Meeting with the Imagineer and Alan Levin

On my recent Cape Town trip - where I was overwhelmed to be back in the traffic of a thriving globalised metropolis and confronted by totally diverse choice vectors - I was very glad to be able to link up with Alan Levin and Kurt Ackermann (a.k.a. the Imagineer). Alan is heading up an ISP outfit called Vanilla and working with Rael Lissoos on bringing really inexpensive communications to the impoverished townships in South Africa. They are doing this in a company called Dabba. I expect to hear a lot more from them. Kurt is a consultant on new economy matters, especially rebranding, startup strategy and long term business forecasts and consultancy. They both have a keen interest in ICT4D and improvement of social conditions for the poor. Kurt also has connections to the Bulungula Incubator.

What did I learn from my conversation? Here are some highlights:

• Make it local. Successful projects are carried and work through the energy that locals put into them. This simple fact of sustainable development is also mentioned by several development agencies (a good reference for this is S. Batchelor, S. Evangelista, S.Hearn, M. Pierce, S. Sugden, M. Webb. ICT for Development Contributing to the Millennium Development Goals: Lessons Learned from Seventeen infoDev Projects. World Bank, Washington D.C., Nov. 2003). Other approaches such as automation (including software based projects) depending on machines inevitably break down after time. Only structures built on and by the people in an area can have any hope of being truly sustainable. At eKhaya ICT, we hope that long-term chaperoned use of the internet can help build sustainable projects, but we are definitely focusing on specific projects (for now).
  
  This echoed a conversation I had with Ann Price at Buccanneers, who has been involved with a lot of grass roots development projects in the Eastern Cape and is an acknowledged expert in the field. She maintains that a project should be started to document successful projects - be they in growing organic food for communities or education projects that have made a difference. Communities need to see what successful projects look and feel like and that they are actually run by ordinary community members in other communities.
  
  Technologically speaking, we did stray around the topic of P2P telecentres for rural areas. I will have to go into more detail about that later (when eKhaya ICT has the technology).
  


• Don't depend on government. This was a suggestion that was not new to me. The Dwesa project which I have been involved with at the University of Fort Hare was started without governmental consultation. Since then, of course as the programme has grown and shown great promise, various departments have become interested and have even donated machinery (one computer). Indeed dealing with government and foreign NGOs can tax one's patience and it seems that Alan and Kurt's experiences have led them to espouse tactics of avoidance. In the long run, however, we need total solutions on this continent - solutions which will lead to a culture of increased responsibility and greater social awareness. That can only happen if local ward councillors, relevant government departments and other forms of elected and bureaucratic structures become involved and thus themselves more pro-active. These structures should be dependable, we should be able to count on the people we vote for to make our voices heard in government. However, when running a pragmatic and goal oriented project, I agree with Kurt and Alan that one should minimise risk where it is unacceptable and find ways to achieve goals without government if necessary - while liaising with government as progress is made to widen perspectives.
  


• There is nothing like a face to face meeting to help make connections and to promote the exchange of ideas and understanding. That is a great reason to visit buzzing places like Cape Town often. The internet can help and setup such links, but only in specific cultural contexts.
  

By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Dell Foundation sponsors Zwelenqaba school project!

Yesterday I heard that the Dell Foundation in South Africa approved the sponsorship of the SELF Solar school project at Zwelenqaba SSS. The application was handed in on behalf of the school by eKhaya ICT.

This is a clear stamp of approval as far as I am concerned. We asked for a donation of half the computer hardware equipment for client workstations and received it. We will be receiving 10 laptops, and knowing Dell, these will have more computing power than the other llow-power machines we install. Most likely, we will be able to install a distributed file-server infrastructure on the laptops.

The use of laptops and low power solutions will greatly lower the cost of the solar power installation and free up power for other uses such as peripherals, multimedia tools and basics such as cell phone charging and lights.

Good news for the year end and a great way to start into the construction phase!
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Impressions of a GeekDinner

Met up with Jonathan Endersby and Dave Duarte at the GeekDinner in Cape Town in October to check out that corner of the Open Source IT scene in South Africa. I am happy to report that the amount of enthusiasm and the number of projects being cooked up is great.

