Archive for mai, 2006

Le premier programme numérique a été créé et diffusé par la Radio Guintan Magnambougou - Bamako. Il s’agit d’un programme d’un vingtaine de minutes.

In his final year of study at the University of Bamako, Moussa Keita wrote a paper that analyzed the failings of the wireless network at his university. Geekcorps, who was asked to help restore the network, recruited him upon graduation.After more than a year of training with some of the best wireless and open-source experts available, and after successfully installing wireless and other technologies in all corners of his native Mali, Geekcorps, management urged Moussa to begin his own business so that Geekcorps could outsource the many requests for his services. Read the rest of this entry »

With its partner Population Media Center (PMC), Geekcorps Mali has made Cesiri Tono, a 144-episode radio miniseries about child trafficking and exploitation, available for download in MP3 format. The show can be found at www.radio.org.ml/cesiritono.

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Our annual report detailing the last two years of IESC/Geekcorps Mali’s work with the USAID’s Communications for Development Initiative in Mali is now available for download.

Geekcorps Mali Annual Report

Geekcorps Mali, a USAID partner, in partnership with Mali’s Ecole National d’Ingénieurs (National School of Engineering), has agreed to sponsor four students to complete their senior thesis project. During this four month project, these students will work with Geekcorps staff and volunteers to design two different LED lighting power systems that could be later used in village lighting projects. Read the rest of this entry »

Geekcorps Mali is pleased to introduce Mohamed Sanogo as the newest addition to the Cybertigi team. Mohamed will be the liaison between the Geekcorps office in Bamako and the various Cybertigi sites in the Southwest corner of the country. His role will include training the managers of each kiosk, providing technical and managerial assistance, assisting with sites launches, and various other activities. In short, he will be the Cybertigi point man each time we open a new site.

Mohamed is a graduate of the Modern Technical College of Sikasso, studied accounting, has worked and acted as manager in small boutiques in the Sikasso region, has experience with women’s groups, and is well suited for the travel and other requirements of the position.

Over the next 2 weeks Mohamed will be splitting his time between Bamako and Ouelessebougou/Faraba where he will be working for the first month or two while we set up the first kiosk. In Bamako Mohamed will be learning about the elements of the project and its goals and being trained on how to operate the kiosks. In time he will be training others in these same areas.

Monday brought with it the beginnings of a bustling week. Of all the many happenings this week, from finalizing cost/pricing models for services to making a decision on who we were going to take on as a Cybertigi intern, the GCM team has been working from all angles to get Cybertigi ready for next week. Of all the work done, though, one area seemed to make the most progress of all: the kiosk.

Renaud, as always, has been skillfully piecing together the kiosk’s interface. At present he has the scanner/photocopy service nearly nailed down, the news feed reader nearly ready, the voice messaging program working, and is working on the email component now. The bulk of Renauld’s time recently has been on how to have the kiosks in our villages transfer all the various data elements to our hub in Ouelessebougou, create billing logs of each transaction, leave no chance of loss of information, work with limited storage space, and a dozen other limiting factors. It doesn’t help that Matt and I often ask for some revision shortly after Renaud has come up with a working model. We’re all anxious to field test his end product. We know we won’t be disappointed.

It’s also important to understand a little about the idea behind many parts of the kiosk and its interface. Because we are designing the Cybertigi system to offer services to people in remote communities, we have to understand who we are selling to and what their demands are. With respect to the kiosk’s interface these considerations are particularly relevant. We have to concede that we will be working in areas with very low literacy rates, disposable income will also be lower than in urban centers, few in our communities will ever have seen a computer – other than on television – let alone use one for email and voice messaging, and so forth. Not all clients will fall among this broad generalization, but the majority will.

Our goal in designing Cybertigi is to take as many of these factors into consideration as possible to create an overall system that works for as many people in our population of interest as possible. If the kiosk is designed properly and the logistics are well organized than we should be able to accommodate any person who has a willingness to use the system with very little outside intervention. By this I mean that if, for example, an illiterate youth who has never traveled outside of their village and only speaks the local language comes to the kiosk, he/she should be able to understand the system and carry out their transaction with ease and with little to no assistance in a matter of moments.

