DATE: 27TH APRIL 2010
ORGANISER: WORLD BANK
CO-ORGANISERS: NOKIA RESEARCH LAB, GOVERNMENT OF FINLAND AND INFODEV
VENUE: I –HUB
BRIEF INTRODUCTION BY WORLD BANK REPRESENTATIVE…In a Nutshell!!!
The concept of a mobile applications lab is one for Africa that borrows from the business model in South Africa that utilizes a triple helix approach to bring entrepreneurs into the market. This is important because the growth of mobile phone use in Kenya and Africa at large has been enormous and is here to stay….
The World Bank is interested in this project because
1. Africa would be the first to be served from the resulting applications therefore Africa would be the pioneer rather than a follower; and this has been shown to have better impact as is the case for the mobile money transfer service.
2. This has the potential to create wealth= creating development
3. There are areas like agriculture where the World Bank is involved and would like to encourage social innovation.
Of course there is always the example of the success of mpesa…
SPEECH FROM KINGORI of NRC
Nokia is driven to support innovation,…and has market penetration of 60% and in some places its 90% and this is such an opportunity. There are no funds from Nokia but the already developed curriculum/training with MIT and Nokia certifications are resources they would like to see at the lab
SPEECH FROM ANDREW L (KENYA ICT BOARD)
Kenya has just launched an incubator project to be held at the Sameer park on Mombasa road and this could be an area where one mobile applications lab could be hosted.
We need to address the issue of who is our target audience….at the moment looks like it will be students hence the lab should be accessible and affordable!. Thus the CBD of Nairobi is also an alternative host.
If you live outside Nairobi, now worries, the aim of starting out in Nairobi is because it makes sense to do so. But the plan is to move to other places.
Of importance to the government is the content of applications that we develop. The aim should be to set standards of practice with applications that can be replicated elsewhere.
He encouraged a need for more” i-hubs”…with a need for a road map on an appropriate plan.
NICK FROM EMOBILIS ( A MOBILE TRANING CENTRE IN WESTLANDS)
With over 1 year in the market, Emobilis was started as a private company that sort to address challenges to the gap that existed in mobile training. They have an incubation program for successful applications for the students, and their competitive advantage is that they already have established curriculum offered for 3 months.
There were 3 main areas of discussion
The first 2 topics sort of merged together in the discussion and hence I will put the main points as such.
1st topic: HOW CAN THE MOBILE APPLICATIONS LAB ENCOURAGE INNOVATION?
Subthemes
1. What is a mobile application lab and how would it respond to Africa’s needs?
2. How would the lab serve to encourage innovation and business startups
3. Could the lab serve as a business incubator
4. What types of services and functions should the lab provide?
Topic 2: Which application will most likely succeed?
SubThemes:
1. What are existing initiatives to encourage innovation in this field?
2. What are the critical areas for capacity building?
Responses
Jessica of I-hub suggested use of mobile boot camps and competitions that focus on a certain theme…the last competition held this year focused on using mobile technology to foster local content.
A different view is to focus on developing applications and after which we move to the next level…which is incubation ; and this can be looked at as a ‘super application’
It was identified that we need to define Africa’s needs….which mainly at present focus on access to information and services. After this we can respond to these needs.
There is need for a social definition of Africa..I-phones succeeded because they added value to those that utilized them..In Africa issues about education, health, social welfare and housing are crucial and form most of the social context. In a recent discussion on twitter on ICT4D: south to south collaboration between the west and east Africa, developers from Nigeria felt what was needed most was an application to deal with traffic. Mobile pay services for airport taxi would be great instead of waiting in a queue for the same.
Possible areas of application development include….
· Insurance (‘chamas’) including pyramid schemes(the latter was on a light note)
· Micropayments for example paying for an item that costs 40 shillings
· M-government- this is hindered by the scarcity of information by the government that is in digital form.
· E-learning…however the manager for ICT board noted that most users refereed to limitations of the mobile phone a channel of learning. Nokia refuted this, with an example of how the Nokia N95 is used under the Nokia education delivery program in Tanzania to support education in rural schools. The phone has a TV screen projector which is what is utilized to show content.
The teacher makes a syllabus schedule and content is available on the phone.
Due to problems with electricity, Vodafone allows the content to be uploaded when there is power
This program has served over 1200 schools and extends to even motivate the students to be successful doctors and lawyers.
· Saving system
· Develop a mobile ecosystem
· Mobile marketing/advertising
· Debt collection….especially when you have 3 or 4 bills that you pay monthly
· security
The issue can also be looked in 2 views. With the boom of mobile phones use, one can develop applications to address a social problem or let the market drive the applications to be developed (as there is no need to box that in). The issue then will be to undertake a comparative benefit analysis of when mobile use is better that internet use.
In an area like agriculture, language barrier is a big hindrance to use of mobile phone applications. University of Nairobi has worked on intelligence solutions and the lab should aim at utilizing these to allow for language translations.
The project should target the high costs of transactions in Africa and aim to lower these.
Issues of the regulatory framework should be tackled for success of projects.
The applications must be low bandwidth and utilize low airtime costs.
There is need for research to provide evidence to policy makers.
In the just concluded Nokia competition where most awards went to South Africa, lessons learnt include that most developers have good programming skills but no business expertise. The reason why South Africa won was mainly the applications were made by a group of developers that formed companies…..rather than individuals as was the case in Kenya.
Anyone can be an innovator…..the purpose of the lab is to lower the barrier of entry into incubation…thereby stimulate innovation from people of all walks of life.
The focus should be on developing applications for the local market for example…..if there are 1 million people in Kibera and you make an application used by 10% of the population ie 100 000 people. If you make 1 shilling a day then you make Kshs 100 000 per day and 3 million in a month… all the while doing social good and generating income. Rather than develop applications for android or i-phones….developers should focus on low revenue- high volume groups of persons.
Topic 3: What form should the mobile lab take?
Subthemes
1. Should it be local or networked…. it should be networked.
2. Should it be physical or virtual- Physical is better so as to earn revenue. An overlap may exist when one wants to connect virtually to another developer in another part of the world.
3. What services can be provided to ensure that the lab is self sustaining? The lab should provide more than just web applications. The business angle must however not outdo the social angle which can include outreach services to schools and universities and pro bono services.
4. Which partners should we work with
5. What will be the measures of success- should be tangible….for example pick a sector like farmers and assess impact we create. Also check how many applications were developed from the lab and their use.
6. What business models are likely to work? Food for thought and long story for another day.
The lab should create incentives and aim at creating peer networks with corporate and the government.
FOOD FOR THOUGHT
How is it different form the NRC and is it better to focus on it as a center of excellence?
NRC is a sub contracting lab that will generate money for the university all the while encouraging innovation.
Is there a possibility of involving it in university curriculum with transfer of points
Is it better to adopt an open source approach
Role of counterfeit phones and impact on the Lab activities..
