I canhasCheezburger, milk and cookies, Bongo music on You tube (Bongo is a genre of music from Kenya’s Neighbor Tanzania - melodic, and fun to listen to. check out Cinderella, and Na Wewe tu.)

  I tag: KP, Mweshi and Ndesanjo

• TEDAfrica - Registration opens today.

  Posted: February 1, 2008, 3:36 pm by AfroMusing

  

  The TED Africa conference in Capetown South Africa, promises to build on the magic of TED Global 2007. The concept for this years’ conference makes that quite clear.

  What if Africa had no borders? What if her boundaries extended as far as those living in the diaspora, or even further? What if you could fly directly from Cape to Cairo, Lagos to Luanda, Bujumbura to Abuja? Or what if you could drive to every city and every town and every village? What if the Internet was a reality for every African? What if you could call the world from atop the Kilimanjaro, or from deep in the forests of the Congo? What if a lingua franca was spoken and understood by every African? What if we could halve the number of poor Africans by 2015, or eradicate poverty altogether someday? What if there was a cure for every disease and the average African could live beyond the age of 33? What if Africa embraced innovative thinking, and in the process, reinvented her future?

  I would recommend registering early for this exciting event, and if interested in the African Fellows program, to apply for it as soon as possible. There are 50 fellowships available this year.

• A Brief DEMO Redux

  Posted: January 31, 2008, 1:15 am by AfroMusing

  I am honored to have been part of the Africa Panel at DEMO 08 which happened yesterday. Erik and Mike did an awesome job of blogging about the sessions. My sincere thanks to Chris Shipley and Erica Lee for having us.

  There were so many interesting exhibitors, you can explore a full list and find more information about the cool stuff that launched. I will highlight just a few of the products and services that stood out for me.

  The first one is Green Plug - A charger that can be used for multiple devices. Their tag line is “One plug, one planet”. Think of the many chargers you have to carry with you, and when you abandon a device, that charger ends up in a landfill somewhere. The Green plug eliminates the need to carry multiple chargers. The small chip pictured here makes it all happen.
  

  Asankya Hypermesh Network
  Forget the current OSPF and BGP routing of packets, this company optimises content delivery by in their own words…

  …Using a breakthrough technique for transporting packets over multiple network paths, it enables delivery of real-time content consistently and at a high quality over the Internet.

  It is geared towards ISP’s and larger content delivery companies, but from their demo it seems their products could useful for those building new networks and want higher quality video delivery than is currently being offered. I thought of the now delayed EASSYproject that would have brought fibre optic backbone to Kenya…:( and to step back to something i had written last year about building network of networks, in time, it would be great to revisit how this new technology could help in low bandwidth areas or in new network systems being implemented in Africa.

  Celsias
  “Cooling the planet one project at a time”

  Celsias is all about doing something practical to reduce climate change
  On Celsias, you can read a widely-recognized climate change blog, review practical projects from all over the world and meet the coolest people who share your passion for stopping human-induced global warming. If you want to roll up your sleeves and get your hands dirty, register on the site, create a project, then recruit people or funding to get your project off the ground.

  I think i may have taken too many pics, you can browse through them on this flickr set.

• Quick update

  Posted: January 29, 2008, 1:04 am by AfroMusing

  Before leaving Kenya, i met with other bloggers in the Bloggers for Kenya initiative, where we ordered items for delivery to the red cross. On friday the 18th, the day that we were to deliver it, there was fracas in town and we could not make the delivery. (Afew pics i took are posted here) However, the great team at mamamikes and other volunteers were still able to make arrangements to deliver the items worth $3220(!) to the Red Cross. They also made a visit to Nakuru on the 19th and wrote about the experience on this post. This was before the current flare up of violence, so you can imagine how the situation has deteriorated further. We are all sickened by this mess. Thank you again to all the bloggers and friends who donated and continue to donate to alleviate the suffering in Kenya.

  I was also able to meet with Charles, one of the writers in Kwani. The Kwani blog is here, where the writers in the collective are putting into words the sorrow we feel at the turn Kenya has taken. If there is one thing that gives me hope its the conversations between the people our age. Be it in Mamamike’s office when Segeni asked us ‘How do you feel?’ to the chat i had with Charles before rushing to the airport. We cannot begin to quantify the losses in Kenya, moreso the optimism and hope we had for our country. I like many of you…i am at a loss for words.

  The Global voices special coverage page for Kenya has been aggregating bloggers posts relating to the aftermath of elections in Kenya. Its a resource that Ndesanjo, Solana and the team at Global Voices put together. I got back from Kenya and just got busy updating the reblog and it slipped my mind to give you a heads up about it.

  As noted earlier by KP and Erik, the Ushahidi blog is up. Please continue to send us information and we will keep putting it up on the site. A timeline of the crisis has been developed by Nick and David.

  Sometime last year we had a conversation with KP about using twitter to monitor the elections, and we both got rather swamped with other stuff to put the idea in practice. I still feel like there is an opportunity to use twitter in future elections and create an aggregator of tweets from each constituency (Imagine the transparency) We live and learn. There is a good post here about twitter’s potential in Africa by the TEDster and developer Soyapi. After attending DEMO, i will revisit this so we can discuss how we can use ‘microblogging’ and other tools not only to deal with the current crisis in Kenya, but to expand citizen journalism. Like Segeni asked…How do you feel? It is outlets such as blogs etc, that can help (in a small way) to express our feelings…but in a constructive manner. Like Erik says, we can do better. We can chose to fight the vitriol with constructive dialogue and peace efforts, and moreso humanitarian assistance. Note: The Red Cross site now has a google checkout. When the crisis first started it was prohibitive for many to pay wire transfer fees and thus mamamikes really helped helped facilitate donations. They still continue to do so via their homepage. Either way there are options for Kenyans in the diaspora to help our fellow Kenyans in dire need.

• Local Kenya Number for UShahidi - 6007

  Posted: January 20, 2008, 2:30 pm by AfroMusing

  

  Please text incident reports to 6007, kindly include the location where you are texting from. The information will appear on Ushahidi.com. Kindly pass this along to everyone in Kenya, particularly in the rural areas. By and large coverage of the situation in Nairobi is extensive, but we need information from the rest of Kenya as well. Thank you for your support.

• Bloggers for Kenya: Thank you

  Posted: January 15, 2008, 3:54 pm by AfroMusing

  Thank you to our dear blogger friends for supporting Kenya, and for spreading the word on the ‘Support Kenyans in Distress’ campaign with Mamamikes.com
  Georgia of Caribbean Free Radio
  African Loft
  Kikuyu Moja

  As the Mamamikes blog updates, the amount is exceeding $1900.
  May i reiterate the thanks to the following people….

  Omolo, Kuria, Kimura, Nyokabi, Miaud, Edgerton, Monyo, Kimeria, Dsouza, Kangethe, Muthoni, Coseac, Barbieri, Patel, Jabbar, Mann, Warungongo, Wairimu, Juergen, Njoroge, Laurance, Wanja, Wambui, Romanos, Lutz, Popplewell, Walsh, Kamau

  Thank you to the following Kenyan Bloggers for committing their time to volunteer on the 17th.
  M of Thinkers Room
  Bankelele
  Josiah Mugambi of Skunkworks and Mission Driven
  Mentalacrobatics
  The list is growing, so if you are a kenyan blogger/blog reader in Nairobi, please leave a comment if you can make it. we understand the situation might be tenuous but we hope it will be calm on Thursday. If you have any questions please feel free to send me an email, afromusing at gmail dot com

  Date: Thursday January 17th 2008
  Location: Mamamikes office - Kingsway Hse opposite Nairobi Outpatient Center on Muindi Mbingu Street
  Time: 5pm

  PS: Ushahidi Update: Local number to report an incident is +254 711 862 149 6007

• Bloggers for Kenya, and Hope in Jamhuri Park.

  Posted: January 14, 2008, 2:49 pm by AfroMusing

  
  Mamamikes’ donation page is now live. When you click on the homepage, you now have an option to purchase vouchers for Kenyans in Distress. The food and supplies bought will be distributed by the Red Cross to the various parts of Kenya that have been affected by post election violence. This is another way to help and it can save you on wiring costs associated with direct Bank Transfers to the Red Cross. Even without advertising, Mamamikes has already received $300, worth of donated vouchers. (Thank you to that Kind Soul wherever you are)
  Update: The amount received so far is now $1000 (thank you!)
  For your $10 voucher a package with the following items is purchased for the Red Cross.
  -3litres of cooking oil,2kgs of rice and slippers
  -2kgs of unga,5litres of water and a pair of shoes
  -sanitary products,2kg unga and 2kg of rice
  Vouchers are available in the amounts of $15, $20, $25, $50, $75, and you can buy as many as you are able to.

  Bloggers for Kenya
  This week we would like to appeal to all bloggers, friends of bloggers, wannabe bloggers, diaspora kenyans, Tedsters, treehuggers, geeks, nerds, boingboingers, worldchangers…you get the idea, to give what they can using Mamamikes’ donation page. On Thursday the 17th of January the bloggers in Nairobi will meet at the mamamikes office, assist in purchasing all the items and delivering them to the Red Cross.
  Parliament opens tomorrow and there are some rallies planned later in the week, therefore depending on the situation, we will still shoot for Thursday to deliver the items to Red Cross. If for one reason or another the situation is too unstable on Thursday, we will reschedule and let you know. For now, please post about this and tag your posts with ‘Bloggers for Kenya’.

  Hope In Jamhuri Park

  With all the feelings of helplessness many feel at the current situation; what with failed mediation attempts, fears of more instability as Parliament opens tomorrow, the secondary trauma of watching news of your country being torn apart; perhaps the only thing that can keep Kenyans (here and in the diaspora) sane is doing something to assist the displaced. I have since learned the acronym IDP (Internally Displaced Person), something that aid workers such as Mr. Arunga who works in Darfur, and diplomats in Africa are familiar with…Now the acronym is being used to describe the people camped in various shelters in Kenya.
  One such place is Jamhuri Park, Nairobi. I joined Martin and Cynthia of Mamamikes on a visit to Jamhuri Park to see first hand the plight of Internally Displaced persons. It was heart-rending, and very surreal. We could not believe that this was happening in our country, but left with a bit of hope in our hearts as we saw the work of other volunteers, the Red Cross, St. John’s Ambulance Service and even the police/military. Martin and Cynthia have written about the experience here. I will only add some pictures from our day, as they have wonderfully captured everything i wanted to mention in the post. Thank you!
  Queues to get food
  

  

  Queue for health care by St. Johns Ambulance Services
  

  Red Cross
  Ahmed’s red cross Jacket. He usually works in Isiolo, but came to Jamhuri Park to help with the tracing activities. I.e figuring out who are the lost children, photographing them, and tracing their relatives.
  

  Soccer with the children
  

  Kevin (the little boy) talks to Victone of the Red Cross,who is part of the tracing team that will try to locate and reunite Kevin with his family.
  

  Children gathered for a bit of entertainment in the afternoon.
  

  Volunteers entertaining the children with song and dance
  

  Watching and listening…
  

  The whole set of photos from the day is here.

• The Death of James Odhiambo - Kenya Post Election violence.

  Posted: January 14, 2008, 12:12 pm by AfroMusing

  Note: Images posted on www.Ushahidi.com.
  Disclaimer: The following images are gruesome and disturbing. The humanitarian crisis is real and dire. Complete set of photos taken in Kakamega by Mr. Arunga are available here. The images include shots of the police station, showing the displaced taking refuge there, burning shops, vandalized petrol station and burned car.

  

  Onlookers and concerned citizens around the body of 24 yr old James Odhiambo, who was killed in the post election violence in Lurambi - Junction on the way to Shikoti, Kakamega, western province, Kenya. The gentleman in white (Brian) on the right worked with James at the petrol station as attendants and witnessed the shooting.
  
  Close up of the bullet wound on the body of 24 yr old James Odhiambo. According to eye witnesses, he was walking to work when he met the GSU paramilitary. Mr. Odhiambo continued to walking towards towards the GSU as he thought he could talk to them and find out what is happening. According to eyewitnesses, he was shot without even though he was not violent or doing anything that would indicate he would be a threat to the GSU. The witnesses tried to contact the police so they could come and pick up the body, but the police said that they did not have fuel for the vehicle. As of the writing of this post, the late James Odhiambo was buried yesterday in Homa Bay, Nyanza province. Brian and other friends from the area traveled to Homa Bay to comfort the family. If you would like to help the family directly, please do not hesitate to contact Brian Oluoch at +254 724 912015. Mr. Odhiambo was the sole breadwinner for his family…Any contributions towards their well being is appreciated.

