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THURSDAY, MAY 24, 2007

Mobile consumerism: Pixel by pixel

Despite the many incredible things happening around the world with mobile phones, one thing continues to trouble me - the sheer numbers of these things being manufactured, consumed and, in some cases, spat out (dumped, stuffed in drawers, or whatever). Okay, many are finding their way into new homes and markets - developing world or otherwise - which is a good thing all round. But we've been fed news for so long about "several million new subscribers here" and "another few million there" that we've almost become numb to the massive scale of the whole thing. What on earth do several million handsets look like?

I never really thought about it until now. The photo above is from "Running the Numbers: An American Self-Portrait", a series of prints by photographer Chris Jordan that aims to examine modern American culture through the "austere lens of statistics". What you're seeing up there is a photograph of 500,000 mobile phones all piled up. This represents the number of mobiles ditched daily in the United States.

In India alone over 5 million new connections - ten times this number - are made every month. Now, maybe not all come with a new handset, but the manufacturers are doing their utmost to make sure they do. That's where the battle is right now, and it's only going to hot up. After all, on a global level more people still don't have phones than do.

The sheer environmental cost of producing such a massive number of devices can't be underestimated. Quite frankly, it's huge. I don't have any answers right now - I wish I did - and sometimes during my various talks I get asked about this. But despite that, I think it's important that we are at least aware of the issues and don't just stick our heads in the sand. Our love affair with the mobile phone is just one of many 'consumptions' taking hold in the world, as Chris Jordan's exhibition so vividly shows. Curbing our demand for newer and newer handsets is just a small part of a much wider problem.

And, right now, no-one has any answers to that either.

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WEDNESDAY, MAY 16, 2007

From 1.0 to 2.0 to 3.0: The new web?

I don't spend a huge amount of time searching Facebook groups, but when I saw this one it looked pretty interesting. It quite neatly captures what's 'happening' with the web, and what the little number at the end means to people 'browser-side'. Is this what's happening?

Web1.0: Brain & Eyes - Information

Web2.0: Brain, Eyes, Ears, Voice & Heart - Passion

Web3.0: Brain, Eyes, Ears, Voice, Heart, Arms & Legs - Freedom

Is this tongue-in-cheek, or reality?

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SUNDAY, MAY 13, 2007

Waking up in unexpected places

If you'd have sat me down ten years ago and asked me what my ideal job would be, I'd probably have described something that didn't exist. It would have been a strange mixture of conservation, people, Africa and technology - maybe an extra one or two for luck - all spiced up with a touch of positive change and a dash of stubborn determination. The chances of finding something like that were remote, if not impossible. But there's a saying: "If you can't predict the future, invent it". And, it would seem, I have managed to do just that.

Along the way I've probably taken the term 'multidisciplinary' to a new level, but what do you do when you can't decide, well, what to do? If you're passionate about a number of things it seems unfair to be forced to make a choice, so I didn't. My revised strap line, which came out of an early meeting at Stanford with my old friend, Erik Sundelof, describes quite perfectly what I now do. And it has all the right ingredients - conservation, people, Africa and technology. I was told many-a-time along the way that I should concentrate on one thing, that my message was unclear, but I'm glad I stuck with it.

Eight months have passed since I arrived at Stanford to take up a Fellowship on the Reuters Digital Vision Program. It has been an incredibly positive experience, and interest in my work is at an all-time high. This has come at a time when interest in the interface between people and technology in developing countries - and mobile in particular - is about to hit a steep upward curve. It might sound odd, but I feel like I've suddenly woken up in this strange place.

The place I dreamt of all those years ago...

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FRIDAY, MAY 11, 2007

One of our continents is missing

I've just returned from the 16th International World Wide Web Conference in Banff, Canada. As you'd expect from such a prestigious annual event, no expense was spared in making the experience as productive and pleasurable as possible for the thousands of delegates who attended. With the beautiful Rocky Mountains as a backdrop, what better place to network, make new friends and talk about the future of the web? Life can be hard...

The 16th International World Wide Web Conference was interesting for a number of reasons. For a start, the world wide web isn't really world-wide quite yet, and this was one of the reasons I was invited to attend. On Tuesday I presented a paper on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries, and the day after sat on a panel discussing Web Delivery Models for Developing Regions. I enjoy attending these kinds of events - not only does it give me a chance to see what other people are doing in this emerging 'emerging market' area, but I also get to profile my own work to a wider audience. After many years working alone in darkened rooms, this is new and refreshing. Fortunately my message is always well received, and seems to strike a chord with most people. It still makes me smile seeing kiwanja.net ("Who?", I hear all the delegates asking!) muscle in on the big guys - Microsoft, MIT, IIT, IBM and so on. Power to the people!