Charl Van Niekerk's talk started off with a bit of advertising for Google's Summer of Code programme - a very worthwhile and cool programme if I ever saw one with an altruistic touch befitting of the Google "do good" motto. Interesting to hear about the interest of Joomla to integrate RDF into their mobile apps. Perhaps the semantic web is not as far away as one may think - the hype is over and it is the right time for the technology to consolidate and move into the mainstream.

By the end of the meeting the sponsored wine had created a really happy atmosphere at the meeting - the slideshow karaoke was a hit!

Probably next time I attend one of these things, I will be talking about eKhaya ICT's successes and experiences with Open Source in the field (or doing a 3 minute analysis of my bash shell's history). I hope it'llbe soon Cape Town is fab place to be.

(Thanks to Richard Kilpert for driving and patience with us geeks.)
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Solid state laptops: OLPC XO, Classmate and Asus EEE

OLPC [1] have been working on a light-weight easy to use laptop specifically for children and their education. As they have been releasing beta products for testing, adults who have seen these pretty little green computers have been totally enthusiastic and clamouring to buy them - for themselves. On the OLPC mailing lists a number of entrepreneurs want to buy large numbers for sales to private individuals.

The rival of the OLPC, Intel's classmate [2] - also a solid state computer with scaled down specs and flash drive instead of hard-disk (hence solid state - there are no moving parts in these machines) - seems to have slowed down somewhat with Intel joining the OLPC consortium in October. Also Intel are not talking to us (maybe were just not big enough) so I can't report anything else there.

Now as OLPC have launched their buy two get one offer, it seems Asus [3] is also taking on the Christmas shoppers with their Eee, which seems to cost anywhere between $200 (the original price Asus marketed in the second half of 2007) and $399 because of demand. Asus are reporting a unit sold every 6 seconds - making between 6000 and 14400 per day depending on how many sales minutes there are per day. That is not bad to quite good indeed. The Eee also has its own operating system, which seemes to be built on the Windows platform.

Ubiquitous computing in the developed world is good news for the developing world - apart from environmental/recycling issues(!).

[1] OLPC
[2] Intel Classmate
[3] Asus Eee
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Hinter den Kulissen: eKhaya ICT und OPLC an der Mndwaka Schule

Übersicht:

eKhaya ICT arbeitete zusammen mit dem Schweitzer Fernsehen an einer Dokumentation über OLPC (Ein Laptop pro Kind-Programm). Wir wählten die Mndwaka Grundschule für diesen Film, weil sie eine sehr ambitionierte Schule ist, die immer wieder den lokalen Gesangswettbewerb gewinnt, obwohl sie sehr arm ist. Das OLPC-Programm fügt sich sehr gut in unsere Strategie der nachhaltigen Entwicklungsarbeit ein, denn eine Entwicklung der Infrastuktur in ländlichen afrikanischen Gebieten ist nur möglich, wenn sie parallel zu einer Entwicklung der Bildung läuft.

Link zum Video auf SF.TV (Dateigröße 130MB)

Webseite zum Film auf 3Sat

Fotogallerie vom Drehtag an der Mndwaka Schule

Gallerie der Fotos, die die Schüler von sich selbst mit Hilfe der Laptop-Kamera machten

Hintergrund:

eKhaya ICT wurde kürzlich von einem schweizer Filmteam kontaktiert, das einen Kulturbeitrag zum Thema OLPC drehen wollte. Deren Auflagen waren eine ländliche Schule mit sehr schlechter Ausstattung und möglichst junge Schüler, da der Laptop vorrangig für Schüler unter 15 Jahren entworfen wurde.

Es war sehr schwierig zu entscheiden, ob wir dieses Projekt überhaupt unterstützen sollten. eKhaya ICT arbeitet z.Z. eher mit Oberschulen. Es war klar, daß jede Grundschule, die wir kontaktieren würden, uns und das Filmteam mit offenen Armen empfangen würde, bevor sie die Möglichkeit hätten zu verstehen, worum es sich bei dem Film handelt. Wir mußten also sehr vorsichtig sein und erklären, daß wir keine weiteren Versprechen, beispielsweise bezüglich einer Laptop-Ausstattung geben könnten. Wir erklärten, daß es sich nur um eine sehr kurze Dokumentation handeln würde, und daß der Film nur in Europa gezeigt wird. Der Schuldirektor, Herr Gqokoza war dennoch damit einverstanden sowie grundsätzlich an jeder Kooperation mit eKhaya ICT interessiert. Wenn man Schuldirektor eine extrem armen Schule ist, dann greift man jede Gelegenheit beim Schopfe, sei es auch “nur” eine Langzeitinvestition. Er überzeugte uns, und wir begannen mit den Filmarbeiten.

