Capital exists in Africa, but priorities are wrong

VC4Africa highlights comments by Guido Boysen, of GroFin:

“The SME sector is ripe for investment, and the capital exists for this investment to take place. However, before this economic engine of growth kicks into gear, a few myths surrounding the sector need to be dispelled. Firstly, the owners of SMEs are not just unsophisticated entrepreneurs in need of hand holding, they are often good entrepreneurs with sizeable, successful businesses.” He cites an example of one of GroFin’s clients, a petroleum business in Uganda that approached GroFin for funding to the value of about $400,000 to start two wholesale outlets. Prior to approaching the organisation for support, the business had successfully established eight petrol stations, illustrating the sophistication of the SME. Working with an established business and entrepreneur proved successful, with an overall annual rate of return of close to 40%, Guido added, “The second myth is that SMEs do not constitute profitable investments. On the contrary – if these entrepreneurs merely receive appropriate assistance in executing their long term plans, they can reap a return on investment (ROI) that benefits both the investor and the entrepreneur.” This was illustrated in one of GroFin’s Kenyan clients, a borehole drilling business that required $235,531 to purchase its own equipment. The business owner was well-established in the industry, with a solid network of contacts. Their assistance in purchasing his equipment allowed him to reduce his expenses, boosting his cashflow and their management support ensured the extra cash went back into the business and was put to good use. The final IRR on exit was 33.20%. A third myth surrounding SMEs is that they are difficult deals to exit, as they don’t have the governance structures conducive to clean structuring. However, this is a setback that can be overcome, by structuring deals using debt instruments, as opposed to traditional equity. To fully realise the potential of SMEs, the sector needs to be approached with a fresh perspective attuned to the challenges it faces. There is a need for the focus to shift from the available collateral in the business to the viability of the business and the ability of the entrepreneur. Each business needs finance tailored to their unique challenges,. In addition to this, the business owner needs access to the expertise and market knowledge required to make their business a success.

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Zungrana Awaya, a market gardener

More on the self sustaining qualities of gardens in Self-Help Africa:

Hackers & Makers

Hackers & Makers (a video) What they are and why you should care about them:

Quick Hits

Kids today need a licence to tinker
WikiHouse – the open source house
Opensource-solar a place for collaborative development of open source hardware for small photovoltaic systems.
First Flight of Fully 3D Printed Aeroplane

Mo-Saique Shoes

"...The MO SAÏQUE signature aesthetic is simplicity and luxury, with an edge of confidence.Afua Dabanka draws creative inspiration for her shoe designs from the extraordinary interplay of her unique background and style savvy fashion sense. She adapts Germany’s classic silhouettes and fuses these seamlessly with the bold colour palette and rich culture of Ghana.A champion of pure luxury and quality, each shoe is handmade in Italy.A personal touch is the Fern (“Aya”), an Adinkra symbol of Ghana etched on the sole of each shoe. The symbol stands for endurance and resourcefulness, which emphasises the aura and personality of every MO SAÏQUE woman..."-website

via LadyBrille

TechShop + Kickstarter = A New Paradigm for Manufacturing?

Allison Arieff writing in Txchnologist:

Image courtesy of Techshop

People may come into Techshop with the desire to make their own coffee table or motocross widget. Or they skulk quietly into rentable offices to work on “secret projects.” But, explains electrical engineer Zack Johnson, another Techshop Dream Coach, soon enough they’re sharing their ideas on the floor — so strong is the collaborative impulse in this machine shop/playground. Techshop is increasingly helping guys (and gals) with a dream transform prototype into product, but to get to the next stage, entrepreneurs have sought an extra boost. To help bridge the “Valley of Death” — the place where good ideas die for lack of funding — a large number of creators have turned to Kickstarter. Since its launch in 2009, the Manhattan-based “crowdfunding” startup has helped everything from feature films to urban gardens to a stylus for touch screens. Together, Techshop and Kickstarter are the dynamic duo of manufacturing.

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The New Artisans

In TNL:

Image courtesy of Ecosalon

A new arti­san move­ment has slowly been spread­ing its wings, bring­ing back some of the pre-industrialization meth­ods of smaller teams and more direct to con­sumer con­tact...Caught in the gap between mass pro­duced offer­ings of the indus­trial age and one-offs pre­sented by arti­sans sat a whole class of poten­tial prod­ucts that could not pre­vi­ously be made avail­able to peo­ple. Those prod­ucts were the kind of offer­ings that could appeal to a small por­tion of the pub­lic but may not be appeal­ing to enough peo­ple to war­rant the inter­est of large corporations.At the same time, fewer large enti­ties became inter­ested in tak­ing risks because doing so could poten­tially end up in fail­ure, thus low­er­ing the returns they made to their investors. This risk-wariness has allowed start-ups to thrive as smaller enter­prises con­cerned them­selves with inno­vat­ing and either failed, grew large, or were gob­bled up by the larger players.

