Vector Bravo: change directions

RIM and the Base of the Pyramid, or low-margin high-volume market

2009-04-22T18:55:00.003-04:00

This post is a follow-on from my last.

Over the past year RIM's stock was discounted by many because they expanded from their home turf in the high-margin business market and out to the lower-margin but larger consumer market. Many investors saw this as a poor strategy because it would effect their gross margins (the profit they make on each dollar of revenue).

The gross margin of a company is one of the few "ratios" (stats) used by investors to evaluate a company's performance relative to its peers. Conventional thinking impels a company to "preserve margins" by getting out of low-margin business, usually by selling that off and doing whatever possible to keep from having those margins impacted. RIM broke from the current and made a play with a low-margin higher-volume strategy. Perhaps it is because many Rimmers (employees of RIM) went to such a fine school (my alma mater) that they realize that ten apples is more than 5. Or perhaps they felt that the business market was near saturation, or that they needed to attack their competition from their safer turf. Whatever the reason, RIM surprised many investors this past quarter when it released new earnings. Indeed, 10 apples is more than 5, RIM's profits were up, even though their margins had slipped by 2 points. So, perhaps it is true the low-margin high-volume, aka. BOP (base of pyramid) strategy can work?

The jury is still out, however, because this week there is yet more concern about RIM's gross margins. Is 10 apples better?

Low power hard drives - inadvertently BOP products

2009-04-22T17:50:00.006-04:00

Engaget reports that Seagate is releasing a series of low-power hard-drives. Meanwhile a number of Solid State Drives have also emerged on the market over the past year.

The development of these drives can be attributed to portable media players and also the needs of Netbooks and ultra-thin computers that too are coming to market. Or in other words, these drives have been created to respond to the needs of developed and traditional markets, but they could have been developed to respond to obvious and great appeal for such devices in developing markets.

While with Geekcorps in Mali 5 years ago, we started to play with solid state drive designs. Our goal was to slim down power consumption on our computers, as they were running on solar power. We also wanted to reduce heat, which meant fewer or no fans to collect dirt in dusty Africa. This and other "off-the-shelf" adaptations led to our successful Desert PC design, which I suspect is still humming at a few radio stations somewhere on the edge of the Sahara today.

Our adaptations were not so much changing the hardware, but rather changing their intended application, or use. Such a device, the Netbook, solid state drives, or low energy drives are an obvious product for BOP (Base of Pyramid) markets, such as the BRIC(Brazil, Russia, India and China)countries, or other emerging countries, but curiously companies still move toward the high-margin developed markets first. I see such thinking in my own work today developing solar products, where the "low-hanging fruit" that we first go to pick are the big markets, classic markets, even when some emerging markets look set to be ripe.

Perhaps the analogy with solar is not helpful, but why is it that the marketing of such advances go first to the high-margin, low-volume market, rather than to the low-margin, high-volume market? Is it because this is a 1.0 (new) technology that will have limited production? Or is it because there is an assumption that a product can capture high-margins in developed markets while it is a first mover, then move to other markets when competition intensifies, or the market is saturated? Does the rich-market-first strategy mean that companies miss out on bigger lower-margin sales today? For example, in a rich-market-first scenario, Seagate could earn $50 per drive and sell 100,000 in the first year. Or, in a lower-margin scenario they could sell 1 million units with a margin of only $10 each. Net revenues in the first scenario would be $5 million and $10 million in the later. Does $10 million not beat $5 million? If so the argument for rich-market first cannot be economic. This is overly simplistic, but I believe one of the driving assumptions in the rich-market-first strategy is that there is not a lost opportunity in going to one market first, rather that the demand just waits. Conversely, in the low-margin high-volume strategy, the assumption is that there is sufficient demand to provide volume. What we continue to witness is that the later assumption is often correct, where with the pace of innovation and flatness of the world, that the rich-market-first strategy is increasingly dated, as new entrants move in quickly if a market is left untouched.

Just to throw more complexity into this discussion, the above suggests that it makes more economic sense to pursue the high-volume strategy, but perhaps the rich-market strategy has more to do with limited capacity, be that capital (increasingly true these days), human resources or simply experience (do we really know how to sell to those markets?). So, the company is starting with a constrained production capacity, where they have decided to produce y number of units and marketing simply looks for the way to maximize profits with that limited number of units; hence why we here in Canada so often don't get what our populous neighbours to the South find on the shelves.

My interest in this discussion is that the greatest needs for such technologies are in developing markets, yet the trickle down from the developed markets happens too slowly, if at all. This is confusing as there is often a sound economic argument (more profits if they chose to go this way) to why a company should pursue these markets, but perhaps Patents do mean that customers in the secondary and tertiary markets will have to wait. Should the Brazil anti-retroviral approach to medical patents be extended to technologies that could improve lives and make money if the manufacturers were to address these markets (i.e. there is no economic or humane argument to why they shouldn't be deployed today in a market), or have the market address it for them? Perhaps that kind of pressure would lead to a net benefit to all, even to the manufacturer?

A wrench in my plans, but a wrench in my hands

2009-04-15T16:01:00.002-04:00

My domain just changed, to the one or two of you who might notice or care I thought I'd explain why. I had been planning to make a change, but not quite so abruptly. Though integr8tif, i.e. Integrative expressed something that I do believe is important - the integration across disciplines, as a solution to address sustainability, my domain lapsed and was hijacked, so I had to make a choice on what email I was going to continue with, or rather my own personal brand. The main problem with integr8tif was that it was really difficult to explain over the phone or in person. I chose a new name Vector Bravo, as it suggests action, vector a direction and bravo, the phonetic for B, as in plan B. Perhaps equally as lame as integr8tif, but for $10/year why not have my own domain - I dislike being stuck on someone else's domain, perhaps a Northerners need for some autonomy. So, you can still reach me at any of the 20 or so email addresses that I've had for the past 17 years except integr8tif - it is no more, good riddance. So, Vector Bravo is the new brand for my work which lies at the intersection of technology, the environment and business.

Biofuel Facility Carbon Performance Improvement Data Capture Form

2008-10-04T11:40:00.005-04:00

This is a form that I have sent out with one of my colleagues to capture some basic information at a starch and an ethanol facility. I want to collect the data that will allow me to determine whether it might be possible to do some cogeneration from methane, bagasse, whether the treatment ponds could be digested for cogen etc.

I intend to work out the math on this spreadsheet data capture form, so stay tuned.

You are welcome to contribute to this form - or add comments/suggestions on this blog entry.

Biofuel Refinery Input/Outputs Data Capture Form

This is to support my work at MEDA where we are going to do some CDM and biofuel investment.

Ian

Comparison of Carbon Offset Programs

2008-06-03T08:55:00.007-04:00

Comparison of Carbon Offset Programs from Well Known and Credible Providers

Prepared by: Ian Howard

CCX tCO2e = $7.40 USD

Canadian Providers (CAD)

Provider	TreeCanada	ZeroFootPrint	CarbonZero
$/tCO2e	$24.00	$16.00	$22.00
Credit Source	Trees	Trees	Wind Energy
Overhead %	20.00%	?	?
Org Type	Charity	Not-for-Profit	For-Profit
Tax Receipt?	Yes	No	No
Tax Note	Donation	Business expense	Business expense
Treatment of credit	Presumed to be retired	Presumed to be retired	Unknown
Additionality	Yes	Yes	Yes
Certification	No	ISO 14064-part 2 standard	VCS
Audit	Yes	Un-named Biologist	Unknown
Vintage of retired credit	80 years	Unknown	Presumed Existing

American Providers (USD)
Provider	The Nature Conservancy	TerraPass	GreenTag
$/tCO2e	$20.00	$10.91	$31.50
Credit Source	Habitat/Trees	CCX	Direct
Overhead %	?	32.19%	?
Org Type	Charity	For-Profit	Charity
Tax Receipt?	Yes	No	Yes
Tax Note	Donation	Business expense	Donation
Treatment of credit	Presumed to be retired	Retired by them	Retired by them
Additionality	Yes	Yes	Yes
Certification	VCS	VCS/Gold Standard	Green-e
Audit	Yes	Yes	Yes
Vintage of retired credit	70 years	Within year	Within year
Glossary
CCX – Chicago Climate Exchange
VCS – Voluntary Certification Standard

Speech Notes for International Development Career Panel at the University of Toronto

2008-04-16T23:44:00.005-04:00

17 April 4:10 PM at University of Toronto, Bahen Centre, Room 1190

(co-Presenters: Marilyn McKim, Urgent Action Coordinator, Amnesty International and Josh Hehner, Co-Founder, Para El Mundo

Q: How you became involved in the field of International Development?

