Monday, July 27, 2009
Finally a few more pictures on Flickr
Not that many, but a few of interest, including the SEACOM event (more pictures from film eventually), traffic on Jinja road, my neighborhood (sort of), and most importantly, the best product branding I've ever seen: Baby Matches. See it all here
Well, I did have candles all along.
I found a couple of little candles under my kitchen sink way at the back yesterday. Still no hot sauce, though.
Incidentally, I've been eating a lot of cabbage lately (typically sort of stir-frying it with this lemon olive oil from the British Air flight, sometimes also with onions or whatever) and quite enjoying it, which I didn't completely expect, I'd never eaten it much before, but we have it at lunch at work sometimes and it's also quite inexpensive. (Non sequitur, I know, I'm just writing what comes to mind as new). I've also been eating rice, pasta, green beans (known here as French beans), the vegetable curry that comes in a can here (quite good, actually, over rice or pasta), beans, that sort of thing. Good, but all things that could benefit from the potent Ugandan chili sauce I've been meaning (but forgetting) to acquire, despite its relative uselessness as a light source.
I still haven't tidied up my notes regarding SEACOM. I'll have to tonight or tomorrow before I go to Mbale, though. Speaking of that, it turns out that the oddly located MTN PubliCom office that I recently discovered lurking basically just up the next road from mine is where we're leaving from on Wednesday, which is exceedingly convenient. Originally we were going to leave at 7:30 (which made the proximity particularly excellent); since then our time's moved to 11:00, which really is even better. But they've still got time to reschedule it to November or something so I won't hold my breath it'll happen at all until I'm actually there. But hey, if they cancel on me at least I won't have gone far out of my way. I really don't know what their deal is as far as scheduling this, though; it's pretty silly. And they're Grameen and MTN, for crying out loud - both big, powerful foreign institutions that ought to have it together.
Incidentally, I've been eating a lot of cabbage lately (typically sort of stir-frying it with this lemon olive oil from the British Air flight, sometimes also with onions or whatever) and quite enjoying it, which I didn't completely expect, I'd never eaten it much before, but we have it at lunch at work sometimes and it's also quite inexpensive. (Non sequitur, I know, I'm just writing what comes to mind as new). I've also been eating rice, pasta, green beans (known here as French beans), the vegetable curry that comes in a can here (quite good, actually, over rice or pasta), beans, that sort of thing. Good, but all things that could benefit from the potent Ugandan chili sauce I've been meaning (but forgetting) to acquire, despite its relative uselessness as a light source.
I still haven't tidied up my notes regarding SEACOM. I'll have to tonight or tomorrow before I go to Mbale, though. Speaking of that, it turns out that the oddly located MTN PubliCom office that I recently discovered lurking basically just up the next road from mine is where we're leaving from on Wednesday, which is exceedingly convenient. Originally we were going to leave at 7:30 (which made the proximity particularly excellent); since then our time's moved to 11:00, which really is even better. But they've still got time to reschedule it to November or something so I won't hold my breath it'll happen at all until I'm actually there. But hey, if they cancel on me at least I won't have gone far out of my way. I really don't know what their deal is as far as scheduling this, though; it's pretty silly. And they're Grameen and MTN, for crying out loud - both big, powerful foreign institutions that ought to have it together.
Saturday, July 25, 2009
Field visit change, SEACOM, power out
[NOTE: I wrote this last night but couldn't get it posted, my tethering wasn't working quite right. Now I have working Internet and, independently, electricity again, which had still been off when I came home last night.]
I have a ton to say about the SEACOM launch, which I was able to attend, thanks to Josh's invitation as a journalist (I went as his assistant), although we decided there's probably about a seventh of a journalist between the two of us. Still, he conducted his interview, I recorded it, typed up notes, and took pictures, so, you know, it wasn't too far from journalism. The event itself wasn't terrifically exciting, although the Minister of ICT was in attendance, but what it marks really, really is, and using what was almost certainly the fastest internet connection in the country and knowing just how those blazing fast little packets were getting there -- that was a powerful thing. And this really should mark the beginning of a new era in internet access for this region.
Anyway, I'll write all that up tomorrow or Sunday to distract myself from the budget proposal stuff I actually need to be working on. A Dutch organization who should probably remain nameless for the moment is very interested in Question Box, however, and wants a proposal soon. We're happy to oblige, especially given the high five-figure sum that's been thrown around here and there. (And it's not in shillings).
In other news, Grameen has rescheduled the field visits completely. Now it looks as though I will go to Mbale on Wednesday and return on Friday. There is also a visit to Bushenyi on the books for later in August, and now maybe Jon will be able to attend, as it isn't immediately after his return from the UK. At any rate, I will keep you posted, and hopefully before too long I'll have exciting stories and cool pictures from a trip upcountry.
In the mean time, I got a nifty Knowledge Worker shirt at work today, MTN's trademark yellow with a phone saying "Ask Me!". I actually like it a lot and will definitely wear it back in the States (though it's a bit big, might need to be altered a little). They also gave me a polo shirt (only one I own, and maybe ever have, I'm not un-proud to say) which is also pretty cool, all things considered. It has MTN's logo on the chest in the traditional spot, and then has Grameen's and Google Uganda's logos on the sleeves. Not a bad trio, I'd say. It'll probably be handy to have, and is certainly a kind of cool token of my involvement with all three (such as it is).