Continuing...

With the rise of con­tract man­u­fac­tur­ing and increas­ing access to net­worked resources across the inter­net, the cost of devel­op­ing, man­u­fac­tur­ing, mar­ket­ing, and deliv­er­ing goods has dropped sub­stan­tially, mak­ing it pos­si­ble to cre­ate and dis­trib­ute an increas­ing amounts of goods to small er and smaller markets.

This new models supply chain can thus be described in the following steps:

• Indi­vid­ual or team comes up with idea (same) 
• Indi­vid­ual or team builds and test prototype(s) (same) 
• Indi­vid­ual or team does pric­ing research to assess how much it needs to sell prod­uct for Pro­to­type is shown in online video to assess if peo­ple are interested 
• Kick­starter cam­paign is kicked off to sell prod­uct BEFORE it is manufactured
• If Kick­starter cam­paign is suc­cess­ful, prod­uct is man­u­fac­tured and send directly to buyer

Birame Sock of MyReceipts

Birame Sock founder of Third Solutions which created MyReceipts speaks with the Atlanta Post:

TAP: In a nutshell, what does MyReceipts do?

B.S.: We provide consumers with the ability to receive their receipts online and use them for merchandise exchanges, keeping track of product warranties, and keeping records of purchases so they’ll be able to do their taxes more easily. Besides there being value in getting your receipts online, MyReceipts eliminates paper waste. On the other side of things, merchants [get] to track customer behavior and target customers for marketing purposes.

Birame Sock

TAP: How did you begin developing MyReceipts? 

 B.S:.After I sold my MusicPhone company in 2007, I launched Third Solutions. As I love to say: “It was started from my bed and sold it from my bed”… because I never worked at a desk. I had been thinking about the concept of keeping receipts online since 2004 and decided to start Third Solutions as the main company.

Hackathons Splicing Together Art & Technology

The Art Tech Hacking phenomenon gathers steam ArtInfo reports:

The New York City art elite may be unaware of a cultural phenomenon boiling right under their noses: "Silicon Alley" (as opposed to the West Coast's Silicon Valley) is the going name for New York's burgeoning technology community, a combination of home-office programmers, start-up businesses, venture capitalists, and cheerleading groupies who have given rise to such Internet giants as Foursquare and Tumblr. But a little bit of Silicon Alley made its way to Chelsea last weekend with an Art Hack Weekend hosted jointly by new media space Eyebeam and The Creators Project (the latter being an international collaboration between Vice and Intel that has produced new-media-focused events and exhibitions around the world, documenting their work on an authoritative blog).

courtesy of Eyebeam A group of techies working on their latest and greatest project at The Creators Project's hackathon, hosted by Eyebeam

The event was deemed a "hackathon," a bit of nomenclature that also might be unfamiliar for art world audiences. Something between a business conference, social gathering, and pop-up happening, hackathons gather hundreds of techies in one room to work on whatever projects they so desire, drawing ad-hoc teams out of the crowd at hand. Most hackathons work toward a specific end: creating usable applications for public government data, solving the problems of digital journalism, or making the next great iPhone game. The events generally end in a series of demonstrations, allowing teams to show off their hard work. Prizes are often awarded to the best or most promising demos. The other award is publicity — hackathons are public opportunities to strut your stuff, and maybe win the eye of an investor or two.

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Lakeside Fish Farm Rwanda

Lakeside Fish Farm will adopt an:

"...independent and self-sufficient fish production system, including a complete production line from maintaining brood stock and fry production to market-size fish and the processing-packing facilities, including all necessary auxiliary systems...Their facility will generate 6 tons per day (2 tons in stage 1). It is assumed that fish will be delivered 20 days per month to various locations in the Kigali area, as well as exported to high population centers in DRC and Burundi. There is a degree of flexibility as to which product forms will be delivered. Whereas the Kigali market prefers fillets and steaks, rural areas, DRC and Uganda fresh whole or live fish.