  Pictures were taken by Mr.Michael Arunga, who works for World Vision in Darfur, and was on holiday at the time. He witnessed the burning of a kikuyu owned property, as shown in this photo.
  

  **The decision to post the pictures here and to tell this story is partly because the pictures were sent to editors of newspapers in Kenya, they did not run them or cover the story. As people try to get back to ‘normal’ life around the country, it is important to remember that there is no normal for a lot of people in Kenya.

• More ways to Help - Kenya’s Post Election Aftermath

  Posted: January 9, 2008, 6:15 pm by AfroMusing

  Note: Global Voices Online has a special coverage page that aggregrates posts relating to the post election aftermath, based on Hash’s list of blogs.

  www.Ushahidi.com
  
  Upload pictures, video and report incidents of violence in Kenya.
  sms your incident to +44 762 480 2635 once a local number in Kenya is set up we will be sure to update you.
  Email tips@ushahidi.com

  Online Petitions (Doubts on effectiveness aside, it might make you feel a little better)
  Gopetition published by Coalition of Kenyans and Allies for Democracy, for Kibaki to Step Down

  Avaaz.org for international friends.

  Let’s send a wave of messages to our own leaders, asking them to hold off until agreement is reached and the results are independently reviewed: fill out the form below and your foreign minister’s details will automatically be entered - then personalise the message, or just hit send:

  Click here.

  Donations:
  The blog Sukuma Kenya has a paypal donate button.

  
  Mama mikes is working on a donation page where you will be able to donate specific packages to the red cross. Once its live i will be sure to update you. You can still send credit and other forms of assistance to family members at any time.

• “People are suffering”

  Posted: January 9, 2008, 6:01 pm by AfroMusing

  This is a video i recorded last Thursday before leaving Eldoret. It has been included on the Ushahidi website, and i urge others who have pictures, video or text to please upload them
  We converse in Swahili and English, where i asked a few questions and he was kind to oblige. Many thanks to Wilson for his candor and for giving me permission to share his thoughts with you.
  

• Update: Jan 5th, and Ways to Help

  Posted: January 5, 2008, 4:25 pm by AfroMusing

  Update: 5:45 pm Nairobi Time.
  The Mamamikes crew are working to catch up with the orders placed, some of them were stuck in various parts of the country and just made it back yesterday. Most of the orders to Eldoret and various parts of the country are being processed now. Thanks.
  I left Eldoret yesterday, with a heavy and broken heart. As much as i wanted to stay and write about what was going on there, i needed to get back to Nairobi and get back to work on my Global Voices gig.
  First, this is the link to Kenya Red Cross and you can donate here.

  I kept snapping pictures on my way out. This is of a Red Cross Truck heading into town, as we were leaving towards the airport. This was a good sign and a ray of hope.
  The Kobil on the right only had diesel available, no petrol, same case with National Oil, just a few miles ahead.
  

  The airport is operational. Saw remnants of a roadblock on the way.
  

  From a chat with the former Councilor of Eldoret: There were attempts by religious leaders to convene a peace meeting yesterday, but this did not happen. The hurt and divide inflicted by events of the past several days may be too great to bridge over. It will take time and a concerted effort.

  On what can be done: Donate to the Red Cross, which has a Uasin Gishu office. Happened to take a picture of the signpost…
  
  I had ordered some credit using mamamikes on the 1st of January, but still haven’t received it as of today. Like KP said, Safaricom and Celltel need to enable online recharge of airtime so that the diaspora and even Kenyans in Nairobi can purchase airtime for others. My aunt who uses MPESA said it was a godsend and will always keep money for emergencies. This is because MPESA can be used to send airtime/money to yourself and others.

  Because of the hurdles encountered using either MPESA (their offices were closed) and Mamamikes, i would suggest that if you would like to Sambaza credit and have an immediate impact, you can send it to The Chairman of Kenya Red Cross Eldoret - Advocate Birech 0722 82 8484, who will distribute it to those affected and aid in the Kenya Red Cross effort in Eldoret. For international readers and diaspora, the link for donations to Red Cross should work, though will update you with more information as it becomes available.

  Airlines operating out of Eldoret are
  Aero Kenya
  Jetlink - cant find website, but these are the numbers i have for Jetlink - 020827531, 020244285 and 0720 608 608
  Fly540

  Anyone with other avenues of assisting is welcome to comment. Thank you.

• Eldoret: The Death of an Athlete

  Posted: January 3, 2008, 10:07 pm by AfroMusing

  With the situation in Kenya getting even more tense, you realise that it will be awhile before the country recovers. Sadly, when a life is lost, there is a hole left gaping in the hearts of family, friends and even a whole nation.

  *Sat in on an interview with Martin Keino of Keino Sports Marketing and Tim of Reuters. Martin had just come back from a meeting to make arrangements for the funeral of Lukas Sang. The funeral will be next saturday the 12th at Kuinet farm. This post is based on the information from the interview.

  Lukas Sang was an olympic sprinter who represented Kenya in the olympics in 1988 and 1992, he retired in 1995. He was a tall imposing man, well known in Eldoret for his role in Administration of Athletics as an official, and also as an influential member of the cereal growers association.
  What Happened: He was in a car with other people when they went to help a colleague. He was caught up in the rioting that was reported yesterday, and he was hit by a rock on the head. His driver was badly hurt but managed to get away, and later Lukas’s body was found in a slum - Burned. Part of how they were able to identify that it was indeed him was a piece of his tracksuit on the ground. Even worse, is the fact that a dog partly ate his arm.
  With the fracas happening at night, no one knows who is who, and it appears he may have been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

  The deaths of people around the country is senseless. Its costs are inumerable and the sooner the leaders resolve this crisis, the better. When Kenya loses an athlete, we lose a piece of our face to the world.

  Any message of condolences left on this post will be forwarded to the family. Thank you.

• Jan 3rd update from Eldoret

  Posted: January 3, 2008, 6:47 pm by AfroMusing

  Today is an even sadder day. I am trying to keep my tears in check…but cant. Town was quiet in an eery, uneasy way. The hopelessness is palpable and the sadness in people’s eyes is overwhelming. Some streets are deserted, shops are closed and Eldoret as we knew it is gone.

  There is an appeal for blood donations at Moi Referral and Teaching hospital

  There were funeral arrangements being made for Lukas Sang, an athlete who was burned.I do not have all the details yet, but will update once i get more info.

  What is Eldoret without Paul’s Bakery?
  For many of the displaced, this was the only home they knew. where have they gone, and will they be able to return?
  - Mr. Limo of Limo House Hospital, and a leader in the area; taped a peace message to air on Sayare TV station (The ban on live broadcasts is not helping, because the peace appeals need to be heard and seen as many channels as possible) Cant listen to local radio. How can we listen to music at this time?!
  - Fewer people at the cathedral on Uganda road.
  - Shortage of vegetables
  - Airtime is expensive - double the amount actually. For Ksh100 worth of airtime it will cost you Ksh200

  Watching the news, seeing the military on the streets of Nairobi…this has got to end. We can never ever talk of normal again. Their is no normal. Stability? Of what sort? Honestly, i am afraid to say what i think on this blog as I will be in Kenya for a few more days. Whatever little hope I had that our country could rise to the greatness it was on a cusp off…is dwindling. AG Wako’s call for retallying of the votes (as seen on NTV afew hrs ago), seems like an avenue to be explored immediately. Kenya is on the brink, Kivuitu, ECK and the Kibaki Govt need to ask themselves…to what end is all this? Till when? and How? If you anyone of them calls themselves a Kenyan, a retallying of the votes, a lift on the live broadcast ban, and immediate resolution of this state of affairs is needed. Anything else is just denial, excuses and cowardice. Stand up, lead and save our beloved country. People have lives to get back to. Work, school, businesses…How is that ever possible when sections of the country are unpassable? Will we have to get different ID’s for every tribe possible? It just isn’t sustainable, its madness.
  Let me stop here…Be safe, and God Save Kenya.

• Jan 2nd Update from Eldoret

  Posted: January 2, 2008, 11:36 pm by AfroMusing

  - Where to begin?! Perhaps the basics
  -Town itself was calm today.
  - Fuel available today,
  - uchumi and other supermarkets open. Credit also available in Uchumi though restricted to 400 shillings worth per person. MPESA/safaricom office was closed.
  - Food availability is so-so, bananas being sold, some kiosks open.
  - Airport operational, actually there was alot of air activity today, saw many small planes, military choppers heading to old eld airport. If you want to charter an aircraft it could cost over $7000. To leave today, you would pay Ksh 15000, next available flights probably saturday or beyond and can cost between ksh 6500 or Ksh 6800 (Jetlink and fly540) - One way to NBI. It is jam packed there.
  - Convoy of cars and buses left from the police station…probably Nairobi bound. Heard that people were being airlifted, but cant confirm this for sure.
  -Whatever you have to do, you do it during the day before 5pm.
  - Word is if you are driving, cant get past Naivasha if you are from western (i.e not kikuyu) cant confirm this though.
  - Friends (of different tribes btw) were stuck in a place called Ndalat for 2 days, not able to get through because of roadblocks at one point escaped death from machetes (gosh this is terrible). These are not conventional roadblocks, they are manned by desperate youth who ask for your id, and also for money. There is a guy who parted with ksh1500 between town and the airport.
  -Friends telling a kikuyu friend pole (sorry) because his house was burned. The thing is the people doing the burning are not even known to the people in the area, they are coming in from other places. I feel sick about this whole mess, cant even get myself to type the tribes kikuyu, kalenjin etc when typing this post. people are people. Because we are supposed to be ONE KENYA, this is shocking and utterly…shit, i cant find the word.
  I have to go…
  more pics here

  http://www.flickr.com/photos/afropicmusing/sets/72157603613781227/

• More pics from Eldoret, Rift Valley

  Posted: January 1, 2008, 3:08 pm by AfroMusing

  Click on this picture for more shots from yesterday and this morning.
  

• Quick update from Eldoret, Rift Valley

  Posted: January 1, 2008, 1:52 pm by AfroMusing

  - hi everyone, in Eldy, lots of tension though it has eased as it is daylight now, some people sought refuge in churches and police station last night and are still there this a.m saw some people carrying their belongings, will upload pics shortly if i can.
  Yesterday, saw a mob of youth >300 crossing through farms, walking in a single file line. They later walked back after a few hrs.
  Later in Kapsoya there were screams and people milling around.
  -Just received an SMS from Safaricom that reads
  “The ministry if Internal security urges you to please desist from sending or forwarding any SMS that may cause public unrest. This may lead to your prosecution”
  -Continued media ban on live broadcasts
  -Houses were burned in the last two days, things seem calmer now, though in Langas, people are still fighting and supposedly even more killed last night. Talked to a guy who lives there, says the leaders need to come there, one rep of the following languages: Luhya, Kalenjin, Kikuyu, put up a white flag and appeal for peace. “Radio appeals do nothing to calm that particular part of Eldoret”. In addition people’s heads are supposedly lying about and it is terrible.
  -Govt spokesman’s words seem very hollow considering the situation on the ground. Long queues at Uchumi in Eldoret, some parts of town completely deserted.
  -No fuel.
  -I think Eldoret airport is still operational (as of confirmation yesterday)
  -ATM’s still working though - Barclays on Uganda Road.

• Kenya Elections: Pictures from Eldoret, Rift Valley

  Posted: December 28, 2007, 3:41 pm by AfroMusing

  

  Here are some shots i took yesterday at a few polling stations around Eldoret.It was so hot, but people braved the heat and queued in order to vote. By and large it went smoothly in some stations, though in the hospital ward, it was quite inefficient with lines snaking around the corner. There was alittle tear gas in the air from fracas on the previous day but people still soldiered on.
  I am a bit bleary eyed as we were camped around the radio after the fuel for the generator ran out. Cant do live updates, been checking
  KenyanPundit
  and
  Mentalacrobatics
  on my cell phone.