Finally, my power's been out both this morning and now. I'm going to go out to dinner soon and hopefully meet up with some friends. Certainly can't cook here. Also, I find it rather amusing (and fitting in a way - didn't Negroponte say something about them being the only lights in villages?) I'm using Appfrica's OLPC that I've had to play around with (along with my MacBook, but I'm actually using it) as a light source in my apartment. It's particularly handy for the bathroom, I must say. Between the computers, my phone's flashlight (they don't call it ka-torche for nothing!) and a flashlight I brought it's fine, but I really should get a candle or two, don't know why I never thought of that (or hot sauce! - not as a light source, I just keep forgetting to get any, and my bland cooking would benefit from it) any of the times I've been at a grocery store.
Well, I'm hungry, so I'm going to hit the road. Now the question is whether to get what I often get at La Fontaine (a pretty good but kind of small veggie burger) or hit up someplace new and random, like "Taste Budz" near my apartment. I suspect their chips would be much more satisfyingly greasy, but I don't know what else I could get there. I'm always happy to just get, e.g., rice and beans, which tend to be excellent, cheap, and plentiful, but that was pretty much lunch at the office (plus chapati). Hm, decisions, decisions. Well, if the outcome's exciting, maybe it'll make its way into the next post.
[UPDATE: got the La Fontaine veggie burger. Good choice.]
I have a ton to say about the SEACOM launch, which I was able to attend, thanks to Josh's invitation as a journalist (I went as his assistant), although we decided there's probably about a seventh of a journalist between the two of us. Still, he conducted his interview, I recorded it, typed up notes, and took pictures, so, you know, it wasn't too far from journalism. The event itself wasn't terrifically exciting, although the Minister of ICT was in attendance, but what it marks really, really is, and using what was almost certainly the fastest internet connection in the country and knowing just how those blazing fast little packets were getting there -- that was a powerful thing. And this really should mark the beginning of a new era in internet access for this region.
Anyway, I'll write all that up tomorrow or Sunday to distract myself from the budget proposal stuff I actually need to be working on. A Dutch organization who should probably remain nameless for the moment is very interested in Question Box, however, and wants a proposal soon. We're happy to oblige, especially given the high five-figure sum that's been thrown around here and there. (And it's not in shillings).
In other news, Grameen has rescheduled the field visits completely. Now it looks as though I will go to Mbale on Wednesday and return on Friday. There is also a visit to Bushenyi on the books for later in August, and now maybe Jon will be able to attend, as it isn't immediately after his return from the UK. At any rate, I will keep you posted, and hopefully before too long I'll have exciting stories and cool pictures from a trip upcountry.
In the mean time, I got a nifty Knowledge Worker shirt at work today, MTN's trademark yellow with a phone saying "Ask Me!". I actually like it a lot and will definitely wear it back in the States (though it's a bit big, might need to be altered a little). They also gave me a polo shirt (only one I own, and maybe ever have, I'm not un-proud to say) which is also pretty cool, all things considered. It has MTN's logo on the chest in the traditional spot, and then has Grameen's and Google Uganda's logos on the sleeves. Not a bad trio, I'd say. It'll probably be handy to have, and is certainly a kind of cool token of my involvement with all three (such as it is).
Finally, my power's been out both this morning and now. I'm going to go out to dinner soon and hopefully meet up with some friends. Certainly can't cook here. Also, I find it rather amusing (and fitting in a way - didn't Negroponte say something about them being the only lights in villages?) I'm using Appfrica's OLPC that I've had to play around with (along with my MacBook, but I'm actually using it) as a light source in my apartment. It's particularly handy for the bathroom, I must say. Between the computers, my phone's flashlight (they don't call it ka-torche for nothing!) and a flashlight I brought it's fine, but I really should get a candle or two, don't know why I never thought of that (or hot sauce! - not as a light source, I just keep forgetting to get any, and my bland cooking would benefit from it) any of the times I've been at a grocery store.
Well, I'm hungry, so I'm going to hit the road. Now the question is whether to get what I often get at La Fontaine (a pretty good but kind of small veggie burger) or hit up someplace new and random, like "Taste Budz" near my apartment. I suspect their chips would be much more satisfyingly greasy, but I don't know what else I could get there. I'm always happy to just get, e.g., rice and beans, which tend to be excellent, cheap, and plentiful, but that was pretty much lunch at the office (plus chapati). Hm, decisions, decisions. Well, if the outcome's exciting, maybe it'll make its way into the next post.
[UPDATE: got the La Fontaine veggie burger. Good choice.]
Wednesday, July 22, 2009
SEACOM goes live tomorrow!
Tomorrow, at long last, the SEACOM undersea cable, linking London, Marseille, and Mumbai to South Africa, with landings along the East African coast (Djibouti, Mombasa, Dar Es Salaam,Toliara, and Maputo), is finally going online. The cable landed in Mombasa about a month ago, but the actual activation of the system was delayed due to increased Somali pirate activity.
But it sounds as though everything is in place -- the land fibre backhauls to Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali, and so forth are in place, and it sounds as though the ISPs have begun to buy into it. For the moment, I understand that it is limited to a capacity of approximately 80Gbps (articles here and here), which is no trivial amount of bandwidth, by African standards, but is a far cry from the 1.28Tbps the cable will ultimately be able to carry.