Kora Jewelry

"...Kora merges the worlds of beautiful jewelry and sustainable business development in the belief that both can and will benefit. Our handmade pieces feature recycled materials found and used by local artisans in African developing communities. The long-term sustainability of our producers is important to KORA. By paying fair prices for product we provide the artisans with the crucial capital to build their businesses..."-website

Smoked Seafood Flavoring

In Gherkins and Tomatoes:

Photo credit gherkins and tomatoes

Before refrigeration, people naturally either ate everything all at once or sought and then developed technologies to handle the problems of rotting and the ensuing waste of perfectly good food. Another possible benefit of the consumption of fish lies with a possible anti-sickling effect.In the case of fish, smoking and drying, along with salting, tended to be the major methods of preservation throughout most of Africa for centuries, and primarily in Sub-Saharan Africa. So entrenched was the desire for fish that it became a medium of commerce and trade.

On flavoring:

Primarily flavor enhancers, smoked and dried fish generally are used sparingly in cooking, almost in the same manner as Italian cooks use anchovies to add another layer of flavor to certain dishes.

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Cairo Hacker Space

Sparkfun highlights the Cairo Hackerspace:

...what do you do if there is no hackerspace nearby? Short of hopping on a bus or plane, the next best thing is what is known as a "virtual hacker space." Truthfully, these aren't much different than any other forum, but the focus of these virtual beacons of innovation is often just a touch more up our alley. One such virtual hackerspace is the Cairo Hacker Space. This particular hacklab is just starting out but one cool thing they have come up with is A Beginner's Guide to Using WiFly and Arduino Via Serial.

This is a very nicely done tutorial exploring WiFly that has all the source code available for download. It's great to see these sources of knowledge springing up all over the place! Happy hacking everyone!

More here

Related articles

• SparkFun's Autonomous Vehicle Competition (boingboing.net)
• Hackerspace Happenings: Road Show & Two Hands Project News (mt-soft.com.ar)

A Need for Rural Hackspaces

Tony Roberts writing in Laptop Burns:

courtesy of Lift

A re-engineered ICT4D should aim to avoid dependency on foreign experts, donors or institutions, and instead set out to develop participatory people-processes that enable communities to define their own development objectives, priorities and activities. To reduce dependencies there is also a need to build operational capacity in the field that is able to innovate new solutions to development challenges – or appropriate and modify (hack) existing solutions according to identified needs.
One possible way to build such delivery capacity is to use the kind of hackspaces and iHubs that are gaining such popularity worldwide. Hackspaces are places equipped with engineering tools and workspaces where people can meet, share skills and work on collaborative projects. iHubs are similar except that they focus on software development projects. Hackspaces provide a vibrant community of makers, engineers and tinkers able to learn from and teach each other the practical skills of manufacture and production.
ICT4D agencies could set up rural hackspaces and iHubs and employ engineering and development graduates from African universities to hack solutions to community-defined problems. Regular opportunities to share experience and expertise with co-creators from other communities would need to be a feature to enable cross-pollination and diffusion. This could be facilitated through open-days, volunteering schemes and hacker-in-residence programs. Rural Hackspace R&D teams could work on community-identified challenges such as alternative power for rural areas, open-source adaptive technologies for the disabled, or irrigation pumps for arid areas..

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Farming Ducks

Fred Muzaale in The Daily Monitor reports on the benefits and drawbacks Duck Farming:

courtesy of the Daily Monitor

Ducks are very resistant to catastrophic and erosive diseases of poultry like New castle disease compared to chicken. He adds that ducks don’t require any sophisticated housing and need less attention than chicken. This means a farmer spends less on constructing a house for ducks and looking after them. Also when locally raised, hatchability in ducks is higher compared to chicken because of their thick plumage that ensures effective incubation of most of the eggs. Ducks lay more eggs than chicken with one duck laying about 40-50 eggs. This translates into higher profits in case a farmer rears ducks for eggs. In addition, they have a high growth rate and high feed conversion rate and body gain higher than that of chicken. Mr Kigozi (a duck farmer) explains that given the same amount of feed in the same period, a duck will put on more weight than chicken. A drake (male duck) weighs higher than a cock of the same age. Another advantage is that ducklings are less susceptible to predators like kites compared to chicks which means ducks can easily grow in number than chicken.

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Making Young Makers

From the Make Blog: Learn more about the Young Makers program.