Wir wählten die Mndwaka Grundschule aus, weil sie eine sehr ambitionierte Schule ist, die immer wieder den lokalen Gesangswettbewerb gewinnt, obwohl sie sehr arm ist. Für die 722 Schüler stehen nur zwei reguläre Klassenräume und vier weitere provisorische Klassenräume in unfertigen Häusern, z.T. aus Blech, zur Verfügung. Viele Unterrichtsstunden müssen draußen abgehalten werden, was dazu führt, daß der Unterricht oft unterbrochen wird. Es gibt kein fließendes Wasser und die Solaranlage, die vor sieben Jahren installiert wurde, wurde im Jahr 2005 gestohlen. Trotz alledem sind die Schüler voller Energie und Tatkraft, was uns in beeindruckensder Weise während der Gesang- und Tanzvorführungen vor Augen geführt wurde.

Der Enthusiasmus des Schulchors hielt uns fast vom Filmen ab. Es wurde während fast aller Interviews und Drehs in den Klassenräumen gesungen. Leider wurden letzendlich nur Sequenzen ohne Gesang im Fernsehen gezeigt. Nach den Interviews dankte uns die Schule für unser Kommen mit einer Tanzvorführung mit Stammes- und modernen Tänzen. Dieser Aufwand zeigte uns, daß sich die Schüler, die Lehrer und die Gemeinde dagegen wehren, als ländlich und archaisch bezeichnet zu werden. Sie wollen mit der Zeit gehen und lechzen förmlich nach Anbindung an den Rest der Welt. Ich hoffe, daß das Filmteam sein Versprechen wahr macht und aus der Fülle von Filmmaterial eine schöne kleine Dokumentation herausschneiden kann, damit diese wunderbaren Aufnahmen nicht verlorengehen. Es wäre schade, wenn wir den Schülern und Lehrern der Mndwaka Schule nach all dieser Mühe nur einen kleinen 6min Clip auf Deutsch zeigen könnten.

Ich bin überzeugt, daß die Anbindung der Entwicklungsgebiete an die entwickelten Gebiete mit Hilfe eines Programmes wie des OLPC funktionieren kann, in dem minimal invasive Methoden die klassische Art des Lernens unterstützen. Ich bin mir sicher, daß die ländlichen Gebiete von dieser Anbindung profitieren werden, und dadurch auch der Rest der Welt. Wer argumentiert, daß Computer nicht helfen können, wenn nicht genug Wasser, Essen, Elektrizität und Mobilität vorhanden sind, hat etwas grundsätzlich nicht verstanden. Ich glaube, daß eine nachhaltige Entwicklung der Infrastruktur in afrikanischen ländlichen Gebieten nur funktioniert, wenn sie Hand in Hand mit der Bildungsentwicklung der Gemeinden geht. Ein abgestimmtes Programm ist notwendig, das den Gemeinden hilft, ihre Infrastruktur selbst aufzubauen, um Macht über ihr eigenes Tun zu gewinnen. Eine so gestärkte Gemeinde kann folglich nicht mehr verarmen.
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Behind the scenes: eKhaya ICT and OLPC at Mndwaka

Summary:

We chose Mndwaka JSS for a film shoot with OLPC, because they are a pro-active school, consistently winning the local singing contest despite the poor conditions there. The OLPC programme is a vital piece of the puzzle because sustainable development of infrastructure in rural African areas can only work if it happens hand in hand with development of the communities' knowledge.

An English translation of the show and link to the video

Photo gallery of the film shoot at Mndwaka.

Photo gallery of shots made by the learners themselves using the XO camera.

Background and explanation:

eKhaya ICT recently went on a field trip to demonstrate two older XOs (B-1) to a rural school. The request from the camera team was a rural school with the worst possible conditions and it should be a junior secondary school, as the XO is targetted at ages younger than 15 yrs (although it can be used by anyone, of course!).