  Twittered the elections a little and will add more periodically during the day
  [twitter.com]

  Btw - Nicholas Biwott is out in Kerio south
  - Peris Chepchumba elected as MP Eldoret South despite intimidation and insults from men
  Other women in Rift Valley made it through and might constitute a chunk of women MPs in the next parliament.

• Odds and Ends - EOY

  Posted: December 24, 2007, 4:31 pm by AfroMusing

  Odds and Ends
  Before i head upcountry and not have much in the way of internet access here are a few observations.

  In as much as the country is in the grip of elections with incendiary sms from phone to phone; and tribal tensions appear to be escalating, I noticed that there are messages promoting peace and unity during the elections; in likely places - church, and unlikely, sms messages confirming that a recharge of airtime is successful.

  Church - Attended a service where the pastor called for one person from different parts of the country (rift-valley, coast, north eastern, western etc) to come to the front of the church. He also called for people from other parts of Africa and the rest of the world to join in. A lady from the netherlands was present i think… They held hands as he prayed for the country, reminding everyone that even after the elections, we will live together in peace.
  SMS - When recharging safaricom airtime, the confirmation text reads something along the lines of
  “The recharge is successful.Chagua amani zuia noma (choose peace, avoid violence/disturbance)”

  The electoral commission of Kenya has done a good job of running ads promoting voter turnout. other organizatons such as Eric wainaina’s Umoja Pamoja also run ads appealing to young people to vote for young MP’s and progressive leaders.

  KJ - John Kiarie is a popular performance artist who decided to get into the political game, running for the Dagoretti parliamentary seat on an ODM ticket. He has a facebook group and a website too. I think his run for parliament shows an interesting Intersection of art, politics and Tech. Many aspirants have websites and facebook groups too, but his is probably most interesting to watch because he is witty and really speaks for young kenyans. With his humour and style he is purported to have said - very rough translation

  “Siku ya Kura nataka kusisikia Kiarie! Kiarie! Kiarie!, Mugo and Raila!, Raila!, Raila!, Kibaki” Alluding to the percentage/number of votes for the ODM candidate vs PNU come election day. I think he was courageous to take chance on young people despite the danger to his life (He was hospitalized last month after being attacked by people suspected to have been paid by his rivals)

  There are huge billboards everywhere you look, the most numerous being those of President Kibaki in a nice suit, blue background and the words “Kazi iendelee” I have seen a couple ‘Adopt a light’s with ads for Kalonzo. Paper posters are pasted on electricity poles, telephone poles, kiosk doors and even trees. Some have been ripped off and new posters placed, it does not look good There is a general feeling of disorganization, which can be felt from the moment you get off the plane. (see Josiah Mugambi’s post, KP’s woes with luggage, and Shashank’s post on parking) things just seem off. Its disconcerting because in June when I was here…I loved how efficiently the luggage was handled, and the CBD was just nice. Once this election is over i hope Nairobi can revert back to the beautiful city it was.

  NTV has been posting clips from the news, so for diaspora kenyans wanting to stay in the loop, do check it out. Uploading a video is a tortourous task, so i wont even try.

  Happened to watch the new TV channel K24 ‘All Kenyan All the Time’. I liked it alot, the styling for the intro shows Kenyan people in different areas, usual day to day task such as a woman washing clothes, a woman on a boda boda etc. It appears its focus will be on local content (writing this offline so cant check for more info, GIYF though). Jeff Koinange interviewed the Director of Kenya Wildlife Service, Kipngetich about the work he does. Excellent, engaging and more so, quite pertinent. The talked abit about the Amboseli ownership drama, which i have to dig for more info on..there is some ownership dispute i think Director Kipngetich laid out the strategy for KWS; it included focus on people and Ecology. Kipngetich is an impressive guy, and just from talking to a diverse cross section of Kenyans, most of them agree that he is doing an excellent job at KWS - He will probably help KWS reposition itself in a manner that will maximize the tourism dollars and increase growth in that industry.

  Thank you for reading my blog - I wish you and yours a wonderful holiday season, a stupendous year ahead and…wimax. Santa you hear that?!

  *sorry i didn’t include all relevant links. (For NTV just search for tags, kenya, politics, ntv and you should be all set)

• We speak email they speak p.o.box

  Posted: December 21, 2007, 3:55 pm by AfroMusing

  It is 6 days to election day in Kenya. Kenyanpundit has been giving a glimpse of the atmosphere in Nairobi; Read more here, here and here.

  I spoke with a young web designer by the name of Amanya about his thoughts on the presidential candidates and their commitment to ICT in Kenya. A few minutes into the conversation i decided to record it, and he was gracious enough to let me. In the video, Amanya points out the disconnect between the leaders and the youth. The fact that the youth have embraced technology and internet, yet the leaders are still talking about polytechnics which provide skills training but not the computer literacy needed to compete in the age of globalization and digital pervasiveness.
  You might notice that while i was talking to him he had a cellphone, with which he was checking his email
  

  Just to give you some context, if you send an email to the Kenyan government, business or otherwise, you will also need to send a certified business letter by dhl or messenger. Even then it takes a very long time for them to get back to you.

• Africa RE News Roundup

  Posted: December 20, 2007, 8:03 pm by AfroMusing

  Its been a minute since i did one of these, well here goes:
  There is lots happening in the Renewable energy (RE) field in Africa. From various sources, here are a few hits that have crossed my virtual desk.
  From AfriWea,
  Ethiopia
  Can you set up a 120MW wind power plant? If so, the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPC) wants you. Interested companies can submit their proposals before Feb. 4th 2008. Please see attached PDF for the information.

  An exhaustive article about wind power in South Africa, click on this cool graphic.
  
  Blurb:

  What is becoming more and more apparent is that there is a unique opportunity for the growth of a serious renewable-energy industry in South Africa, given growing security of demand and a desire to reduce the country’s carbon footprint. But what is also plain is that unless government and Eskom take an active role in its promotion, the full potential for renewables will not be realised.

  Kenya
  From Business Daily Africa:
  Wind Energy driving Rural Growth
  The article also includes a picture of Simon Mwacharo, the owner of craftskills, TEDster, and friend of the blog.
  Blurb:

  Simon Mwacharo knows one or two things about moving under the feet of the big boys and girls to be the first on the cash till. While KenGen is scheming in the boardroom on how to meet the rising demand for electricity, Mwacharo is on the ground, providing hundreds of homes with electricity generated from the wind.

  Mozambique:
  June this year, i used the pun ‘emPowering’ in this post, glad to know that i am not the only corny one: From Off-Grid. net comes a neat post ‘emPowering Africa’
  

  Mozambique University has launched a local program to encourage renewable energy self sufficiency that may become a model across the continent.

  From Newscientist: Solar water purifier distributed by Rotary international.
  

  The solar water purifier collects heat from sunlight and uses it to evaporate unpurified water running through the panel. The vapour collects inside the glass forming the panel’s surface and is collected - leaving behind most impurities

  hat tip Emeka
  Update: Cant believe i almost forgot about this video. William Kamkwamba was featured on WSJ!
  

  end of brief roundup.

  Solar Accessories:
  Here is a link to a not so flattering post about the solar charger Solio (take it with a grain of salt) I haven’t tried Solio, but mysoldius worked really well for me.

  So i finally bought a voltaic backpack. I was worried about traveling with it, especially when going through airport security. The screeners were fascinated about it, asking lots of questions. Joel Johnson of BoingBoing gadgets had mentioned that he had no problems traveling with it - My experience was the same. No issues at all, actually its a great conversation starter.
  Initial envy from the geeks at my friend’s office in Kenya - Very High!

• Script Writing Competition for Sub-Saharan Africa

  Posted: December 11, 2007, 12:15 am by AfroMusing

  If you know people in Radio, this would be an opportunity to pass along to them.

  The Developing Countries Farm Radio Network (DCFRN) and the Technical Centre for Agriculture and Rural Cooperation (CTA) have launched the African Farmers’ Strategies for Coping with Climate Change, a scriptwriting competition for radio broadcasters. Deadline: March 15.

  The competition is open to all African radio organizations, including broadcasters, production organizations, NGOs with radio projects, and farmers’ associations with radio shows. Submitted scripts may cover themes such as water and soil management, cropping strategies for drought-resistant plants, livestock management practices, fisheries and agroforestry, among others. Scripts must be between 500 and 2,000 words and must include background notes and production notes, in addition to references to information sources used to prepare the reports. Input from local people, especially farmers, must also be included.

  More information is available at Scriptcompetition.net

  Thanks Solana.

• Dec. 8th Global Action Day on Climate Change, & Global Voices Environment Coverage

  Posted: December 6, 2007, 10:37 am by AfroMusing

  
  As the leaders of the world continue with negotiations in Bali to chart the successor to the Kyoto protocol, there are some major events this week to make a note of. The first - international demonstrations planned by the Global climate campaign around the world. In Kenya, the contacts are listed as

  David Waiganjo dnwaiganjo[at]yahoo.com
  (Inter-Varsity Environment Network and African Youth Initiative on Climate)

  Charity Weru glady333ke[at]yahoo.com
  (Kenya Young Greens)

  Grace Akumu cnaf[at]cnaf.or.ke
  (Executive Director, Climate Network Africa)

  For December 8th there is a plan for a climate parade in Nairobi.

  If you will be attending or have more information, please feel free to comment. I would love to see photos and if you are a Kenyan blogger attending the parade please give me a heads up whenever you write about it. Thank you!
  From KenyanPoet, The Climate change Orchestra will be playing as part of the WAPI event at the British Council. More details here.
  
  For the Africa online crew there is something for you, you can join the Virtual Rally on the same day Dec 8th by writing about climate change. You do not have to alter the tone of your ‘blog voice’, a quip, a video, a rant, your thoughts… You can also sign a petition here.

  At global voices online, we have a special page with links to blogs covering Bali and Climate Change politics, so do check it out. I have been going through the feeds to keep it fresh just for you, so do not miss out on the river of news coming out of Bali. If you are an African blogger writing about the environment, this is the week to do it, Global voices links will show up on the Reuters page. How is that for getting your voice heard!
  (please leave me a note if you write something, email is environment [at] globalvoicesonline [dot] org)

  Quotables from Prof. Wangari Maathai

  * If you don’t raise your voice, then your environmentalism means nothing; it’s mere tokenism or opportunism.

  * The environment is very important in the aspects of peace because when we destroy our resources, they become scarce and we fight over that.

  * We have a special responsibility to the ecosystem of this planet. In making sure that other species survive we will be ensuring the survival of our own.

• I am in your OLPC, reverse engineering your Keyboardz

  Posted: November 30, 2007, 8:21 pm by AfroMusing

  There is a developing story that could prove very embarrassing for Prof. Nicholas Negroponte and the OLPC foundation. According Reg Hardware, The OLPC foundation is being sued by Lagos Analysis Corp for copyright infringement.

  Lagos CEO Adé G. Oyegbọla tells El Reg that the company’s Konyin Multilingual Keyboard features four shift keys and a software driver specialized to more easily reproduce the uncommon accent marks found in Nigerian languages and dialects. Such diacritic ticks can be unwieldy in traditional keyboards, but are often essential to getting the right message through. (For example, Oyegbọla explains, without the dot below the “o” in Lagos CTO O. Walter Olúwọlé’s name, the meaning becomes “God destroys the house).

  Oyegbọla claims that Nicholas Negroponte, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor who founded the OLPC foundation, purchased two of the company’s keyboards in 2006 and used them to reverse-engineer its keyboard technology.

  Reg Hardware includes images of the two keyboards for comparison.
  The OLPC Keyboard
  
  The Lagos Analysis Keyboard
  

  You can look at the keyboards yourself and make up your mind. To me the placement of the keys seem very similar and I would even posit that the OLPC keyboard does look like it borrowed something from the Lagos Analysis one. In the reg hardware article, they are yet to receive a substantive answer from OLPC so this story will keep going for a little while at least. I am pulling up a chair ringside to watch what happens. If it is proven that OLPC lifted the design and functionality from Lagos analysis, it is very disingenuous and just plain ‘not cool’. However, this story reminded me that the functionality described is one that contextualizes technology for use in Africa. I think this is important in the future of design for Africans, (by Africans?). Is it possible that Lagos Analysis corp by virtue of being African understood the need for the features described above and thereby designed it with the African languages in mind? Can the Negroponte camp prove that they came up with the keyboard concept and if so, how did they know which special characters are important in African languages? Last year when discussing Hash’s ‘A web Technology idea for Africa’, the question of language being relevant to tech implementation came up. At the time i was not quite sure what the implications of that observation were, but I think it is now clear to me that ‘cultural sensitivity’ is a concept to be applied to web technology and as this case shows…computing.