Still, this is very exciting. Hopefully I'll have more to report tomorrow or Friday on the matter, as my friend and Appfrica fellow Josh Goldstein (see his excellent blog "In an African Minute" -- I'd highly recommend it for those interested in these issues, as well as life in Kampala) has secured an invitation to the event as a member of the press and will be granted an exclusive interview with one of the SEACOM officials present (I think the President or CEO, but I'm not positive).
This should be very interesting, although I'm not sure how soon we will see any meaningful bandwidth increases. Price drops, I fear, are further-off still. I would not be surprised if speeds begin to improve at least a bit while I'm still here, though; I wouldn't say the same for price. Still, in the long term, this is huge for both, and the carrying capacity of the cable itself should allow room for substantial Internet growth in the region as providers see the demand is there and respond accordingly.
In case I haven't said it enough yet, it's really exciting to be here for this rather momentous event in the (short) history of African Internet. I'll keep you posted as it unfolds further.
But it sounds as though everything is in place -- the land fibre backhauls to Nairobi, Kampala, Kigali, and so forth are in place, and it sounds as though the ISPs have begun to buy into it. For the moment, I understand that it is limited to a capacity of approximately 80Gbps (articles here and here), which is no trivial amount of bandwidth, by African standards, but is a far cry from the 1.28Tbps the cable will ultimately be able to carry.
Still, this is very exciting. Hopefully I'll have more to report tomorrow or Friday on the matter, as my friend and Appfrica fellow Josh Goldstein (see his excellent blog "In an African Minute" -- I'd highly recommend it for those interested in these issues, as well as life in Kampala) has secured an invitation to the event as a member of the press and will be granted an exclusive interview with one of the SEACOM officials present (I think the President or CEO, but I'm not positive).
This should be very interesting, although I'm not sure how soon we will see any meaningful bandwidth increases. Price drops, I fear, are further-off still. I would not be surprised if speeds begin to improve at least a bit while I'm still here, though; I wouldn't say the same for price. Still, in the long term, this is huge for both, and the carrying capacity of the cable itself should allow room for substantial Internet growth in the region as providers see the demand is there and respond accordingly.
In case I haven't said it enough yet, it's really exciting to be here for this rather momentous event in the (short) history of African Internet. I'll keep you posted as it unfolds further.
No trip to Mbale this week
It seems that I won't have anything to say about going to Mbale because that's off. I don't know why; I didn't speak directly with anyone from Grameen about it.
As such, I'll be going to Bushenyi next week instead (unless that gets called off as well, but it shouldn't).
As such, I'll be going to Bushenyi next week instead (unless that gets called off as well, but it shouldn't).
Monday, July 20, 2009
Hands on with an OLPC, trip to Mbale this week
Wow, I didn't notice it'd been almost ten days since I posted last. How embarrassing!
On the whole I don't feel like there's that much to say: I've been doing more of the same, working on drafting a variety of documents for Question Box and trying to figure out (first) how to do things like cut back on the number of calls we're escalating to our expert and how to make more certain we aren't asking them the same question more than once and so forth. Part of this means finding out just how much this is happening, which I fear will mean some (more) painstaking combing-over of the records.
So far (still) I've been doing my record-processing in Excel; even with my last project, which was a bit of a logic puzzle of figuring out what combinations of a few yes/no questions meant each of a few different outcomes, it was easiest for me to do it in Excel because I know it and its formula language (or whatever you'd call it) functionally. It'd be much more exciting to do it in (for instance) Python, which I am starting to teach myself, as time allows. But for the moment I just don't feel confident or like it's worth the time to try to do something like that in it.
Speaking of Python, rather interestingly, I've borrowed Appfrica's OLPC XO-1, the One Laptop Per Child computer that was donated to us (around when I came up with that older laptop for them). At the moment it doesn't get much use, so I decided to get better acquainted with it. It's certainly cute, and the hardware is pretty impressive. It feels durable and rugged, and it looks cool (especially for kids). I must confess, however, that for a full-size person, the keyboard is dreadful. And it's not just the small size -- I've used small netbooks before, and none have been so hard to use. The keycaps themselves are really small and have a lot of space between them -- imagine Apple's more recent keyboards, but with the keys 1/4 the size and the keyboard area shrunk to 3/4 of full size. Then cover them with a rubber membrane to totally eliminate the click and resistance of a normal keyboard, and you have an idea of this machine's keyboard. I can't imagine it being very good even for a little kid who can touch-type (although admittedly most, especially in the developing world, likely cannot). Anyway, I can definitely type faster with two thumbs on the iPhone's landscape keyboard than with two hands on the XO. It's that bad.
The screen on the other hand, is really, really cool. Instead of each pixel of the color screen having three segments, one for each color, this one works (in color mode) by using one pixel for each color. But then when you turn the backlight all the way down, it switches to monochrome, at three times the resolution, and is visible with front-lighting. It doesn't go all black like a normal computer LCD with the backlight off. Instead, it takes on more of the look of a digital clock display, with that sort of tan background. It's not as readable (or power-efficient) as an e-ink display (such as that on Amazon's Kindle or similar devices) but is nevertheless much more useable outside and consumes much less power when in this mode than any other standard LCD. It's quite impressive.
The software has some pretty neat stuff. The music sequencing software is simple and pretty intuitive and can do pretty cool stuff almost on its own without needing the user to be a musician or recording engineer. Likewise the Python IDE is easy to use and comes with helpful examples (I think I'll use it to learn Python, although on my Mac, with a real keyboard, using the OLPC's operating system in a virtual machine. The keyboard really is that bad). The software called E-Toys which lets you make and script things and let them play out in an automated sandbox is really interesting, too. It includes lots of interesting things, ranging from a simple car programmed to drive around the screen and change directions when it hits something, to simulations of dye diffusing in water or a disease spreading through a population.
