A blog post titled “Getting things done” is the last thing I should be writing about given that I haven’t made a post in just over 2 months. Even I was surprised that it has been that long since my last post on the blog, time really waits for no man as they say. The one thing I hoped would never happen when I started this blog was for me to be stuck in writers block (a condition, primarily associated with writing as a profession, in which an author loses the ability to produce new work).

I have been involved in a number of small to medium sized projects in recent months and they are partly the reason I have been so busy and unable to give adequate focus to the blog. It only makes sense for me to share the various lessons I have learnt from these projects I have been invoved in.

Start working

The Chinese proverb “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” has become cliché due to its overuse. This may lead to most people not paying much attention to the value of these words. A lot of people have ideas, a lot of people walk around talking about what they want to do, but very few people actually take the first step of execution. Most projects require momentum to get moving and the best way for that to happen is to actually start executing your idea. Once you begin working on something, you have gone past the greatest barrier most people face, which is an inability to start.

Set Deadlines and keep them

Once you have started working on your project, you need to have a  sense of direction in terms of where you want to be at a set future point in time. Setting task deadlines and having the discipline to keep these deadlines becomes key to the success of your project. Your deadlines need to be realistic of course, there is no point setting deadlines that you know from the onset you will not be able to achieve. The inverse is also true, there is no point setting deadlines that you know you will be able to achieve very easily and will leave you sitting with no work to do. It is all about striking the right balance and I believe after doing this a few times it will become relatively simple for you to know what to expect from yourself or your team.

Keep your team small

If you are working in a team for your project, it is wise to keep your team small at the beginning of the project. It is much simpler for a small group of people to understand a shared vision than it is to get a large group of people all driving toward the same shared vision. It is critical that at the beginning of a project everyone understands and is working toward the same vision and mission. Only expand the team size once the project structure has been well defined and you feel it is absolutely necessary to start increasing in size.

Frequent communication

Once again when working in a team it is important to ensure there is frequent communication between team members with regards to anything that affects the state of the project. Communication encourages transparency on what is happening in the project and keeps everyone on board with the current status of the project. A break in communication is one of the first signs of a failed project as people may end up working toward different goals or duplicating work other team members are currently working on.

Team commitment

One of my workmates, a psychologist, once told me that before you carry out any project you should ask yourself what your commitment levels are to get that project completed, on  a scale of 1-10. If your commitment is anything lower than a 7 it is best to leave that project for now and come back to it at a later stage when you feel you can commit more to it. Put simply, it is difficult to achieve something that you are not willing to work hard enough for. We all have other commitments in life aside from the projects we work on, some have, family, work, other more important projects, etc. If you are working in a team for your project, you need to ensure the team members you choose to work with are willing  to commit 7/10 or more to the project else they are going to be dragging the team back. I don’t have to repeat the same old cliché “A chain is only as strong as its weakest link” to explain why its important to not include people who are not committed on your project.

Some people have been “Getting things done” for a lot more years than me, and you can never argue with experience, however these are the key lessons I have learnt in the last few months on the projects I have been involved in and I thought I should share.

That nostalgic feeling you get when you walk in a familiar area you haven’t been in a while, memories, whether good or bad of the place spring back into your mind and for a few minutes you actually feel like you are back living in the past times. I felt exactly that way when I returned to the University of Cape Town (UCT) campus on  Friday night. The Mathematics building on UCT campus holds one of my most significant memories of my early days at UCT. It was the venue of my first tutorial ever at UCT, and yes I remember clearly asking myself after that tutorial “Tanaka, what were you thinking taking Applied Mathematics instead of Physics”. At least I had done some Physics in high school, it would probably be much easier than this mind boggling and abstract killer course ‘Applied Mathematics’. A few weeks into the course, like most things I grasped it a lot more and got used to it and eventually made it out alive.

My return to the building on Friday night was more exciting as I was highly anticipating an event that was hopefully going to be an inspiring, knowledge gathering and an opportunity to meet people who are driving real developmental change in Africa. I was fortunate enough to be invited along with about 40 others (lecturers, graduates, current students and visionaries) to the first Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance (HEA) Colloquium at the University of Cape Town.

Harambe Entrepreneur Alliance, is a platform for young African social, business and political entrepreneurs educated in leading colleges and universities in Asia, Europe, North America and Africa. The Alliance comprises over 1500 young African entrepreneurs, representing 35 African countries, with advanced degrees from universities such as Harvard, Oxford and Peking. HEA Associates and Affiliates work in Africa’s companies and influential institutions such as Emerging Capital Partners, Standard Bank, Google, South African Constitutional Court, Dangote Group, Goldman Sachs and Government Ministries of 15 African countries.