[IH] I don't recall where I drew this interest from, but since I was young I wanted to go and do something out there. I wasn't really sure what “there” was, I had studied geography to learn more about “there” and then began my quest to find how I could get there. I guess I thought that to go there I needed somebody to accept me into a program. So in 2nd year of my undergrad I found a pamphlet (this was in the early days of the internet when NGOs didn't have web sites) and I called the organization on it called Canadian University Service Overseas (CUSO). I talked to a battle hardened NGO worker there and she asked if I had overseas experience or any particular skills to offer. I paused and said, “no I don't think that I do”. She ended the call with a stern instruction, “well you should go and get some.” And so I put that idea on the shelf for a few years while I sought a skill.
About 4 years later I was in Australia, working and hanging out. I found an article online about a “cool” organization called geekcorps (well I thought it was cool because I am a geek). They had set-up an office in some place called Ghana and you could go there and volunteer for 6 months at a time, helping local organizations with IT. Finally, I now had a skill that I could flog. I signed-up. I waited and waited. Finally about two years later I got a call. I had pretty much forgotten about geekcorps by then. The lady on the phone said “we are putting this proposal together and wondered if you would help” – it was a project related to wireless technologies that I knew pretty well, so I said yes. Nine months later at the end of November I got another call out of the blue. Again I had forgotten about geekcorps. “We won the project, can you go next week?” Uh, “Bali, you mean in the Pacific?” they replied, “no Mali, in West Africa.” -- strangely I did not accept the offer to go somewhere that I had no idea about on no notice at all -- I did offer to volunteer there 2 months later, however and I did. That short volunteer mission to Mali turned into a 2 year job when the project manager that they had hired didn't work out.

Q: At least one experience, either a success or a failure, that you have learnt from and are willing to share?

[IH] Perhaps one of the most successful projects that I have been a part of, was not a project at all, but rather a consequence of our work in Mali. While getting some noble work done I built a team of people who I have forged a long term partnership with. They worked for me there while I was the director of our project and office. I recall one of my guys saying to me, “you are our patron (or boss like in the mafia) now” ... “you will always be our boss” -- at the time I didn't appreciate the depth of that responsibility, but I do now. I am now like their Uncle. They bestowed this honour on me and I know that they now think of me like a close uncle. When they need me they call. They ask for money and I send it. When I don't they don't understand. I also push them to do things that they may not want to and scold them if they do something stupid. I now think like a uncle and worry about not being able to help them. This is my burden now, but also it is a great privilege. Where are we now? My guy Moussa with plenty of prompting, started his own business while I was still there, he is doing fine. My #2 Maimouna now has a great job at the African development bank with another one of my techies. My guards are partly employed now, but hardly better off. They can read a bit now and their French improved. My driver he is out of work. I worry about them. Cheick is doing web development with an NGO. Ludo still works at geekcorps and Sagara is now the IT manager at the university. Ibrahim too works with an NGO. And, Amagono will soon finish his degree in radio journalism. They are the greatest success of my time in Africa, I think. I was able to play an important role in their lives and I am grateful to have that privilege. We are in each other's debt.

Q: Your thoughts on the developing trends in the field of International Development?

[IH] I will talk about two things: what I think you should know and what you want to know.
First, in my opinion you should read at least these books if you are interested in this field:
1. Prahalad – The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid
2. De Soto – The Mystery of Capital
3. Sachs – The End of Poverty
4. Easterly – The White Man's Burden
5. Collier – The Bottom Billion
6. Stiglitz – Globalization and its Discontents
7. you should also listen to the CBC Massey lectures by Steven Lewis on AIDs

Second, now how to get work in this field. This is the classic chicken and the egg problem. You need experience to get the job and you need the job to get experience. Fortunately there are many groups that are there to give you the egg, if you give them your time. Here in Canada we have CUSO, NetCorps, CIDA, IDRC...
type “volunteer international development” and the first link is to CIDA – they have a great page about how to get this experience. Go, be brave spend some time over there. What you will learn will be invaluable so don't worry about not making money it will pay off in time, whether you work in development or not.

Q: Where you see the greatest impacts happening?

[IH] In my opinion the greatest impacts are made when people make long term concerted efforts. Groups like PaM who commit to people for the long haul. These are the stories we don't hear as much about because their work is slow and incremental and is hard to fit into a sound bite or a quick clip.

Q: What advice you would give someone who is just beginning their career in the field now?

[IH] I will share what a wise old man in a dusty rural town in South Western Mali told me, “you come here thinking that you can teach Africa, but in the end it is Africa that teaches you” he was quite right. Do not forget that you have much to learn and that one of the best things that you will do for Africa is to educate your family and friends about it and to take care of your adopted family who you will meet there when you come home.

One laptop to change the world, a laptop for the bottom of the pyramid?

2008-03-31T00:07:00.002-04:00

I prepared this for a presentation for my class.

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Meandering, technology and development: V 2.0 - my departure from international development

2008-03-27T09:44:00.003-04:00

It has been 2 years since I decided that I would return to school to complete a Master's degree. In two weeks I will step out from my last class of my MBA. A lot has changed in these two years.

Before I began my MBA I had been consulting in International Development. I still considered myself to be a novice in the field then. I had been home from Mali, West Africa for 1 year. While on my way home, I stopped into Washington DC and landed a few consulting engagements. I hadn't planned to consult in international development but I accepted these offers as it was a very interesting way to leverage my experience both in technology and in the developing world.

The work that I did as a consultant was interesting, but as time passed I became ever more engaged in the paradigm that I felt needed to change.

I did my MBA because I felt that where the great innovations need to occur are not in technology, but in finding ways to make technologies more useful and sustainable. I was educated in technology, management and sustainability, but lacked the academic understanding of economics, accounting, finance and operations. I came to round-out my education so that I could return with greater insight. Building a business too was also very instructive. As often occurs while learning new things, I have learnt that what I was doing was not going to lead to the paradigm shift that I want to see. After my time in Africa, my time at school and my time building my own business, I believe that market-led approaches are what is required to make great change. Government is crucial in assuring the right environment to make those changes –- where my business was headed, however, was toward ever more work to support the donor-led solutions, rather than supporting environments to allow the market to flourish. Some of my work was in this area of policy change, research and those things that allow government to play a formative role, but a lot of my bills were being paid by work that I describe as donor-led solutions.

Consequently I have decided to pull my parachute and to re-engage where I think there are great opportunities to innovate through integration. I believe that companies are now sufficiently impelled to begin to approach problems in an integrative and more sustainable way and so there is an opportunity for me to help. This is a great evolution for me as I am a jack of many trades but a master of few. I am very excited to graduate and to return to help organizations to find new ways to create sustainable opportunities. I have not abandoned my interests in the developing world, but I will let the power of the free market lead me when there is a sustainable idea that will support my work there.

N be gigi na, i be ta yan sogoma.

Canadian Federal government to pull funding to Aboriginal education institution, with little notice, or regard

2008-02-13T20:41:00.005-05:00

The idea of an aboriginal education institution makes a lot of sense to me. First it promotes the learning from and about aboriginal communities. Second, it provides a means to provide an educational facility that does not alienate a group who is clearly in need of a better way to learn within their communities (where typically there aren't post-secondary opportunities).

What doesn't make sense to me is how a government could be so haphazard in its treatment of such an institution. I do not know all of the details, but I have struggled to find any malfeasance on the part of the FNTI. It is a young institution, so it wouldn't be unlikely that there might be a few things to improve, but the main quip by the Federal government is that they need to find a "sustainable funding model"

A sustainable funding model for Canadian education is that government pays for most of it, with a contribution by students. That is the model for other institutions.