So there is a lot of intriguing and potentially educational stuff on there, but it's hard to use (for someone accustomed to Windows, standard Linux, or Mac -- admittedly all operating systems based on the Western "desktop metaphor") and moreover, feels unfinished and rough. This is really my big problem with OLPC in general -- they've said repeatedly that it's "an education project, not a laptop project," yet all they really make happen fully is the laptop, leaving the educational software and curriculum to the open source community and the respective countries. Of course, that's not something you can necessarily standardize to work everywhere, that's true. But I still take issue with these claims on the project's part.
At any rate, my purpose here isn't to write a thorough analysis or criticism of OLPC. They've certainly gotten a lot done -- they invented the XO from scratch, have gotten many thousands of them to kids (and to tinkerers and developers), and have called a lot of attention to the ideas around technology's roles in education and development. And I don't think netbooks would exist as a major genre of computers today without the work OLPC did to show manufacturers they could make a useable, ultraportable, and very low-cost laptop. But there are major problems with the organization and project as well. My purpose here, though, was to give my initial impressions of the device and its software after spending a couple of days with it, and I am impressed in a lot of respects with it, particularly the hardware (keyboard excepted) and the cost. The software leaves a bit to be desired -- and I might get us a developer key for it so as to be able to experiment with other, more standard Linux distributions. I suspect using it with more familiar software will make it feel a lot more useable.
And I know, by my standards this is a fairly short post [EDIT: well, not really. And short by my standards doesn't mean much]. I can write more about the OLPC if there's interest, though of course that's not something I feel like I can say all that much about. (Not that that's stopped me so far about anything else, though).
In other news, I'll be heading East to Mbale on Wednesday, and staying there through most of Thursday, on a trip with Grameen's AppLab to one of the areas their Community Knowledge Workers are operating. While I've met them before (although I notice I never finished/posted what I'd written about our meeting and focus groups), I'm very excited to get to see them doing what they do in the field, and hopefully actually meet with the people they talk to -- the farmers themselves who are the source of the questions the CKWs ask us, and who are the intended beneficiaries of the service. It should be fascinating to see their farming and living conditions in person, as well as the crops and issues they're always asking about. And I think talking to them firsthand will help us get a better idea of just how they see the service, what it's worth to them, and so forth, which are all important questions as we start to figure out how Question Box could be scaled up and how it could be made financially sustainable.
I'll have much more to say about the trip and should have lots of pictures (although some may be confined to film -- haven't used my film camera much yet, but should) after I get back.
On the whole I don't feel like there's that much to say: I've been doing more of the same, working on drafting a variety of documents for Question Box and trying to figure out (first) how to do things like cut back on the number of calls we're escalating to our expert and how to make more certain we aren't asking them the same question more than once and so forth. Part of this means finding out just how much this is happening, which I fear will mean some (more) painstaking combing-over of the records.
So far (still) I've been doing my record-processing in Excel; even with my last project, which was a bit of a logic puzzle of figuring out what combinations of a few yes/no questions meant each of a few different outcomes, it was easiest for me to do it in Excel because I know it and its formula language (or whatever you'd call it) functionally. It'd be much more exciting to do it in (for instance) Python, which I am starting to teach myself, as time allows. But for the moment I just don't feel confident or like it's worth the time to try to do something like that in it.
Speaking of Python, rather interestingly, I've borrowed Appfrica's OLPC XO-1, the One Laptop Per Child computer that was donated to us (around when I came up with that older laptop for them). At the moment it doesn't get much use, so I decided to get better acquainted with it. It's certainly cute, and the hardware is pretty impressive. It feels durable and rugged, and it looks cool (especially for kids). I must confess, however, that for a full-size person, the keyboard is dreadful. And it's not just the small size -- I've used small netbooks before, and none have been so hard to use. The keycaps themselves are really small and have a lot of space between them -- imagine Apple's more recent keyboards, but with the keys 1/4 the size and the keyboard area shrunk to 3/4 of full size. Then cover them with a rubber membrane to totally eliminate the click and resistance of a normal keyboard, and you have an idea of this machine's keyboard. I can't imagine it being very good even for a little kid who can touch-type (although admittedly most, especially in the developing world, likely cannot). Anyway, I can definitely type faster with two thumbs on the iPhone's landscape keyboard than with two hands on the XO. It's that bad.
The screen on the other hand, is really, really cool. Instead of each pixel of the color screen having three segments, one for each color, this one works (in color mode) by using one pixel for each color. But then when you turn the backlight all the way down, it switches to monochrome, at three times the resolution, and is visible with front-lighting. It doesn't go all black like a normal computer LCD with the backlight off. Instead, it takes on more of the look of a digital clock display, with that sort of tan background. It's not as readable (or power-efficient) as an e-ink display (such as that on Amazon's Kindle or similar devices) but is nevertheless much more useable outside and consumes much less power when in this mode than any other standard LCD. It's quite impressive.