It was quite difficult to decide whether to do the project at all. eKhaya ICT has tended to work with more senior schools, with Grades 9 - 12, and we knew if we asked our contacts at the junior schools, they would jump at the idea, although they didn't understand the details of the shoot. We were very careful to say that we could not promise any result, besides the exposure gained through the video. We explained that it was only a short video and that it would be shown overseas. That did not matter to the school principal, Mr. Gqokoza. He explained that they were interested in any cooperation at all with eKhaya ICT. If you are in a situation such as the one experienced by Mndwaka JSS, you will clutch at any opportunity. Mr. Gqokoza convinced us. We went ahead and did the demonstration.

We chose Mndwaka JSS, because despite the poor conditions there, they have consistently won the local school singing contest - they certainly showed us why!

Mndwaka JSS has 2 regular classrooms and about another 4 makeshift ones for 722 children. 18 teachers are responsible for the classes. Many classes take place out doors, which means that bad weather interrupts school. There is no running water and the solar system installed about 7 years ago was stolen in 2005.

The enthusiasm of the school's excellent choir almost put a halt to filming. Their singing accompanied all the shots in the classroom and all the interviews. Sadly, somehow their song does not appear on the final product. Then after the interviews, the school wanted to thank us for coming and put on a show of tribal and modern dancing. Their dancing showed us that these children, these teachers and this community, has no interest in being labelled as rural and archaic - they want to move with the times and are hungry for a connection to the rest of the world. I hope the camera team will have a chance to put together the great footage they got of the learners dancing up a storm, as they promised. It would be a shame to show the teachers at Mndwaka only a 6 minute clip in German for all their trouble!

I am convinced that this connection can be made by a programme such as the OLPC using minimally invasive education to support the classical education. I am sure that such a connection will greatly benefit these rural communities and the whole world in turn. Arguments that computers cannot help where there is no water, no food, no transport and no electricity miss the point. I believe that sustainable development of infrastructure in rural African areas can only work if it happens hand in hand with development of the communities' knowledge. A balanced programme is required to help the communities build their infrastructure themselves so that they become empowered. An empowered community cannot be impoverished.
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Article on German TV (3Sat) with Ron Wertlen

Last weekend, an OLPC TV Article, with eKhaya ICT was shown in Germany.

The following is a translation of that article:

Education by Mouse-Click

"One Laptop per Child" [is also a] project in South Africa

An upcoming problem of African countries and other developing nations, is that they are missing the connection as far as the technological development of digital information. How are computers to operate when there is no electricity and they are unaffordable to start with? Nicolas Negroponte of MIT in Boston had the idea of a visionary initiative called "One Laptop per Child": a laptop for children in developing countries, which costs around 100 US dollars, definitely not exceeding 150 US dollars.

In the Eastern Cape of South Africa, one of the poorest regions of the country, Ron Wertlen tackles pot-holed roads. He too has a great vision: The software developer, Ron, is one of 15 volunteers in South Africa for the campaign "One laptop per child".

Playful Introduction

Wertlen will demonstrate a special computer, which has been designed for children in developing countries. 722 pupils are taught by only 18 teachers here. There is neither electricity nor running water. Most textbooks are outdated. Modern learning is different to what is going on here. The learners have never in their lives seen a laptop - a sensation for them and for the education system. The keyboard and controls are specially tailored for children. Games and music programs will be used to introduce the machines, special learning software should lead to acquisition of knowledge.

Ron Wertlen shows the teachers an important feature of the children's laptops: The screen can be switched from colour to black-and-white mode, and is thus also readable in direct sunlight. Such details make the computer at all suitable for use in "Third World" situations. The Children's laptop was already presented in 2005 at the World Economic Summit in Davos. The then UN General Secretary Kofi Annan, and Internet guru Nicolas Negroponte of the famous technical university MIT in Boston presented the hundred dollar laptop for the first time. "Every technical breakthrough of the next five years, cuts the cost of the laptops," said Nicolas Negroponte, "which in turn benefits the children."

Large thirst for knowledge

The Children's laptop was designed by the company "fuseproject" in San Francisco. It belongs to the Swiss designer Yves Behar. The new wonder computer was designed to be simple, powerful and robust. How often does a designer get the job to connect the "Third World" to the computer-age? As that is what was being asked. "When you open the laptop, you see that every part has a number of functions," says Yves Behar. "Thus the radio antennas help one open the laptop, and simultaneously serve as a cover for the connectors. Another example: It can be used quite traditionally as a laptop or if one turns the screen, as an electronic book, which you can read."