Mr. Okendo Lewis Gayle who facilitated the informal gathering at UCT started Harambe with a Zimbabwean classmate at Southern New Hampshire University in the United States four years ago. The session on Friday constituted an information session on what HEA is all about and possible opportunities within the network followed by a discussion on the Challenges and Opportunities facing the next Generation of African Professionals. Mr. Okendo Lewis Gayle shared with us how Harambe has helped launch entrepreneurship programs in Burkina Faso, Cameroon and Ghana as well as a microfinance scheme in Ethiopia. Current Harambe associates who are studying at top Universities such as Oxford University and Leeds University also attended the session and shared their current social projects. These projects such as using cellphones to help people manage their health and diagnose diseases were all shared during this session. I could immediately see the positive impact these associates with the backing of Harambe behind them are having toward the development of the continent.

Mr. Okendo Lewis Gayle mentioned the importance of the African continent making a move toward development now. The African continent he said is now at the tipping point of its growth. The point countries such as China and India reached a few years back, when investors realize the potential a place has and are willing go all in to help push it up. He also armed us with the 3 Harambe questions, which I think are very poweful - If not Now, When? If not Here, Where? If not I, Who?

I could go on and on with this blog post if I try to share everything I gathered from this highly inspirational session. I will leave with the point Mr. Okendo Lewis Gayle stressed about the whole session, “when you are going out to launch an ambitious social project you are guaranteed to face obstacles, what determines whether you will succeed or not is how long you are willing to stick it out without giving up, you almost have to be crazy or at least people will think you are”. Just like Applied Mathematics was an obstacle for me at the beginning of my UCT career, I had no choice but to stick it out in order to succeed.

“In an act of innovation, Voices of Africa Foundation with VIPP systems have launched an e-learning system to train young people how to study their own communities and build sustainable social businesses to create change and self employment.”

Voices of Africa Foundation have designed a new curriculum to train youth to utilize technology for change. They have offered this curriculum free of charge on-line via a custom e-learning platform. The open educational course answers four main questions:

1. What are the problems in the community we live in that need to change? This includes issues such as poverty, food insecurity, water and sanitation and more. [Monitoring and Evaluation]
2. How can we use technology to change the problems we have found? [ICT for Development]
3. How do we make money while we are doing good for our people? [Social Business]
4. How do we share our work and experiences? [Social Media]

This program will provide the skills required for gainful employment or successful self-employment. The e-learning course being launched teaches youth to use mobiles, computers, and the Internet for development in their communities. Although the course was designed for Africa anyone can take the course and apply it to better their lives.

A digital certificate system name Beicert.com (http://www.beicert.com) has been devel- oped so that each and every student’s records can be verified online to boost the learner’s ability to gain access to employment and options in finance for their projects. The ICT4D and Social Enterprise curriculum will increase the ability of Voices of Africa to reach more youth worldwide with the desire to advance and create change at no cost. African youth have been crying for opportunity. Voices of Africa are creating solutions.

Tanaka Mutakwa's Voice of Africa Registration

I registered for the course as soon as I found out about it. The way I see it, there is nothing to lose in registering for the course. Apart from it already being offered for free, there is probably some value to be gained from the material offered in the course. The course starts on the 1st of March 2012 runs for a month, and will be assessed through 4 online tests, assignments, and a final examination for certification. I encourage anyone who is passionate about how Information and communication technology (ICT) can help developing countries tackle a wide range of health, social and economic problems to sign up for this course. I will also be giving my feedback on the course once it completes on the 1st of April 2012.

One thing that is certain is that Voices of Africa are driving their vision (Our vision is to live in a just world without abject poverty. To this end, Voices of Africa will foster sustainable development in the Sub Saharan through information empowerment and fair trade) through such innovative ideas.

References:

Free Online ICT for Development Course for Africa - http://afrinnovator.com/blog/Press%20Releases/free-online-ict-for-development-course-for-africa/

Voices of Africa - http://www.voicesofafrica.org/

I have always stressed the importance of  assessing the conditions of an environment and identifying the ideal context in which technology can be applied in order to improve people’s daily lives. Shipping a technical idea that worked in another environment and deploying it in your own environment as is, will most likely lead to failure. It is a fact that most environments are not the same, different people, cultures, and religions are all factors that define the context of different environments. Thorough analysis and understanding of an environment is a step in the right direction in terms of deployment of a successful technical product.

An innovative idea shopafrica53.com is the brainchild of Herman Chinery-Hesse. Shopafrica53.com is a Ghanaian based company driving to deliver an e-commerce solution that utilizes the context of the African environment. Basically merchants can list their products on the market (shopafrica53.com online site) and customers can pay to buy these products via sms.