The software has some pretty neat stuff. The music sequencing software is simple and pretty intuitive and can do pretty cool stuff almost on its own without needing the user to be a musician or recording engineer. Likewise the Python IDE is easy to use and comes with helpful examples (I think I'll use it to learn Python, although on my Mac, with a real keyboard, using the OLPC's operating system in a virtual machine. The keyboard really is that bad). The software called E-Toys which lets you make and script things and let them play out in an automated sandbox is really interesting, too. It includes lots of interesting things, ranging from a simple car programmed to drive around the screen and change directions when it hits something, to simulations of dye diffusing in water or a disease spreading through a population.
So there is a lot of intriguing and potentially educational stuff on there, but it's hard to use (for someone accustomed to Windows, standard Linux, or Mac -- admittedly all operating systems based on the Western "desktop metaphor") and moreover, feels unfinished and rough. This is really my big problem with OLPC in general -- they've said repeatedly that it's "an education project, not a laptop project," yet all they really make happen fully is the laptop, leaving the educational software and curriculum to the open source community and the respective countries. Of course, that's not something you can necessarily standardize to work everywhere, that's true. But I still take issue with these claims on the project's part.
At any rate, my purpose here isn't to write a thorough analysis or criticism of OLPC. They've certainly gotten a lot done -- they invented the XO from scratch, have gotten many thousands of them to kids (and to tinkerers and developers), and have called a lot of attention to the ideas around technology's roles in education and development. And I don't think netbooks would exist as a major genre of computers today without the work OLPC did to show manufacturers they could make a useable, ultraportable, and very low-cost laptop. But there are major problems with the organization and project as well. My purpose here, though, was to give my initial impressions of the device and its software after spending a couple of days with it, and I am impressed in a lot of respects with it, particularly the hardware (keyboard excepted) and the cost. The software leaves a bit to be desired -- and I might get us a developer key for it so as to be able to experiment with other, more standard Linux distributions. I suspect using it with more familiar software will make it feel a lot more useable.
And I know, by my standards this is a fairly short post [EDIT: well, not really. And short by my standards doesn't mean much]. I can write more about the OLPC if there's interest, though of course that's not something I feel like I can say all that much about. (Not that that's stopped me so far about anything else, though).
In other news, I'll be heading East to Mbale on Wednesday, and staying there through most of Thursday, on a trip with Grameen's AppLab to one of the areas their Community Knowledge Workers are operating. While I've met them before (although I notice I never finished/posted what I'd written about our meeting and focus groups), I'm very excited to get to see them doing what they do in the field, and hopefully actually meet with the people they talk to -- the farmers themselves who are the source of the questions the CKWs ask us, and who are the intended beneficiaries of the service. It should be fascinating to see their farming and living conditions in person, as well as the crops and issues they're always asking about. And I think talking to them firsthand will help us get a better idea of just how they see the service, what it's worth to them, and so forth, which are all important questions as we start to figure out how Question Box could be scaled up and how it could be made financially sustainable.
I'll have much more to say about the trip and should have lots of pictures (although some may be confined to film -- haven't used my film camera much yet, but should) after I get back.
Friday, July 10, 2009
Google's Chrome OS, "cloud computing," and Africa
This whole "Google OS" thing is pretty weird. It's odd that they'd announce it so far in advance, with (seemingly) nothing at all to show for it -- no details, so screenshots, nothing. It's like they're announcing that they're going to start working on it...before too long.
Their approach to applications sounds distressingly similar to Apple's initial approach to the iPhone -- all webapps. Still, as has been pointed out in a variety of places by a number of people (PC World's Nick Mediati, Daring Fireball's John Gruber) just because it's web code doesn't mean it's just a webpage. The Palm Pre's whole OS runs (essentially) web code, but this includes applications hosted locally, and they have access to the device's hardware features in a way that true webapps running in a browser traditionally don't/can't. So this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
However, the fact that so much will likely be stored "in the cloud" is discomforting to some, and not without good reason.
But I have another concern with this, as someone currently based in Africa, where the connectivity is very, very poor. At a college campus in the US, sure, I had pretty ubiquitous connectivity. Anywhere it would occur to me to take out my laptop and use it, I had access to some sort of wifi or another. And that's likely true of a large number of people in the developed world. Most of the places they'll unpack their laptop -- at home, at work -- they've got easy wifi connectivity.
Sticking still to developed countries, though, what about on a train? A bus? The subway? These are even more significant when we consider netbooks, which seem to be the platform of choice for this new operating system. Perhaps Google expects integrated WAN in every netbook by the time they release their OS (and maybe they're right). However, I for one am too cheap to pay for a connection like that for a computer, especially when I already am for my phone. Granted tethering said smartphone is a possibility, but until US providers get their acts together and officially permit tethering, that's not realistic either (except for those of us, er, ahem, those people willing to stretch the TOS a little and tether anyway).
All of these connectivity concerns, especially relevant for ultraportable laptops, are magnified substantially when we consider the rest of the world. Of course, I freely admit that technology companies do not, for the most part, design high-profile products like this with the developing world in mind. But why not? Google clearly sees demand for search products in the developing world, as evidenced by the rollout of SMS search in Uganda last week. The demand for smartphones and laptops is there, too, albeit much less than in a Western country.
Yet in the few larger stores I have seen selling computers, the only machines they are selling are fairly large and fairly dated regular laptops, selling for more than they're worth. High prices aren't a surprise, but a netbook -- even sold for a bit more than it should really be worth* is still cheaper and not much different in specifications.
