Hitting the basics.
April 23, 2013 1:58 AM Subscribe
Suppose you live in an area where everyone has a cell phone and almost nobody uses the internet. What kinds of tech would help lots of small and medium businesses in your area?
I'm working with some people to help start a tech-hub in Kisumu, the third-largest city in Kenya. One of our big priorities is finding ways to connect the many IT graduates of the local universities with businesses that haven't been using technology in their business plans. One stupidly easy example we thought of: Only about half of the local hotels have websites, which is important for connecting with travelling tourists. But what kinds of tech uptake could be useful to small businesses that aren't as reliant on an internet-friendly clientèle?
I have a few ideas of relatively easy stuff, like keeping track of payroll and sales information, customer tracking, and sms updates. What else can you think of?
I'm working with some people to help start a tech-hub in Kisumu, the third-largest city in Kenya. One of our big priorities is finding ways to connect the many IT graduates of the local universities with businesses that haven't been using technology in their business plans. One stupidly easy example we thought of: Only about half of the local hotels have websites, which is important for connecting with travelling tourists. But what kinds of tech uptake could be useful to small businesses that aren't as reliant on an internet-friendly clientèle?
I have a few ideas of relatively easy stuff, like keeping track of payroll and sales information, customer tracking, and sms updates. What else can you think of?
AskMe can come up with heaps of ideas, but are they the ones that would fit the needs of people and businesses in Kisumu?
You'll need to ask a lot of questions, to people who own, work at, or buy from those businesses. Ideally, you ask the community at many levels. Don't really on your own guesswork, or even the opinions of the IT students (they can be as much an outsider as you are, even within their own country, because of huge disparities in income and education level). Go out and ask your potential users.
- What do people know about the internet (or IT)?
- Why don't people use the internet? (It might be access as empath suggests, it might be money, it might be literacy, it might be reliable electricity to power devices, it might be...)
- How can obstacles to using the internet be removed?
- What is the level of interest in using the internet?
You also say "IT" but does that have to mean "internet"? A lot of the most interesting developments now are happening in SMS. Health ministries in West Africa are reporting epidemiological data by smartphone. Delivery confirmations and other supply chain validations happen by SMS. Many systems exist for mobile payments, some more successful than others (see M-Pesa for Kenya). New low-cost smart phones are coming out, too. What about getting students to roll their own apps? Or building some of the applications you have mentioned (sales information, etc) into systems that work by SMS?
In conclusion, go back and ask those businesses what makes their business tick, what problems they have in running it, and why they have not chosen to professionalize by involving more technology. Projects of this sort built in a vacuum struggle because they were not designed to fit the needs of the potential users. If you can get the buy-in of potential users, you may also find some good partners for testing (potential users) or for market studies (NGOs) who would looove to make use of something that you could develop.
(I work in related topics but not in IT and not in Kenya. I'm happy to bounce ideas around about this offline. Overall, I am a strong believer in starting projects from a good understanding of local needs.)
posted by whatzit at 3:45 AM on April 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
You'll need to ask a lot of questions, to people who own, work at, or buy from those businesses. Ideally, you ask the community at many levels. Don't really on your own guesswork, or even the opinions of the IT students (they can be as much an outsider as you are, even within their own country, because of huge disparities in income and education level). Go out and ask your potential users.
- What do people know about the internet (or IT)?
- Why don't people use the internet? (It might be access as empath suggests, it might be money, it might be literacy, it might be reliable electricity to power devices, it might be...)
- How can obstacles to using the internet be removed?
- What is the level of interest in using the internet?
You also say "IT" but does that have to mean "internet"? A lot of the most interesting developments now are happening in SMS. Health ministries in West Africa are reporting epidemiological data by smartphone. Delivery confirmations and other supply chain validations happen by SMS. Many systems exist for mobile payments, some more successful than others (see M-Pesa for Kenya). New low-cost smart phones are coming out, too. What about getting students to roll their own apps? Or building some of the applications you have mentioned (sales information, etc) into systems that work by SMS?
In conclusion, go back and ask those businesses what makes their business tick, what problems they have in running it, and why they have not chosen to professionalize by involving more technology. Projects of this sort built in a vacuum struggle because they were not designed to fit the needs of the potential users. If you can get the buy-in of potential users, you may also find some good partners for testing (potential users) or for market studies (NGOs) who would looove to make use of something that you could develop.
(I work in related topics but not in IT and not in Kenya. I'm happy to bounce ideas around about this offline. Overall, I am a strong believer in starting projects from a good understanding of local needs.)
posted by whatzit at 3:45 AM on April 23, 2013 [4 favorites]
Whatzit is exactly right - you have to look around and ask what basic problem could be resolved in this environment. And SMS is a vehicle that we overlook because - Internet. I wish I could remember the podcast - an NPR tech report? - that described how someone had developed an SMS service that gave farmers information on market prices for their crops.
posted by randomkeystrike at 4:30 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by randomkeystrike at 4:30 AM on April 23, 2013
This may be obvious, but look to the recent past. In the days before ubiquitous mobile internet, phone (sometimes voicemail, sometimes voice response) based systems performed a lot of similar functions. You'd call a business to find hours of operation and directions from common landmarks. You'd call the movie theater to find out what was showing and when. You'd call the local restaurant to find out their daily specials. You could call a "concierge" for advice on local hotspots, services, or events. You could even register for classes, submit your unemployment claim, or file your taxes, all by pressing buttons on your phone. Remember calling the operator for directory assistance?
posted by Gable Oak at 4:31 AM on April 23, 2013
posted by Gable Oak at 4:31 AM on April 23, 2013
Response by poster: Yup, thanks, guys.
We're actually already organizing to meet with local business leaders to form ideas of things that could work well in the local context. The question here was meant to try to get some ideas that might not be so obvious from inside the fish-bowl.
Our current plan for the next few months is to a) host workshops for IT-oriented people to share skills, and also do a bunch of groundwork to b) identify those local business needs, in order to c) connect inventive, unemployed IT people with businesses that make sense. The group doing the organizing consists of people from academia and the NGO space, with some support from a few local business people, so the big part of the research angle is connecting with local business leaders.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:29 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
We're actually already organizing to meet with local business leaders to form ideas of things that could work well in the local context. The question here was meant to try to get some ideas that might not be so obvious from inside the fish-bowl.
Our current plan for the next few months is to a) host workshops for IT-oriented people to share skills, and also do a bunch of groundwork to b) identify those local business needs, in order to c) connect inventive, unemployed IT people with businesses that make sense. The group doing the organizing consists of people from academia and the NGO space, with some support from a few local business people, so the big part of the research angle is connecting with local business leaders.
posted by kaibutsu at 7:29 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]
I don't want to tread too close to the "self promotion" line, but I am the lead on an open-source project that's specifically designed to help deliver digital files in areas without reliable Internet access.
Check it out and see if it's the right fit for any part of your project: LibraryBox.
posted by griffey at 10:21 AM on April 23, 2013
Check it out and see if it's the right fit for any part of your project: LibraryBox.
posted by griffey at 10:21 AM on April 23, 2013
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What you really want to do is figure out how to get wifi everywhere. Whether it's mesh networks or cell access points.
posted by empath at 2:35 AM on April 23, 2013 [1 favorite]