Living in Africa is to be on the edge, metaphorically, and quite literally when you think about connectivity before 2008. Though many human intellectual and technological leaps had happened in Europe and the rest of the world, but Africa was sort of cut off. And that changed, first with ships when we had the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution and also the Industrial Revolution. And now we've got the digital revolution. These revolutions have not been evenly distributed across continents and nations. Never have been.
Živeti u Africi znači biti na ivici, metaforički, ali i doslovno ako pomislimo na povezivanje pre 2008. Iako je došlo do mnogih ljudskih intelektualnih i tehnoloških pomaka u Evropi i ostatku sveta, Afrika je na neki način bila odsečena od toga. To se promenilo, prvo dolaskom brodova, kada je nastupila renesansa i naučna revolucija, kao i industrijska revolucija. A sada imamo digitalnu revoluciju. Ove revolucije nisu bile jednako prisutne na svim kontinentima i među svim nacijama. Nikada to nisu bile.
Now, this is a map of the undersea fiber optic cables that connect Africa to the rest of the world. What I find amazing is that Africa is transcending its geography problem. Africa is connecting to the rest of the world and within itself. The connectivity situation has improved greatly, but some barriers remain. It is with this context that Ushahidi came to be.
Ovo je mapa podvodnih optičkih kablova koji povezuju Afriku sa ostatkom sveta. Ono što ja smatram neverovatnim je da Afrika prevazilazi svoj geografski problem. Afrika se povezuje sa ostatkom sveta i unutar sebe. Problem povezanosti se znatno poboljšao, ali neke prepreke i dalje ostaju. Ovo je okvir u kome je nastao Ušahidi.
In 2008, one of the problems that we faced was lack of information flow. There was a media blackout in 2008, when there was post-election violence in Kenya. It was a very tragic time. It was a very difficult time. So we came together and we created software called Ushahidi. And Ushahidi means "testimony" or "witness" in Swahili. I'm very lucky to work with two amazing collaborators. This is David and Erik. I call them brothers from another mother. Clearly I have a German mother somewhere. And we worked together first with building and growing Ushahidi. And the idea of the software was to gather information from SMS, email and web, and put a map so that you could see what was happening where, and you could visualize that data. And after that initial prototype, we set out to make free and open-source software so that others do not have to start from scratch like we did.
2008. jedan od problema sa kojim smo se suočili je bio nedostatak protoka informacija. Došlo je do cenzure medija 2008. kada je u Keniji izbilo nasilje nakon izbora. Bilo je to vreme tragedije. Bilo je to veoma teško vreme. Mi smo se skupili i stvorili softver nazvan Ušahidi. Ušahidi znači "svedočanstvo" ili "svedok" na svahiliju. Srećna sam što imam dva neverovatna saradnika. Ovo su Dejvid i Erik. Zovem ih braćom od drugih majki. Jasno je da negde imam majku Nemicu. Naša prva saradnja je bila stvaranje i razvijanje Ušahidija. Ideja za softver je bila prikupljanje podataka iz SMS poruka, mejlova i sa veba i postavljanje istih na mapu kako bismo mogli da vidimo šta se gde dešava i da vizualizujemo te podatke. Nakon početnog prototipa počeli smo sa razvijanjem besplatnog softvera s otvorenim kodom kako drugi ne bi morali da počinju od nule kao što smo mi morali.
All the while, we also wanted to give back to the local tech community that helped us grow Ushahidi and supported us in those early days. And that's why we set up the iHub in Nairobi, an actual physical space where we could collaborate, and it is now part of an integral tech ecosystem in Kenya. We did that with the support of different organizations like the MacArthur Foundation and Omidyar Network.