  Cultural sensitivity in technology idea was the brain child of Koranteng Ofosu Amaah’s post, which was later included in the book Best of Technology Writing 2006. It should be required reading for anyone making tech products/services. While flickr is still not too kind to us melanin blessed folks, there are some great examples of culturally sensitive services and products: Check out Ted Kidane’s story of Feedelix from TEDGlobal 2007, Arusha -sms software for Ethiopic languages, and also Suuch Solutions out of Ghana - “kasahorow’s mission is to enable local languages remain a viable form of communication for all aspects of life.” They use Open source software to do this by the way.

  I was listening to the digital planet podcast (11/26) where they had a correspondent attend the launch of the OLPC in Abuja, Nigeria. You could hear the excitement and enthusiasm in the children’s voices as they spoke of what they would do with the OLPC. It was a great moment. Now to the questions that started popping into my head like Orville Redenbachers microwave popcorn. When Gareth Mitchell was talking to Bill Thompson, they mentioned how they attended the OLPC launch in Tunis and how a child was crying because they’d been given an OLPC to play with for a time, then it was taken away. That was not a good moment, rather sad really, that kid is probably traumatized right now wherever he or she may be. I mean isn’t that just a little cruel? I know i would wail like a banshee if i was in her shoes. The discussion segued into what it would mean for the children to have a laptop that they would call their own. This got me wondering, that perhaps one of the unintended consequences of the OLPC project is that it would enhance the idea of ‘mine’ rather than ‘ours’. In modern Africa do the age old African values of community and sharing still apply? Would the OLPC idea chip away at the ‘utu’, that is a societal benchmark? Is the Ndiyo project a better thought out model for computer literacy, what with the idea of USB thin clients that I am already a fan of?

  (Warning: the post is about to degenerate to something entirely pedantic)
  Maybe I am looking at this all wrong, Is Negroponte pimping the ‘education project’ in pursuit of…what? The next generation of Africans to be Ipod toting, consumerist driven, video game obsessed, camping out for days in front of Best buy in Timbuktu_Kabartonjo_jinja of the future? Stomping on each other to get to the newest version of the Zii during an ‘African Thanksgiving blowout!’ sale? I know i am from the begging bowl peoples of Africa, but seriously, i have to draw the line at camping out in front of Best buy. A girls’ got to have some dignity!
  O.k, ok how did i get here? I blame fakestevejobs, who has a hilarious take on this whole XO lawsuit mess (via Park Paradigm). I hope the OLPC foundation and Lagos Analysis Corp can sort this soon, or you will likely see next headline on Wall street Journal being… ‘The little laptop that stole’ instead of this ‘The little laptop that could’.

  *The title of this post is a riff on this. You can read some background information about the OLPC at African Loft, and see what else Africans are saying on Afrigator.

• Solar Taxi

  Posted: November 17, 2007, 10:33 pm by AfroMusing

  Via Digg
  
  *Vid is abit grainy but not too bad, there is another one here.
  This team is on a mission to showcase solutions to global warming…by driving a solar taxi. They are currently in India, where they spoke with the chairman of IPCC (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) Mr. Rajendra Pachauri. Incase you’ve been living under a rock for the past several months, IPCC were co winners of the Nobel Peace prize with Al Gore. The Solar Taxi team will be making their way to the United Nations conference on Climate Change next month in Bali Dec 3rd - 14th. How about a stop in Africa sometime in the future? They could even attend the Zero Africa Rally
  Cool stuff.

• Snake Light: Solar powered LED by Faludi Design & Thoughts on Design ‘For Africa’

  Posted: November 15, 2007, 9:32 am by AfroMusing

  

  I came across this solar powered LED lamp via worldchanging author, product designer Jeremy Faludi. It definitely has an interesting design…wondering why the weird shape? Pictures from his site speak louder than words. First, 3 words “Usable form factor”.
  

  Would be interested in your thoughts on this product. Would you use it? Do you like the design? Is it practical?

  What follows are some tangentially related thoughts, just so I am clear, I am not attributing what follows below to the above product. Just thinking through the idea of design ‘for Africa’.

  One of the things that came up during a spirited discussion of the solar powered computer and the OLPC laptop many moons ago, was the question of relevant  products, and  whether these products that are labeled ‘for Africa’ smack of designing down. Maitha asked (in swahili) Don’t Africans deserve products made of high quality - in reference to the OLPC that is currently available for purchase. Granted at the time, maitha was looking at the bulky nature of linux for the OLPC, and the product was still being designed (with myriad challenges to overcome). I have not gotten my hands on and XO but when i do, i would like to revisit some of the issues raised. Particularly (perhaps i am simplifying, but) is the OLPC a good quality product that is relevant for African children? Atanu Dey of Deeshaa.org looked at the OLPC in context of education in India (I need to reacquaint myself with his arguments…I had been following the OLPC dev, then sorta lost track somewhere).
  Wired had a profile of the OLPC designer Yves Behar, which I am rereading now, I just recall that he did do some nifty things to get OLPC to be what it is today.So, please chime in with your examples of products you think smack of ‘designing down’ and those that you think are ‘just right’.

  My entries for the ‘just right’ category are
  - mysoldius solar charger for mobile phone and IPOD (blogged about here)
  - Bogo solar flashlight (blogged about here)
  These are based on positive feedback from my dear uncle who absolutely finds function and convenience in using the above products.
   
   

• Video - Micro Hydro Power plant in Embu, Kenya

  Posted: November 8, 2007, 6:46 pm by AfroMusing

  From ApproVideo
  The video by Ben Craft shows a small hydro power plant that generates electricity for a community near Chuka. As noted in the video, power generation of this kind helps with the Infrastructure problem we have in Kenya, particularly in rural areas.

• Update: Organic Farmers market in Nai - Date change - Dec 15th

  Posted: November 6, 2007, 6:50 pm by AfroMusing

  Just got an update from KOAN, the event blogged about yesterday is for Dec 15th and not Dec 8th. Thanks!

• Organic Farmers Market - NBI Dec 8th

  Posted: November 5, 2007, 6:49 pm by AfroMusing

  ***Please note that the event is for December 15th. and not dec 8th. Thanks.
  The latest Globalvoices environment post is on conservation efforts in Zambia, South Africa and D.R Congo. It also includes some links from Phil in Kenya and Mr. SSerwanga in Uganda, writing about carbon footprints and land rights respectively.

  While I was writing that roundup I came across the Kenya Organic Agricultural Network. They’ve got an excellent event planned for Saturday December Dec 15th .
  You can find more details here. I sure hope the Kwani folks make it there, because that would be just wonderful. A combination of great organic food, music, poetry and exhibits showing renewable energy services in Kenya! Excuse me while I figure out a way to teleport myself there.
  Check out what is planned…

  Farmers Market and Regional Trade Fair
  This area will consist of 25-25 tents (10 x 10 ft and 25 x 25ft), where local organic
  farmers and retailers will display and sell their produce and products, including at
  least one tent devoted to information about organic food and farming run by the
  Kenya Organic Agriculture Network (KOAN) and its members. Partners from East
  Africa and beyond will be invited to give the market international flavour, offer
  consumers a wide variety of choice and help stimulate regional trade.
  Green Christmas Shopping
  Purveyors of other types of environmentally friendly products and services will be
  invited to exhibit at the market: natural health and beauty products, green crafts,
  renewable energy services, recycled products, ecotourism, etc.
  Organic Catering
  Bridges Restaurant will provide fully organic catering services at reasonable prices.
  Kamsitu Msituni
  This nursery and garden centre will sell a variety of indigenous and useful exotic
  trees, as well as organic gardening inputs such as compost and natural pest control
  products.
  Art Gallery
  An art gallery will display and sell paintings and sculptures, focusing on smaller,
  lower priced pieces to make art more accessible to the public.
  Solar Cinema
  A 50-seat cinema tent with projector or TV powered by solar PV will show
  environment-themed films and documentaries for free. A solar cinema at an
  Arboretum event in June 2007 featured the Academy Award-winning documentary
  An Inconvenient Truth. Other films will be solicited from UNEP, KIFF/Alliance
  Francaise and ZIFF.

  Also from the same site, you can download the Bio Safety Bill, which I don’t know if its been passed or deffered till after the elections.

• Random: Tragedy is…

  Posted: October 23, 2007, 4:00 am by AfroMusing

  Image from forota (one of my favorite photographers, check out his other shots)

  Tragedy is…running out of Kenyan tea. What to do? Get some English breakfast tea from the local grocery store and dream of pushing a cart in Nakumatt soon. This diaspora life sucks, especially when the weather becomes surly.

  Reasons why I am resisting the urge to get an Iphone
  1. In the US it means switching to AT&T. I am happy with T-mobile and I am not switching to a network that has less than stellar coverage (just my opinion, the last time i tried AT&T I was in college and couldn’t get signal around my Uni, which was smack in the middle of the city) An aside, why isn’t there a text message plan or package that includes international text msgs? Gosh its 2007 and didn’t Friedman say the world is flat? Why aren’t service plans getting cheaper in the US? As a consumer I don’t really see much competition in that arena…prices are just about the same across the board and It wouldn’t make much sense to get the Iphone without the data plan anyway.

  2. I would want my Iphone unlocked, free and ready to roam to Kenya or any other place in the world with a GSM network…which is pretty much the whole world. I do not shy away from tinkering with phones, but I don’t think I want to brick an expensive bit of tech then go through a 19 step recovery process
  . If it was 5 steps sorta like the grief process, I might reconsider…NOT! Even if you sign a contract with AT&T and ask for unlock codes when you are travelling, something that carriers do for you without batting an eye…not happening, not possible, no way Jose, *hapana (not to be confused with the amazing Bryan Habana!).
  I think I would be wiling to pay extra to have an Iphone that i could use in any network though.

  3. Why buy it when it doesn’t have 3G capability now, and when tested against the RAZR and even the T-mobile sidekick much favored by rappers and a certain Hilton progeny, took forever to open a page in a download race? (To be fair, the comments indicate that it may be faster than reported, but everyone has a reality distortion field around them). Oh as with apple products that are shape shifting, paradigm blasting, fat burning and calorie free there are always rumors. The rumor/confirmed fact masquerading as a rumor is that the Iphone in 2008 will actually have 3G capability and on the horizon the Iphone could even be Wimax capable.

  4. The wi-fi capability is nice, but when traveling, good luck finding open networks that wont charge you an arm, a leg and kidney to connect. Special offenders - some airports like O’Hare in Chicago. I do not like paying for wi-fi esp. when its almost 10 bucks for just a few hours. Perhaps i should try Fon again.

  Via 69Mb:The Iphone is Kenya bound in November apparently, which network will it be chained to and how much will the data plan for that be? Not clear from the BDAfrica article, probably in the 5000Ksh range like the Blackberries? Carrier specific phones are not a good idea in Kenya, I enjoyed the freedom to pick which carrier i would go with depending on their rates, and I think the Kenyan consumers and all consumers for that matter need to be able to make the best choice of data plans regardless of the hardware.

  All this…and i still ogle at the thing each time I see it! Ok, that is the end of my little screed for today.

  Btw, Liz Henry is tweeting the ‘She’s Geeky’ UnConference.

  DMKW - Diary of a Mad Kenyan Woman is back!!!!!!!!

  Blogged with Flock

• Quick notes

  Posted: October 16, 2007, 7:51 am by AfroMusing

  Just a note of thanks to all the African bloggers who joined in Blog Action day. I learned so much from all the posts, and i hope you find something in the globalvoices roundup that resonates with you.

  Via muti and Justin Hartman on twitter
  Press freedom in South Africa is under threat:

  I write this having just heard that the editor of this newspaper, Mondli Makhanya, and its head of investigations, Jocelyn Maker, will be arrested this week. Their crime is that they published a story alleging that the Minister of Health, Dr Manto Tshabalala- Msimang, screamed at hospital staff and drank huge amounts of booze while in hospital for a shoulder operation.

