'Headquarters' Category

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.

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.

These are exciting times around Geekcorps Mali. As Brennan mentioned in earlier posts, under the Last Mile Initiative Geekcorps has been tasked with the challenge of finding an innovative and sustainable approach to bringing ICT services to the “last mile”, the people in rural Mali most of whom who never touched yet-alone seen a computer. Admittedly, it is a daunting challenge primarily from the standpoint of economic sustainability. Mali is a poor country and most people living in villages would be happy to make $2 dollars a day. Our challenge thus becomes delivering innovative IT services that people can afford while generating enough income to support a business model that can eventually stand on its own two feet. Luckily, we have technological innovation, an impressive collective of Geeks and very supportive and far-thinking partners on our side. If we cannot get this model to work it will not be because we did not try.

By establishing this blog, we hope to share with you our experience in attempting to delivering ICT services to our customers at the Base of the Pyramid (BOP) in rural Mali. While we certainly cannot take credit for the idea of bringing asynchronous internet services via public transport, we hope as a result of this pilot to develop a methodology showing how rural Malians can become consumers of appropriate technological services and as a result hopefully live better lives. At the same time, we hope give some insight on the Geekcorps’ “approach” of using adapted technology and the acumen of our volunteers to address real developmental challenges.

Special thanks should be given to ex-Geekcorps Mali director Ian Howard who initially conceived of the idea along with the Dennis Bilodeau (the USAID Mali ComDev Team Leader) and Judy Payne with the Digital Freedom Initiative who helped make the Last Mile Initiative a reality. We realize we have been given a special opportunity and responsibility. This is the kind of challenge we’ve been waiting our whole lives for!