Istovremeno, želeli smo da uzvratimo lokalnoj tehnološkoj zajednici koja nam je pomogla u razvoju Ušahidija i podržala nas tih ranih dana. I zato smo postavili Ajhab (iHub) u Najrobiju, stvaran fizički prostor u kome možemo da sarađujemo i koji je sada deo jednog usađenog tehnološkog ekosistema u Keniji. Uradili smo to uz pomoć različitih organizacija kao što su Fondacija Makartur i Mreža Omidiar.
And we were able to grow this software footprint, and a few years later it became very useful software, and we were quite humbled when it was used in Haiti where citizens could indicate where they are and what their needs were, and also to deal with the fallout from the nuclear crisis and the tsunami in Japan. Now, this year the Internet turns 20, and Ushahidi turned five.
Uspeli smo da razvijemo ovaj početni softver i nekoliko godina kasnije on je postao veoma koristan i shvatili smo njegovu veličinu kada je on bio upotrebljen na Haitiju gde su stanovnici njime mogli da naznače gde se nalaze i koje su njihove potrebe, kao i kada je upotrebljen pri suočavanju sa posledicama nuklearne krize i tokom cunamija u Japanu. Ove godine internet puni 20 godina, a Ušahidi je napunio pet.
Ushahidi is not only the software that we made. It is the team, and it's also the community that uses this technology in ways that we could not foresee. We did not imagine that there would be this many maps around the world. There are crisis maps, election maps, corruption maps, and even environmental monitoring crowd maps. We are humbled that this has roots in Kenya and that it has some use to people around the world trying to figure out the different issues that they're dealing with. There is more that we're doing to explore this idea of collective intelligence, that I, as a citizen, if I share the information with whatever device that I have, could inform you about what is going on, and that if you do the same, we can have a bigger picture of what's going on.
Ušahidi nije samo softver koji smor razvili. On je tim, a takođe i zajednica koja koristi ovu tehnologiju na načine koje nismo mogli da predvidimo. Nismo ni sanjali da će biti ovoliko mapa širom sveta. Postoje krizne mape, mape o izborima, mape korupcije, pa čak i mape za nadgledanje životne sredine. Ponosni smo na to što sve ovo vuče korene iz Kenije i da ljudi širom sveta koriste ovo u rešavanju raznih problema sa kojima se suočavaju. Radimo još mnogo toga u istraživanju ove ideje o kolektivnoj inteligenciji, da ja, kao stanovnik, ukoliko podelim informaciju sa kojeg god uređaja da posedujem, mogu da vas obavestim o tome šta se dešava i da ako vi uradite to isto, možemo da stvorimo širu sliku o tome šta se događa.
I moved back to Kenya in 2011. Erik moved in 2010. Very different reality. I used to live in Chicago where there was abundant Internet access. I had never had to deal with a blackout. And in Kenya, it's a very different reality, and one thing that remains despite the leaps in progress and the digital revolution is the electricity problem. The day-to-day frustrations of dealing with this can be, let's just say very annoying. Blackouts are not fun. Imagine sitting down to start working, and all of a sudden the power goes out, your Internet connection goes down with it, so you have to figure out, okay, now, where's the modem, how do I switch back? And then, guess what? You have to deal with it again. Now, this is the reality of Kenya, where we live now, and other parts of Africa.
Vratila sam se u Keniju 2011. Erik se preselio 2010. Jedna krajnje različita stvarnost. Pre toga sam živela u Čikagu, gde je internet bio široko dostupan. Nikada se nisam suočila sa nestankom. U Keniji, stvarnost je potpuno drugačija i stvar koja preostaje uprkos koracima u napretku i digitalnoj revoluciji, jeste problem električne energije. Svakodnevne frustracije pri suočavanju s ovim problemom mogu da budu, recimo samo, veoma neprijatne. Isključenja nisu zabavna. Zamislite da sednete i počnete da radite i iznenada nestane struja, internet veza zajedno sa njom i onda morate da otkrijete gde je modem i kako ga ponovo uključiti. A onda, pogodite šta? Morate da se nosite sa svim tim iznova. Ovo je stvarnost u Keniji, gde trenutno živimo, i ostalim delovima Afrike.
