10 things/ apps/ ideas I think will redefine the future in Uganda as we know it

It’s that time of the year again when you have to take stock, to be thankful and most of all to be hopeful.  Has it been an amazing year? Yes!! Does it leave any doubt in my mind that the future is bright where we are going? NO. Not so much with all the things happening around us. I have however had the privilege to write about the people, ideas and projects I personally came into contact with this year that I think have what it takes to make this country and even the world a better place. Sometime we think that we know  what will make it through the next decade, and they don’t. But other times we actually don’t see them coming. I think these ideas point a new light to where the future of technology, the start-up industry and development will be headed; convergence, or at least, ideas that will make that destination a more desirable one.

  

        CU@SKOOL: Last year I wrote here about an OpenXdata solution that was being tested for trial in rural primary schools as part of a pilot to see if school absenteeism would reduce if school attendance was digitized. The pilot was in 100 schools in Kiboga and Mbale. The trials were completed the application was being prepared for national roll out to 16,000 schools. I think this app could reduce the numbers of absent teachers and students. First there are a few problems to solve: 

a) The $18 Million in aid which was pulled last week because of the level of corruption in government and the lip service that was being given to the Netherlands government. Another case involved the chairman of the board of the National Information Technology Authority NITA, Ken Lubega, acquiring an UGX 11 Billion contract to supply e-learning software for both private and government aided schools through his company, CyberSchool Technology solutions here. Some heads need to roll.

b) Rolling out the application in more than 50% of all schools at primary level. At that scale one can measure efficiency or the lack of it. 

c) At that scale the application can be channeled to query for more specific delivery, attendance and progress metrics. 

The application is built to run on low end devices and will allow the headmaster to send the District Education Officer a weekly report on attendance. It also automatically shares the results with members of the community and/or the PTA. If we can get the foundations of the education system right, then we can give the younger children a fighting chance against the monster that is USE.

Garage 48: Out of a town called Tanill in Estonia hails a group of 6 people who started something called Garage 48 where developers, coders, IT enthusiasts, and designers sit for 48 hours, are divided into teams and work to turn ideas into working prototypes. They have events that help foster startup communities across the world. Uganda had her first Garage48 event this September. One of the 11 complete apps that came out of there was Mafutago – an application that uses the GPS location of your phone to tell you the cheapest and nearest fuelling station near you. Would I like that? Yes!! Would a boda boda rider like that? Definitely! The truth still remains that with low access, and a price ceiling for internet accessible devices, the application will remain a preserve of the middle class. And yet, the stats show rising mobile internet usage and access every day. So there is reason to hope not just because of one app but because of what the spirit of start-ups represents; the "Silicon Valleyism" if you want. Code-a-thons, Techfests, Hackathons, its all just people who want to contribute and need to be given a chance. We’ll just have to start here.

3.   Crimex: Crimex: Speaking of geo-spatial mapping brings to mind a discussion I had with a friend of mine. @jkaizzi who escorted the Makerere University team to the regional Microsoft Imagine Challenge Cup (Microsoft’s own search for talent) where he himself has been going since 2008, when I first met him. Anyway, as a mentor he was taking his team to present an interesting application they called “Crimex”. Their argument was peace, stability, and rule of law were essential to the achievement of the MDGs. On a capricious, vastly volatile continent, they seemed to have found the link between keeping the peace, and making the piece. The application is built on a vast amount of data collected and inputted on maps which allows law enforcement to chart out trouble spots, plan resource distribution, map out recurrence, and anticipate future offenses. The challenges here lie in:

a) the massive amount of data collection

b) Resource training and analysis

c) Political will to see this through

d) With predictive intelligence as @JonGos said here, the positive disruptive potential is so huge that we would see a shift in the way crime fighting and approaches are done.

Will the face of crime fighting change? We don’t know, but what I know is that being able to map out where the prevalence of child molesters or domestic violence hot spots will give our mothers and sisters a better chance at justice.

Fundi Bots' Nigel-5

4.     Fundi Bots: When I first met him, he was the calm and collected half of the now famous blogger duo: Two weak dudes: a witty, slightly satirized look at society. When I got to know him, I found him to be a technology enthusiast, a lover of robots, an ethical businessman with the work ethic of a beaver. Solomon King Benge, is the Resident Fundi at Fundi Bots, a collective that is going around secondary schools in Uganda both rural and urban teaching young people about robots and robotics, starting robotics clubs, and generating interest in the topic. The fascinating thing about this story is that everything he knows, he self taught from tutorials on the internet. But what blows your mind and I guess every kid’s mind, is his story. He was told it was a dream he was never to pursue, never to chase, never to dream. He refused to stop. He pressed on. And when the time came, he dreamed again. Today, he is testament that those amongst us who continue to dream will be the ones we will choose to lead us.   I think that Fundi Bots deserves its spot here because of the spirited and inspirational stories behind the team who all volunteer their time to design, make, and speak on robots across the country. Gathering stories, teaching young minds, planting seeds of desire. For to get great technology, there must great inspiration.

Solomon King on a Fundi Bots tour at Kiira SS

5.     SatNav East Africa: Last week on BBC Click, they were talking about the trends that are emerging to take over the future and Tom said “ There are the devices that are going to shape the future are going to be Mobile. Location. Social.” SatNav, a company that is into location based devices is perhaps for me one of the closest places we have come to answering the question of where are you? The company that installs TomToms or location devices has just completed a mapping system where they have mapped out the whole of Kampala on a grid map and will be expanding out to the rest of the country over the next year, giving precise GPS addresses to places, locations and sites. For small fee, members of the public can get their own address which becomes their address where mail, deliveries, messages can be physically delivered. Now most people might ask what is strange about people delivering things to your address until you understand that you no longer have to have the conversation about “turn right at the mango tree, take a left, and keep going until you reach the trading centre and then stop at the Grey gate” Four years ago I wrote here that Uganda had leap frogged from the postal service to the mobile phone. Without the physical infrastructure of the landline of which the west had over 100 years, the idea of location and DSL internet connection at home as and still remains a largely unknown element. Skipping from the mailbox to the mobile phone was a coup for development and indeed the technocrats congratulate Africa and have called the Mobile the Panacea of all our evils. But the  universe must have balance. What would this mean you ask?

a) your mail would come to your place directly

b) in case of emergencies, police ambulances and rescue services would know exactly where to help you out from with improved rescue times

c)if you needed  health care, you’d know the nearest clinic/hospital/health centre

d) real estate brokerage would all go online as available house would simply just showed with pictures and viewing times 

SATNAV helping you find your way home

 e) sending loved one gifts parcels and love would be personal.

f) ordering pizza to your doorstep

g) the flourishing of a whole new service sector and attendant jobs as delivery companies start to set up shop

h) philandering will now have an address.

i) cabs will know exactly where to pick you up from

j) visiting your in-laws will be much easier.

k)”There was jam” and “I got lost” will no longer be a valid excuse for late coming. All in all, I think that by pioneering this service SatNav has a real shot at steering a future with real options for Uganda.

These solutions are not going to answer Uganda’s electricity or pothole problems (the answer to that is by adopting a pothole as the Urban legend guys suggest here) but represent the glimmer of hope of efforts and of people who are around us making a difference every day. These advancements possess the immense ability to prepare us to catapult to the next stage but also carry the grave warning that all technology does; one that can be abused to hurt a great many people. Either way, we have to make a choice and act now because the time to sit on the fence no longer exists.