Kenyan Pundit

So I have been working on coming up with alternative ways (i.e. non-”development aid) of solving some of the challenges facing Africa, I’m still hooked on the prize/competition idea as a way to spurn innovation, especially if combined with a mentoring element. I just came across Google’s Summer of Code page and thought it was such a great idea. I hope they will be running it again.

On an unrelated note, Kenya is in desperate need of something like this. The standards of journalism have truly gone down…even the weekend op-eds are crappy. Kinda strange that this is happening at a time when the press have more freedom than ever.

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for being derelict. I’ve been battling a nasty cold that’s left me feeling completely lethargic while at the same time trying to absorb Poptech and take care of business. I guess flying from this to this can screw you up. Plus I had laryngitis (running my mouth too much at Poptech). All I can say is that I’m SO glad that I’ll be going back to 80 degree weather in a week.

Since I wasn’t able to cover the last day of Poptech, I’ll just link to Ethan’s great summary of the panel featuring the Africa fellows (and my uummm “moment”). A podcast of the panel should be available here at some point in the future.

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- Neil Gershenfeld’s “unique laboratory investigates the relationship between the content of information and its physical representation, from molecular quantum computers to virtuosic musical instruments.” His Fab Labs project is really cool. The focus is on giving people tools to innovate rather than just giving them computers, wi-fi etc. Focus is on peer to peer learning.

Neil Gershenfeld says, “Instead of bringing information technology to the masses, the fab labs bring information technology development to the masses….For our education and outreach efforts, rather than telling people about what we’re doing, we thought we’d help them do it themselves. We’ve been pulled around the world by the voracious demand we’ve found each time we’ve deployed a fab lab.”

Via Worldchanging: “The Fab Lab is $20,000 worth of material design and fabrication equipment which can be used nearly anywhere. Six Fab Labs exist, each with a particular focus on local needs: South End Technology Center, in Boston (building community wireless networks); Lygen Alps, in Norway (building larger-scale wireless networks and animal collars to aid nomadic herding); Vigyan Ashram, in India (building agricultural instruments); Bithoor, in India (building 3D scanners and printers for local artisans); TEC, in Costa Rica (building educational tools); and the Takoradi Technical Institute, in Ghana. It’s at the Takoradi Technical Institute that flourescent pink key chains have become the most popular fabricated item among the young students. Each fab lab comes equipped with computer-controlled fabrication tools, open-source computer-aided design and manufacturing software and associated electronic components and test equipment. Capabilities include a laser cutter for 2-D and 3-D structures, a sign cutter for plotting interconnects and electromagnetics, a 3-D precision milling machine for applications such as making surface-mount circuit boards and programming tools for low-cost, high-speed embedded microcontrollers.”

This is ultra super-cool.

More on Fab Labs here (Wired), here (Boston Globe), and here (BBC).

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I’m seating by the fireplace at the inn (it’s freezing here, can’t wait to get back to t-shirt and sandals weather) where I am staying and getting ready to jump into bed with a good book. I’ll probably be asleep within minutes…I am tired, lots of stimulation and invigorating discussions and meeting new people and thinking about new ideas and making connections and challenging myself to make sure I leave here with something tangible. This should be a better post, but my brain is fried so I just wanted to make sure I highlight some interesting links from the afternoon session.

- “Davy Rothbart is the creator of Found Magazine, which has been praised by publications as diverse as Spin, GQ, The New Yorker, The Los Angeles Times and U.S. News & World Report. A graduate of the University of Michigan, he is a regular contributor to National Public Radio’s This American Life, a documentary filmmaker, and the author of the story collection The Lone Surfer of Montana, Kansas. Davy lives in Ann Arbor, Michigan.” This guy was too funny. Please please check out his website.

- “Yochai Benkler is Professor of Law at Yale Law School. His research focuses on the effects of laws that regulate information production and exchange on the distribution of control over information flows, knowledge, and culture in the digital environment.His particular focus has been on the neglected role of commons-based approaches towards management of resources in the digitally networked environment.” Couple of interesting observations from his presentation: the top web server today with 70% of the market share is Apache (Amazon.com runs on Apache), an open source project; the effect of the commons/colloborative approach is demonstrated when you run a search for “Barbie” on Encyclopedia.com
and when you run a similar search on Wikipedia,

- Finally the future of browsing (tag fans and bloggers will really appreciate this) - Flock. For more about their business model, click here.

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One of the featured speakers this afternoon is Ivan Marovic. “Ivan is one of the founding members of Otpor, the Serbian political student group. Ivan was an engineering student at Belgrade University and one of the student organizers who helped bring down Slobodan Milosovic. He was one of the most public of the organization’s members, speaking often at rallies and marches. He was drafted into the Yugoslav military forces a few days before the September 24 election and served with the equivalent of the coast guard in Belgrade. Ivan has since been involved in exporting student democratic movements around central Europe and was a key player in Ukraine’s Orange Revolution. Ivan recently partnered with a US company called BreakAway Games, that teaches players how to use strategic non-violent resistance to force regime change.” Breakaway Games is to be launched in January next year, the idea came about because of high demand from activists from other countries who wanted to improve their advocacy strategies. Among the scenarios that will be available in the game include: bringing down a dictator, fighting corruption; and fighting discrimination. Users will also be able to add their on scenarios online.

I think could be a potentially useful tool to learn from but I also wonder how easy it will be to translate the lessons from the game into the real world.

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