Invention in Cameroon

Profiles of creativity in Beaugas-Orain DJOYUM's Blog(Translated by Google)

Yaya Abdouramane's

Security alarm system
"The bandits use the phone to interfere with peaceful citizens, I use it to harm bandits." This formula amounts to sufficient Yaya Abdouramane his invention. Its safety device called "the dialer alarm" is solved, according to its designer, the problem of multiple burglaries that occur in public buildings and private homes. His discovery consists of a box in which we find a cell phone. Attached to the lock of a door with an electric wire, telephone the box automatically launches a call to the owner of the house as soon as the lock of the locked door is affected. It can then go home and call the police "The bandit is caught with his hand in the bag," said he. The home owner can also program a call to the police. His demonstrations, well-attended May 20 the Boulevard at the National Technology Days which were held on 07, 08 and 09 October this year demonstrate the interest of this invention. "The alarm dialer" costs 50,000 CFA francs. Yaya Abdouramane, 52, lives in Ngaoundere in the Adamawa.
Didier Roche Brochery

Thermal fogging equipment
Helps with the elimination of parasites, plant work, protection of stored food products, disinfection, decontamination, odor control are all functions of the thermal fogging. This unit manufactured by Didier Roche Brochery is special. All parts that compose it have been manufactured and molded by Didier Roche Brochery itself. "This is the main problem of the inventors, they import the parts needed to manufacture their inventions. Me, I make everything, "says the manufacturer of the thermal fogging, version Cameroon. He claims to have developed a method of molding plastic and hardener hypothermic with a temperature below 40 °. It is with this process that mold its gables, manufactures the electronic card of the device and other parts. "I bought a sheet to form my body, and the same sheet that Europeans use", explains Didier Roche Brochery.
Based in Douala - Logbaba, it can make a complete thermal fogging in a week. But before reaching the first complete unit, five years of research have collapsed. The manufacturer sells the large model of his device to 1.3 million CFA francs, whereas, according to him, the same device is sold in Europe more than two million CFA francs, excluding tax.
Rodrigue Fombasso

Remote telephone
On or unplug the refrigerator, the TV set, computer, his car, its lamps and bulbs or other equipment installed at home is remote, at his place of service, for example. It has solved the equation Fombasso Rodrigue, electronics, G8 promoter Ets-mail. The result is what he called "remote telephone." Fombasso Rodrigue has exhibited his invention at the May 20 boulevard du 07, 08 and 09 October in the occasion of National Technology Day. Crowded around him, many people were watching, attentive, demonstration and explanation of how the device. The designer explained that while the remote control also had the opportunity to stop the engine of a vehicle. "If you are assaulted and that one takes your car, leave from the bandits. After 30 or 45 seconds, using your phone, you stop your engine. No matter what they do, the vehicle will not move, "says Rodrigue in the admiration of visitors. Made in 2009, the remote phone costs 120 000 francs CFA.
Edmond Marie Letsini Binelly

 'radar' security device for vehicles
"The security and control by detecting" was designed to light bulbs and lamps when night falls off or the appearance of the first ray of sunshine. But its designer, Marie Edmond Letsini Binelly wants to give it another function, this time enhanced with a radar. His discovery will be installed in a vehicle. Its function: to locate vehicles and to prohibit overtaking distance and respect the speed registered on the signs. A real solution to fight against traffic accidents.
"It is just that the signs are installed along roadways. Once the radar installed in the car locates the signs, it requires the driver to drive according to the kilometers stated. In fact, the car can not accelerate beyond the speed specified by the panel. Similarly, when the radar finds that there is a car in front that the driver wants to overtake, the car will not run. In fact, the driver gets a little prisoner in his own vehicle, have to respect the rules of the road, "said Edmond Marie Letsini Binelly. Its price, not yet evaluated, could be around 150,000 CFA francs, while the light sensor to turn off automatically and turn the bulbs cost 15 000 CFA francs.

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Hackteria

Join Hackteria a collection of DIY Biology, Open Source Art Projects that use Biology, LifeSciences, Biotechnology.

"Load Carrier for Labour"

In Core 77, a labor saving device designed by Vikram Dinubhai Panchal:

One of three carrying actions for the "Load Carrier for Labour"

"Load Carrier for Labour" project is an innovation to improve the working condition of labourers and workers at many places globally—construction sites, factories, ports, railway stations, etc. The objective is to prevent various occupational hazards and demonstrating Product design and ergonomic consideration for the welfare of human life.

The principal object of the innovation is to facilitate three methods of lifting and shifting of the loads by worker, such as above the head, at the back and push or pull action. The new device main structures are made from cane materials, plastic and metal components. It is possible to make the entire structure in plastic or metal...[continue reading]

Stanford’s free ‘Intro to AI’ course

Take a free, online course,"Introduction to Artificial Intelligence" by Sebastian Thrun and Peter Norvig of Stanford University:

Basics for a Maker Workbench

In IEEE Spectrum:

Photos: Randi Silberman Klett

What are the tools every hands-on projecteer needs? To answer that question, we went right to DIYers themselves, specifically the exhibitors at last fall's World Maker Faire NY event. One tool everyone agreed on is a Multimeter. It's surprising how much information you can glean from a simple resistance reading or by checking out the voltage drop across a series of LEDs. Basic analog meters start at around US $15, but consider getting one with a digital display and an audible continuity tester. When you're up to your arms inside a chassis probing a pair of contacts, you don't want to keep looking away just to see if you have continuity between two points. You'll also want a variety of ends for the probes, such as alligator clips and PC board lead hooks.

via Boing Boing

Related articles

• World Maker Faire NY 2010 makers DIY essentials in IEEE Spectrum (mt-soft.com.ar)

African Moringa

In Wild Beauty World. Prior to establishing her company African Moringa, Camilla Barungi:

...found that African Moringa is, quite simply, the most nutritious plant source found in nature. A complete plant food, Moringa powder contains (gram for gram) 25 times the iron in spinach, 17 times the calcium in milk, 15 times the potassium in bananas, 10 times the Vitamin A in carrots, 9 times the protein in yogurt, and generous helpings of all the B vitamins, Vitamins C and D, over 22 amino acids, high levels of antioxidants, zinc, magnesium and selenium.
The leaves are hand picked, shade-dried, and crushed into a nutritious raw food powder, and the seeds yield a fine-textured, golden oil that is wonderful as a non-greasy skin moisturizer.

Quick Hits

The Guardian asks "Where are the African carmakers?" well here they are.
August is metalworking month at Make Magazine.
Everything wanted know about microscholarships
Low cost educational tools for science-Genotype
Chandaria Business Innovation and Incubation Centre an incubator that will "student ideas into gold"

Low Cost, Open source, WiFi

PC World reports on a goal is to develop low-cost, open source Wi-Fi software:

Facilitated by a grant from the Tides Foundation, the new open80211s (o11s) technology will enable the development and rollout of large-scale mesh Wi-Fi networks for roughly half the cost of a traditional network, says Geeks Without Frontiers. Designed to use existing hardware to minimize cost and maximize availability, it's expected to be particularly important in areas where legacy broadband models are currently considered to be nonviable economically...Technologically speaking, nodes and antennae will work together in these new mesh networks to extend connectivity and the Internet to a wide area. The networks are self-healing, so that if one tower goes down, the software self-assesses and automatically re-routes to keep the network at full availability.

More here

Localized Manufacturing comes of Age

From the Ponoko Blog:

Interview with David ten Have of Ponoko from MAKE magazine on Vimeo.
Ponoko’s David ten Have sat down with Dale Dougherty, founder and publisher of Make magazine, to talk about Personal Factory — a distributed and on-demand manufacturing system available to anyone. David talks about how the Personal Factory platform works (how Ponoko makes your stuff, where Ponoko makes your stuff, and what you can make stuff from), but more importantly he discusses with Dale the importance of bringing on-demand manufacturing tools to the masses.

“Magic Rice” - Dista Rice

In Worldwatch, grown in Madagascar

image courtesy of slow food foundation

Dista rice, is cultivated in the Toamasina province near Lake Alaotra,it is named after the farmer who discovered it. The rice, a pale pink color, smells like cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg, is very nutritious and yields are double that of other varieties. Dista rice also shatters less when milled, helping reduce post harvest losses and increasing farmers’ income.
Dista yields are also high for another reason—farmers are using the Système de Riziculture Intensive, or System of Rice Intensification (SRI) to cultivate it. SRI practices include transplanting seedlings when they are very young and growing them widely apart, adding compost from organic matter to the soil, weeding regularly, and using a minimum amount of water instead of flooding fields. This helps create deep root systems that are better able to resist drought, while also increasing yields, strengthening the plant, and enhancing its flavor.

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Farmers Groups and Cooperatives

In Worldwatch:

"Graham Salinger discusses the role cooperatives have in supporting small scale farmers"

Eleme Petrochemicals

In Nigeria:

EPCL is strategically positioned to feed the growing demand of plastics in Africa. With state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities, the complex consists of a gas feed cracker unit and two main downstream plants. The total production is over 550 KTA of world-class olefins and polyolefins.

 Eleme Petrochemicals is poised to be become one of the leading suppliers of polyolefins on the African continent. The company strives to ensure total customer satisfaction and consistently produce high quality products. The company focuses on providing world-class products at competitive prices and customised grades to suit the customer's specific requirements.

The Eleme Complex is designed to produce 240,000 metric tons per year of polyethylene, and 95,000 metric tons per year of polypropylene. To produce these resins, natural gas liquids are cracked in a M.W. Kellogg (USA) licensed olefins plant.

Where are the Real African Fashion Designers?