The real issue here is that the Federal government is disavowing responsibility of this institution, as they consider education to be a provincial matter. This is yet another case of down-loading to a province. This is irresponsible. Though it may be fair to argue over who should be paying the bill, it is irresponsible for a government to just stop funding so abruptly. In whose interests does it serve to have such an effort go to waste? What about the students and the people who have poured in so much effort to make this happen?! Certainly the long term strategy, the business model and all must be discussed, and the performance of the school and its effects on the community evaluated. But that is a process and something that should be done carefully, deliberately and not in haste. To simply give a few months notice is shameful. I impeach you all to write your MP and MPP to address this matter and please sign their petition:

Sign this PETITION!

Articles on this:
http://www.thestar.com/comment/article/300740
http://oncampus.macleans.ca/education/2008/02/12/whos-responsible-for-native-education/

The emergence of the socially responsible MBA

2008-01-31T00:03:00.000-05:00

I was going to present something on socially responsible MBAs and some of my perspectives on it to undergrads, who may move on to take a MBA, or who are interested in the sustainability/CSR market -- this was a quick intro for a panel on my perspective. I basically am alluding that this market to me, has many parallels to the development of the Internet market a decade ago (I was there!) and I also noted what many have observed, that for many companies/organizations/governments that it will take a succession to the next, or maybe even until their N-gen/i-gen before things really change broadly.

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What are YU doing about socially responsible investing?

2007-12-04T13:18:00.000-05:00

(originally published at Schulich's Student Monthly: The Insider)

Sir Nicholas Stern, Al Gore and other oracles have slapped the collective C-suite across the face – so hard that most have woken up to a looming crisis. It is not by good will that they have awoken from their quarterly earning stupor, rather executives have sighed a collective, “aha,” finally realizing the effects that global warming, increased transparency and greater accountability will have on their future returns.

This realization has come from a confluence of these forces as we are now able to compute the cost of risks posed by some environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, such as Sir Stern did in his seminal and self-titled report, we are now able to share what companies are doing in great detail and, evident changes to the climate and those stirring the pot like Al Gore have finally evoked some passion amongst the populace to demand action. Even the classic business press and venerable business strategists such as Michael Porter have begun to write about how businesses must adapt to these issues, or they will lose competitive advantage. Consequently, C-suites around the globe have all noted in their board minutes, “What are we doing about ESG issues?”

At York University, these issues have also begun to worry the higher echelon. In May of 2006, the investment committee that oversees the university's endowment also wrote in their minutes, “preliminary discussion on socially responsible investing [has begun].”^¹ This interest by the committee and the university's board to whom it reports is perhaps in part due to concerns of risk exposure, but may also be due to fear of activism -- Former zodiac piloting activists are learning more about how greater transparency and accountability offers them the ability to scrutinize the activities of organizations and so they are increasingly picking up calculators, flipping through annual reports and investment statements rather than chaining themselves to trees or nudging rubber boats in front of tankers. So perhaps the university should be nervous. On campus, there are a number of groups who have begun to ask questions about what York is doing with its money.

What groups like these are finding is that institutional investors like York, or perhaps the Canada Pension Plan, are spreading their risk far across the whole market (a sound strategy for large, “universal” investors) and in doing so they have been investing in all sectors of the economy without particular regard to ethical, environmental, social and governance matters. Now that some ESG issues can be quantified, the activities of companies are more openly available, and reports have begun to show that not addressing ESG factors is a poor choice economically, activists have been pressuring these institutional investors to begin to consider ESG in their investment decisions. Where these groups have been met with resistance, or closed doors, they have done considerable harm to the reputations and the “brand” of many big companies and institutions. In Europe and the United States, for example, there have been a number of cases where funds, or companies found to be investing in companies who do work in the Sudan, or who are major polluters, have been pressured by these groups to divest from these companies.

One group at York involved in such work is the York Coalition for Responsible Investment a grass roots multi-stakeholder organization, who has taken the initiative to raise awareness and to lobby to have ESG issues considered in university's investments. They held a panel on the 26^th of September, at the university on the topic of "Universities and Responsible Investments.” In parallel representatives from Stand, an international student organization that is devoted to ending the atrocities in Darfur^², has engaged with the university for over a year to review the university's investments – they advocate for divestment of ownership of companies who are directly linked with genocidal actions in Darfur. And a third group are a number of academics at the university, including Simon Granovsky-Larsen, a Political Science PhD Candidate who has been active in human rights and Professor Wesley Craig, a well known professor of ethics from the Schulich School of Business, have been involved in advocating for and researching the topic of socially responsible investment at national and international levels for several years.

Though there has been much interest on campus, 19 months after the investment committee decided to look into this matter, it still does not have a recommendation for a Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) policy. For a university in suburbia, surrounded by large oil storage facilities and wedged between three massive highways it is perhaps not surprising that it is not a leader in considering the environmental impact of its investments. The gross delay in addressing the social or governance implications of its investments, is perhaps less understandable for a fund that exists to create educated leaders. Any delay is certainly not because York University itself lacks the intellect to address this issue – within the corridors of the university are many of the world's leaders on how to responsibly invest. Evidently the delay was because the committee had been distracted by matters that normally might be considered quite routine for an investment committee, such as a review of the “asset mix and related investment policy matters”. ³

This delay is particularly regrettable as this review of the asset mix, that was presumably caused by divestments in US stocks implicated in the sub-prime housing flop and changes due to the skyrocketing Loonie had led the 306-million dollar fund^⁵ to make substantial changes to its holdings -- had an SRI policy been in-place, the university could have made these changes also considering the environmental, social or governance factors that it has for so long said that it would address.

-- Ian Howard is the president of the Schulich Chapter of NetImpact, a MBA student group that focuses on affecting positive social and environmental change on business.

References:

http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/board/committees/invest/reports/2005-2006/060501.htm

2http://www.standcanada.org/index.php/about_stand

3http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/board/committees/invest/reports/2006-2007/070625.htm

4http://www.yorku.ca/secretariat/board/committees/invest/reports/2005-2006/060619.htm

5http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/financialpost/story.html?id=92cb135f-b6b5-4697-b5dd-a98c7cca77b6&k=13850

6http://www.cppib.ca/Results/Financial_Highlights/public_equity.html – note this is the number of publicly traded Canadian equities held by the CPP.

7source: CDP 2006 Annual Report http://www.cdpcapital.com/media/ra06_RAPPORT_ANNUEL_2006_EN.pdf – note, this figures is the amount of publicly traded Canadian equities held by the CDP.

8 stated at the launch of the Carbon Disclosure Project in Toronto, 10 October 2007

9Carbon Disclosure Report, CD5, Canada, http://www.cdproject.net/download.asp?file=CDP5_Canada_Report.pdf

Amazon, E-Books and the Bottom of the Pyramid: is this the new killer app?

2007-11-25T21:29:00.000-05:00

Aside: I'm sure that others must have made the obvious link that there is a huge opportunity for e-Books in the developing world, but I didn't find much discussion about this (please enlighten me if I missed others). At any rate, my view:

A couple months ago rumours began to circulate about an e-Book reader that Amazon was to release. E-book devices don't look terribly impressive. They have a dull screen, that looks a lot like paper and they make no noise. Though they appear to be as sophisticated as a notepad, what makes them really impressive is that their e-Paper screen is very low-power, easy to read, light-weight and durable. It only uses energy to re-write the screen, so once something is displayed, until you change that page the screen takes no power at all. This radically changes the portability of a digitized book, newspaper or anything that could be dispayed on a computer screen. In a few years these types of displays may very well be ubiquitous and their adoption by Amazon foretells that this future is not as far off as I had thought (despite that this particular incantation is immature and ugly).

A few other features of these devices are notable. First, not only are the screens remarkable, because they are digital and memory chips have become so cheap, they can store vast amounts of information. So one of these devices can hold libraries of books. Second, another remarkable feature is that they are now being designed to connect to mobile phone and other networks. This is a great leap forward in utility, as it allows these devices to get up-to-date content easily. And because much of the planet has access to mobile phone networks this makes this service nearly universal.