The other problem that we're facing is that communication costs are also still a challenge. It costs me five Kenyan shillings, or .06 USD to call the U.S., Canada or China. Guess how much it costs to call Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria? Thirty Kenyan shillings. That's six times the cost to connect within Africa. And also, when traveling within Africa, you've got different settings for different mobile providers. This is the reality that we deal with.
Drugi problem sa kojim se suočavamo je cena komunikacija, koja je i dalje izazov. Mene košta pet kenijskih šilinga, ili ,06 američkih dolara kako bih nazvala Ameriku, Kanadu ili Kinu. Zamislite koliko košta poziv za Ruandu, Ganu ili Nigeriju? Tridesed kenijskih šilinga. To je šestostruka cena povezivanja unutar Afrike. Takođe, dok putujete Afrikom, postoje različita podešavanja za različite mobilne operatere. To je stvarnost s kojom se nosimo.
So we've got a joke in Ushahidi where we say, "If it works in Africa, it'll work anywhere." [Most use technology to define the function. We use function to drive the technology.] What if we could overcome the problem of unreliable Internet and electricity and reduce the cost of connection? Could we leverage the cloud? We've built a crowd map, we've built Ushahidi. Could we leverage these technologies to switch smartly whenever you travel from country to country?
Postoji jedna šala u Ušahidiju koja kaže: "Ako radi u Africi, radiće svuda." [Mnogi tehnologijom određuju funkciju. Nama funkcija pokreće tehnologiju.] Šta ako bismo mogli da prevaziđemo problem nepouzdanog interneta i struje i smanjimo troškove povezivanja? Možemo li podupreti mrežu? Stvorili smo mapu ljudi, stvorili smo Ušahidi. Možemo li osposobiti ovu tehnologiju da se samostalno preključuje kako putujemo iz države u državu?
So we looked at the modem, an important part of the infrastructure of the Internet, and asked ourselves why the modems that we are using right now are built for a different context, where you've got ubiquitous internet, you've got ubiquitous electricity, yet we sit here in Nairobi and we do not have that luxury. We wanted to redesign the modem for the developing world, for our context, and for our reality. What if we could have connectivity with less friction?
Pogledali smo modem, bitan deo infrastrukture interneta, i zapitali smo se zašto su modemi koje trenutno koristimo stvoreni za jedan drugačiji kontekst, u kome postoji sveprisutan internet, sveprisutna struja, a ipak smo mi ovde u Najrobiju i nemamo taj luksuz. Želeli smo da izmenimo dizajn modema za zemlje u razvoju, za naš kontekst i za našu stvarnost. Šta ako bismo mogli da se povežemo uz manje prepreka?
This is the BRCK. It acts as a backup to the Internet so that, when the power goes out, it fails over and connects to the nearest GSM network. Mobile connectivity in Africa is pervasive. It's actually everywhere. Most towns at least have a 3G connection. So why don't we leverage that? And that's why we built this. The other reason that we built this is when electricity goes down, this has eight hours of battery left, so you can continue working, you can continue being productive, and let's just say you are less stressed. And for rural areas, it can be the primary means of connection.
Ovo je BRCK. Funkcioniše kao rezervni internet, tako da se, kada nestane struje, on prebacuje na najbližu GSM mrežu. Mobilna mreža je svepristuna u Africi. Ima je svuda. Većina gradova ima barem 3G povezanost. Zašto to ne bismo iskoristili? I zato smo stvorili ovo. Drugi razlog zbog koga smo stvorili ovo jeste da kada nestane struje, njemu preostaje osam sati baterije, tako da možete da nastavite s radom, možete i dalje da budete produktivni i možemo reći da ste pod manjim stresom. A za seoska naselja, ovo može biti primarni način povezivanja.