LadyBrille on the glaring shortcomings within the African fashion ecosystem:

Image courtesy of FashionTribe

African fashion designers can no longer be content with just saying they are African designers because they design with “African” fabrics. There must be an active push by consumers of fashion from Africa and Africa’s industry professionals for African designers to be innovative, educate themselves and elevate their crafts so they can compete and be taken seriously on the global fashion map.

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SuzieBeauty

How We Made It in conversation with Suzie Wokabi founder of cosmetics company SuzieBeauty

Suzie Wokabi courtesy of How We Made it

Tell us more about your cosmetics line
The SB product line comprises of a full range of make-up (foundations, powders, concealers, eye shadow, eye liner, mascara, blush, lipstick, lip gloss, lip liner), skin care products (moisturisers, eye cream, eye make-up remover, lip moisture), and application brushes. We have been using the SB product line in all our make-services contracts over the past year. Our intention was to try it out on our clients and get their feedback to help us improve on the products. We are so far confident that the product is of good quality based on the feedback of our clients.

What are your future plans for the company?
I would like to partner with other investors in establishing a cosmetics manufacturing plant in Kenya. This would cost around $2 million. Such a plant would create jobs for hundreds of Kenya’s youths. In the next three years we hope to expand our product line to other countries in the East Africa region and later to the whole of Africa. My dream is to turn SuzieBeauty Limited into a household name for everything beauty on the continent, and internationally. I want to become the MAC of Africa!

More here

Azuri - A Health Food Company

Regina Ekiru interviews founder of Azuri Health, Tei Mukunya

What products do you currently have under your portfolio?
At the time we started the only product we had was the porridge flour. We, however, realised that one product wouldn’t cut it for us. So we began working with a women group in Busia and rolled out our sweet potato flour brand. We have since unveiled new products and repackaged our old brands. The Azuri Health range today includes Azuri Nutriporridge flour, which is our flagship product, Azuri Sweet Potato Flour, Azuri Kahurura Powder (made from a plant in the pumpkin family), sweet potato cookies, and a range of dried fruits such as mangoes and pineapples. These products sell not only in Kenya but also in Sudan. We make an annual turnover of Ksh.12 million (US$143,000).

More here

Watch Ms Mukunya discuss her company after the jump

The Year the Maker Movement Broke

A phase change in the maker movement. Wired's Tim Carmody writes:

It reminds me a little of 20-25 years ago, when first personal computing with Macintosh, Microsoft and Lotus and then indie rock with Nirvana, Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr broke through from the margins into the mainstream.
…

• Microchip designer ARM’s mbed project offers users an inexpensive microcontroller and a drag-and-drop compiler for simple hardware computing. It isn’t open-source, but like the new generation of Arduino boards, it’s comparatively easy for novices to use.
• MakerBot’s new Thing-O-Matic (launched in September 2010) makes desktop 3D printing easier and cheaper. In June 2011, MakerBot’s Bre Pettis appears on The Colbert Report.
• Amir Abo-Shaeer, a Santa Barbara high school teacher, wins a MacArthur Fellowship for his work in robotics and engineering education. Abo-Shaeer’s just one part of an increased emphasis on DIY education in K-12, partly centered around the FIRST Robotics international high school competition. Kids, teens, parents and young women are increasingly among the most numerous and enthusiastic makers.
• When Microsoft’s Kinect motion sensor for Xbox goes on sale, the hardware hacking community almost immediately develops open-source drivers for the device. Microsoft initially appears to take a hard line against Open Kinect, then embraces it, eventually launching an official development kit for Windows. Users increasingly want to know how their commercial devices work and modify them for their own ends.
• Wired’s April 2011 “How to Make Stuff” issue features 25 DIY projects and Adafruit’s Fried on the cover. Bruce Sterling half-jokingly refers to the “maker superstar personality cult.” Nerds are cool, and nothing is nerdier or cooler than building and maintaining your own stuff.