At any rate, the point I'm trying to make is that Google is acknowledging the demand for knowledge and connectivity (and therefore a market for the service they're in the business of providing) in places like sub-Saharan Africa. And I think they'd stand to benefit from pushing that further, with inexpensive, simple computers and an easy-to-use, brand new OS. They could carve out a huge new market for their OS by challenging Microsoft somewhere Windows is not as entrenched as in the developed world because no operating system is. But in my mind, that can't happen with an operating system that's only fully functional when it's connected to the Internet, because for the moment that's simply neither possible nor affordable here in Africa.
Maybe by the time this OS actually launches TEAMS, SEACOM, and some of the other planned undersea cables will actually exist and be lit, and East Africa will be swimming in bandwidth (compared to the present, at least). And given how much we know about the Chrome OS, it could very well be that long. But while I'm sure it will be a while, I doubt connectivity here will be much better by the time it ships. I just hope it's sufficiently web-independent to be useful to all of us who either don't want, can't afford, or simply don't have access to truly ubiquitous Internet, because I think a lightweight operating system for netbooks that both isn't Windows and is more accessible than today's Linux distros (see for instance the high return rates of Linux netbooks), is a good thing. And I think, except for the heavy reliance on connectivity I fear it will have, such an operating system combined with inexpensive computers could be a great thing someplace like this.
------
*Note that I'm not suggesting it's the least bit OK to gouge 3rd-world markets for products and services they want/need just because they aren't widely available or anything like that. This is related, I think, to the arguments around the mobile/SMS pricing here -- it's useful enough that people will pay it, even if it's unreasonably high, and still arguably benefit from it (as they might from say, overpriced netbooks), but that doesn't make it good. Steve Song has a good article on it here.
Their approach to applications sounds distressingly similar to Apple's initial approach to the iPhone -- all webapps. Still, as has been pointed out in a variety of places by a number of people (PC World's Nick Mediati, Daring Fireball's John Gruber) just because it's web code doesn't mean it's just a webpage. The Palm Pre's whole OS runs (essentially) web code, but this includes applications hosted locally, and they have access to the device's hardware features in a way that true webapps running in a browser traditionally don't/can't. So this isn't necessarily a bad thing.
However, the fact that so much will likely be stored "in the cloud" is discomforting to some, and not without good reason.
But I have another concern with this, as someone currently based in Africa, where the connectivity is very, very poor. At a college campus in the US, sure, I had pretty ubiquitous connectivity. Anywhere it would occur to me to take out my laptop and use it, I had access to some sort of wifi or another. And that's likely true of a large number of people in the developed world. Most of the places they'll unpack their laptop -- at home, at work -- they've got easy wifi connectivity.
Sticking still to developed countries, though, what about on a train? A bus? The subway? These are even more significant when we consider netbooks, which seem to be the platform of choice for this new operating system. Perhaps Google expects integrated WAN in every netbook by the time they release their OS (and maybe they're right). However, I for one am too cheap to pay for a connection like that for a computer, especially when I already am for my phone. Granted tethering said smartphone is a possibility, but until US providers get their acts together and officially permit tethering, that's not realistic either (except for those of us, er, ahem, those people willing to stretch the TOS a little and tether anyway).
All of these connectivity concerns, especially relevant for ultraportable laptops, are magnified substantially when we consider the rest of the world. Of course, I freely admit that technology companies do not, for the most part, design high-profile products like this with the developing world in mind. But why not? Google clearly sees demand for search products in the developing world, as evidenced by the rollout of SMS search in Uganda last week. The demand for smartphones and laptops is there, too, albeit much less than in a Western country.
Yet in the few larger stores I have seen selling computers, the only machines they are selling are fairly large and fairly dated regular laptops, selling for more than they're worth. High prices aren't a surprise, but a netbook -- even sold for a bit more than it should really be worth* is still cheaper and not much different in specifications.
At any rate, the point I'm trying to make is that Google is acknowledging the demand for knowledge and connectivity (and therefore a market for the service they're in the business of providing) in places like sub-Saharan Africa. And I think they'd stand to benefit from pushing that further, with inexpensive, simple computers and an easy-to-use, brand new OS. They could carve out a huge new market for their OS by challenging Microsoft somewhere Windows is not as entrenched as in the developed world because no operating system is. But in my mind, that can't happen with an operating system that's only fully functional when it's connected to the Internet, because for the moment that's simply neither possible nor affordable here in Africa.
Maybe by the time this OS actually launches TEAMS, SEACOM, and some of the other planned undersea cables will actually exist and be lit, and East Africa will be swimming in bandwidth (compared to the present, at least). And given how much we know about the Chrome OS, it could very well be that long. But while I'm sure it will be a while, I doubt connectivity here will be much better by the time it ships. I just hope it's sufficiently web-independent to be useful to all of us who either don't want, can't afford, or simply don't have access to truly ubiquitous Internet, because I think a lightweight operating system for netbooks that both isn't Windows and is more accessible than today's Linux distros (see for instance the high return rates of Linux netbooks), is a good thing. And I think, except for the heavy reliance on connectivity I fear it will have, such an operating system combined with inexpensive computers could be a great thing someplace like this.
------
*Note that I'm not suggesting it's the least bit OK to gouge 3rd-world markets for products and services they want/need just because they aren't widely available or anything like that. This is related, I think, to the arguments around the mobile/SMS pricing here -- it's useful enough that people will pay it, even if it's unreasonably high, and still arguably benefit from it (as they might from say, overpriced netbooks), but that doesn't make it good. Steve Song has a good article on it here.