  The minister, the custodian of our nation’s health, has denied none of these allegations. This newspaper also published allegations that Tshabalala- Msimang was a drunk and a thief. This story has not been refuted by the minister nor any other government official.

  A Jaiku channel has been set up with updates on this developing story. You can read more about it here.

  

  I am not that much of a politico but I realize the important link between democracy and free press. Being from Kenya where there’s always a tussle between the govt and the press, I can totally empathize with our fellow Africans in SA, and truly hope this gets sorted without members of the press being thrown in jail. Plus, bloggers are an opinionated bunch just like journalists, if they arrest a journalist one day, what’s to prevent govt’s from arresting bloggers?

  On a lighter note: Here is a clip from the segment ‘Bulls Eye’ on NTV (Nation TV) Kenya. Elections in Kenya can be hilarious, and weird. ‘The pentagon?!’, day of thunder? and I dont even want to relive the whole Raila driving to parliament in a hummer. Sigh*
  

• The Flow of Flotsam

  Posted: October 15, 2007, 8:19 am by AfroMusing

  Tags:   

  I was wondering what to write about for blog action day…Deforestation? possible land grabbing in Kenya? The need for recycling bins in apartment communities? the politics of climate change…many options to choose from. I happened watch wired science tonight, and they had a fascinating yet disturbing segment on ‘the garbage patch’. A flowing mass of garbage that goes with the currents spanning several oceans. Cargo that ended up in the seas, such as 80,000 pairs of Nike shoes gave the researchers some information about the flow of trash. Weirdly, a left shoe would end up on one shore and the right shoe on an entirely different shore. Intrigued? Below is the video from PBS.
  

  As its mentioned in the video, perhaps if we see the sheer amount of plastic that is ending up in oceans and inside the bodies of countless birds and animals, we just might think twice about how we dispose of our plastic bottles.

  Habib Koite of Mali has a beautiful song that captures feelings of concern about the environment and industrialization. Can we keep chugging along on the path to the new African Century without wrecking our environment?
  Listen/download ‘Kumbin’.

• 3 days to go: Blog Action Day, Join in and plant a tree!

  Posted: October 11, 2007, 6:08 pm by AfroMusing

  
  On Monday October 15th, bloggers will be writing about one topic for one day…the environment. My idea for this day is to appeal to my fellow African bloggers to help make this a fun day in the African blogosphere. The idea is to make it even more special by not only talking about the environment, but by doing something, one thing. So please,

  - Plant a tree
  - Take a picture or have someone take a picture of you planting the tree
  - Please post on your blog

  I will be checking the African blogs starting on Sunday, to compile a feature for global voices online.
  - Please leave a comment if you will be participating (though you don’t have to, you can tag your post with Africa + Blog Action Day)
  Pass the idea along. If we can get one blogger from each country featured on Afrigator, Kenyaunlimited, Amatomu, mashada blogs etc planting a tree, we would really appreciate it.

  *Incentive for the first Kenyan blogger to commit to participating: Airtime for you purchased through mamamikes!

• Solar traffic lights in Capetown + Other news bits

  Posted: October 6, 2007, 10:30 pm by AfroMusing

  Via Carbon Copy
  Capetown is using solar powered traffic lights to buttress it from expected power cuts. As Rory points out, its a great start to making solar power more commonplace. I would love to see pictures of the traffic lights…this is a blatant hint to our South African friends at WebAddicts. Implementation of solar tech such as this makes so much sense, here’s hoping more countries see the example and follow suit. Just imagine a whole street in (_______insert African country of your choice) with solar powered streetlights. Warms your heart yeah?

  In case you have not heard, Dr. Ngozi Okonjo Iweala has been appointed as managing director of the world bank! For brevity’s sake, i will just say that her appointment is laudable, in part because it signals a new direction for the world bank and how it views developing countries. Please watch the talk she gave at TED Global in Arusha to see how she tied together the issues of aid, trade and African self-determinism. I hope she will be given a chance to reshape the terms of world bank’s relationship to the developing world in a way that is beneficial to Africa, and continues to shape Africa’s next chapter “A healthy, smiling, beautiful Africa”.
  

  Speaking of the world bank and its policies in Africa, according to the Guardian, the world bank is accused of razing congo forests, thereby endangering the pygmies. I feel a bit bad using the word pygmy, because they have names that I would much rather use such as ‘The Lega’. Several years ago i went to the Nelson Atkins museum in Kansas city for an exhibition named ‘The Art of the Lega’. It was an eye opener for me because the explanations for the pieces gave me a glimpse into their society. One of the tenets i remember was the idea of peace as a fabric of society; the Lega people have a pacifist culture which was expressed in the way they chose to fashion tools - with smooth edges, eschewing sharp points. Since that exhibition and when reading stories about the Congo war and its adverse effects on the people there, I wonder if we need to rethink how we address a community that we know little about other than their stature. Stepping back to the story about the world bank making recommendations to the DRC govt about industrial logging being beneficial to the DRC, did anyone listen to the local community about how best the forest can be used to truly benefit people?

  For more on Art of the Lega, the companion book to the exhibition is available on Amazon.

• Art From Recycled Materials

  Posted: October 6, 2007, 6:26 am by AfroMusing

  6 photos with descriptions of a few pieces i have gathered/seen so far, mostly metallic. Click on the wire motorcycle image.
  

  PS:
  Annansi Chronicles is back
  Afrotechie - A website with a banging name by Andrew Heavens
  

• Quick notes

  Posted: September 21, 2007, 9:11 am by AfroMusing

  I have a new post on Global voices, rounding up environment news from blogs. You can add the code showing all the pieces I do for GV to your website. Incentive? My perpetual gratitude.

  Via Carbon Copy
  A cool mashup site with base maps showing CO2 emission levels, power plant locations, photos, videos etc. ExploreOurPla.net.

  Cho of New Zambia has an excellent intro to the Zambian blogosphere

  Confession: I do not like traffic jams at all…one thing that’s been making it bearable for me is listening to Ted Talks and other podcasts on the Ipod (o.k, ok, i watch abit at stop lights and such). Thing is, i got a weird, albeit puzzled look from another motorist at a stop light because i was clapping my hands. An unintended consequence of watching inspiring ted talks in public places.
  The video I was applauding to was that of Zeray Alemseged, specifically where he said

  A positive African Attitude towards Africa is the Key

• Wired NextFest - looking back, wishing I was in LA

  Posted: September 14, 2007, 9:19 am by AfroMusing

  2 years ago i attended Wired Next fest in Chicago and blogged bits of it. I skipped last year’s fest because most of the exhibitions were just about the same as what i had already seen. This year it appears there is more new stuff, thus I am kicking myself for not going to LA. Instead i will look back at my old next fest posts and see what’s new this year. Thankfully the nextfest site has lots of info (doesn’t substitute for actually being there, believe me), plus there is bound to be coverage on science channel and the many blogs around the web.
  So…
  Renewable energy tech
  Then: GE Solar Exhibit
  

  Now: Sphelar
  “The Sphelar solar cell can absorb sunlight coming from any angle, converting even indirect and reflected light into electricity — a marked improvement over traditional flat photovoltaic technology.”
  

  Robots
  Then: PKD - Phillip K Dick project “Do androids dream of electric sheep”
  

  Now: Albert Hubo The first ever walking robot with an expressive face (and iconic hairstyle).
  
  They’ve got lots of robots this year…including one that can play chess.
  *lots of other great stuff, but a full comparison would make this post too long for you ADD types, plus i’ve got to catch some zzz’s then be back to write a post for you…’Where are the African futurists?’ hint…right around the web!
  For those in the LA area its not too late to attend, you can get tickets for friday 14th, saturday 15th and sunday 16th. Friday is ‘learning day’ perfect for taking your children. Borrow nephews and nieces so you can see them get all wide-eyed with wonder and jaws dropping at the stuff they will see, or maybe that just might be your reaction to Next Fest. Feel free to come back to this post, describe, gloat and make me green with envy.

• Biological Malaria control - Tilapia

  Posted: September 11, 2007, 8:34 am by AfroMusing

  Via Science Daily
  A study done by ICIPE (International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology) Nairobi shows that Tilapia in ponds significantly controls malaria causing anopheles mosquitoes.

  After 15 weeks the fish reduced both Anopheles gambiae s.l. and Anopheles funestus, the region’s primary malaria vectors, by over 94 percent. The fish also decimated three quarters of the culicine mosquito population.

  The findings present a win-win situation for Kenyans, who can use the fish to limit mosquito populations and gain food and income from them too. “O. niloticus fish were so effective in reducing immature mosquito populations that there is likely to be a noticeable effect on the adult mosquito population in the area,” Howard says. This control method is apparently sustainable, as the fish breed and provide a continuous population.

  Basically if you’ve got a pond put some Tilapia in there to eat the mosquitoes. Good news, though stagnant pools of water are still breeding grounds… still an interesting study and a great suggestion for controlling malaria.

• Random Post: Cool, Uncool and WTH.

  Posted: September 11, 2007, 8:09 am by AfroMusing

  Disclaimer: Temporary departure from my typical topics, just had to get this out. will be back to the other semi serious stuff after this.
  Cool
  Comics at a bus stop.From Kenya no less!
  
  From BBC: Humphrey Barasa has been drawing satirical cartoons at a bus stop along Jogoo Road for the past 6 years. I had never heard of him till today, i would love to see his work. Would be cool to give him a camera phone and have him post them to a blog if he doesn’t mind… Sort of like Accra Daily Photo blog.

  Via Ethan Z: The Chess Drum A pan African Chess site.

  Via Cirdan:
  The decision flowchart.
  

  Depending on your point of view, Camillo Villegas may be cool or uncool. For me, he belongs in the cool category just for this: [30 seconds]
  

  Ninja Warrior on G4 channel. Hilarious, intriguing and just plain incredible tv!

  Goodness gracious i finally watched Blades of Glory. If you enjoyed Zoolander, this movie is a must see.
  “hey MacElroy, was that your routine or a performance of Cirque du so’lame?” - Chaz Michael Michaels (Will Ferrell)

  Uncool
  According to a Helio ad insert in Wired mag ‘The mobile User’s Guide to Social Etiquette’.
  - The “Cool” emoticon with the sunglasses, its the virtual equivalent of the fanny pack. - totally uncool.

  Via boing boing: The flowchart of Gangsta rap
  

  I have a love hate relationship with rap, including the song ‘party like a rockstar‘. If its a cross between crunk and rock, would that make it a crock? - 1:30 mark is a bit funny though.

  WTH
  Via African Path:
  An amnesty provision passed by parliament, basically letting the looters of Kenya walk scott free, without even a demand for repatriation of the cash?

  Blogs that suck all your content and masquerade it as theirs… very annoying. And bogus trackbacks to sites set up for ads. They typically do not have a contact form. Not nice.

• Lighting Africa Grant Competition Launches today

  Posted: September 5, 2007, 9:09 am by AfroMusing

  

  Lighting Africa (LA) is a joint World Bank (IBRD) and International Finance Corporation (IFC) initiative aimed at developing the market for off-grid lighting in Africa and providing poor households and small businesses with access to modern, clean and affordable lighting products.

  The grant competition is open to a variety of organizations, from entrepreneurs, LED suppliers and NGO’s. Click here for more information about the grant competition and here for the forum where you can ask questions about the grants process; It is also a B2B portal of sorts.

  Via Core 77

• Odds and Ends

  Posted: August 28, 2007, 11:23 am by AfroMusing

  Pardon the light posting…my attention has been diverted a bit to a couple of gigs that are keeping me away from the blog. While i get my schedule rearranged and all that good stuff…Please head on over to

  Afrigadget for a very Afro-cool post from Henry Addo

  A ‘10 questions’ interview of Steve ‘Ntwiga’ and Afrigadget team at the Sietch.

  Subscribe to the Global Voices podcasts

  Check the site of the Afro-preneurs who are holding an event… (that i hope someone blogs or tweets for us who are away)

  TIDE (Technology, Innovation, Design
  and Everything)- Innovation Series Event *this Saturday September 1st,
  10-12pm at Grand Regency. The guest speaker will be Joseph Mucheru, Google
  Kenya CEO. The entrance charge is Kshs.1000. This talk is open to all
  persons and is not a technology only event, it will focus on innovation in
  Africa from a business and entrepreneur point of view.