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The Sika Clothing Line

Phyllis Taylor founder of Sika in conversation with Vogue Italia:

Image courtesy of Vogue Italia

"Fabrics in Ghana can be very specific to the occasion," explains Phyllis Taylor, the designer behind the London-based clothing line, Sika. She sources traditional batik and wax print fabrics from her family's home country in West Africa and uses them to create ready-to-wear pieces in thoroughly Western silhouettes."We respect the fabric and wear it to places that are important. There's one style of fabric that the Ghanaian ladies would wear to church. And then another would be for weddings or funerals," she says. "But what I was doing, taking the prints and making them work for any occasion,

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Taking Breadfruit From the Lab in to the Field

Worldwatch reports:

image courtesy of wikipedia

Breadfruit is a tropical evergreen tree that is easy to grow and requires relatively few inputs. It bears fruit 3-5 years after planting and remains productive for several decades. The starchy fruit is very nutritious, rich in calcium, iron, potassium, magnesium, and provides more protein than cassava. And according to Dr. Ragone, the tree is also important in agroforestry projects, providing a host of environmental benefits. Breadfruit trees provide shade for other crops, help to rebuild soil, reforest degraded lands, and sequester carbon dioxide from the atmosphere

.
On further programs embarked upon by the Breadfruit Insitute:

...they are working to promote breadfruit cultivation in countries across sub-Saharan Africa. In Ghana, for example, breadfruit is processed into nutritious infant food and in Tanzania, this important dietary staple becomes available at the beginning of the rainy season when other food sources may not be available.

more here

Cyrille Bomba-Inventor

In Kumatoo:

Cyril Bomba is an engineer and inventor from Cameroon who has developed the Afrisolar Lamp, a lamp that runs on photovoltaic energy (solar energy)...The Afrisolar Lamp is 90% manufactured with local materials (including wood) and would cost about 38 euros (25,000 CFA francs) without subsidies or government support. Cyril Bomba believes that State support would reduce the selling price to about 24%, or 29 euros (19,000 CFA francs).
The Afrisolar Lamp comes with a solar panel that just needs to be installed on the roof or another location that can capture maximum sunlight. As for the solar panel, it is connected to the lamp by a power cable and has a lifespan of 25 years. The lamp has a reloadable battery with an autonomy of 12 hours and would light up as 26 petrol lamps altogether. The lifespan of the battery is about 5 years.

More here

Are There Two Maker Faire's in Africa this Year?

Cross posted from the Maker Faire Africa Blog:

Handmade toothbrush holders from IDDS 2011

Yes there are. We've had some inquiries as to the two different Maker Faire events within Africa this year, so let us try to clarify the two fairs with this post.Maker Faire Africa's yearly fair is taking place in Cairo, Egypt this year, from October 6-8th. Maker Faire Kumasi is a 'mini maker fair', organized by our friends at MIT''s D-Lab as part of their International Design & Development Summit (IDDS) being held in Ghana this year.
The advent of Maker Faire Kumasi signifies the deepening of a maker community across the continent. We are delighted with the emergence of events that share the Maker Faire Africa ethos. We wish the Maker Faire Kumasi team the best and encourage our community to stay abreast of developments from Kumasi as they unfold. In the lead up to Maker Faire Africa 2011: Cairo, we will be announcing our full schedule of workshops & events. This year, the fair expands to 3 full days with workshops in Seed Funding, Industrial Design, Synthetic Biology, Arduino Kinetics, and more.
Maker Faire Africa 2011: Cairo presents makers from around Africa with the opportunity to interact with  fellow maker communities across the continent.
Admission + workshops are free to all accepted Makers. Lunches and snacks are also provided, as well as some evening social activities. The top 6-8 applicants from outside Egypt will receive full scholarships which cover all travel to and from the fair, room accommodations, and meals. So we encourage Makers from across the continent to apply to the Egypt event soon.
Hope to see you in Cairo!

Hacking Plastic Bottle Roofs

In Design Boom:

Image courtesy of Design Boom

...south african designer heath nash was invited to produce a public light installation with local zibabwean / hararean artisans as part of the 2011 HIFA performing arts festival.the starting points for the sculptural project came from harare, zimbabwe in which the event is held. walking around the city,nash observed the shaded areas below trees where many people often congregate to sit, relax and talk with one another,while public kiosks are found throughout, selling flowers, coca-cola etc., generally existing as trade hubs. he also recalled the strong 60s and 70s architectural elements which are a dominating part of the urban landscape...[continue reading]

Quick Hits

Kelvin Macharia the 'Boy Scientist'
Landmark a property development firm
HumanIPO an entrepreneurship accelerator
Igi Iroko a web design company
BKB a global logistics and delivery provider

Metal Fabricator Calculus

How We Made it in Africa highlights machining company Calculus:

Agricultural machinery from Calculus

Calculus specialises in laser cutting, CNC punching, CNC bending, guillotining, machining and welding of sheet metal components made of stainless steel, aluminium, mild steel, copper, brass and aluminium composite material...Calculus’ production process consists of three distinct stages, namely component manufacturing, assembly and installation. The manufacturing of components is by far the most expensive part of the process, mostly due to the high cost of the machinery. Calculus can manufacture any component based on the client’s own drawings. The finished components can then be assembled and installed in the client’s home country.