Most people in Africa do not have access to credit cards, bank accounts or e-currency solutions. Shopafrica53.com has identified a key fact in Africa which is that nearly 8 in 10 Africans own a mobile phone. Understanding this context has defined the business model of shopafrica53.com. By deploying a solution that allows customers to make purchases via mobile phones they have ensured that their solution is widespread and can even be used by people without bank accounts.

How does this work? Customers are expected to purchase credit in the form of a recharge card. This recharge card is the Africa Liberty Card, which when loaded onto the mobile phone, provides the user with enough credit to do his or her shopping. Payments are made via SMS. This works just the way a prepaid recharge card works, where shopping reduces the credit until it is time to recharge. Delivery of goods is done using reputable courier companies like DHL and Fedex. Customers are also able to track their purchases from payment to final delivery at their doorstep, thanks to a logistic backbone provided by BKB Logistics. ShopAfrica53.com has kicked off operations in Ghana, and hopes to spread to the whole of Africa.

Herman Chinery-Hesse, the Ghanaian owner of this company, is a successful software entrepreneur who has founded companies such as theSOFTtribe. He has won numerous awards.

References:

Top 10 technology start-ups in Africa that look to shake up 2012 - http://www.siliconafrica.com/technews/top-10-technology-startups-that-look-set-to-shake-up-2012-in-afric/

It has been a while since my last blog post, I have been quite busy mainly navigating through Computer Science (Hons) exams. I had hoped exams would not affect my weekly posts however I ended up dedicating a lot of time to ensure I covered all the material required for me to pass the exams. It came down to priorities I guess.

A few important events have taken place in recent weeks in the IT world which I would have keen to blog about at the time. There was the whole SOPA and PIPA debacle, two bills, Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act, which were seeking to limit copyright infringement online. Major sites Google and Wikipedia visibly protested against the legislation, on the other hand media companies supported the legislation arguing that there needs to be a way to stop the illegal downloading and pirating of their material.

In my opinion, the internet has always been an open space where people freely express their opinion and is one of most promising channels for a healthier democracy in the world. The moment we try to control / legislate the internet I feel we may be moving backward. Granted something needs to be done in terms of copyright infringement but if it results in ruining the freewheeling world of the Internet it is a lost cause.

An article titled You Lazy (Intellectual) African Scum on the Mind Of Malaka blog went viral on social networks (Twitter & Facebook) a few weeks back. The article in a nutshell critisised African intellectuals, basically saying they are lazy and are not utilizing the education they have recieved to make Africa a better place by creating their own innovative solutions to the daily problems African countries face. Those who have read the book Capitalist Nigger by former African Sun Times editor Dr Chika Onyeani will quickly identify the article has a similar tone. I read the article and as sad as it may be, if as an African intellectual you can forget about patriotism and emotions for a minute and consider what is written in that article, you will find most of it to be true. I think the article hits me most when is says:

“You should be busy lifting ideas, formulae, recipes, and diagrams from American manufacturing factories and sending them to your own factories. All those research findings and dissertation papers you compile should be your country’s treasure. Why do you think the Asians are a force to reckon with? They stole our ideas and turned them into their own. Look at Japan, China, India, just look at them.”

Everyone interprets things differently. If you have read the article you may have interpreted it differently to me, and if you have not read it yet I encourage you to read it and see how it provokes you thoughts. What is certain is after I read the article I felt that at the end of my career I do not want to be filed as one of those lazy (intellectual) African scum. If anything, that article has made me raise my own bar on how much of an impact I want to make and it has to be big. Its time for innovative products such as Google, Facebook, You Tube to be fully designed and developed here in Africa, not just in Silicon Valley (America). In the modern age of the internet, resources are widely available and you can learn almost anything you want by just searching for the resources. Most African intellectuals have wide access to these resources, its now just a matter of applying ourselves and committing to achieve the goal at hand.

I have managed to condense the two issues I was keen to blog on in recent weeks into one post. Further resources on these issues are widely available on the internet. Its good to be back to blogging and I will keep pushing interesting material related to IT for developing countries on a weekly basis.

The term ‘digital divide’ describes the  fact that the world can be divided into people who do and people who don’t have access to – and the capability to use – modern information technology, such as telephone, television, or the internet. The digital divide exists between those in cities and those in rural areas. The digital divide also exists between the educated and the uneducated, between economic classes, and globally, between the more and less industrially developed nations. The term became popular among concerned parties, such as scholars, policy makers, and advocacy groups, in the late 1990s. These concerned parties argued that bridging the digital divide would improve mutual understanding, eliminate power differentials, and realize a truly free and democratic world society and other benefits.