In just one year, Behar and his team have created not only an impressively simple device, but also tackled fundamental problems, such as the electricity supply. "As far as the electricity supply is concerned, we have a dozen possibilities," said Behar. "One could use solar panels to load a number of laptops at once, there are also manual power supplies, such as the Power-yoyo. Using it, one can generate electricity by repeatedly pulling a cord. One minute's pulling power supplies ten minutes of usage. All this is feasible only because the OLPC [ed: called XO] consumes about ten percent of the electricity used by a normal laptop. "

At school in South Africa, the enthusiasm is not flagging. Meanwhile, the children have discovered the integrated camera and noticed that the laptops have automatically networked and that they, the children, can use them to communicate. "I want to learn what this laptop has to offer," says Yandisa Thanda. "I have seen that it has games, music and drawing programs. I want to master everything on it." At the moment the teacher still helps out. The long-term goal of the computer campaign is however that children teach themselves and grow independant. Currently, classical teaching methods are being used in the Eastern Cape. But for how much longer? When the government buys the new computer, it could be the beginning of a revolution - a revolution in education in the "Third World".

[First pass translation by translate.google.com, second pass by eKhaya ICT.]

See also the article previously mentioned in this blog below on Swiss TV (link to video).
By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

From my diary...

[Apropos robbery and violence:] It is a very scary aspect of being here. The inequalities are terrible. It is almost as though they will continue getting worse and worse - around the globe and in the first world too - as people close a blind eye toward them. By closing a blind eye we are not doing the right thing. The right thing is to look the problem square in the eyes, to open ones eyes and to do something about it. Spreading knowledge and understanding is one way, and it is the only way. Spreading hate, fear and armaments is not the way.

For only through self-understanding will we be able to deal with our archaic biological instincts in a modern world. Archaic biological instincts armed to the teeth with modern weapons are not a pretty perspective.

Two anecdotes concerning the growing gap in income from the developed world:

• In Berlin one is very conscious of the growing gap between rich and poor. The poor protest and let you know about it.
• South African friends of ours are leaving London, it is becoming just too violent because of the growing gap between rich and poor.

Are we getting poorer? Or is this just our perception, because we are programmed to pay more attention to bad than to good news? (Another example of biology dictating terms to us.)

By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

OLPC with eKhaya ICT on Swiss TV tonight

Tonight at 23:00 CET eKhaya ICT is making a TV debut on the cultural programme of the Swiss Television (Schweizer Fernsehen, http://www.sf.tv). Being shown are interviews with Yves Behar, the designer of the XO (the OLPC laptop) who is a Swiss living in San Francisco, and with Ron Wertlen of eKhaya ICT in Grahamstown. There are also a whole lot of shots of rural learning conditions at Mndwaka JSS near Tafalehashi as well as beautiful pictures of the Wild Coast.

[ed: 2009 May] SF.TV's archive doesn't go back to 2007. I am checking copyright, and would like to post a link to the vid or host it on YouTube.

In the meantime, we can send interested parties a copy, just drop us a line using the form.

By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]

Interviewed by Cristina Karrer at Mndwaka JSS

The highlights of the interview were undoubtably:

• The singing of the Mndwaka JSS learners for at least an hour in the background - they even got on the camera crews nerves because of sound quality. Such enthusiasm simply cannot be dampened!


• The way the children and teachers together tackled the XOs working as a team to unravel the mysteries of the devices was great to see.


• The opportunity to explain why communities need to be lifted holistically - that one cannot prefer one form of infrastructure at the detriment of another, e.g. roads vs. internet. And indeed that the OLPC project must go ahead and pilot in the area near Zwelenqaba.


• When questioned about justifying the high cost of OLPC, replying: well how much is the Iraq war costing? In environmental and dollar terms.

I will try to post soon when the clip will appear on German and Swiss TV, and also make available a copy here.

Mndwaka JSS is about 4 kilometers South of Tafalehashi as the crow flies and a candidate for the solar school computer lab project as a satellite school. It is definitely an energetic school with some dedicated educators who are doing great things under difficult conditions. I hope the Department of Education keeps it's promises and delivers the much needed infrastructural upgrade.

By: Ron Wertlen [permalink]