Water Purification and Supply

On the Water Channel an easy to handle filter from Tulip:

the candle-type water filter uses gravity siphon pressure to force water trough a high-quality ceramic filter element. The innovative usage of the siphon results in a high flow rate of 4-5 liters per hour. The filter is impregnated with silver in order to increase the bacterial removal efficiency of the filter and to reduce the recontamination risk of stored filtered water.

TheWaterChannel

Furthermore an example of low-cost rural water supply in Tanzania:

TheWaterChannel

Because We Can A 'Design-Build' Architecture Studio

Limor Fried of Adafruit interviews BecauseWeCan, a new type of Architectural Studio:

because we can from adafruit industries on Vimeo.
Every member of our team spends time on all aspects of a single project from concept designs to computer modeling to fabrication. One designer remains physically involved with the project from beginning to completion. We do not have a single shop forman, a single designer, or a single computer expert, instead we all touch all aspects of the design production. We’re intensively collaborative, both within our office and with our clients, and we’re a lot of fun to work with.

Quick Hits

Kenya coffee eyes new golden era
JamiiX the next Ushahidi?
Is It Time to Rebuild & Retool Public Libraries and Make “TechShops”?
Awakening a 'Sleeping Giant,' Microfranchise as a Distribution Platform

Mobile Billboard/School Bus

Springwise reports on a TriKademiK initiative:

As part of its effort to promote advertising platforms that provide a service to needy communities, Instinct in February launched its pilot TriKademiK effort in Ghana with the sponsorship of mobile telecom operator Zain Ghana. The TriKademiK is essentially a tricycle that is rented out as a mobile billboard while rendering free school transport service for up to six children at a time. Beginning with two villages in Ghana's Hohoe region, the effort has enabled 40 children to go to and from school daily, and has provided employment for 10 local residents as drivers. When not in use for school purposes, the tricycle can be converted for use transporting cargo. The TriKademiK vehicles are easy to set up and last for three years; driver training was provided by Instinct, as is maintenance.More after the jump
TRIKADEMIK DOCUMENTARY by magalibongrand

More here

Open Source Hardware Bank

Another milestone towards a sustainable Open Source Hardware Industry:

The mission of the Open Source Hardware Bank is to fund and invest in Open Source Hardware. It helps open source projects achieve scale discounts at low quantities of production, where most DIY happens. The objective of the bank is to break-even, and sustain and grow Open Source Hardware.

Java House Nairobi

Nairobi's Java House chain of coffee shops has the potential to become Africa's Starbuck's. Their website states:

Welcome to Nairobi Java House, home to Kenya's finest fresh-roasted coffee, and home-made food. Our team lovingly roasts the finest Kenyan coffee beans everyday, delivered fresh to each of our restaurants, to bring you the very best! From our home baked bread, cookies and pastries, and our big juicy burgers, to our unique Mexican menu. We aim to bring you the best, served up fresh and generous, in a friendly, family environment.

Pluvial-Electric power by Patrice Tognifodé

Kumatoo profiles the work of electrical tinkerer Patrice Tognifodé:

Image courtesy of Kumatoo

The pluvial-electric power plant has a relatively simple, but effective, operating principle. Rainwater must be stored at a height greater than 10 m. This height allows rainwater to acquire a certain speed that drives an alternator downstream, through a turbine, which produces electricity and drinking water. In short, the device consists of an artificial lake upstream (generation) and an artificial lake downstream (recovery), a turbine, an alternator and a pump for the closed loop. The pluvial-electric power plant would also prevent certain types of flooding through a water tank on the roof of houses that collects rainwater; thus limiting its penetration into the soil. The recovered rainwater is then used to generate electricity.

More here

Bio-Intensive Farming & G-BIACK

In City Farming, a path towards biologically intensive sustainable farming by G‐BIACK

Chocalat A Toi

Founded by Tola Popoola Chocolat A Toi produces "Personalised Chocolate - Bars and Handmade Truffles" "Chocolat A Toi (English pronunciation shokola a twa) simply means chocolate the way you like it in French"

Malée - Natural Science

"...The circular symbol on Malée’s logo references to African earth wisdom. It is the Adinkrahene primary symbol of the Adinkra. This Ghanaian series of symbols is and has been used to tell stories and describe history. It is a code, a keeper of the secrets..."The company's"...bath and body care products made with carefully selected 100% natural active ingredients. They are packed full of vitamins and moisture-boosting agents..."