On the downside, the notable lack of African presenters and delegates at the event - the "missing continent" - was rather disappointing (if not unexpected), particularly considering the amount of interest in emerging markets right now, and the drive to connect the last couple of billion people at the bottom of that pyramid. The reasons for this? Well, I doubt that it's down to a lack of interest from African developers. No doubt they'd jump at the chance to attend something like this. I'd put it down to issues of cost and lack of funding, lack of awareness in both camps, a general lack of focus on the African continent (and why should there be, I guess?) and the fact that not many Africans got invited to this thing. There was, as you'd expect, a strong North American and European contingent, along with plenty of others from Asia. We seem to be creating a continental divide to add to our already well-established digital one.

On a more positive note, over the past few months I've come into contact with many people with professional and personal interest in the uses of technology in Africa for positive social and environmental change. Many have been from Africa. Change is in the air...

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SUNDAY, MAY 06, 2007

"Opinions, news and inter-views"

Over the past few weeks things have been pretty busy on the interview front. There have also been a number of news articles reporting the use of FrontlineSMS in the Nigerian elections, and a couple of podcasts on kiwanja's work. I regularly post details on the News section of the site, but thought it would be worth bringing them all together in a blog entry. So, if you're interested in what's been going on recently
feel free to browse through the following links:

Nokia New Horizons Magazine:  Article on kiwanja's appropriate technology focus
African Signals:  A podcasted interview with the man behind the "White African" blog
Pambazuka News:  The story behind FrontlineSMS and the Nigerian elections
WSIS:  FrontlineSMS featured as "ICT Success Story of the Month"
BBC News:  FrontlineSMS used to monitor the Nigerian elections
BBC Digital Planet:  Podcast of a radio interview on the BBC World Service
Mongabay.com:  Interview about technology use in conservation and development
Net Tuesday:  Podcasted interview at this San Francisco technology event

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THURSDAY, MAY 03, 2007

Why I'm not a social entrepreneur

A few years ago, back during my university days, I was asked to write an essay on 'sustainable development' and what the term actually meant. The general consensus seemed to be that it meant very little, not because the rationale behind the term wasn't a compelling one, but because it was being so widely misused that it had become pretty-much meaningless.

I feel the same might be happening today with the term 'social entrepreneur'. So many people claim to be one, and so many universities are 'teaching' people how to become one, the term is becoming blurred, almost fashion-statement-like.

For a start, I don't think anyone can just become a social entrepreneur by simply going through a process. Sure, people can learn the mechanics of social entrepreneurship - business models, sustainability, global (and local) social issues, fundraising and so on - but that's it. You have to earn the title, not learn it. Having an honours degree in social entrepreneurship - or whatever it might be - doesn't automatically make you one.

Personally I have never considered myself a social entrepreneur, even though my poster at Stanford says that I am. To make things worse, I'm not much of a 'title' person, either. I don't find it helpful putting people into neat little boxes, but that seems to be how things work these days. If other people want to put me into the 'social entrepreneur' box then they're free to do so, but I won't be doing it myself.

There are many reasons why I don't think I belong there - too many to list in a blog entry without it becoming long and tedious. But perhaps the main one is this: I don't believe that I, Ken Banks, am an agent for social change. I am comfortable taking a support role, helping empower other people to become agents of social change.

And if that means I'm not a social entrepreneur then I, for one, have no problem with that.

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SATURDAY, APRIL 28, 2007

Bridging the knowledge divide

A common theme in my work, and in many of my conference talks, centres around a very simple message - appropriate technology. It's nothing new, and as a concept has been around since the 1970's with Fritz Schumacher's defining book, "Small is Beautiful: Economics as if People Mattered". During my recent interview with Nokia's "New Horizons" magazine, however, it was interesting that the conversation was entirely appropriate-technology focussed. I was expecting questions about FrontlineSMS, my work on wildlive! and my developing-country technology experience. Instead, the interview was dominated by my focus on "needs-based", "human-centred", "grassroots" and "appropriate" technologies. Believe me, I was more than happy to talk about these things - I don't think enough people do.

It still surprises me - sometimes even saddens me - that we live in an era where there's a general tendency to over-engineer solutions. Not only is this a waste of time in my view, but it's a waste of money and effort. It also raises expectations. Believe me, there's plenty of this going on as we speak (sorry, read). I come across this at conferences where I meet hugely technically-abled people who spend their time trying to find homes for the very latest technical gadgetry. And because of where I work, and the circles where I mix, the home they are looking for is usually in a developing country. This only serves to exaggerate the problem.