More here

Related articles

• Open-source plans for a low-cost CNC mill (kickstarter.com)
• Ponoko Launches Maker Apps and CNC Routing: Plywood Running Scared (solidsmack.com)

Encouraging Inventiveness

TED Fellow José Gómez-Márquez writing in the Boston Review:

 new inhaler technologies from D-Lab Credit: Steve Moors

At MIT’s D-Lab we believe that users in the developing world have the potential to be the everyday inventors of their own solutions. In a Nicaraguan hospital, a nurse might quietly create neonatal UV protectors from layers of surgical gauze. Around the corner in the operating room, surgeons can be found trading sutures for fishing line and drainage valves for cut-up soda bottles that work just as well. These inventive behaviors are often hidden. The designs are remaches, geuzas, improvisations, hacks. Not exactly the stuff of professional associations. This is only because they lack the last bit of formal engineering that makes them appear the brilliant solutions they in fact are.
Traditionally, technology designers who focus on the developing world try to create affordable solutions adaptable to the local environment. They might develop efficient water pumps that run on pedal power, cell phones with longer ranges and smarter features, and syringes that are safer and more accessible, with retractable needles that automatically disable them. Our approach is to encourage co-creation in the design process: we want to empower locals to invent, so they can be collaborators, not just clients. In our fieldwork we teach students to look for inventive behaviors, and many of our interventions have originated with users. Cultivating inventiveness and the tools of invention among the poor is our priority.

More here
via Little Devices that Could

Dawanau International Grains Market

CNN highlights the Dawanau International Grains Market in Nigeria. If only we could have them work with a Nigerian version of the Ethiopian Commodities exchange. And related mobile transaction enablers.

via CP Africa
Related story at 234Next

Herve Djia-Mobile App Developer

In Global Voices:

Image of Hervé Djia courtesy of IzaneFG

Hervé Djia, a Cameroonian E-entrepreneur, introduced on his Twitter account [fr] the Android Application he has created: NoBakchich [fr]. The tool intends to fight against corruption by allowing users to report any case of bribery witnessed. Using crowdsourcing, NoBakchich will also enable users to give information regarding administrative procedures and associated costs. It is currently available in a Alpha test version, with a final version due in August.

via Atlanta Post

Danielle and Chantelle Piper-Fashion Designers

LadyBrille on fashion twins Danielle and Chantelle Piper:

Image courtesy of LadyBrille

...they launched their spring 2011 collection at the venue “Nikki Midtown”. ANTM Bianca Golden was spotted in a dress by these lovely ladies. America’s Next Top Model Naima has also been seen in their fashion.Their fashions has also been seen in the CW 11 hit show “Gossip Girls” and also Vogue Japan.”...[continue reading]

Biotech without Borders

Eri Gentry founder of BioCurious discusses "Garage biology And DIYbio"

Related articles

• DNA is now DIY: OpenPCR - Open source, hackable PCR machine (timbuktuchronicles.blogspot.com)

Appropriate Technology for the People

In Mechanical Engineering Magazine Rolfe Leary on what Appropriate Technology should mean,for starters "A simple technology created for, but not by, the people can’t leap too far ahead".Furthermore:

Omega food grinder courtesy of Compatible Technology International

There are three important criteria for a potential technology to be accepted and used by those for whom it’s designed:

• First, it must be a natural next step to the people who will use it. That is, it must fit rather seamlessly into their current system of doing the larger process.

• Second, this next-step technology must yield a large increase in output from the existing process, such as a significant reduction in the food-particle size, when a food is ground with the next-step technology.

• And third, it must mirror the steps previously moved through in already developed countries. So a next step in African food crop processing must be analogous to the step that was taken in, say, Europe or North America, when farmers there were using the same technology as Africans currently use. So African farmers will need to pass through the same stages of technologies as farmers did in Europe, North America, and parts of Asia, but of course, at a much more rapid rate. Steps cannot normally be skipped.

More here

The Post-Industrial Age: 7 Platforms for Collaborative Creation

Over at Brain Pickings:

...collaborative creation is enabling us to make what we do own more meaningful, thanks to a host of platforms and services that transform the things of our imagination into 3-D reality. Here are seven companies and initiatives shaping a new movement of makers.

They are:

• Thingiverse- A platform for sharing digital files
• Quirky-Crowdsourced invention model
• Adafruit-DIY Open Source electronic kit provider
• Shapeways-3D printing platform and provider
• Littlebits- Preassembled electronic circuit manufacturer
• Ponoko, online platform for bespoke design
• Cloudfab platform for 3-D product printing