Here’s a shot of what the first screen to access the kiosk’s services might look like:

The kiosk interface is constructed with large, simple icons indicating each of the types of principal services: email – incoming and outgoing, voicemail, scanning/copying, and news feeds. The user merely clicks on the icon indicating their service and follows a very clear series of icons/steps to the completion of their task. For example, the 2 small shots in the above left show the scan/print service’s screen. Additionally, the kiosk manager is always present to assist any patrons who require assistance. One intention in using icons and an easy interface is to accelerate the kiosk’s learning curve. A person who doesn’t read French or Bambara will find it easier to remember a series of simple images than a complicated series of non-visual instructions.

We will also be conducting awareness campaigns in the villages to help people better understand what these technologies are, what services are being offered through the kiosk, how they can be used to improve communication and what their other benefits are, and how we can build on them to adapt to new types of services demanded in the future.

By early next week we will begin to install the solar panels and the kiosk in Faraba. At this time we will begin training our Malian liaison between the Bamako office and the sites on the system, who will then go on to train the entrepreneurs in the sites. During this time we will be field testing the interface and making any required adjustments and additions needed.

Cybertigi is revving up. Over the next two weeks we will begin to see the first tangible results from the past 2 months work. Renaud, as always, is making colossal stride in bering the kiosk elements together – always working closely with Frederick. Frederick has been active in getting many of the other side projects he and Geekcorps have been working on completed, including both his radio and lighting projects. Maimouna and I have been working on developing a training curriculum and interviewing a handful of candidates for the field liason intern position. I’ve been tracking down some of the last hardware needed and getting lots of paper work done. And Matt’s been working at all angles of the team to bring as much synchronicity to the separate elements as possible. The next two weeks are going to be action-packed to say the least.

Here are a few items we’ll be covering in the next week and a half to give you an idea of where we stand:

• Work with the mayor’s office in Faraba to install the first kiosk
• Acquire the solar system
• Install the kiosk, solar system, and other field equipment
• Make final decision on field liaison
• Begin interviews for local kiosk agent
• Formalize agreements with the CLIC and the mayors office
• Begin building the next site, Niagadina, including protocols and field visits
• Review all fiscal models
• Continue developing training curriculums for the field agent, local agent, and community at large.
• Prepare for the “lancement” (opening ceremony) for the kiosk – very important for the success of the kiosk and culturally appropriate
• Field test the last few items for this phase of the project
• Order the items needed for the next site and the phase following it
• More site visits and protocols at the sites to be used in the second phase, Kangaba, Narena, and Bancoumana
• Develop the Cybertigi.com site and the Bamako photo printing extension (including emailing photos and a delivery service)
• Update this blog

So that’s the short list. Yes, there are plenty more things to do, but the thing is, we have a great team of people here working to bring it all together. Progress is being made daily and we are all becoming very excited that the time for implementation is drawing nearer. As soon as the ball really starts rolling, lkely around the beginning of June, it won’t stop for some time and only pick up plenty more momentum. We can’t wait.

Cybertigi Bamako has arrived! As an extension of the Cybertigi pilot in the Ouelessebougou and Kangaba regions the Geekcorps Bamako office has begun offering digital printing services to local residents as part of the Cybertigi initiative. Since such a core element of the overall Cybertigi project is the photo printing component, Geekcorps has begun testing this part of the model close to home. The idea is to offer digital photo printing services to whomever in Bamako needs quality prints. At present there are few if any places to have your digital photos printed in Bamako. The same can be said in Ouelessebougou and Kangaba. Although there are digital cameras in both areas, camera utility is diminished because their owners can only use the photos when connected to a computer.

With Cybertigi we are aiming to create a sustainable enterprise with auxiliary benefits for the host community and Cybertigi’s participants. We are also looking to build into the model symbiotic relationships with community members already in place to increase each other’s real benefit from the project. One case mentioned in a previous entry was with the local photographer, where he gains increased revenues through delivering higher quality products to his constituents with lower loss rates, while we gain through augmented revenue streams from a higher degree of photo printing activity.

We see this Bamako extension as a precursor to the finished photo printing model. Here we are using the same technology we will be using at the site to offer the same relative type of services, open to the public at large, to create a revenue stream for one of the project’s enterprises while also offering a needed service for those interested. Our goal in this case is not as much a symbiotic relationship, but instead to gauge demand for the service.

So far it has been well received, with the ink cartridge and paper already paid for with roughly 60% of their capacity remaining. Thesurprising element is that we haven’t even begun advertising the service yet.

We are offering 6 types of prints – Classic, Bordered, 2 per page, Wallets, ID cards, and novelty prints:

All proceeds generated from the experiment will be reinvested in the project.