There are a variety of arguments regarding why closing the digital divide is important. The major arguments are outlined below.

Economic Quality

Access to the internet is a basic component of civil life that some developed countries aim to guarantee for their citizens. Telephone is often considered important for security reasons. Health, criminal, and other types of emergencies might indeed be handled better if the person in trouble has an access to the telephone. Another important fact seems to be that much vital information for people’s career, civic life, safety, etc, are increasingly provided via the internet. Even social welfare services are sometimes administered and offered electronically.

Social Mobility

Computers and computer networks play an increasingly important role in people’s learning and career, so that education should include that of computing and use of the internet. Without such offering, the existing digital divide works unfairly to the children in the lower socioeconomic status.

Democracy

Use of the internet will lead to a healthier democracy in one way or another. Among the most ambitious visions are those of increased public participation in elections and decision making process.

Economic Growth

The development of information infrastructure and active use of it will be a great shortcut to economic growth for less developed nations. Information technologies in general tend to be associated with productivity improvements. The exploitation of the latest technologies may give industries of certain countries a competitive advantage.

There are many projects currently running worldwide that are aimed at bridging the digital divide. Typically these projects aim at bridging the divide by increasing accessibility to Information and Communications Technologies material. I outline examples of such projects below.

One Laptop per Child

This project aims to create educational opportunities for the world’s poorest children by providing each child with a rugged, low cost, low power, connected laptop with content and software designed for collaborative, joyful, self-empowering learning. When children have access to this type of tool they get engaged in their own education. They learn, share, create, and collaborate. They become connected to each other, to the world and to a brighter future.

World Reader

This is a market oriented, not-for-profit organisation focussed on increasing access to books in developing countries. They deliver subsidized e-readers to under-served communities, and drive down the cost of publishing local content. They measure success through increased reading rates, local content development, and business creation.

Computer Aid

In some parts of the developing world, less than 1 in every 1000 people have access to a computer compared to nearly 600 in every 1000 in the developing world. UK charity Computer Aid undertakes the effort to bridge the digital divide between the developed world and the developing world through refurbishing computer equipment from the developed world and sending it to the developing world. Over two million pounds worth of material has been sent by Computer Aid to the developing world so far.

One Economy

One Economy is a platform for innovation and opportunity in underserved communities. One Economy provides access to technology, training, support and critical online content that empowers millions of people around the world. Around the world today, access to information is critical. One Global Economy’s community driven approach to international development works to extend and enhance the benefits of information and technology to those who need it most – the world’s poor. One Global Economy engages individuals, nongovernmental organizations, businesses, and governments in a focused and scalable effort with local partners to provide communities and individuals with the tools they need, via technology, to improve their decision-making and facilitate their economic livelihood.

There are many more organisations with a similar mission to bridge the digital divide. Understanding the digital divide is important as technology is only as powerful as it is accessible. Broader access brings education, information, and a sense of community that can help combat AIDS, malnutrition, ignorance and neglect. The power of a connected and enlightened world community is just the beginning.

Raise the village, an iPhone app designed by New Charity Era actually helps the population of a poor village in Uganda (Kapir Atiira). The Raise the village app allows customers to build a virtual village from scratch by building huts, schools, crop farms and more. The user also has the ability to buy collection items such as clothing, medical supplies and food.

Raise The Village Menu

All of these items help contribute to the game play values of mind, health and spirit of the village. The revolutionary aspect of the app is that every item and task in the game is directly inspired by what these Ugandan villagers need and do every day. For instance, if you direct a village hut to create soap for your villagers within the iPhone game, Charity Era L3C will literally deliver bars of soap to the people of Kapir Atiira.

Raise The Village: How the game works

Raise the Village is currently available on all 3G plus iOS devices including the iPad and iPod Touch for free. Florin is the game’s paid currency and every action performed or item purchased using Florin, Charity Era L3C will deliver that exact item to the Kapir Atiira. Only the items that the people of Kapir Atiira need appear in the game. In other words, just by playing the game and making purchases you’re literally providing aid to this real Ugandan village in need. When items are created using Florin and delivered to Kapir Atiira, the company will send you photos in real time of the aid items being delivered. Bought a few mosquito nets for your digital village? Days later, you’ll get a message from the game containing photos of that same delivery being made to Kapir Atiira.

Players are encouraged to compete with one another and compare their villages’ Spirit, Mind and Health levels as well as maximum population. In order to find friends to play with, you can use both Facebook Connect and your phone’s contact list for that.