  Last but not least, check out the 5 dollar solar thermal water heater from Instructables (Requires modification).

  I almost forgot…you have got to watch Vusi Mahlasela. From Ted Blog
  

  AOB - Agony is: finding your web host’s site has been hacked into. so if the blog is not reachable, i have a backup, i am keeping my fingers crossed that it gets sorted soon.

• Spotted: Catch me if you Kenya

  Posted: August 19, 2007, 7:56 pm by AfroMusing

  
  
  From Sunday morning cartoon Timon and Pumbaa.

• Wind Energy Resources & RE News Tidbits

  Posted: August 16, 2007, 9:14 am by AfroMusing

  Via Leonardo Energy,
  The Wind Turbine buyers guide [PDF]: “The article discusses small wind system components, wind turbine basics, and understanding the ratings. It also shows photos of the small wind turbines and lists several specifications for each.”

  Via AfriWea
  GVEP International receives a 2 million pound grant for a project in East Africa. GVEP’s role is, according to their site

  … providing financial support, capacity building and technical assistance to energy SMEs in developing countries. Using funding from the Russian Government, GVEP intends to set up two Regional Funds in West and East Africa to build local energy supply chains and grow economic development from the bottom up.

  The list of other organizations in Africa receiving grants from Europe aid can be found here. [PDF]. Some of the organizations in Kenya on the list include:
  Kenya Arid Land Development Focus - Renewable energy in Wajir
  Kenya Tana and Athi rivers Development Authority - Community based mini hydropower development in upper tana river basin
  Deutsche Gesellschaft fur Technische Zusammenarbeit (GTZ) - Up scaling the smaller biogas Plants

  Via BBC
  “The Greek Orthodox Church in Cyprus has announced plans to invest $234m (£115m) in solar energy. Archbishop Chrysostomos II said the church would build a factory that would make photo-voltaic panels to capture the sun’s energy.” - Now that is a faith based initiative i could get behind.

  Fun from The Daily show with Jon Stewart: An awesome lampoon of the Cape Wind project in Nantucket. Big wigs don’t want it because it will presumably ruin their long range view from their mansions.
  

• Of Interest to Diaspora

  Posted: August 13, 2007, 4:24 am by AfroMusing

  MONEY
  Last week i happened to catch a great report on NPR about Latin American immigrants preferring to move to Spain instead of the US. Why? Because…

  Experts say one of the main reasons is the emergence of an entire industry of financial services catering to immigrants.

  Ecuadorians are the biggest group of Latin Americans in Spain. And in Madrid and Barcelona, there are shops where they can pay for appliances and have them delivered to an address in Ecuador. One company is test-marketing ATMs that allow users to pay for grocery purchases, medical treatment or cell phones in Ecuador.

  Lucia Jimenez recently visited a branch of Mundocredit, an immigrant bank set up by one of Spain’s largest banks. It offers no-commission money transfers and the option of getting a mortgage in Spain for a home in Latin America.

  Jimenez said that she is thinking about getting life insurance that she can eventually take back to her native country, Paraguay.

  I found this very instructive to Diaspora because remittances to developing countries are constituting a growing percentage of GDP, as evidenced by figures from around the world. Specifically about kenya, from Next billion, some stats
  

  Kenyans in the diaspora are contributing an equivalent of 3.8 per cent of national income through remittances.

  In the year 2004, for instance, Kenyans living and working abroad remitted about Ksh35 billion ($464 million), which overshadows the net foreign direct investment (FDI) of Ksh3.6 billion ($50.4 million), which accounted for 0.41 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product.

  Point is, there is an opportunity to cater for immigrants in the financial services like the Spanish government is doing for the Ecuadorian immigrants. Its a powerful incentive to bank with a specific bank over another if a line of credit specifically for investment in one’s home country, and portable life insurance is available. There are myriad financial products for sending money but i am not aware of similar products for purchase of homes, cars etc in one’s home country. I have heard of people accessing the equity in their houses and using that to purchase homes in Kenya. I am not a finance wonk, but would appreciate input from those in the know.

  COMMUNICATION
  
  As noted by KP, Mama Mikes is running a campaign where you send airtime for $2.49 to Celtel, Safaricom and Telkom Wireless too. You can also pay for an electricity bill right on the website. It cost $9.99 - Decent price in my opinion.

  CIVIC PARTICIPATION
  If you aren’t checking mzalendo.com for information regarding your constituency, i am tempted to call you a bootleg Kenyan. I am just kidding of course, but seriously, there is lots of information there to stay informed even if you are miles away.

  The Kenya Community Abroad issued a press release regarding the issue of Dual Citizenship and absentee voting, which you can read more about here. The world as we know (sorry to extend the much used cliche’) is increasingly flat. Dual citizenship and absentee voting IMO would be beneficial if not integral to Kenya. The inflow of remittance shouldn’t be the only welcome development, civic participation should be too. Mid last year I do recall Kalonzo Musyoka saying that if he were to become president of Kenya, that he would pass a presidential decree to allow for Dual citizenship. He even joked that if the Artur’s had Kenyan passports in addition to their Armenian ones, then really, isn’t it about time Kenyans got dual citizenship?

  MUSIC, BOOKS AND ART.
  There are still concerts happening around the US by African musicians, you can check if there is one near your city here. Ladysmith Black Mambazo is touring in September and Hugh Masekela’s remaining dates are:
  Aug 31 2007 Tanglewood Festival, Lennox, Massachusetts
  Sep 1 2007 Planet Arlington Festival, Arlington, Virginia
  Sep 2 2007 African Festival of the Arts, Chicago, Illinois

  Chris Abani, whose TED Talk is posted and highlighted by Hash, has several upcoming events in NY, Chicago, Vegas, DC, Minneapolis, Vermont, Miami etc. Check here if there is an event near you. I am hoping to read one of his books before i go for one of his events. His talk was very powerful. I recall just being transfixed by him when i listened to him in Arusha and again online. Particularly the part where he says that we as Africans need to explore what it really means to be African. I am simplifying a bit, but what i got from his talk is that we Africans also need to read our own literature in our exploration of who we are. I recall a post by David Seruyange about how some, if not most of us are mashups (David Seruyange has moved websites btw, so if you are a fan of his writing like I am, this is his new home), there is so much competing for our attention, but i think in order to be fully African (if there is such a thing) African arts, books and music help reconnect your being to that which is immutably you.

  Move over Lion King! The Invincible Lions are the new game in town (scratch that…jungle).
  
  Some great animations from Africa, click here for a post by Mweshi, highlighting some cool ones in the pipeline. I can’t wait to see these!

• Pre-Friday Fun from the Onion

  Posted: August 10, 2007, 4:15 am by AfroMusing

  
  Live From Congress: Rep. Hardy Calls For A Ladies’ Night Out

• Innovative Ideas in Solar Tech

  Posted: August 7, 2007, 8:13 am by AfroMusing

  There are two interesting developments in solar technology I came across awhile ago: The first is a portable solar tracker called Portasol.
  
  The cool thing about this one is that the mechanism for tracking the sun (just like a sunflower would) does not require any power per se. It is thermo-hydraulically powered; click here for Engadget’s explanation of how it works..
  Via Make

  The second development is not a solid product yet, but researchers from Georgia Tech have designed a solar cell that can generate electricity when light hits the side of the cell, thus increasing efficiency because it still works well in the morning and afternoon when the sun is not hitting the cell directly from the top.

  “It may be intuitive: when the light goes straight down, the only interaction is with the tops of towers and the ’streets’ below,” says Jud Ready, senior research engineer at the institute’s Electro-Optical Systems Laboratory. “But at an angle, the light has an opportunity to reflect off the sides of the towers.” When the sun is at a 90-degree angle, the prototype delivers only 3.5 percent efficiency. But it delivers better efficiencies at many other angles and is actually at its peak efficiency–7 percent–when light comes in at a 45-degree angle. That means the device operates at relatively high efficiencies during much of the day and has two efficiency peaks: one before noon, and one after noon.

  While those efficiencies are too low for commercialization, Ready is working on optimizing the size and spacing of his towers as well as their chemical composition.

  Read more about it on Technology Review.

  An added bonus link (Not solar related but cool nonetheless) - Ethan Z on Incremental Ideas, and his piece in the Boston Globe is a must read.

• Blogher - Mini Digest

  Posted: August 1, 2007, 9:39 am by AfroMusing

  There were so many sessions, so much information, that i wish we had a blogging hazmat team like Ethan recommends, to do a ‘harambee’ (working together) type deal where we cover different bits of the conference.
  A quick intro of the other co-panelists on the ‘Women Across the World’ session.
  Georgia of Caribbean Free Radio took photos
  Snidga Sen is a journalist and contributing editor on the Blogher website where you can read her entries (she covers Asia).
  Amira Al Husseini, is a contributing author for Global voices, and also blogs as ‘Silly Bahraini Girl‘.
  The session is interactive, therefore powerpoint presentations were discouraged.
  Mea Culpa: During the session i inadvertently referred to Kenya as having had democracy since 2000, i did clarify that the Moi Regime ended in 2000 and Kenya had experienced some noticeable economic growth. This was in response to a question by Georgia as to the reason behind Kenya being seen as a success story. Sssembonge was kind enough to point this out, Just to clarify, Kenya has had democracy since its independence in 1963, and the specifics on democracy from wikipedia…

  “The election held in 1988 saw the advent of the mlolongo (queuing) system where voters were supposed to line up behind their favoured candidates instead of secret ballot. This was seen as the climax of a very undemocratic regime and it led to widespread agitation for constitutional reform. Several contentious clauses, including the one allowing only one political party were changed in the following years. In democratic, multiparty elections in 1992 and 1997, Daniel arap Moi won re-election. In 2002, Moi was constitutionally barred from running, and Mwai Kǐbakǐ, running for the opposition coalition “National Rainbow Coalition” — NARC, was elected President. The elections, judged free and fair by local and international observers, marked a turning point in Kenya’s democratic evolution.”

  Ok, now that i got that off my chest, let me point towards some wonderful bloggers and tidbits from my notes at the conference. The session on ‘Professional blogging, Art and Commerce’
  What i found pertinent in this session was the issue of licensing content and how we as bloggers use content licensed by others. Specifically sites that have ads could be considered commercial sites, thus technically they should not use content from bloggers who have explicitly stated that their content or images be used only for non-commercial use. This is a bit of a minefield if you have your own domain and you are trying to make a decision as to whether or not to carry ads on your site. Does it dilute your ‘voice’ on the net? Should you incorporate if you are making money from blogging? These are some of the questions that were posed, and you can read more about that from the coverage by Anne Marie Nichols.

  I slipped away from this session (not that it wasn’t interesting) and attended part of the session ‘politics of inclusion and exclusion in online communities’. As bloggers, sometimes we encounter trolls or even some purely hateful people. How do you deal with such? Do you find that it is easier to blog anonymously and have a gender-neutral blog name? What freedom or lack thereof is there in blogging anonymously or with your name attached to everything you say? Live blog entry is available here. I got to meet Valencia who participated in the panel; her blog is http://whyblackwomenareangry.blogspot.com/. I particularly liked her recommendation to turn negative comments (including from white supremacists) into a positive lesson for those involved.

  Quick note: Visit Lynne D Johnson, very cool website and an even cooler blogger and writer! (Hint, she writes for FastCompany.com and other major publications)

  Last but not least, at the keynote breakfast on saturday, i was formulating talking points for the session, but still listening to the discussion about ‘What Humans do with artificial intelligence’. This was just superb! The awesome women talking to Elisa Camahort were:
  Esther Dyson She has been described as one of the most powerful women in computing.
  Annalee Newitz, - She is a technologist and writes for Wired Mag (I read that thing instead of Cosmo, so pardon me for being so psyched to meet her!)
  Rashmi Sinha CEO of Slideshare.
  The main takeaway for me from this keynote breakfast was “Embrace your geek”. At times women (including me) tend to play down our penchant for all things geek, because of many reasons, be it cultural, social…whatever. Basically plough on with whatever interests you and ignore the detractors(if any) so if you like robots, or feel entirely comfortable dealing with NP problems, completely adore Carl Sagan or whatever it may be, embrace it and keep doing your thing.