The software sensibility at Ushahidi is still at play when we wondered how can we use the cloud to be more intelligent so that you can analyze the different networks, and whenever you switch on the backup, you pick on the fastest network, so we'll have multi-SIM capability so that you can put multiple SIMs, and if one network is faster, that's the one you hop on, and if the up time on that is not very good, then you hop onto the next one. The idea here is for you to be able to connect anywhere. With load balancing, this can be possible.
Korisnost softvera u Ušahidiju je i dalje bila ključna kada smo se zapitali kako da mrežu upotrebimo tako da bude još inteligentnija i da budemo u mogućnosti da analiziramo različite mreže i da kada se prebacimo na rezervu odabir padne na najbržu mrežu i zato imamo multi-SIM sposobnost, možete da koristite više SIM kartica, i ukoliko je određena mreža brža, priključićete se na nju, a ako konekcija nije dobra, možete da pređete na sledeću. Ideja je da možete da se priključite bilo gde. Sa balansiranjem opterećenja, ovo postaje moguće.
The other interesting thing for us -- we like sensors -- is this idea that you could have an on-ramp for the Internet of things. Imagine a weather station that can be attached to this. It's built in a modular way so that you can also attach a satellite module so that you could have Internet connectivity even in very remote areas.
Druga interesantna stvar za nas - jer mi volimo senzore - jeste mogućnost "on-ramp"-a [širokog dometa] za internet. Zamislite meteorološku stanicu prikačenu za ovo. Zato što je modularne građe, možete da priključite i satelitski modul i tako omogućiti vezu sa internetom čak i u najudaljenijim predelima.
Out of adversity can come innovation, and how can we help the ambitious coders and makers in Kenya to be resilient in the face of problematic infrastructure? And for us, we begin with solving the problem in our own backyard in Kenya.
Iz nedaća proizlazi inovacija, a kako možemo da pomognemo ambicioznim programerima i stvaraocima u Keniji da postanu otporni na probleme u infrastrukturi? Mi počinjemo sa rešavanjem problema na našem terenu, u Keniji.
It is not without challenge. Our team has basically been mules carrying components from the U.S. to Kenya. We've had very interesting conversations with customs border agents. "What are you carrying?" And the local financing is not part of the ecosystem for supporting hardware projects. So we put it on Kickstarter, and I'm happy to say that, through the support of many people, not only here but online, the BRCK has been Kickstarted, and now the interesting part of bringing this to market begins.
To nije bez teškoća. Naš tim je doslovno kao mazga vukao komponente iz SAD-a u Keniju. Imali smo interesantne razgovore sa agentima na carini. "Šta to nosite?" A lokalno finansiranje nije deo ekosistema za podršku hardverskih projekata. Zato smo projekat postavili na Kikstarter i drago mi je što mogu da kažem da je uz podršku velikog broja ljudi ne samo ovde, već i onlajn, BRCK pokrenut i sada počinje interesantan deo njegovog plasmana na tržište.
I will close by saying that, if we solve this for the local market, it could be impactful not only for the coders in Nairobi but also for small business owners who need reliable connectivity, and it can reduce the cost of connecting, and hopefully collaboration within African countries.
Završiću time što ću reći, da ukoliko rešimo ovo na lokalnom tržištu, to može imati uticaja ne samo na programere u Najrobiju, nego i na vlasnike malih preduzeća kojima je potrebna pouzdana veza i ovo može da smanji troškove povezivanja i nadam se, saradnje među afričkim državama.
The idea is that the building blocks of the digital economy are connectivity and entrepreneurship. The BRCK is our part to keep Africans connected, and to help them drive the global digital revolution.
Ideja je da su temelji digitalne ekonomije povezivanje i preduzetništvo. BRCK je naš doprinos povezivanju Afrikanaca kako bismo im pomogli u pokretanju globalne digitalne revolucije.
Thank you.
Hvala vam.
(Applause)
(Aplauz)