While most critics urge people to play less games, the creators behind Raise the Village, New Charity Era, want people to play even more social games. Their goal is to benefit society and to also make people more aware of the conditions fellow humans live under.

Download Raise The Village for free from App Store

(Post adapted from ICTWorks post on 10 Guidelines for Starting Your Independent ICT4D Project)

There are people out there keen to take on independent projects using ICT to address a problem in developing countries. This is not an easy undertaking. It requires proper research, planning, and a thorough understanding of the resources that will be needed. Half-completed or poorly planned projects will do nothing for developing countries.

If you’re not up to this challenge, stop reading now. This post is not for you. If you feel confident in your ability to step up to this challenge, there are some things you should consider.

Problems come before solutions…ALWAYS.

Developing a solution and then trying to apply it somewhere in the developing world is backwards thinking. It does not address real needs. You should never go into an ICT4D project assuming that a certain tool or expertise is going to be applicable within a community. First, investigate areas that could benefit from technology, and then choose the most appropriate project design and tools.

There’s a not-so-fine line between thinking big and thinking gargantuan.

While it’s great to take risks and create challenging projects, designing a solution with an unmanageable scope is only doing you a disservice. Start with identifying a single problem within a single institution within a single community. Work with that community to develop a solution. At the same time, consider how the technology can be developed in a way that is scalable or transferable. This way, if you find later that a similar problem exists in another community, it will be easier to modify it to meet more needs.

ICT4D professionals love to talk about their work…and they have a lot more experience than you do.

All ICT4D practitioners love to talk about their work with those who are genuinely interested. Find people who have done work in the realm of your project via Twitter or Google+, and then ask them if you can conduct an informational interview. This will give you the opportunity to pick their brains on best practices, while indirectly making your work and interests known to others in the field. Anyone you talk to will likely gain a vested interest in how your project turns out.

In ICT4D, failure to learn from a mistake is the greatest failure.

Failure is increasingly becoming a less stigmatized word in ICT4D. With events like Fail Faire taking place, everyone in the field has been owning up to their failures in order to promote others learning from past mistakes. Pay attention to all of this on Twitter, blogs, and in conversation with professionals. There is a lot of great advice available and typical errors to avoid within these discussions.

It’s no longer Six Clicks to Kevin Bacon. It’s now Two Clicks to Document Heaven.

You’re going to find that you need certain documents and resources for researching and developing your projects. It can sometimes be very difficult to locate these documents, since the digitized versions of paper documents are not always kept up to date on websites within the developing world.

With Twitter, it only takes two clicks to track these documents down: one to hit the Tweet button after asking where to find the resource, and one to open the email containing whatever it is that you need. Make use of your Twitter networks when you are unable to find something. Practitioners are usually more than willing to help you out, and it further stimulates interest in your project.

Neglected stakeholders represent neglected projects.

A lot of people are affected when technology is brought into the developing world. Before designing and implementing a project, every stakeholder should be considered, and the design should be planned with the goal of obtaining support, maximizing benefit, and minimizing obstacles for each. Work with your stakeholders directly to ensure that you are not inaccurately assuming their needs and potential dilemmas.

Cool people blog.

Even if no one reads it while you are working on your project, it is very useful to maintain a blog to document each milestone. This will allow you to iron out thoughts on progress, setbacks, and what you are learning. Afterwards, you can point others to your blog for an overview of everything that you did and what you discovered about working within the developing world.

Technology is just a teeny, tiny piece of any ICT4D project.

In ICT4D, it is never just about creating a technology solution. There are many other factors to consider in order to make projects sustainable. These involve training, developing standards and policies, planning for continued funding, among countless others. Be sure to identify these factors and plan for them. Dumping technology without these considerations makes sustained success very unlikely.

Success will not make or break you. The gaining of knowledge will.

As mentioned before, the greatest failure in ICT4D is not to learn from a failure. If your project does not turn out to be successful, don’t assume that you’ve lost hope. Be prepared to point out where your project went wrong and what you learned from it. Ultimately, having the experience working through a problem and solution in the developing world is the most important thing.

We’re not in it for the money; we’re in it for the good.

While it is great to gain the experience in this field and prove how wonderful you are to potential employers, it is also important not to forget the truest motives for developing a project. It’s not about you; it’s about who or what you are helping. Once the project is complete, don’t leave it hanging. Be sure to follow-up on it, and offer future help when needed. There is a certain moral integrity that comes with being in this field. Don’t let the anything mask that.

References:

• ICTWorks 10 Guidelines for Starting your independent ICT4D Project, http://www.ictworks.org/news/2011/12/07/10-guidelines-starting-your-independent-ict4d-project, posted December 7 2011.