Take the recent use of my FrontlineSMS system in the Nigerian elections. FrontlineSMS is not rocket science. It's so simple, in fact, that it slipped under most people's radars. One comment on Slashdot discussing its use highlights this over-engineering view:
 

"It's too simple. You guys don't know what you are talking about. Doing it all with one computer and an SMS modem? You can't future proof it that way. I want to see some mention of CORBA and SOAP. How can you have a system without middleware? Can you use dot NET? Everybody uses that these days. And what if I want to use it when I am already on the phone. Can't it have a WAP interface as well? I want to sell a thousand copies of this thing and nobody is going to pay a million bucks for something which doesn't use a single cutting edge technology"
 

There is certainly no written rule that everything has to be cutting edge. Very little, in essence, is. Is Google cutting edge? There were plenty of other search engines around before they came along. All they did was see the opportunity, do it better and hit the target. Over the coming weeks I'm going to be spending a lot of time discussing mobile phone use, and web access, in developing countries. I'll soon be presenting a paper - the same one presented at W3C in Bangalore last December - at the 16th International World Wide Web Conference in Banff, and sitting on an expert panel at the same event. And my message will be the same as it has always been.

Although it should come as no surprise that there's a gulf between many developers and the realities of life in developing countries, there have been attempts to bring the two together. Some have worked better than others, but at least there's a realisation that a meeting-of-minds is needed. If you want a simple, effective example as to why, take a look at the handsets being used by the majority of rural people in developing countries (see photo, taken in India this January). Then have a think about how Java, Flash Lite, WAP and smart-phone applications would go down with these users. Okay, one day these technologies will become relevant, but right now I would argue that they're not. SMS is still the killer application, like it or not. And, on the subject of web access on mobile devices, I would also argue that we haven't quite mastered it ourselves yet. Generally-speaking the user experience still leaves a lot to be desired.

I'm not the only person who thinks this way. Far from it. And I'm looking forward to meeting others, and our technically-minded colleagues, in Canada next month. Time to re-open the debate...

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MONDAY, APRIL 23, 2007

Preening

Santa Cruz, Sunday 15th April, 2007 (from kiwanja's Flickr)

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FRIDAY, APRIL 20, 2007

Citizen journalism or citizen empowerment?

It's been a funny old week. After last weeks Mongabay.com interview, news broke on another subject - the use of my FrontlineSMS system in the monitoring of the Nigerian elections this coming weekend. NMEM, the Nigerian NGO who are running the project, will be using volunteer observers to text in any observations (good or bad) as they go through the voting process.

There has been a lot of talk in recent months (and years) about citizen journalism - people reporting on news in their area - but what is happening now, with software such as FrontlineSMS, is more citizen empowerment. The difference here is that with empowerment they not only report on their surroundings - they are suddenly able to fully engage and influence the outcome.

NMEM, whose mission is to "encourage the Nigerian electorate to participate in the electoral process", are a non-profit group of young professionals in Nigeria advocating for social change through good governance. NMEM had the mission, NMEM had the passion and NMEM had the commitment and vision to drive this forward. NMEM also found FrontlineSMS, and they took the software and ran with it. With the exception of several emails and the odd 3am phone call (!) they have been pretty much alone in this venture. The story is really theirs.

This is just the beginning. The future is not citizen journalism - it's citizen empowerment...

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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18, 2007

VC? Not for me...

Today on the Reuters Digital Vision Program we had the opportunity to mock pitch to three Venture Capitalist (VC) firms from Silicon Valley. As my fellow Fellows honed their pitches and made final tweaks to their presentations, I was 'absent with leave'. It's not that I'm not grateful for the opportunity, it's just that I don't have a business model for what I do. I barely make enough money for myself, let alone give someone else a good return on theirs (or any return, come to that).

Instead, I'm in search of the pure social investor.

Who would this be? What would they 'look' like? Well, by definition, a pure social investor would see the value of kiwanja.net and realise that a solid sustainable business model, with a monetary return, is an unfair ask. They would instead want a strong social return  based on a continuing service to non-profits and disenfranchised individuals and communities - grassroots organisations that need FrontlineSMS, or some crucial technical input into their project, or students and researchers wanting to understand the impact of technology in developing countries. kiwanja.net is all about bringing down barriers. Asking for money for many of these
services would simply put up another.

There are many grand schemes out there, people trying to develop multi-million dollar solutions to hundred-thousand dollar problems. Subsidised or not, many seek a financial return for their investors. Schmoozing with politicians and large multinational donor organisations takes time - some projects take years to come to fruition, let alone deliver, and then large percentages of the grants get siphoned off to cover a multitude of overheads. So, while people are busy working on their "big picture", kiwanja will happily keep working on the smaller one, chipping away at the problems, and provide tools, inspiration and support for dedicated organisations and individuals out in the 'real' world. It's not that this helps me sleep better at night. Quite simply, it's where I see the greatest need.