Business Models for Open Hardware

Massimo Menichinelli of openp2pdesign provides and overview of the Open Hardware businesses:

The current Open Source Hardware Draft Definition is intended to help provide guidelines for the development and evaluation of licenses for Open Source Hardware and it says that Open Hardware is “a term for tangible artifacts — machines, devices, or other physical things — whose design has been released to the public in such a way that anyone can make, modify, distribute, and use those things“. The main difference with Open Source Software is that Open Source Software is collaborative, while Open Hardware is derivative: here a fork is the rule, not the exception...[continue reading]

Related articles

• Open Source Hardware Definition turns 1.0 (boingboing.net)
• Open Hardware Definition 1.0 RELEASED! (electronics-lab.com)
• Two Open Source Hardware Makers Featured On Entrepreneur.com! (mt-soft.com.ar)

The re-emergence of DIY vs Big Organizations

In Procrastineering:

The biggest factor in predicting where good work will come from is "how much does this person actually care about what they are working on?" In fact, big budgets and a sense of entitlement can actually hinder the emergence of interesting ideas. Having the *expectation* to do really great work can lead people or organizations to develop tunnel vision on "big" ideas, and miss out on smaller ideas that end up having a lot of impact or dismiss seemingly silly approaches that actually end up working.
There's a really great TEDx talk by Simon Sinek that touches on this. He actually brings up a number of great points in his talk, but the one I want to highlight here is his anecdote about Samuel Pierpont Langley vs. the Wright Brothers in pursuit of powered flight. Langley represented the exceptionally well funded professional research organization, and the Wright Brothers were the scrappy passionate pair of DIY'ers. Today, we now know the Wright brothers as the ones who created the first airplane and most have never heard of Langley. Big investment is not a very strong predictor of valuable output. But, an individual's willingness to continue working on the same problem with very little to no pay... is a good predictor.
The great thing about the hacker community is that, generally, most of them fall into the later category. Independent developers and hobbists care enough to spend their own money to work on the projects they believe in. As a result, I'm finding that the delta in the quality of ideas from a well funded research group, and the independent community (in aggregate) is getting smaller and smaller by the month.

More here
via Adafruit

Urban Farmers at work in Ghana

Via Cityfarmer, more on the urban gardening phenomenon :

The Nkwo Collection

BNN on the work of Nkwo:

The NKWO collection has something for every girl. We love the use of colour, column shapes, African prints and braided textiles, which accompanies the intricate hair sculpture from Angela M Plummer.

Images courtesy of 2shooters

Furniture Fabrication Training with Distinction at Furntech

In South Africa:

Furntech is South Africa’s only Centre of Excellence for the furniture industry and is the first port of call for anyone looking for information on business incubation and / or skills development in furniture manufacturing...Furntech's mission is to be a productivity driven, globally competitive, outcomes-based training provider that offers comprehensive and innovative business incubation services in order to assist in job and wealth creation in South Africa's furniture and wood products sector.

Sandbox Launches

Afrinnovator reports on the arrival of an incubator:

Sandbox is proud to announce the opening of its first hub in Africa. Based out of Nairobi, its aim is to unite the continent’s most inspiring young leaders, and to connect them with like-minded peers all over the globe.
“We have been planning to expand Sandbox to Africa for a while now, and with Sebastian Lindstroem we feel that we have found the right person at the right time”, says Christian Busch, Head of Sandbox Live!. As founder of the What Took You So Long Foundation, Sebastian has been at the forefront of identifying “unsung heroes” in Africa. He aims to use his networks and experience to build up a close-nit local community of inspiring young leaders, embedded into a strong ecosystem of local partners and seniors.

More here

“Cool is what you make it”

Lessons for Africa.An excerpt  praise for Neal Bascomb's, book "THE NEW COOL" :

"...If you’re sick of hearing about our impending doom, read this, and meet a generation of kids who could change not just the nation but the world. THE NEW COOL is, on its simplest level, the story of a robotics competition—but once you realize the immensity of what’s at stake, you’ll be as nervously anticipatory as the competitors themselves..."-Dean Kamen

Upendo Flowers

Upendo Flowers on their growing methods:

Batian roses are grown in steel frame greenhouses equipped with the latest drip irrigation and computerized climate control systems. This allows us to give every plant exactly what it needs without wasting water. The majority of our plants are grown in natural soil (30 ha), but we have hydroponic rose production as well (5 ha). The received water from the Hydroponics is used in the soil.