Wednesday, July 8, 2009
Link: PC World article on Question Box!
Monday, July 6, 2009
Quick update, sorry it's been so long
I've really got a lot to talk about, I just haven't finished getting it all on (proverbial) paper just yet, I've been very busy.
Quick summary:
--Earlier last week there was the big Grameen CKW/Question Box event. I've written up a bit about it, haven't quite finished it yet. Met the CKWs (Community Knowledge Workers) as well as some of the AppLab team, had focus groups about the AQB (AppLab Question Box, sorry, I went to Berkeley, I love me my TLAs [ahem, three letter acronyms]) service, as well as the newly public Google SMS services (the CKWs have been testing/using them for a while), and it was nice to hear that neither the CKWs nor Grameen sounds like they view the SMS tools as a replacement for our service. There's a writeup about it at the new Question Box blog (to which I'll also contribute), located here, as well as pictures from it that Jon took. Some pictures I took either are or soon will be on Flickr.
--My next set of projects at work involve the software: studying how it differs from the original spec that was agreed upon for it, figuring out if anything ought to or needs to be changed as part of that, etc, as well as describing it in great detail for an intellectual property agreement between Appfrica (who created the software and houses the project; Jon's company) and Open Mind (the parent nonprofit of Question Box; Rose's organization) about the software. I'm also working to improve some major recordkeeping issues (such as one that made it look as though, based on the data to which I had access, our answer rate was about 60% -- in reality this reflected those that could be answered without escalation to an expert, and the real rate is more like 95%). And uh, in case I'm saying more about any of this than I'm supposed to (I don't think so, but still), don't go publishing any of this without asking me first, OK?
--I'm moved into my new place. It's very nice! There are pictures on Flickr.
--The commute is taking some getting used to, I haven't fine-tuned it yet. Last week it was hard, so I kept stopping halfway at Good African Coffee to get some work done there. Their internet is also better than the office's, so both times I went Jon ended up going there, too. They know and love Jon there, and so I'm well-liked by association, and will be a regular soon...they're coffee's very good, and pretty inexpensive. A small African coffee (brewed coffee with steamed milk), which is easily two cups worth (it comes in a little kettle) is 4000 shillings, or less than two dollars. Not bad compared to coffee shops in the Bay Area. Speaking of coffee, over the weekend I got myself a French press so I could make myself coffee. It seemed pretty expensive (like $20!) but I figured I'll always use one, I like them a lot, and I'll certainly get a lot of use out of it here and home/wherever, so I was willing to pay it, since they're not all that easy to find here. Then I got it home and it's cracked, and I probably won't get a chance to return it until at least Tuesday, if not later. I really hope they don't accuse me of cracking it, but I think I've got to try, though I don't think the chances of exchanging it are all that great, given what I've heard. And it will work as is, and only leaks very little very slowly, but it's the principle, especially given how much it cost. Plus I want it to last, and the glass is always as risk from the temperature extremes. Don't need it starting out weakened. Sigh. Also it seems to be impossible (here) to buy just the glass part for if/when it breaks like you'd hope you could.
Anyway, today I walked about half way to work and took a taxi (mutatu) the other half. It took a long time (about an hour) but only cost 500 (about a quarter) and now I know a way that avoids the icky busy street until almost where it's easy to get a mutatu. It was really nice, too, when I got to the bottom of the hill, Benon, the special driver I know best, was heading up to the hill to pick somebody else up, and offered me a lift. (That's the only reason I was as on time as I was; otherwise it would've been another ten minutes probably -- it's not far, but it is steep!).
I know another route for the first half of the commute that could be better, as it could involve two mutatus, so quicker and less walking (still at least 10 minutes on either end though, one each uphill and downhill each way -- I'd still get plenty of exercise) but so far I haven't had much luck actually getting a mutatu for the first stretch, they're all full by the time they get there, so I just end up walking further along a stretch of big road that's not great for walking because it's really busy and the sidewalk path wanders away from it through markets, dilapidated houses, and so forth, and isn't very efficient (as well as at times a little uncomfortable). So what I did today worked better, it's just a bit time-consuming.
--The 4th of July weekend was fun. Friday I met up with some people (via Naashom, who I got my place from, but herself couldn't make it, as she was stuck in traffic into Kampala from Jinja) about whom I'd heard but never met, another group of this same circle of muzungu development workers. I ended up going to their 4th of July barbeque rather than the official ARA (American Recreation Association?) one which sounded fun-ish but cost money and I didn't really know who'd be going. So I went with the known known and went to the smaller barbeque, which I'm pleased to say involved excellent veggie kebabs and (!) veggie burgers and sausages from the pseudo-Morningstar farms brand they sell at ShopRite (which are quite good, and even come in green boxes! Very exciting).
--I think that's all for now. Oh yeah, Jon and Sarah's other roommate, whose room I stayed in while I was here, just got back and I met him. I'd heard a lot about him, so that was exciting. He's just finish(ed/ing) an MBA at Oxford (!). I think I'll join him and Jon and co. for dinner tonight.
--I'll write more as I have it and have the time and energy to write it up. But in short, everything's great, work is going well, I'm settling into my new place and new (long) commute, getting familiar with the city and transportation in it, and getting to know a good group of people to hang out with. Also, I'm eating well, if fairly simply, and now I've got a safer plug adapter for the electric range and nothing's caught fire yet.
