Comments on: The charging challenge and the entrepreneur http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/2008/02/the-charging-challenge-and-the-entrepreneur/ Where technology meets anthropology, conservation and development Fri, 10 Feb 2012 09:31:22 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 By: Sascha http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/2008/02/the-charging-challenge-and-the-entrepreneur/comment-page-1/#comment-59 Sascha Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:26:00 +0000 http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/?p=116#comment-59 Africa's grassroots mobile revolution - a traveller's perspective<br/><br/>It didn't take us long to find it. After all, mobile phone masts aren't that easy to hide, and Masindi is a tightly-knit, flat little west Ugandan town. After a few short minutes, driving past ... Read More <br/><br/>http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/20-africas-grassroots Africa’s grassroots mobile revolution – a traveller’s perspective

It didn’t take us long to find it. After all, mobile phone masts aren’t that easy to hide, and Masindi is a tightly-knit, flat little west Ugandan town. After a few short minutes, driving past … Read More

http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/20-africas-grassroots

]]> By: Anonymous http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/2008/02/the-charging-challenge-and-the-entrepreneur/comment-page-1/#comment-58 Anonymous Sat, 07 Jun 2008 14:25:00 +0000 http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/?p=116#comment-58 Africa's grassroots mobile revolution - a traveller's perspective<br/><br/>It didn't take us long to find it. After all, mobile phone masts aren't that easy to hide, and Masindi is a tightly-knit, flat little west Ugandan town. After a few short minutes, driving past ... Read More <br/><br/>http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/20-africas-grassroots Africa’s grassroots mobile revolution – a traveller’s perspective

It didn’t take us long to find it. After all, mobile phone masts aren’t that easy to hide, and Masindi is a tightly-knit, flat little west Ugandan town. After a few short minutes, driving past … Read More

http://www.receiver.vodafone.com/20-africas-grassroots

]]> By: michiel http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/2008/02/the-charging-challenge-and-the-entrepreneur/comment-page-1/#comment-45 michiel Mon, 11 Feb 2008 17:12:00 +0000 http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/?p=116#comment-45 Hi Ken, <br/>Very interesting stuff. About a year ago I was in Nigeria for one month. Although I found most people there are very positive about the cellphone, there were also people who said it places an extra burden on them. (Extended) family and relatives can now more easily than before contact mobile workers far away from home and ask for support (send money home). Add in the great trick to "wire" money by texting a prepaid voucher number to someone far away, who then resells it to one of the many commercial roadside mobile phone boots, and it is clear that the mobile phone also reenforces ties to the 'home". In that sense, mobile phone developments in Africa may be said to reinstate traditional cultural practices. Quite ironical, when you look at the tendency to phrase the "mobile phone revolution" in Africa in terms of business opportunities, transparency, and (economical) progress. Hi Ken,
Very interesting stuff. About a year ago I was in Nigeria for one month. Although I found most people there are very positive about the cellphone, there were also people who said it places an extra burden on them. (Extended) family and relatives can now more easily than before contact mobile workers far away from home and ask for support (send money home). Add in the great trick to “wire” money by texting a prepaid voucher number to someone far away, who then resells it to one of the many commercial roadside mobile phone boots, and it is clear that the mobile phone also reenforces ties to the ‘home”. In that sense, mobile phone developments in Africa may be said to reinstate traditional cultural practices. Quite ironical, when you look at the tendency to phrase the “mobile phone revolution” in Africa in terms of business opportunities, transparency, and (economical) progress.

]]> By: askpang http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/2008/02/the-charging-challenge-and-the-entrepreneur/comment-page-1/#comment-43 askpang Fri, 08 Feb 2008 06:54:00 +0000 http://www.kiwanja.net/blog/?p=116#comment-43 Fascinating how the challenge of providing power for cell phones is sparking such an entrepreneurial reaction-- and how many of the solutions manage to combine what we think of as high and low tech (e.g., the HAPY, a donkey cart with solar panels). Fascinating how the challenge of providing power for cell phones is sparking such an entrepreneurial reaction– and how many of the solutions manage to combine what we think of as high and low tech (e.g., the HAPY, a donkey cart with solar panels).

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