  Speaking of geek - Visit Beth Kanter, and see her work with Cambodian bloggers (Cloggers) and don’t forget to download her guide ‘How to cost and fund ICT’

  Thanks again to KP, my fellow co-panelists mentioned above, Kui (she was also involved with BlogHer in 2005, when we were talking of sending a representative from the Kenyan sphere) Blogher was awesome. In time I am confident we can put together something like this in Africa. (We shall talk!), and thank you dear reader for reading all this. I will be back to my solar and renewable energy posts soon.

• BlogHer Conference - Live blog links

  Posted: July 28, 2007, 12:56 am by AfroMusing

  A live blog coverage of the session i participated in is available here,

  “… when people talk about africa they talk about poverty but africa would like to say there is a lot of growth and a lot of expertise in africa - linux chicks africa - (Jen says how do we connect linux chicks with the women Jen saw in africa) - have africa speakers talk about changing africa - african solutions for african problems - Ted Talks - TRADE with africans - partner and work with Africans support their ideas - trade, trade, trade - money and capital in the hands of women has a transformative power.”

  I then attended the multimedia lab for video -
  Editing video for web tips keep an eye on the main blogher site for more entries.

• BlogHer Conference - Women and blogging

  Posted: July 28, 2007, 9:17 am by AfroMusing

  I was fortunate to attend one of the sessions today at the BlogHer conference in Chicago (Thanks KenyanPundit!) BlogHer brings together women bloggers to talk, share, learn and network.
  You can follow along with the bloggers writing, taking pictures, and uploading videos by visiting the event site for live blog URLs.
  The session was on how to use the internet to support your cause. It was titled “Getting it on(line) for a cause part 2″ Raising consciousness.
  Rochelle Robinson -online campaign strategist had a wonderful presentation which you can have a look at here. Its a must read for anyone with a cause - Its concise, specific and has some great examples of how tech can be used effectively. One such example she pointed to is Hollaback. Women had gotten tired of street harassment, so they took pictures of their harassers and wrote about it on the blog.

  Green LA girl was next with a great idea of using del.icio.us for a cause. What she and another blogger were able to do was to collect and tag information relating to the starbucks challenge. The idea was to challenge people who visit starbucks to specifically ask for fair trade coffee since starbucks had stated they would be selling fair trade coffee at every location. Turns out it was a promise that was easier said than done…Green LA girl and others were able to prove that it was not the case in all locations. The information they gathered was used by another blogger to create a google map of the locations where people had reported succcess in getting a cup of fair trade coffee and locations where they werent so successful. Read more about the challenge here and the google map is here. It might be a great idea for tracking the elections in Kenya, tagging information regarding constituencies and perhaps mapping it onto Mzalendo’s growing database of information. Just a thought…either way get tagging!

  I will be participating on a panel tomorrow with Georgia Popplewell of Global Voices! and Amira Al Hussaini. I will carry the laptop and do a post after we are done with that.

• Clean Drinking Water pumped by Wind Energy!

  Posted: July 25, 2007, 5:43 pm by AfroMusing

  This installation in Chifiri, in North Eastern province Kenya is an example of how wind and solar installations can be used to provide the needs of marginalized communities in arid and semi-arid areas.
  
  Simon Mwacharo, TEDGlobal speaker and renewable energy innovator has written about it in wonderful detail and provided pictures. Read more about it here.

  The turbine also provides some power to the nearby manyattas (traditional samburu huts), Simon noticed a Japanese guy camped out near the turbine. That was the only place he could charge his laptop and phone!

  Do note that next week, the TEDGlobal talks will premiere on Ted.com. Subscribe in itunes by searching for tedtalks and also check the TED blog for a series of posts from bloggers who attended the conference. A piece i wrote is is alread posted on the TED blog, Like Emily said ‘This is the bloggers story to tell’, because there wasn’t as much coverage of it in the mainstream news. I hope you enjoy the talks.

• AIDS and the abstinence debate in Uganda - Video

  Posted: July 20, 2007, 5:23 pm by AfroMusing

  We truly live in a small world. Its no wonder Frontline on PBS has a tag line of ’stories from a small planet’. This short video [8:35] is one that explores how religion,
  
  sex,
  
  AID, and politics interplay between Uganda and the US.
  The strategy of ABC - Abstinence, Be Faithful and Condoms had been successful in reducing the AIDs infection rate, but a reversal of that strategy by President Yoweri Museveni perhaps directly or indirectly due to the strings that came with the aid money to combat aids appears to be counter productive. 1/3 of the 15 billion dollars allocated in PEPFAR - President’s [GW Bush] Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief be used to promote abstinence only programs around the world. That is 5 billion bucks.
  You can join the discussion on the frontline page for the video. Particularly welcome are thoughts from the Ugandan blogosphere.

  Images courtesy of Frontline World.

  On July 26 there will be a video about baseball in Ghana - so do keep frontline world bookmarked.
  (Thanks Charlotte for the heads up).

• If you dont like the network, make your own!

  Posted: July 20, 2007, 2:22 am by AfroMusing

  Well, i am paraphrasing Jim Forster’s line which in its entirety reads, “If you don’t like the network you have, go out and make your own“. This was one of my favorite quotables at TEDGlobal in Arusha.

  Jim Forster is the distinguished engineer at Cisco, the veritable maker of routers and switches that form the backbone of the internet, amongst other products and services. He is also one of the contributors to the invaluable free resource “Wireless Networking in the Developing World” - An in depth guide to planning and building low cost telecom infrastructure.

  In his 3 minute presentation at TEDGlobal he talked about the current state of telecom, likening it to a railroad system where everyone is a customer but it doesn’t reach all the areas ‘last mile’ as it were. The model that we should be considering is one that is composed of many private networks, similar to the model of the internet, or a ‘network of networks’. We need to encourage our governments to support the idea of many networks that are run either privately or as businesses providing network access to others. Please click on the graphic below to download the presentation that he has made available.
  

  There is also more information available on the site Network The World.

  While on the topic of wireless networks, Riyaz of skunkworks pointed me to Meraki’s june announcement of the first solar powered outdoor wifi access kit.

  Priced at just $99, Meraki Outdoor can send a signal up to 700 feet. Paired with Meraki’s existing indoor $49 Mini, the Meraki Outdoor repeater can power access for dozens of households sharing one high speed connection. Meraki Outdoor can be easily installed on a wall or even a pole outside the house. It marks another step forward in Meraki’s efforts to change the economics of Wi-Fi access, driving the cost per household of high speed connections to $1 to $2 a month.

  Adding the Meraki Solar accessory kit will allow the repeater to broadcast a signal without being connected to any electrical source, making it an ideal solution for any community, even emerging markets where electricity is scant or unreliable.

  The skunkworks crew and other wireless networking experts, you are very welcome to comment on whether you see any private networks being set up in Nairobi or other parts of Africa that utilize the ideas alluded to above. Meanwhile…no whining!

  
  Image from the internet superstar - Hugh Mcleod.

  **Tangential Digression - Weird Cell behavior on the border.

  On crossing the border from Tanzania into Kenya and vice versa, i got the following text message on my safaricom line…from Celtel. It stated “Welcome to Kenya & thank you for choosing Celtel.International access code is 000 or +.The tourist help line is +254733617499.Celtel. Making life better.”. Worrisome to say the least. Is celtel just broadcasting a signal to all and sundry? How did they get the safaricom number? What expectation of privacy should safaricom customers have? I later found out that everyone gets that sms whether they are on a celtel line or safaricom. I mentioned it to Mr. Forster and he pointed out that some networks do play nice and share infrastructure even base stations. Its quite curious…Do chime in if you’ve experienced something similar, even weirder, or if you can shed light on how and why this occurs. Does the same thing happen on crossing into Uganda?

• Brain Drain - Reverse! Reverse!

  Posted: July 18, 2007, 1:27 am by AfroMusing

  Sorry if you thought this was a new dancing fad like the cha cha slide (video)
  This is my little corny way of passing along information about a recruitment initiative which brings together internationally oriented African graduates and professionals who are seeking careers in Africa with multinational corporations, intergovernmental organizations and leading African companies.

  Date: November 16-18th 2007
  Place: Houston Texas
  More Info: Global Career Company It is invitation only event so you would need to apply online first.

  Companies confirmed to attend the Summit include: Anglo Platinum, Barloworld, Chevron, Coca-Cola SABCO, Cisco, Eskom, Heineken, Intercontinental Bank, Lafarge, OPS, Orascom, SAB, Shell, Toyota and United Bank for Africa. Available career opportunities range from entry-level graduate openings to senior management appointments and cover a variety of functions.

• Solar tech in the medical field - Salam cardiac surgery center sudan etc.

  Posted: July 18, 2007, 12:36 am by AfroMusing

  While at TEDGlobal I met Manuel Toscano, a gentleman who works for Emergency USA. We talked shortly about solar power being a great technology for use in remote areas. He filled me in on a hospital that was designed using the following guiding principles.
  -The idea of a “hollow” space and a pavilion-based system;
  -The choice of the best possible technology given the context;
  -The search for an ethical language for this type of architecture.

  The choice of solar power for a hospital in an oil rich country might seem a bit ironic, but there is more to this. The specific details of how the energy produced by the panels is used is particularly interesting.

  Solar panel: free healthcare, free energy
  The average temperature in the Sudan is 29°C, and in the hottest months it can reach 45°C. In order to cool down the hospital, a number of measures were taken during construction. In addition to this, air conditioners were installed after the building was constructed. In the first case, a series of insulating techniques were used. The external walls for example are 58 cm thick and contain an insulating cavity that prevents the building from heating up. The use of traditional cooling systems would have implied high levels of electrical energy or fossil fuel consumption (the needs in terms of volumes of air to be cooled down are hefty: 28,000 m3). In a country rich in oil resources, EMERGENCY has sought out alternative sources of clean energy: the sun. Nine containers left Italy for Khartoum with 300 solar panels, bringing to the country an almost unknown technology, and one that is very seldom used in Europe. Today a plant that contains 288 solar collecting items (for an equivalent of 900 m2, or the area of 10 houses) produces 3,600 KW- as much as burning 355 kg of gas – without producing one gram of CO2. Each collecting item is made up of a number of copper tubes that contain water; these are themselves placed in insulated glass tubes that allow the water inside the copper tubes to heat up. The water transfers the accumulated heat to an insulated 50 m3 tank that keeps the water between 80-90°C. The heat is then cooled down to 7°C in two “chilling” machines. Solar power thus allows the center to produce cold air without discharging any particles into the atmosphere, and limits the use of electric power to water circulation pumps. Two regular boilers have also been installed in case the solar power is not sufficient to run the two “chilling” machines. The cold water is used to lower the levels of heat in the rooms that need to be chilled for medical or other purposes. The machines used for this last part of the cooling circuit are called UATs (Units of Air Treatment). There are 8, each one designed for a specific area of the hospital (CPR, surgery, administration, etc). The UATs draw air from outside and “force” it into a 7°C tube that cools it down. A second system of tubes subsequently transports the cool air to various hospital rooms according to need.

  In short, the surgery center is kept cool using a combination of the water from the Nile and the Solar panels. For more detail on the design guidelines of the salam center please click here [pdf]. (Thank you Manuel).

  It is becoming increasingly clear that solar tech is flexible enough to allow for innovation in any field. Another example of solar being especially useful in the medical field is the ‘Hospital in a box’ invention by Dr. Seyi Oyesola, a TED Global Speaker and innovator.
  
  Jason Pontin of TR summarized his invention as

  It was a simple, portable (well, 150-pound), resilient set of medical devices that makes surgery possible even in the worst parts of the world. The hospital in a box has anesthetic equipment, a defibrillator, a burn unit, plaster-making tools, surgical tools, and an operating table.

  In my post on tales of invention, i noted that the ‘Hospital in a box’ can be charged using a truck battery or a solar panel.

  Note: TED fellows Dr. Chikwe Iheakweazu and Dr. Ike Anya from Nigeria started the blog ‘Nigeria Health Watch’ to discuss and bring to the fore health care issues in Nigeria and Africa in general. Do visit them and subscribe to their feed if you are in the medical field and want to be in the loop.