--Once again, if you're interested in Question Box, have a look at the blog! It's just starting out, but should become a good source of updates on it and how it fits into Grameen's rural ICTD program.
Quick summary:
--Earlier last week there was the big Grameen CKW/Question Box event. I've written up a bit about it, haven't quite finished it yet. Met the CKWs (Community Knowledge Workers) as well as some of the AppLab team, had focus groups about the AQB (AppLab Question Box, sorry, I went to Berkeley, I love me my TLAs [ahem, three letter acronyms]) service, as well as the newly public Google SMS services (the CKWs have been testing/using them for a while), and it was nice to hear that neither the CKWs nor Grameen sounds like they view the SMS tools as a replacement for our service. There's a writeup about it at the new Question Box blog (to which I'll also contribute), located here, as well as pictures from it that Jon took. Some pictures I took either are or soon will be on Flickr.
--My next set of projects at work involve the software: studying how it differs from the original spec that was agreed upon for it, figuring out if anything ought to or needs to be changed as part of that, etc, as well as describing it in great detail for an intellectual property agreement between Appfrica (who created the software and houses the project; Jon's company) and Open Mind (the parent nonprofit of Question Box; Rose's organization) about the software. I'm also working to improve some major recordkeeping issues (such as one that made it look as though, based on the data to which I had access, our answer rate was about 60% -- in reality this reflected those that could be answered without escalation to an expert, and the real rate is more like 95%). And uh, in case I'm saying more about any of this than I'm supposed to (I don't think so, but still), don't go publishing any of this without asking me first, OK?
--I'm moved into my new place. It's very nice! There are pictures on Flickr.
--The commute is taking some getting used to, I haven't fine-tuned it yet. Last week it was hard, so I kept stopping halfway at Good African Coffee to get some work done there. Their internet is also better than the office's, so both times I went Jon ended up going there, too. They know and love Jon there, and so I'm well-liked by association, and will be a regular soon...they're coffee's very good, and pretty inexpensive. A small African coffee (brewed coffee with steamed milk), which is easily two cups worth (it comes in a little kettle) is 4000 shillings, or less than two dollars. Not bad compared to coffee shops in the Bay Area. Speaking of coffee, over the weekend I got myself a French press so I could make myself coffee. It seemed pretty expensive (like $20!) but I figured I'll always use one, I like them a lot, and I'll certainly get a lot of use out of it here and home/wherever, so I was willing to pay it, since they're not all that easy to find here. Then I got it home and it's cracked, and I probably won't get a chance to return it until at least Tuesday, if not later. I really hope they don't accuse me of cracking it, but I think I've got to try, though I don't think the chances of exchanging it are all that great, given what I've heard. And it will work as is, and only leaks very little very slowly, but it's the principle, especially given how much it cost. Plus I want it to last, and the glass is always as risk from the temperature extremes. Don't need it starting out weakened. Sigh. Also it seems to be impossible (here) to buy just the glass part for if/when it breaks like you'd hope you could.
Anyway, today I walked about half way to work and took a taxi (mutatu) the other half. It took a long time (about an hour) but only cost 500 (about a quarter) and now I know a way that avoids the icky busy street until almost where it's easy to get a mutatu. It was really nice, too, when I got to the bottom of the hill, Benon, the special driver I know best, was heading up to the hill to pick somebody else up, and offered me a lift. (That's the only reason I was as on time as I was; otherwise it would've been another ten minutes probably -- it's not far, but it is steep!).
I know another route for the first half of the commute that could be better, as it could involve two mutatus, so quicker and less walking (still at least 10 minutes on either end though, one each uphill and downhill each way -- I'd still get plenty of exercise) but so far I haven't had much luck actually getting a mutatu for the first stretch, they're all full by the time they get there, so I just end up walking further along a stretch of big road that's not great for walking because it's really busy and the sidewalk path wanders away from it through markets, dilapidated houses, and so forth, and isn't very efficient (as well as at times a little uncomfortable). So what I did today worked better, it's just a bit time-consuming.
--The 4th of July weekend was fun. Friday I met up with some people (via Naashom, who I got my place from, but herself couldn't make it, as she was stuck in traffic into Kampala from Jinja) about whom I'd heard but never met, another group of this same circle of muzungu development workers. I ended up going to their 4th of July barbeque rather than the official ARA (American Recreation Association?) one which sounded fun-ish but cost money and I didn't really know who'd be going. So I went with the known known and went to the smaller barbeque, which I'm pleased to say involved excellent veggie kebabs and (!) veggie burgers and sausages from the pseudo-Morningstar farms brand they sell at ShopRite (which are quite good, and even come in green boxes! Very exciting).
--I think that's all for now. Oh yeah, Jon and Sarah's other roommate, whose room I stayed in while I was here, just got back and I met him. I'd heard a lot about him, so that was exciting. He's just finish(ed/ing) an MBA at Oxford (!). I think I'll join him and Jon and co. for dinner tonight.
--I'll write more as I have it and have the time and energy to write it up. But in short, everything's great, work is going well, I'm settling into my new place and new (long) commute, getting familiar with the city and transportation in it, and getting to know a good group of people to hang out with. Also, I'm eating well, if fairly simply, and now I've got a safer plug adapter for the electric range and nothing's caught fire yet.
--Once again, if you're interested in Question Box, have a look at the blog! It's just starting out, but should become a good source of updates on it and how it fits into Grameen's rural ICTD program.
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