More here

Related articles

• No-Nonsense Beginner Hydroponics (craftzine.com)
• Growing Crops without soil - Hydroponics (timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com)

Nandimobile

GHTech reports on Nandimobile a Meltwater incubated company:

Nandimobile, located in Accra, Ghana, provides mobile solutions for customer support and marketing. The company was founded in July 2010 by Edward Tagoe, Anne Amuzu and Michael Dakwa, and is supported by the Meltwater Foundation, which is funded by the Meltwater Group. Nandimobile’s on-demand Software as a Service suite, Nandiclient, arms businesses with tools for delivering customer support and information services to mobile phones of customers through SMS and WAP channels. The suite includes a customer support service, Gripeline, and a marketing service, Infoline.

Congolese Rocketeer: Jean-Patrice Keka

In Kumatoo:

image courtesy of Kumatoo

A private initiative to conquer space is ongoing in Congo-Kinshasa, thanks to the ingenuity of one man, Jean-Patrice Keka Ohemba Okese, who has federated a team of Congolese scientists. Jean-Patrice Keka is himself a scientist who studied at the Institut Supérieur des Techniques Appliquées (ISTA) in Kinshasa. He is heading a small company named DTA (Développement Tous Azimuts).

courtesy of mediacongo

It is in 2005 that DTA started its space program named "Troposphere" that aimed at launching 5 experimental rockets that should not exceed an altitude of 36 152 m. DTA bought some land at the Menkao site in the suburbs of Kinshasa where it has set up a control center with all the necessary equipment to manufacture and launch rockets. This small "made in Congo" room has, among others, an automatic powering device, a telemetry system (speed and altitude via GPS), a video monitoring system to control the rocket trajectory and a rocket launching pad. The rockets are manufactured with scrap...[continue reading]

Watch related video(fr) after the jump:

Lancement de la fusée TROPOSPHÈRE V à Kinshasa by Nzwamba

Fund launched for Informal Entrepreneurs by Dangote Foundation

In what could be a significant development the Dangote foundation has launched a $32 million fund that targets the informal sector.Stealth of Nations reports:

The Dangote Foundation--a charitable group created by one of Nigeria's most successful entrepreneurs--has joined with Nigeria's Bank of Industry to create a 5 billion naira ($32 million) fund to invest in the informal economy, Worldstage magazine reports. The money would be used to bolster working capital so entrepreneurial outfits can grow and would be loaned out to informal businesses at 5 percent interest.

More here

Related articles

• Davos: The African Opportunity (blogs.forbes.com)

Mini Assembly Lines

Make reports on a mini-assembly line in Detroit:

courtesy of Corine Vermeulen

The team collaborates with local communities and utilizes site-specific printing and manufacturing tools to produce limited edition books and other publications. The assembly line concept is influenced by Henry Ford’s manufacturing processes (Fordism) and integrated with contemporary “print-on-demand” (POD) practices, which are inspired by Toyota’s “just-in-time” production model. Detroit Mini Assembly Line (DMAL) is a flexible, collaborative, and improvisational printing and production team whose goal is to travel the globe collaboratively producing idiosyncratic publications. Each iteration of the project operates within the circumstances and constraints of each location’s unique cultural conditions.

More here

Making Gari

In Away From Africa a photo essay on the processing of Gari:

...widely grown in equatorial Africa. In Cameroon gari is a staple, and the most common and popular use is Gari, a sort of coarse tapioca; mixed with water, sugar and peanuts to make a filling snack or meal...[continue reading]

Related articles

• Cassava packs a protein punch with bean genes (newscientist.com)

The Need for A Secondary Wireless Internet

Shervin Pishevar writing in Techcrunch:

courtesy of Werebuild

OpenMesh’s basic idea is that we could use some new (and existing) techniques to create a secondary wireless Internet in countries like Libya, Syria, Iran, North Korea and other repressive regimes to allow citizens to communicate freely. By creating mobile routers that connect together we could create a wireless network that mobile phones and personal computers can connect to. The first priority would be to have the people connect together and the second priority is for them to connect to the world. One the second front, we could use intermittent satellite internet connections so people in those nations could upload and download information with the rest of the world. Openmesh aims to be a clearinghouse for the best ideas out there to connect and get products out into the hands of people.

More here

Related articles

• OPENMESH Is Seeking Alternatives To Egypt-Style Internet Blackouts (techcrunch.com)

Researching Tea

Two research institutes both pushing the boundaries with tea. Firstly the Tea Research Foundation of Kenya which focuses:

...on development of improved clones, appropriate technologies for improvement of yield (quantity of green tea leaf/made tea per hectare) and quality of tea products.