These features offer great potential to the developed world, but they could represent an unprecedented opportunity for the developing world -- they may be the killer app for Africa. This comes at an interesting time as the current incumbent for this title, the One Laptop Per Child project (OLPC), has just begun to distribute its cheap laptops. Though those laptops are a huge leap forward to creating an ICT device that is appropriate for the developing world, the OLPC is still too expensive to buy and operate, too complicated to use and is not durable enough for very bottom of the pyramid. The e-Book reader, however, does have the potential to provide affordable information to this poorest segment of world's population, presuming their costs can be lowered. This may still take some time, especially if the makers of these books and the holders of content (the publishers), still hope to extract developing world prices for content, everywhere.

At present these devices are being designed for use in developed markets, such as Amazon's e-Book service. Using their proprietary "Kindle" e-Book, you can download a book, newspaper or magazine for a reduced price. It is connected to the mobile phone network where it can download this content. Though this model could have some limited interest in the developing world, in its current form it could only interest the relatively small middle and upper classes of developing countries. Moreover, this model is likely to only have limited appeal in the developed world as it doesn't offer a huge leap forward from the current model -- at present a book is passed from person to person, so the $14.99 price tag goes a long way. Plus, its a physical decoration. So, with this model it will not achieve the needed economies of scale to reach the wider market -- Amazon's model is made for atoms and the new world is made for bits.

This model, may however just be an interim design for Amazon, whilst the technology is refined and production capabilities increase. As such, I will reserve critique of this plan, assuming that they see this huge potential down the road.

E-Books offer so much potential because the distribution of books is so expensive and difficult. There have been countless and near irrefutable studies that have shown that access to information is a powerful force to helping people help themselves. As most people in the BOP markets have such limited access to information and books, newspapers and other media, they are starved for information, so the e-Book is long overdue.

The Amazon business model for this device is simple. They sell a device that is locked into their store, where you buy books directly and it is downloaded to the device via the mobile phone network. It will take some time for them to negotiate deals across the developing world, for this proprietary design, so it may take them many years to even start to look at the developing world. In contrast, however, I imagine that google may not be far behind with a solution, as they too have been busy making digital copies of books. What is more significant about google's potential involvement in this space is that they are more likely to introduce an advertising based model. Free content, even with an annoying banner ad is likely the only way to make content affordable in the developing world, so if google was to offer their vast libraries of content with such a model, it could be the real killer app for Africa and the BOP market (if advertisers care to market to the BOP).

So, this may be the next great development for ICT for development, lets hope that patents, copyright and differing standards don't hold this potential back.

Q&A: Ian answers some questions about why internet access in the rural world is so difficult

2007-11-12T13:45:00.000-05:00

(updated: 15 Nov 2007 - updates indicated by *)
*I was asked these questions by a colleague (Karel Novotny) at APC (a very interesting SINGO - small international NGO) that focuses on building people networks and pushing policy change) about some of my findings from the past 5 years of work on bringing Information and Communications Technologies to rural areas. As I am in school at the moment I couldn't go to their meeting, but they were kind enough to include some of my comments in notes that they will present -- they will be discussing ICT access in developing regions. Here are the questions that they asked and my replies (sorry, a bit brief, but if you want more just ask in the comments and I will elabourate). I have posted this, in the hopes of creating some dialogue on the subject. - Ian

What are the issues from an access perspective? What is blocking access? Who is excluded and why?

Ian> The issue (that in our practice, Adapted Consulting, that we deal with) is how to create value with an internet connection. How can its cost be made-up in increased and apparent economic output?

Ian> It is easy to bring-in autonomous infrastructures (things that aren't tied to a national infrastructure), like VSATs (internet by satellite), but such systems don't create as much value, as they lack the gains of network effects, as they circumvent local infrastructure. *This is where extending such VSAT connections using wireless can be constructive, as you build a local network, instead of having everyone connected directly via satellite abroad, they connect together than abroad -- this theoretically allows for local content to be distributed cheaply, easily -- unfortunately local content sharing is not often done, nor emphasized, so this network effect is weakened. In more developed countries networks first developed within companies, organizations than were connected to the outside, often this is not a bad approach for local communities as well, perhaps.

Ian> Blocking (in the monopolization sense) by telcos, supported by the ITU, such as the mess that is Eassy and the other fibre projects create higher costs for internet, making the task of overcoming cost so much more difficult (and impossible in most places).

Ian> There is also the problem of myopia by mobile phone companies whom are largely stuck in the current business model and not interested in data etc. The only big news is that GPRS is proving to be lucrative -- but still too expensive. Movement here is slow, too slow.

Current Strategies/Interventions:
What strategies/interventions are being designed to address the issue of access?

Ian> There are those working on alternative fibre connections to India for the East coast of Africa -- competition will be good. *Unfortunately it may also increase costs by having duplicate infrastructures, but really the cost of internet connections are (I believe) largely due to monopoly pricing -- in Mali for example, the utilization of fibre was very low, 8 of 128 strands (or thereabouts) for many years after it was installed. The telco simply set its price at almost the same cost as the alternative (Satellite) and kept their same margins -- a cash cow in a monopoly situation. Consequently, this kept costs high and meant that fewer people could afford access. More competitive, or benevolent fibre routes across africa is perhaps the best thing that we can do at a large scale to promote the use of ICTs, but the grassroots efforts too need to happen.

Ian> Rwanda will provide a great example of how policy can create the right conditions for ICT4D success. *Rwanda does not have a natural advantage in ICTs, it is inland, does not have direct access to coastal fibre optics, is francophone (smaller ICT market), is recovering from civil war... if its policies work (and they have had some success already), than this will prove to be a great example of the influence of policy. The main problem is that for many countries telecom is their oil, it is used to finance the government and so monopolization is good for revenues. Even mobile companies have taken this seat, where high license fees keep new players out, creating duopolies, or oligopolies, which allow them to set prices high, which benefits the government in terms of taxes (and often many of the Big Men in government who are also owners of the telcos benefit from greater dividends - somehow through the licensing allocation they find the opportunity to buy-in to these companies -- speculation on my part) and again, the African consumer loses out.

Ian> Use of low-bandwidth and focus on efficiency improvements through ICTs is the best strategy -- make ICTs pay for themselves. We need new business models (such as the leasing of ICT equipment) for these markets.

How are these strategies aimed at increasing access (e.g. what are the assumptions behind these strategies, what is the demand/need etc..)
Future support and strategies:
What kind of support is needed to address some of the issues and increase access? From who?

Ian> Governments must provide policies that create the right conditions for change.

Ian> NGOs need to push new ideas and be involved in things that are too risky for commercial operations, or that do not have commercial appeal.

Ian> There needs to be ways to get over barriers to entry and market failures, this is where international donors can be useful.

What changes are needed to increase access to your target group (e.g. capacity, policy and regulation, infrastructure etc..)

Ian> More competition in fibre, less hegemony (world bank should stop funding monopolization-inducing projects).

Ian> NGOs and donors should focus more on the use of ICTs to improve efficiencies and not only for info access. *There has been a tremendous belief that what people in the developing world need is our knowledge, true knowledge is powerful, but much of our knowledge is not very helpful to their context (rural and poor Africa), so what ICTs can also do is to improve efficiencies, distribute food better, materials, supplies etc., the basic stuff. Then also, these systems of communication can be used to share local knowledge, adapted and appropriate solutions, between developing communities and not just information coming from the West -- again this is where I find VSATs to be nonconstructive (to a degree), they provide an umbilical cord to the outside world, and can circumvent the creation of local networks, where local value can be shared.

Ian> Moreover, NGOs need to be involved in testing new models. Telecentres are mostly a bad idea (if they are unsustainable) unless there is an economic driver (in terms of making it self-sustaining).

Ian> Telecentres and ICT projects that cannot be sustainable due to high costs, but are installed anyway (because of government policy, market failures), *should continue to be supported by the outside communities who brought them in, why do we think it is ok to install and disappear? There is value in having ICTs and telecentres, but the value can only be achieved over a longer period (where the objective is education and social change) and only if it is at least semi-permanent. So, either it is propped, or something that is locally sustainable is designed in the first place. This is simplistic, but essentially there are too many telecentres that have been parachuted in that have no hope in becoming sustainable and do a disservice to ICT access in rural areas -- it is an unfortunate result of an industry that only spreads "success stories", and that though they were able to get a few good photos and a nice article, that their telecentre drove out local business, than squashed hope when it closed its doors... (what I am advocating here is greater responsibility on behalf of those who bring-in ICTs to rural areas)

Ian> One other aspect is that which I described on my blog, this idea:

more localization of knowledge is required in the tough places -- that is not likely to be commercially feasible so in such rural regions, NGOs must take on the task to localize knowledge where needed.