And the greatest impact.

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TUESDAY, APRIL 10, 2007

Static on the radio

I've been thinking more and more lately about how human behaviour divides neatly into good and bad, positive and negative, constructive and destructive, helpful and unhelpful, kind or evil, and so on. But however you describe it, for every positive there is a negative. For every person fighting for something, there are people fighting against it. These struggles have existed since the dawn of human-kind, and are still very much alive today.

The problem is that things are rarely black and white. What is good for one person can turn out bad for another, so it all depends on your perspective - which side of the fence you're on, in other words. If you're in the 'fine by me' camp it's easy to forget people in the other 'not so good for me' camp. When people voluntarily reach across this 'void' we call this charity, and the reaching hand usually does so with a fistful of hard-earned dollar bills. This might solve the problem, but then again it might not.

When people give to good causes they assume their money will be used wisely and that it will tackle the problem in the best possible, most efficient way. But for every few dollars given to solve the problem, infinitely more goes towards keeping things as they are. Maintaining the status quo is big business. Indeed, big business, governments and lobby groups are all guilty to some degree. Their job is to keep things good for their 'fine by me' constituents, and what happens on the other side of the fence doesn't concern them. With this going on, are people effectively pouring their money down the drain?

Take international trade as an example. The global system is heavily weighted against the smallest, poorest and most disadvantaged nations. At World Trade Organisation (WTO) gatherings, developing nations with their four or five delegates are regularly overwhelmed by the several hundreds sent by the European Union and United States. It's not surprising they find it hard to get their voices heard.

Meanwhile, the man and woman on the street are giving their few dollars to 'help' tackle world poverty, wearing their white wristbands or whatever. This might be the easiest and most convenient thing to do, but is it the most effective? Is it really doing any good? The real problem might not be poverty, but the world trade system which perpetuates it.

Fact: A one percent increase in world trade would generate an extra $70 billion in Africa, five times more than it currently receives in aid

Isn't it time we re-thought the problem?

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THURSDAY, APRIL 05, 2007

Who's afraid of Google?

I was passing through WHSmith at Heathrow airport yesterday on my way back to San Francisco when the latest BusinessWeek magazine caught my eye. The cover story addresses fears that Google may be getting a little too big for its boots.

The timing was quite neat. Only a couple of days ago I blogged about a possible IT future dominated by Google's technology (see below), and drew comparisons with IBM. The BusinessWeek article does the same. However, it talks of Google "building out of tens of thousands of server computers around the world that handle quadrillions of bytes of data", which goes slightly over my tongue-in-cheek suggestion that everything could be done with five (although, to be fair, I didn't say how big they had to be!)

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MONDAY, APRIL 02, 2007

Thomas J. Watson, Sr. - Right after all?

Thomas John Watson, Sr. was the President of International Business Machines (IBM) during its years of spectacular growth in the 1920's, 1930's, 1940's and 1950's. It was during this time that he nurtured IBM's innovative management style which, until recently, kept Big Blue at the top of the global IT league (although, with over 350,000 employees worldwide, IBM is still the world's largest information technology employer. It was finally knocked off top spot by Hewlett Packard, based on total revenue, not profits).

It was Thomas Watson's son, Thomas J. Watson, Jr., who finally took IBM into the "modern-day" computer business after taking over the reins in 1956, one month before the death of his father. Previously the company concentrated on the building of tabulating machines and cash registers - products which were to later be replaced by mainframes and personal computers. Thomas Watson Sr. was sceptical of the role of these 'new' machines - still very much in their infancy in his time - and was reported to have famously said that "there is a world market for maybe five computers". There is considerable debate as to whether he did or did not actually say this, but looking at the landscape 64 years on, maybe he had a point.

It goes without saying that there was a much larger market for mainframe and personal computers, but had Mr. Watson said that the world could perhaps be run on five computers, then he might not have looked so out-of-touch. I'm thinking Google here, with it's plans for on-line domination. First search, and more recently on-line tools and applications which many believe will rival and eventually replace Microsoft Office as our main productivity tool. Google has had such an astronomical impact since floating only three years ago, and, as with IBM in its day, it is blazing a trail with its innovative work and management practices.  

Imagine the on-line landscape by the end of the decade. Is it really so unbelievable to think that everything we do could be run from five solar powered servers in Mountain View, home of Google? Thomas Watson, Sr. could have been a lot closer to the truth than he ever imagined.

If, of course, he ever said it in the first place...

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