While the Tea Research Foundation of Central Africa positions itself as a

service provider of scientific research and technology to the tea industry in southern Africa by developing new high yielding, good quality and globally competitive tea together with cost effective production and management techniques in the field and factory.

Images courtesy of TRFCA & TRFK

Mousso Koroba-A Chair

From the Kix folks:

Mousso Koroba suits the Malian way of life and aims to meet local people’s needs. It was designed in Bamako for the price of a standard local chair, about 20 Euros with material that can be found and re-used in large quantities. The chair’s ability to give and its outstanding shape make it suitable for extended use. It allows many postures and indeed encourages original uses.

Plaited plastic ropes twisted with recycled plastic bags make the seat. A lot of colorful plastic bags are available on the streets of Bamako. A qualified worker, using a specific method, will do the plaiting work. This material reveals considerable elasticity and resistance properties. And of course, there are palpable ecological and economical issues at stake.

Images courtesy of Kix

Ugandan Red Bird Eye Chili

At the Bid Network Manasseh Acidri presents the promise of Ugandan Red Bird Eye Chili farming:

The Ugandan Red Bird Eye Chili (UREBEC) is a small when ripened chili pepper with high pungency – capsaicin value of 0.6 – 1%. it has been promoted for food and pharmaceutical raw material by the bio-trade initiative supported by the UNCTAD:

Quick Hits

Study finds commercial levels of 5-HTP in Liberia Griffonia
Fly540 launches flights in Angola
Intellisoftplus Solutions a software solutions company
Could Lippia multiflora herbal tea become the West African ‘Rooibos’?
Royal Media Services a Kenyan radio station conglomerate

e-Zwich:Biometric Banking from Ghana

A world first, in Ghana. Bombastic Element reports on the debut of e-Zwich:

...Keith Breckenridge looks at Ghana's adoption of the world’s first biometric banking system--basically a void card enabled by the cardholder's fingerprint--to draw a larger proportion of the population into the banking economy, raise the levels of local capitalization by drawing a much larger portion of the issued money supply into bank accounts, create a national instrument and measure of capital accumulation "in the face of a host of established informal and transnational practices that make a mockery of the post-colonial state’s ability to influence and tax the economy." He argues that besides all of implementation road bumps, the scheme might actually succeed.

More here
African Liberty takes a contrarian view they see it as "A Colossal Waste of Resources"

Designers as Explorers

Hash on what we should be seeking in design:

Zebra foootwear by Kix

Erin Moore is a designer and a storyteller, usually through video and blogging (see her newest project on Kickstarter). She introduced me to this terminology of “designers as explorers” – something that might be very apparent to the IxD field, but foreign to me. It’s a phrase that fits. Where we see designers as a new generation of what we thought of as National Geographic explorers a century ago. They’re best embodied by the Jan Chipchases of the world, who spend a great deal of time watching, listening and understanding how design interactions work, and then translating those discoveries to the rest of the world.
It fits because I have a hard time with a lot of the well-intentioned design community thinking that they can parachute into places like Africa, usually with a solution already in mind, and change the world. There is a place for designers in Africa, but the greatest value lies in recognizing the expertise at the local level, the inventiveness and ingenuity already there, and rubbing shoulders with them in a way that both gain value and maybe even build something new.

Related articles

• What if Designers were Better Explorers? by Erin Moore (core77.com)
• The Essence of Interaction Design - Part I: Designing Virtual Contexts for Interaction (tc.eserver.org)

When Hackers Become Makers

In INC. John Gerzema on the evolution of tinkering:

image via flickr courtesy of Kent Brew

...hacking is evolving from a destructive force in business into a creative one that can help companies drive product and brand development. Hacking offers a way for hardware and software developers to build products for the future without incurring high costs of development. A product's long-tail possibility—that is, its shelf life and ability to drive a large number of small transactions over time—grows as it encounters smaller audiences with more niche product specs. Using precious R&D dollars and full-time employment hours to build out these snowflakes would decimate its profitability. Hacking, on the other hand, essentially amplifies a product's users and usage without adding cost to the creator.

More here

Related articles

• Hackers and Painters (ccdc11.wordpress.com)
• Microsoft Welcomes XBox Kinect 'Hackers' (daaaveeeee.wordpress.com)
• Microsoft To Begin Aiding Kinect Hackers With Toolkit (g4tv.com)