Base of pyramid ideas, from a competition?

2007-11-12T12:26:00.000-05:00

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This past week a group of MBA students and I, from our student group "NetImpact", went to the big NetImpact annual conference in Nashville -- a team of us also went a day earlier to participate in the Project Pyramid case competition. The competition was created as a way to generate ideas and interest in the work of Project Pyramid, a project to find ways that a group of business students can help with poverty alleviation. This is an interesting approach, again I will cite ideas from Don Tapscott who might call this a sort of co-creation, or a way to tap into an ideagora. Project Pyramid can motivate people from the outside to work on generating ideas for them. It is an interesting way to tap into a wider community and provides the right incentives to all. Project Pyramid raises its profile, gets ideas that are out of their box, perspective and school of thought and the competitors get fame, recognition, get to hone their skills and even some cash. Our team found the experience to be fantastic -- it was so amazing to be present in a room of so many high performing business students who care about such issues. We are proud to have won the competition, but also very impressed by our colleagues at Owen who organized this event and Project Pyramid -- we were inspired. Here is our post-competition interview:

Open Phones, an enormous opportunity for the developing world

2007-11-05T14:11:00.000-05:00

(update 12-Nov-2007):
The actual software is called "android", though there are other projects like OpenMoko -- the difference being that google has the market power to really make this significant (to break the current mobile phone hardware game).

This won't be the only blog writing about the Google initiative (dubbed gPhone), called the Open Handset Alliance today. There has been months of speculation about what google will do -- finally that have announced it. Executives state that they aren't building a phone, but are building a collaborative platform. Essentially they are ripping a page from Don Tapscott's Wikinomics book, or borrowing ideas from the open source software that runs their entire business. From a strategic perspective this makes sense. The mobile phone space is crowded and google knows little about hardware. Best to focus on driving applications that use google's services.

What this article and many others haven't noted is that this move is a really big deal for the developing world. By open sourcing the software, a number of mid-size and smaller players can move in to this space and can begin to build lower cost and different phones that are more suitable for booming mobile phone markets in Africa, Latin America and Asia -- the markets that RIM, Palm et al. do not have business models for (their's are premium services and ill suited to the mid-Pyramid market). This will lead to economies of scale for phones that can provide data and other more sophisticated services in the developing world.

There is a notion that voice is the only application for Africa, I believe that this sentiment could soon be archived along other dated paradigms, like that there is only room for 5 computers in the world...

Once people in lesser developed countries have a use for data and an affordable platform, they will find ways to use it. Perhaps this platform will be it?

This alone won't change everything, but this could be a sign that we are quite near a tipping point. Since yesterday, RIM's stocks have fallen more than $5.

(update 12-Nov-2007)
and coverage from engaget:
http://www.engadget.com/2007/11/12/googles-android-os-early-look-sdk-now-available/

What was the impact (on me)? (notes from the 2007 NetImpact Conference)

2007-11-04T17:16:00.000-05:00

Perhaps it was because I hadn't really plugged-in prior, read the conference info and also that I just plain didn't think that it could be the case, but I was astonished to find myself in the company of over 1,700 business students at a sustainability conference – I wouldn't have believed it had I not been there to witness it myself. Not only was this crowd of MBAs there, it truly was a collection of some of the most impressive people in sustainability and social change.

The conference was largely an American event, with a few Canadian schools there and a handful of people from elsewhere. Thus, it really did provide a good perspective into the American MBA scene. The general vibe was that sustainability isn't a what if, or when, but a now and we have to be on this yesterday. I have not yet determined if this is because of a more pioneering spirit South of the border, in US b-schools, or if it was just a result of the collective energy of so many people who share this interest. In either case, the size of the tide there seems to be quite a bit higher. For example, there is a b-school that offers only a sustainability MBA -- the Presidio School of Management and then U of Michigan, who alone sent over 60 students. As I often find when I travel over the border, I am soon humbled by the fever that our neighbours apply on any given area of interest -- this was certainly the case at this conference.

One other thing that I found interesting at the conference was that though we all came from chapters of NetImpact, we each seem to have very different interests and notions of what NetImpact is -- this is perhaps analogous to anyone using the term sustainability. Vanderbilt for example, the hosts of the conference, who can name Mohammed Yunus of the Grameen Bank as alumni, is somewhat focused on the BOP. I found that our members from Schulich were quite a bit more focused on the environment, whereas it seemed that many of our American affiliates took more interest in the social change mandate, international development and social enterprise development than do we, though this is based on only what I observed and not supported by any data.

We also observed is that the US chapters were much, much more likely to be doing projects and taking specific action, such as founding an international development project, organizing big conferences, case competitions etc. We have yet to piece together why that is, is it a characteristic of Americans, or just of big schools? Nonetheless I certainly have walked away from the conference not only better informed on a variety of topics, but also quite inspired by fellow MBAs. And I am now much more energized about some of the things that we are trying to with my firm (Adapted Consulting). Our intents seemed to resonate with many there and there were many exemplary stories presented of other firms who were able to break convention (and convention is perhaps the main deliverable from an MBA) and do something different and make a living doing so. So maybe a green career can now be sustainable?!

Thanks to our colleagues at Owen for all of your hard work.

Sustainable Wireless Networks: Case Study - FADECO - rural ICT projects should slow down

2007-10-23T14:04:00.000-04:00

FADECO is an association (a registered not-for-profit non-governmental organization) located in the small town of Karagwe, in North-West of Tanzania near the Burundi and Ugandan Border. The association, whose acronym stands for Family Alliance For Development And Cooperation, serves to provide information resources that help develop the rural economy of Karagwe. It was founded by a group led by Mr. Joseph Sekiku in 1996. Its principles are Sekiku Joseph Mtabazi, the Director and Founder, Mr Itegereize Titus Tobias, the Chairman, Mrs. Elieth Kikaka, the office manager and John Kibuuka, the IT Manager. It is a small and very modest group. The NGO serves as a vehicle for promoting new agricultural methods and other activities to promote community and economic development. Where possible these efforts have been commercialized as separate ventures. For example, Sekiku began a very small seasonal fruit drying business, FADECO Trading Co. Ltd., based on techniques that he promoted via FADECO. As well the present chair, Mr. Titus sells agribusiness products that techniques taught by FADECO may promote. Largely FADECO serves as a brand name for initiatives promoted by the group, as it has few resources and only an informal structure. The group has maintained its apolitical nature. As noted by Sekiku, the organization allows the group to participate in not-for-profit initiatives where there is funding and no commercial interest.

(picture: Joseph with his wireless mast in the background)

In 1997, Sekiku, a self-taught techie, led an initiative to start a small telecentre for the community under the FADECO umbrella. This small centre was based in the building next to his home, on his property and was once used for the aforementioned fruit-drying business. Sekiku installed a few used computers that he found in Kampala for a few hundred dollars and connected them to the internet using a dial-up telephone connection. He has found small grants and donations that have paid for the equipment in his telecentre over the years, including from the Dutch NGO HIVOS, NMCP, the British Council and others.

After a few years of operation, through donations by an NGO called Regional Agricultural Information Network (RAIN), he was able to buy a VSAT in late 2004 (a weighty purchase at more than $3500 USD)¹. He purchased the VSAT so that he could avoid the onerous charges for internet access – to access the internet his telecentre had to dial-out to Dar Es Salaam, 1500 KM away, and fees for these long-distance calls were calculated based on distance. Most users of dial-up in Tanzania, from distant outposts like Karagwe report that most often the best speeds that they could attain is about 5 kbps. So, the upgrade to a VSAT was not only cheaper, but also provided much better speeds, perhaps about 10 times faster, reports Sekiku. Though this helped to reduce costs, the telecentre even with VSAT was still operating at a loss.