  Back to architecture: This ted talk from Cameron Sinclair is very inspiring.
  

• Live Earth in South Africa - Videos available online

  Posted: July 17, 2007, 5:50 pm by AfroMusing

  Videos from Live Earth in South Africa and around the world have been posted online. Watch them here.

• VFT, Toumani Diabate and Diaspora World Music Tour Dates.

  Posted: July 13, 2007, 1:02 am by AfroMusing

  Tags:   

  Yesterday i was very fortunate to attend a concert by Vieux Farka Toure and Toumani Diabate’s symmetric Orchestra. They were performing at the Frank Gehry designed Pritzker pavilion in Chicago, as part of the music without borders series.

  Vieux Farka Toure is the son of Ali Farka Toure, famed Malian musician who passed away last year. We were all sad to hear of his passing; Jke had a tribute to AFT. Malian music, especially the likes of AFT and Toumani diabate have always left an indelible impression to most who’ve heard it. It definitely did for me in 2005 when i wrote this post.
  As the universe works in wonderful ways…Vieux Farka Toure is carrying on the legacy of his father’s desert blues without missing a beat.

  I arrived a little late to the concert so i missed about half of Vieux’s set, though from the 3 songs i heard, the man is indeed a sensation. The blues rag says of him… “Mali has a new guitar god, and his name is Vieux Farka Toure”. I quite agree. Listening to him play was special. He is hyper skilled on guitar. That is the simplest way i can put it without resorting to phrases like “Oh my god he was. like. totally. amazing!”.

  Click on the image below for the set of photographs i took. I also twittered it a bit.

  
  
  

  Toumani Diabate is a grammy award winning Kora player whose discography you can browse on Afropop.
  He is the gentleman with the Kora in this picture.
  
  He had reunited with Ali Farka Toure before AFT passed away and had played together in the highly acclaimed CD ‘In the Heart of the Moon’.
  He took a break during the performance and explained that he is from 71 generations of griots He also pointed out the Kora, which is a 21 string instrument, made of fishing wire, calabash and antelope skin. He played with 4 Chicago jazz musicians, melding the polyphonic sounds with the jazzy in such a beautiful mashup. Its a shame the concert wasn’t streamed, it was probably recorded though, so it might show up on the world music circuit soon. I was rapt in the music the whole time, it was very cool.
  Music to share (For a limited time - I will take them down in a week):
  Toumani
  Boulevard De’ Independance

  Very short Video clip:
  Lead singer of Symmetric orchestra gracefully entering the stage

  The remaining tour dates for Vieux:
  Jul 15 2007 Old Town School Folk Music Fest, Chicago, Illinois
  Jul 16 2007 TRAVEL to CA/ Villa Montalvo, Saratoga, California
  Jul 18 2007 Nuits d’Afrique Festival, Montreal, Quebec
  Jul 19 2007 Grassroots Festival, Trumansburg, New York
  Jul 20 2007 Institute of the Arts, Detroit, Michigan
  Jul 21 2007 W. Kortwright Center, E. Meredith, New York
  Jul 23 2007 Newport Towers, Jersey City, New Jersey
  Jul 24 2007 Grace Building, New York, New York
  Jul 25 2007 Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Massachusetts
  Jul 26 2007 Strand Theater, Rockland, Maine
  Jul 29 2007 Hillside Festival , Guelph, Ontario
  Aug 3 2007 Providence Parks, Providence, Rhode Island
  Aug 9 2007 Skirball Center, Los Angeles, California
  Aug 10 2007 Grand Performances, Los Angeles, California
  Aug 10 2007 Temple Bar, Los Angeles, California
  Aug 11 2007 TRAVEL to Canada/Edmonton Folk Festival, Edmonton, Alberta
  Aug 12 2007 Edmonton Folk Festival, Edmonton, Alberta
  Aug 18 2007 ONE WORLD InnerNational Music Celebration, Horseshoe, North Carolina

  Remaining tour dates for Toumani Diabate
  Jul 14 2007 8:00P Vancouver Folk Festival, Vancouver
  Jul 15 2007 8:00P World Festival, Grass Valley, California
  Jul 16 2007 8:00P Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga, California
  Jul 18 2007 8:00P Hudson Festival, New York, New York
  Jul 19 2007 8:00P BAM Festival, New York, New York
  Jul 20 2007 8:00P New Mexico Jazz Festival, Santa Fe, New Mexico
  Jul 21 2007 8:00P New Mexico Jazz Festival, Albuquerque, New Mexico

  For other african artists touring please click here. (Thanks Mweshi for the link).

  The African renaissance has a soundtrack playing globally. Enjoy!

• Cellphone Tales

  Posted: July 13, 2007, 7:49 pm by AfroMusing

  You know wireless technology has truly become part of Kenyans’ culture when you receive a story like this in your email.

  This is a story of a young college girl who passed away last month in Mombasa. Her name was Maria. She was hit by a truck in the Mombasa-Nairobi Road . She has a boy friend named Juma. Both of them are true lovers. They always hang on the phone. You can never see her without her mobile phone. In fact she also changed her phone from Safaricom to Celtel, so both of them can be on the same network, and save on the cost.
  She spends half of the day talking with Juma. Maria’s family knows about their relationship. Juma is very close with Maria’s family.
  Before she passed away she always told her friends “If I pass away please bury me with my mobile phone” she also said the same thing to her parents.
  After her death, people can’t carry her coffin. A lot of them tried to do so but still cant. Everybody had tried to carry the coffin; the result is still the same. Eventually, they called their neighbor, a Mganga (witchdoctor) from Likoni , who is a friend of her father. He took a stick and started speaking to himself slowly. After a few minutes, he said “this girl misses something here”. Then her friends told about her intentions to bury her with her cell phone. They opened the coffin and place her phone and SIM card inside the casket. After that they tried to carry the coffin. It could be moved and they carried it into the van easily. All of us were shocked.
  Maria’s parents did not inform Juma that Maria had passed away. After 2 weeks Juma came back from vacation and called Maria’s mom.
  Juma…”Aunty, I’m coming home today. Cook something nice for me.
  Don’t tell Maria that I’m coming home today, I want to surprise her.”
  Her mother replied….. “You come home first, I want to tell you something very important.” after he came, they told him the truth about Maria.
  Juma thinks that they were playing a fool. He was laughing and said “don’t try to fool me - tell Maria to come out, I have a gift for her Please stop this nonsense”. Then they show him the original death certificate to him. They gave him proof to make him believe. (Juma started to sweat)…
  He said… “It’s not true. We spoke yesterday. She still calls me.
  Juma was shaking. Suddenly, Juma’s phone rang. “See this is from Maria, see this…” he showed the phone to Maria’s family. all of them told him to answer. He talked using the speaker mode. All of them heard his conversation. Loud and clear, no cross lines, no humming. It is the actual voice of Maria & there is no way others could use her SIM card since it is nailed inside the coffin they were so shocked.
  They called their neighbor again He in turn, called his Chief Mganga to solve this matter. Both worked for 5 hours. Then they discovered one thing really creepy… (Click here)

• Africa RE News - Brief Roundup

  Posted: July 11, 2007, 5:57 pm by AfroMusing

  From the Kenya Gazette last week,
  The Oserian Development Corporation has been licensed (by the Minister for Energy) to operate two geothermal power plants at oserian farm, Lake Naivasha area for a period of for 15 years.
  There isn’t a link online but this story on the bbc offers some great background info.

  From M&G Online - South Africa
  Increasing use of renewable energy can be encouraged using an energy policy directive. That is how Denmark did it. South Africa appears to be heading in a positive direction.

  Under the proposed by-law — the first of its kind in South Africa — most new buildings (and those undergoing renovations) with a value of more than about R490 000 will be required to meet at least 60% of their water-heating requirements with solar heaters.

  The city’s 2005 Energy and Climate-Change Strategy has set a target of having 10% of all city households using solar water heating by 2010. Official estimates put Cape Town’s population at 3,23-million

  An update from Timbuktu Chronicles on Ashden award winning companies, Zara Solar of Tanzania and Deng Ltd of Ghana.

• The Nest Home Limuru - An appeal to all bloggers.

  Posted: July 9, 2007, 6:18 pm by AfroMusing

  Please take a look at this baby. Her name is Lucy. The story of how she came to nest home home is one that is not easy for anyone to read, but read we must.
  

  She was a few months old when she was raped. Defiled. Mangled.
  The horror of what happened to this little baby is indescribable. I only ask that you look at this picture of her,

  
  

  and think of what good we can all do to counter the evil that could befall her.

  She is being cared for by the wonderful caretakers at The Nest Home in Limuru. Please keep her in your thoughts and if you have the means please donate to the Nest.

  Bank Account in Kenya:
  The Nest Home Charitable Trust
  Kenya Commercial Bank-Village Market
  Account No. 260760292
  Swift Code : KCBLKENX 011

  or by sending a check to

  The Nest
  P.O. Box 605 - 00621
  Nairobi/Kenya
  Director:
  Irene Baumgartner in Kenya - Tel: +254 (0)721-437893

  Whenever you are in Kenya, please visit her and the other wonderful children at the Nest.

  As she grows, may she be able to dance and sing with the other children like this.
  

  We can counter the bad in our world, one person, one blog, one link at a time.

  To see an overview of the Nest Home compound, please click here for a video taken by JKE (who told us about the nest home)

  Thank you kindly, on behalf of Afrigadget authors.

• Live Earth in South Africa

  Posted: July 8, 2007, 3:55 am by AfroMusing

  Live Earth concert in South Africa is being streamed online. Watch it here! Soweto Gospel choir is on now with Danny K.

  The line up in SA includes:

  Angelique Kidjo

  Vusi Mahlasela

  Zola

  Joss Stone

  UB 40

  Baaba Mal

  The Parlotones

  For American fare, its on the Bravo channel.

  Live Earth’s theme is SOS - Save Our Selves. The success of such Live 8 type concerts is debatable, but for a world music lover…i am bobbing my head and soaking in all the music.

  See what Dan Deluca at Pop Matters has to say about Live Earth…gem of the day IMO, climate change and Nelly in one paragraph!

  …Live Earth will include concerts on every principal land mass on the planet, including Antarctica (the ninth site), where a low-down house band of British scientists called Nunatak will no doubt prove themselves to be a bunch of supremely chill dudes.

  Which all sounds pretty cool. But Live Earth - subtitled the Concerts for a Climate in Crisis - exists, of course, to highlight the opposite.

  Namely, that it’s getting hot in herre - though, for some reason, Nelly is not on the list of performers. And that, as Gore’s Oscar-winning documentary, “An Inconvenient Truth,” argues, global warming - or if you prefer, climate change - is leading the planet to all but certain environmental disaster.

• Wireless in Laisamis - Remote Cell Phone Base Stations by WinAfrique

  Posted: July 2, 2007, 9:44 pm by AfroMusing

  Cross posted on Afrigadget

  Coolest picture of the month! (IMO)
  

  Photo courtesy of Bergey. Oct 26 2006 Dedication of the cell phone base station site in Laisamis, Kenya Africa.
  The company WinAfrique designs and builds hybrid wind and diesel turbine systems for powering cell phone base stations, and it also offers solar solutions for off grid power generation. Kenya’s biggest wireless companies Safaricom and Celtel have contracted with WinAfrique.

  In 2005 Safaricom contracted with Winafrique Technologies in Nairobi to design and supply pilot wind/diesel hybrid systems at three very remote base stations. The systems consisted of a Bergey 7.5 kW turbine on a 24 m (80 ft) SSV tower, sealed batteries, and an inverter. These sites were installed and monitored for one year. The results showed excellent reliability and diesel fuel savings of 70-95%. Based on these positive results, Safaricom has contracted for six more sites, and has many other wind/diesel sites in the planning stage.

  Where is Laisamis? click here for a google earth placemark.

  Be sure to check out Russell Southwood’s modest proposition - Africa: Power to the Base Stations. In it he presents the opportunity for an independent power producer to supply the energy needs of telecoms, energy hogging hotels and he did not mention this…but i am sure African telecentres of the future. Hat Tip Bankelele.

Blah blah blah

Fish cakes

Alas a fish cake.

Yet more fish cakes

Guess what ... yeah ... fish cakes.

The end of the fish cakes