Innovation & WorkVictor Miclovich

twitter: @miclovich

Web foundation workshop: Mobile/Tech communities in Africa (Uganda)

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Mobile communities and innovation

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Introduction

❖ I’m a software engineer @ AgileFarm, mspoti and storyspaces (3 different entities)

❖ I’m director of Tech @ The Kuyu Project

❖ I’m a researcher with MIT-EPROM’s program

Saturday, June 4, 2011

Economic/Social Development

❖ Good policies

❖ Superb investment

❖ Good governance

❖ Less corruption

❖ Lots of other things must be developed...

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Changing the world in a day

❖ Not interested in that...

❖ My interests are in... (tech)

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Beliefs that get us there...

❖ Two things

❖ A healthy population

❖ An educated population

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Results ❖ A wealthy population

❖ A prosperous nation(s)

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why??

❖ a healthy mind can improvise much better

❖ a healthy body means people will be happy

❖ a healthy body means people will be able to work (earn a living)

❖ a healthy body can do lots more... (lets not start to list the potential things it can do)

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Educated people?

❖ Ideally they should:

❖ create jobs (improvise)

❖ work at jobs

❖ THINK and get INNOVATIVE

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Does Africa have all this?

❖Yes❖ ...and... NO

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Can we change that?

YES

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Innovation (Tech-specific)

❖ A high number of graduates in CS/IT departments across Africa

❖ How many tech solutions have impacted lives positively and sustainably?

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Some things tech can change...

❖ Governance (thru’ e-/m-governance)

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When governance is good...

❖ We can spot this...

❖ And force governments to act...

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Business..

❖ Tech makes things quite easy...

❖ connecting prospective buyers (clients)

❖ Selling stuff online

❖ Crowdsourcing ideas

❖ And lots more

❖ Tax collection is faster (better economies are a result)

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Use case: How a government can encourage tech uses through innovation.

Tax collection...

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a prototype by AgileFarm

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Pay your Tax

❖ For every sale, most tax authorities levy a Tax (e.g. VAT, sales, etc.)

❖ This means a government can easily improve its revenue while giving a service (The Business Manager)

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Business manager

❖ Book keeping

❖ Tips to improve business

❖ Access to advertising channels (Google adwords, localized solution i.e. through radio stations, local newspapers, etc.)

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Others...

❖ Mobile web

❖ Mobile apps

Source: Tapworthy (Josh Clark, O’reilly)

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Technologies

❖ USSD (as simple as sending network messages)

❖ SMS

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Important...

❖ Design Apps that are localized.... :)

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Design systems

❖ Systems that people can use...

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❖ Can we improve health in a nation (or continent) with TECH?

❖ Yes

Health

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The Health Side of life...

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m-Health example

❖ pThor (monitoring pre- and ante- natal periods)

❖ RapidSMS (malnutrition surveys)

❖ Frontline:Medic

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pThor

Patient

Health service provider

Telco

Health ministry

pThor

Information flows freely

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Health system breakdown

Ministry of health

Regional/District health office

County-level office/administration

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Systems...

❖ They are complex and vary from country to country...

❖ Communication between sub-systems/components is important

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Results...

❖ This will guarantee transparency

❖ It will improve the skill-sets of personnel

❖ It will do lots of things... we’ve got to be innovative.

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Quick prototype...

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pThor

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Protocol

❖ Health ministries can use pThor to set up protocols or methodologies

❖ Call centers at health centers (very positive impact)

❖ .... lots of other stuff !!! :)

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Guided instructions: available by voice

source:Prototypes- AgileFarm

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about pThor

❖ Reminder systems

❖ Emergency response system for birth

❖ Follow up systems

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People

❖ Medics

❖ TBAs (traditional birth attendants)

❖ Many others that are involved in this ecosystem

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Technology

❖ SMS

❖ A web server (about 300GB, Linux, Kannel and django: ALL FREE)

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Education

❖ Web technologies:

❖ Innovative learning methods (Khan Academy, MIT OCW)

❖ Can Africa create and distribute knowledge from within (Knowledge banks)? (Yes... tech is relatively cheap to run this)

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The future...

❖ Lets leverage connections

❖ Lets leverage talent

❖ Lets be AWESOME...

Saturday, June 4, 2011

The End...

Victor Miclovichtwitter: @miclovich

Saturday, June 4, 2011