About one year ago, in late 2006, having heard of the use of wireless at other telecentres and having been directed to the Wireless Networking in the Developing World book, Sekiku, with remote assistance from a colleague in the Netherlands, began to build a basic wireless network. His intent was to share the internet costs with other groups in Karagwe. He started his network with a few Linksys and Senao access points. He also installed a number of grill 24 dBi directional antennas². His network now connects to three clients. A private secondary school. The local office for the electric company (Tanesco) and a local agriculture development NGO.

The process to connect these customers was not easily achieved. Sekiku describes having to toil, slowly learning how to install and debug the network with help from afar and using online references, such as the WNDW book. He slowly connected each client. To connect the school, for example, required him to painstakingly troubleshoot the difficult connection. The school is located at the base of a valley from his office. Because of this terrain, the valley is well within the fresnel zone (as a wireless signal travels its width broadens and a majority of that signal needs to be captured on the other end for the connection to work) of his access point at his main office about 7 kilometres away. The relatively low powered equipment that he employed (200mW Senao 802.11b access points), even with highly directional antennas required that there were no obstructions in path between the client site and the access point (located at his house). To achieve this he had to slowly keep raising his antennas until the path between them was unobstructed (a process of finding new materials to raise the mast, testing adjusting and then repeating this process again).

He also had similar challenges connecting the electric company office. To accomplish that connection he had to overcome some very high trees – he did so by borrowing an idea from Nepal, he made the tallest of them his antenna mast – he cut a limb from the tree and mounted the client antenna to its trunk facing back to his access point.

Though more expertise, better equipment or improved design of the network may have saved him some of this trouble, he likely may not have learnt how to support his network as well, had he himself not been physically involved in building it. Sekiku now understands how his network was built and he can continue to add new clients to it. What is most impressive, however, has been his ability to integrate bits of information about how to build such networks. This base knowledge continues to grow and allows him to innovate to solve particular problems faced by his network. This has not required significant outside training nor resources. It required access to good learning materials, some counsel and reasonable access to equipment. He also needed to be a very capable self-learner.

This particular talent, is a key ingredient for any competent technologist. A bright young technologist and Doctor in Bamako, Dr. Romain Tourhi, once said to me that he finds that too few young Africans are encouraged to become self-learners and thus it is much harder to develop technologists in Africa. Experience by the author has also found this to be the predominant case. The process of taking ICT graduates from local universities and developing them into technologists can take considerable time. This process can also be counter-cultural, where the norm for young employees is for them to rarely be asked to make decisions on their own – there is thus, a resistance that must first be broken. Exacerbating this further, few of these capable minds had the opportunity to tinker with a computer, or other gadgets, or break them as do many techies from richer markets.

Learning troubleshooting process that is key to becoming a techie, this analytical process can thus takes some effort but can certainly be done, for some. That this is possible is evidenced by the many ad-hoc roadside bicycle, car and television repair shops across developing nations. Moreover, as it is a rare attribute to find a true techie in Africa, when one is found that individual should be given the opportunity to further develop these skills.

This slow process that Sekiku has undertaken has allowed him to build the skills commensurately with the growth of his network. This is very contrary to how many telecentres who have far from modest resources, and are thus built quickly – so quickly that their staff cannot learn how to support their centre whilst it grows in complexity. This is a key finding of the author's work, that successful rural ICT projects require that its staff learn at an equal rate to the increasing complexity of the site. Thus, sites like Sekiku's whose growth is constrained by access to funds, naturally permit its proponents to learn to manage and support the site while it grows. This contrasts many other sites that the author has visited, where local staff have not learnt the skills to support the systems or services provided by the site – so these systems and services quickly degrade.

For example, in 2004 the author visited the University of Bamako at the behest of USAID, who had sponsored a project to install a wireless network there. Though the system installed was reasonably well done, by local and foreign contractors, after a number of months it quickly fell into disrepair. Funding for continued technical support had ended (we volunteered our time) and the local staff had limited knowledge of how to support the system, thus many of the sites were completely off-line, while the network at large was overwhelmed by viruses and so it was virtually unusable. Staff had been provided training, but most had little technical experience and very little experience with networking. Somewhere there is a belief that a techie can be made by sending someone to a 5 week training program.

The author has found, however, that for techies, those who are able to persist, self-learn and troubleshoot, and who have a profound curiosity about how things work are most often attributes that must be found and that cannot easily be taught. This site reinforced this notion, even after many weeks of comprehensive training by the implementors, evidently these former administrators were not transformed into technicians. When the author's team arrived at the university, instead of simply repairing the system, the author and his team set about a slow process of teaching a few of the staff how to repair these problems themselves. They found those staff who possessed these techie attributes. These staff were given that responsibility and eventually were able to repair the network themselves with a lot of guidance and on-the-job training.

More than a year after, it was learnt that the university's staff had successfully (and on their own) moved several nodes and installed several new sites. There are several lessons that were drawn from this experience, but the primary was that as Information and Communication Techonologies (ICTs) are fickle, the capacity to maintain them must be assured, best to build a network slowly, at a pace that the people who will be left to maintain it can absorb. Moreover, wireless networks are particularly finicky and require a wide net of skills and knowledge to be able to effectively support them, so this need for readily available techies is more acute for them. Finally, what our work has shown is that some techie attributes cannot be taught, but only fostered. You need to find a techie and often that requires a techie to do it. Sekiku is such a techie and has already been given some training, some guidance and thus is able to support such a network.

Finding: ICT sites that do not readily have access to technical support should adopt new systems only at the pace that their staff (or their support network) can competently learn how to use and support them.

Being able to support one's network becomes more important in remote places like Karagwe, where the distance from a major urban centre to the site adds considerable cost to bring-in expertise or equipment from far off commercial centres. In Karagwe's case, a wireless expert might need to be brought-in from Dar Es Salaam, Nairobi, or Kampala (the closest major city and is still a full-day's journey, part on very rough terrain and across a border). This fact has also been found to be important at many other sites. In remote Gao, in Eastern Mali, for example, a network there has required an expert from Bamako to travel for 12 hours every time that the network fails as there are no local specialists there to repair the network. This means that at times this network has been offline for several weeks and in some cases some months and has caused financial strain both in lost revenues and in the cost to repair the network, both which would have been much less severe had the network been closer to the capital, or if there was someone competent available locally. This idea is expressed graphically in the diagram below. This is another key observation:

Finding: The need to localize expertise and provision for local repairs and within local means becomes more necessary with increasing distance from major urban areas.

Footnotes

1He purchased a Ku band VSAT from a local supplier Satcom

2these are point-to-point connections using directional antenna on both ends

Sustainable Wireless Networks in Africa: Who is involved?

2007-10-23T11:30:00.000-04:00

I will present some of the work that I have been doing to document developments and the state of wireless for development in Africa. This will be used for material presented by my colleagues at APC in an upcoming conference in Brazil at a panel related to the Internet Governance Forum later in November.

Sustainable Wireless Networks

Section 1: The Stakeholders in Wireless Networking for Development in Africa

Commissioned by APC.org and travel sponsored by OSI

by: Ian Howard, Adapted Consulting Inc.

August 2007

To contrast the observations made and experiences of the author in West and Central Africa, this study was commissioned to evaluate some assumptions and to note differences in other markets that are using wireless technologies for rural ICT development. This work came in response to requests for more documentation on the economic and operating models, or paradigms, of small scale rural ICT initiatives that use wireless technologies (802.11 and other standards-based technologies) by the wireless for development community. This work documents the business models used by the two study sites to provide two particular case studies and also to derive some “good ideas”¹ that can be promulgated amongst the wireless for development community.

The audience for this work is the wireless for development community (W4D) in Africa. Though this group exists it is somewhat nebulous. There has been informal and formal association of this community through initiatives like the IDRC-OSI-APC Wireless Africa... programme, CSIR, OSI, IICD and some initiatives by USAID's Last Mile Initiative (some as USAID has focused more on larger-scale and often telecommunications operator initiatives). In particular the IDRC-OSI-APC initiative has created a community which has yielded a number of notable results, including a creative commons released manual, “Wireless Networking for the Developing World” and a number of meetings of this community and training programmes. This community is generally centred around the use of inexpensive and readily available networking technologies to improve access to information and communications for people, particularly for those in Lesser Developed Countries (LDC) and with emphasis on areas lacking affordable ICTs -- where the need for such technologies is the most profound. This may also include those using proprietary solutions such as Motorola Canopy systems and those creating commercial networks, but the shared value of the group is to improve the living conditions for the target community, so even these initiatives might be characterized as socially oriented enterprise. Thus, there is not a clear definition of this “community”, or what binds it, nor formal membership, but through the frequent meetings and community initiatives, including the World Summits for Free Information Infrastructures (WSFII), the members of this community have developed an identity and affiliation within this community. The group tends to centre around a number of core-people who form its nucleus that extends to an undefined boundary where membership is open and self-selecting. Membership to the group can be characterized as one participating in email dialogue and, or being present at events held by the community. Participation in these events is normally contingent on funding provided by donors (if the event is out of the participant's country) to sponsor individuals to attend meetings, create works or develop networks.

Among participants there are a number of groups involved in this community. They are here described as donors, implementors, consultants, entrepreneurs, local community groups and the end-users or clients.

From the author's perspective, the donors include smaller and more focused groups like the International Development Research Centre from Canada, CSIR from South Africa, IICD or Open Society Initiative from Hungary. There are also the large government agencies such as the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Canadian International Development Agency (CIDA), international organizations like the United Nations Education and Scientific Community Organization (UNESCO) and the New Economic Plan for African Development (NEPAD) who have participated in building such networks. In addition, there are philanthropic arms of large companies in this space, such as CISCO's foundation, and Intel. These are the groups who have been funding the establishment of wireless networks, herein termed “donor-sponsored networks”. Donors often act as both donor and implementor, funding local organizations to implement plans that they have constructed. Typically the larger government agencies (USAID) act through an implementor who is awarded a grant to implement a project that includes a wireless network. Such implementors include International NGOs such as the Association for Progressive Communications, the Academy for Educational Development (AED), Inveneo, Geekcorps and telecentre.org (an initiative of IDRC).

The consultants in this community include a number of technology experts in the field, from “Western” countries including Anas Taliweh, Alberto Esc., Sebastian Buuterich, Tomas Kraig, Ian Howard (the author), and some business experts, like Laura Drewett. They provide the technology assistance and training to local implementors and entrepreneurs and are typically sponsored by the implementors. There are also a few consultants from developing markets who have emerged from programs, such as Houda Chakari from Morocco and Moussa Keita from Mali, who generally provide more domestic consulting in these areas.

Among the local organizations are education and community groups, such as schools, telecentres and hospital's. This includes the Vanga Hospital wireless network in DRC, Radio Kenedougou's Wireless network in Sikasso, Mali, the University of Bamako's Wireless Network and the Segerama Community Telecentre in Tanzania. These are not-for-profit, non-commercial groups who were sponsored by donors to implement a wireless network to improve access to information and communications technologies. Predominately, wireless technologies have been used by this group to share the costs of an internet connection to make a telecentre more sustainable (the University of Bamako is an exception).

A second set of local implementors are the “entrepreneurs,” here described as entrepreneurs in the target market who have established networks based on these technologies with partial or no funding or financing. The FADECO network built by Joseph Seseko in Karagwe, Western Tanzania is a good example of such a network and one that could be described as an “independent entrepreneurial endeavour.”

The end-users or clients of such networks include businesses, radio stations, schools, individuals, local and international NGOs, government offices and telecentres.

1the term “good idea” is used instead of “best practise” as this second more prevalent term suggests that this is the only way to do something – rather the author uses this word to suggest that a particular idea should be considered and adapted to sites in general, where appropriate.

The Schulich NetImpact Chapter gets an honourable mention

2007-10-22T15:29:00.000-04:00

...in the latest online edition of Canadian Business, read it here.

interesting how a 30 min interview ends up as one quote ;-)

I am happy, nonetheless that our club gets a bit of PR!

Ian on Adapted Consulting's work -- Forgotten Markets

2007-10-15T10:55:00.000-04:00

On a recent trip to Tanzania, while explaining my work, I described it as advising Northern NGOs and companies how to work in Southern markets. This was a bit of a revelation to me, as many years ago I had gone to Africa to teach people there. I suppose that this changed at about the time an elder in a village I was working in, as I described in my last article, said, “you Westerners come here to teach Africa, but Africa always teaches you.” How right he was.

Our company provides advice and ideas. The bank, however, seems to categorize our company as a management and IT consulting firm. That's partly accurate. Generally we try to provide management, business sustainability and ICT products and services for forgotten markets. I describe a forgotten market as a place where most consulting, or ICT firms haven't figured out how to work there, or what to do there. This work, though not lucrative, is very interesting. It requires us to be quite creative in trying to find ways to do useful things for people working in these markets. Today more of our work is in advising Northern NGOs, but we also are advising Southern people too, though typically these are entrepreneurs and the Northerners are our financial supporters.

(Note: for Canadians, when I use the term Northerner, I am using William Easterly's term for people of developed nations and Southerners to describe people of un-developed countries -- this new term I think is a bit more PC, but confusing to us up here who have projects up North with "Northerners", aboriginal groups.)

Most often we come upon new ways, or things when we run into a road-block, or when we see latent demand that isn't being met. What we believe is that there is latent demand, but simply many people haven't dug deep enough to find it. Either people haven't had the right resources, knowledge or don't have examples from elsewhere to apply to fill that gap. We are willing to do a bit of the digging, and so we find a lot of interesting things under the surface. It is tough work. We work in tough places, but again, it serves one of the prime objectives of our partners, which is not only to make a fair wage, but also to do interesting work and to help people.

Advice regarding working in Africa: drink tea

2007-10-02T00:05:00.000-04:00

I was asked to write about "my advice to others going to work in Africa." Here is what I wrote:

(photo: picture inside the train going to Dakar from Bamako)

It is perhaps a bit difficult for me to prepare someone for going to Africa, now. I have become almost too familiar with the continent and travel there has become habitual. Earlier this summer I did however meet a film crew who had asked to meet me to learn more about West Africa before going. The advise that I gave to them took me a while to develop and many anecdotal stories to present, but I did find a few things to tell them that they said were helpful.

They planned to take an atypical route, one that I myself had taken almost 4 years ago. This crew was hoping to find some interesting stories and so planned to take the ageing train from Dakar to Bamako. My first advise to them was to “take tea”. This has become my analogy for learning to sit down and relax. This analogy also implies that one should take the time to sit with people. Moreover I emphasized the social finesse involved in tea. If you are asked to sit for tea, this isn't an offer that should easily be refused.

The rituals may differ from region to region across Africa, or it may be coffee rather than tea, but the purpose and reasoning is the same. Like many things in West Africa, or in most parts of Africa, when you are asked to have tea it is because someone has something to ask, or say, or would like to learn more about you. A person under your employ might ask you to sit for tea so that they could find a delicate way to suggest something that they think you should know. During the course of a long conversation they might hope to slip in whatever is on their mind, usually through an analogy or story that on the surface seems entirely unrelated.

(photo: Women selling food at one of the many, many stops along the 1280 KM route from Bamako to Dakar)

This embodies the subtlety of African communication, much about nothing might be said, while little of great importance might hardly be heard. Tea, I instructed them, can also be a useful weapon. I myself accidentally discovered this tool. If ever you are say held up by immigration officials, one of the best ways to free oneself is through tea. By ordering tea one signals clearly that you aren't in a hurry. You sit, perhaps begin the ceremony right in front of their office and then slowly begin to sip your tea. Soon enough they will become nervous of foreigners near their desk and they might let you through. I did this while crossing into Senegal from Mali one time and I may have been one of few foreigners to have ever passed that check point without paying special “duties”. This also applies when negotiating in general. Either you are showing that you are interested in learning more of the other party or that you aren't in a hurry, in either case this sets you apart from most Westerners immediately.

I remember in my first week a guy saying to me: “You Westerners may have watches, but we Africans have the time.” I have heard that statement many times, in different languages or phrased in different ways, but that alone is the greatest difference in mindset between the North and the South.

This statement has echoed through my mind many, many times since. A lot of my advise, I suppose, generally centred around this subtlety of things in Africa that I mentioned before – again there is so much said but not spoken and we Westerners tend not to be listening for that which is not verbal.

For me I don't know how or when I started to hear these subtexts, or those that I now hear. I told this film crew one of my favourite stories. I had been working in a rural village in South-Western Mali named Yanfolila for about 18 months. We had originally gone to this village to assist on the project of another NGO. We ended up becoming more and more involved in the project and so we were spending considerable time in this village. Though considerable by our standards, by rural Malian standards we were barely stopping-in. We would drive the 6 hour trip early on one day, stay-over one night, work that evening than the next day work until 2 PM and rush back to Bamako before the sun set. We were normally there for only 24 hours. I later called this the commando approach (an approach that I may have learned when I was in fact a paratrooper in the army).

Our short stay was in part because the town really was somewhat too tranquil and our accommodations were less than marvellous. It was also that we had a lot of other work to do. Finally on one of my last visits one of the elders from the village who had many times before asked me to have lunch with him asked again. This time, realizing that this might be one of my last visits, I did. I even risked a late night return to the capital to have lunch that day.

We sat, I treated him with the same respect that I had learnt to provide my own elders at home. His conversation meandered but I could hear what he was telling me, he had recounted through other stories the story of the things that we had done wrong. His anecdotes about farming, or other things were clever metaphors. One story he told was how we had simply signed-up people for the network that we created and how we expected that they would pay for the service. The model that we were using forgot the context. He alluded that this area of the world had become used to charming NGOs into giving them what they wanted. He was indeed right, the mayor and other offices in that town never did pay. He ended the talk with another one of my favourite quotes from Mali, he told me, “You Westerners come to Africa to teach us, but in the end it is Africa that teaches you.”

He couldn't have been more accurate. That phrase again came back to me this summer when I was in Tanzania. Somehow over the past few years I had become a bit more melancholy about my work. I had become bitter and disenfranchised with the international development business. The politics, money absconding and incompetence can be difficult to not let it overwhelm you.

This summer, while explaining to my Tanzanian contact about my work, I described that my work has become more about educating Westerners about Africa than about educating Africans about Western ways. Afterwards I was quite satisfied with that description and evaluation of my work and I am again quite enamoured with my work. Kambe Sini Mali!

A roundtable discussion and some ideas on sustainable enterprise development in Canada

2007-09-28T09:30:00.000-04:00

I had the opportunity to sit with a group of remarkable people yesterday and talk about sustainable enterprise. It was prompted by the work of a group from Coventry University, including Malcolm McIntosh and Nicky Black from the Applied Research Centre in Human Security. What I find interesting is that now it is not just the greenies who are talking about sustainability as it was when I was doing my undergrad. As said by Professor Webb, "each part of society has a role in this change." And the good Professor is a lawyer.

In attendance were ethicists (such as Professor Dirk Matten, Wes Cragg and Bronwyn Best and Allan Peddan), small business people, journalists (Toby Heaps from Corporate Knights), a Chief from a Northern community (Chief Philip Einish) and business academics (Professors Kernaghan Webb, Asaf Zohar and other interesting people), a motley crew for sure. I was there as a business student, I believe, or perhaps as a co-Founder of a small social enterprise.

What this mix of people proved, was that in speaking with each other we were able to reveal some interesting and different perspectives. Immediately ideas surfaced. One of particular interest to me and a theme of my work over this past few years has been the establishment of social enterprise. Our business, Adapted Consulting, is a result of a conclusion that we made, if we are to help others set-up social enterprise than we too should be one ourselves, or at least we should have done it so that we understand the intricacies and can contrast our personal experiences. What I find interesting is that setting up such an enterprise at home, in Canada, is that it is not as easy as it is in Africa. Sure, one can setup a partnership, or sole proprietorship and include such provisions, but try and set-up a corporation where you need formal documents describing it and you'll send your lawyers running in a risk aversion triathalon. In Mali say, because the rules are looser, adding "values" to a firm's legal documents is not so difficult. In establishing a business there with actual legal documents you are already doing something different from the norm, where here not using standard law firm boiler plates is against the norm. Moreover, here, perhaps because our legal system is more functional than some of the places where we work, lawyers are much more risk adverse, for sensible reasons, as said yesterday, "they are trying to save us from ourselves." So the boiler plate doesn't exist, why is that?

What surprised me most was that we are perhaps the first small corporation to ask for such things in our shareholder agreement -- to pull out some of the b-school vocab, is this a classic "free-rider" problem, or is it really just only now something that people are paying attention to? Are others waiting for us to pay to make this template for them to use? Maybe, but like these other firms we cannot afford the $400-$500 an hour to have such a template developed. Perhaps this is where the government, or NGOs should be involved?

Generally there were many, many interesting things said, and here are a few:

Chief Einish: "we have to ask for our own wealth."

and Tessa Hebb: "sustainability is enterprises that do not externalize their production costs." (she is the director of Carleton's innovation centre)

Prof. Graham: "society has moved us where our value systems can't deal with what we are [producing]."

Jackie Medalye, a Poli-Sci PhD student/sustainable bead jeweler and other interesting things said, that what isn't happening is that companies are employing CSR funds "to affect the same communities where you pull your resources" (paraphrased)

Marilyn Friedman said, "sometimes we just need to make things simpler" and really interesting, "We are strong on knowledge but weak on wisdom."

I would love to quote more, but I shouldn't as one of the precepts of this meeting was that what is said was not to be attributed. The above and much more I think are too important to not attribute, however. Sorry.

Also, we started a group, everyone who has something, anything to say should join:
Toronto Roundtable on Sustainable Enterprise

JVC GZ-MG130U: no sweat MPEG hard disk video with Linux

2007-09-16T21:33:00.000-04:00

I had presumed that taking video from my camera, editing and then posting it would be a hassle, or take a while to figure out. As occasionally happens, however, Linux can be the easier choice. The JVC Everio series hard disk camcorder works very well with Linux. The device mounts as a USB disk, thus the pictures can just be copied over and the videos, though given the obscure .MOD suffice, are actually just MPEG files. A quick conversion with the following command and they are MPEG-4s ready for the internet. Moreover, video editing software including kino and cinelerra work without effort under Ubuntu Feisty. This camera is fantastic. Battery power is fine and the only flaw is that it does not have an external mike -- the built-in is not great and picks up distant sounds to easily (omni directional mike it would seem). So Linux users go get one of these cameras!

To convert from MPEG (.MOD) to MPEG-4 use ffmpeg:

ffmpeg -i MOV038.MOD -acodec aac -ab 64kb -vcodec mpeg4 -b 1024kb -mbd 2 -flags +4mv+trell -aic 2 -cmp 2 -subcmp 2 -title ICT4D joseph_shows_vsat.mp4

How a telecentre uses wireless to share its costs

2007-09-16T19:35:00.001-04:00

The cost of the internet in rural Africa can be substantial. Joseph explains how he shares the cost of the VSAT (the satellite that provides his internet) with other organizations in his community, thereby making it possible for him to have the internet while also connecting an agricultural NGO and a secondary school to the internet, as well as a business. This has become a standard business model for rural internet in Africa, but few telecentres have been able to sustain it, mostly because they haven't learnt how to provide the service themselves and they can't afford to pay for someone to come and install or maintain the equipment. The key, it would seem, is having someone who can figure out how to install this gear. Joseph later explains that resources like the Wireless Networking in the Developing World book have been essential to him being able to support this system.

Why building an FM transmitter in rural Africa makes sense

2007-09-16T18:57:00.001-04:00

Joseph Sekuku took designs given to him by a friend in London, Anas Taliweh, last December and went around collecting the bits and pieces he needed to build an FM transmitter. He has added a Do-It-Yourself antenna too. Joseph has built a low-cost FM radio and added that to his low-cost d-i-y community telecentre. This as he explains allows him to expand the reach of the internet to his community. I would argue that this again provides credence to the theory that there are plenty of clever people in the developing world, they just need help in carrying out their own ideas. He asks not for money, but for training and technical assistance. A few volunteers from Canada and the Netherlands helped him set-up his centre. His centre and radio are largely self-funded. In part his wish since this interview two weeks ago has in part been granted, Ashoka has named him a fellow and this will provide him access to many of the resources that he needs to carry out his many interesting projects. Congrats Joseph!