Earth Day has always been about answering the question, “What can I do?”  How can I recycle more?  How can I minimize my environmental impact?  How can I help build a better planet?  This is a question we’re all beginning to ask more frequently, and about a broader range of issues.  How can I have an impact on global poverty?  What can I do diminish the tragedy of disease?  How can I help educate the next generation?  The answer is different for everyone, from scientist to humanist, politician to entrepreneur, but it is something that we must all engage with.

2010 also marks the 100th anniversary of the discovery of the basic phenomenon behind microbial fuel cells.  Michael Potter, a botanist from Durham, discovered that the common bacteria E. coli produced electricity as they carried out their metabolic functions.  Unfortunately, that amazing discovery languished for decades before anyone thought that useful energy could be produced by this remarkable process…

It was an amazing opportunity for our team to connect with many TEDsters, amazing artists, and award-winning scientists. We were particularly excited to meet other TED fellows working in Africa.
Erik Hersman from Afrigadet who is also working with Juliana Rotich on Ushahidi, Frederick Balagadde from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, African scholars April Karen Baptiste and Bola Olabisi, Jonathan Gosier from AppAfrica, Peter Haas from AIDG, and Alexander Petroff from Working Villages International in the Congo.

Hugo gave a talk on Lebone, Dirt Power, and our Design with Africa approach. What a privilege.

One of many highlights was Bill Gates and his talk on energy: Innovating to zero!

Bill called for radical energy miracles, not incremental improvements, to save our species. Though MFC’s will not power cities they might one day go a long way towards creating distributed and use-appropriate energy.

For a very informative and funny report on TED 2010 read Scobleizer’s take here.

Special thanks to the Bezos family, the Harnisch Foundation, and Sherpalo Ventures. You not only made a most amazing week possible for the TED Fellows but it was also great to spend quality time with you! Thank you Google for the Nexus One and for all your senior executives and founders roaming free and engaging with all.

A huge shout out to forward-thinking Tom Riely, ever-wise Emeka Okafur, energetic Logan McClure, and cool-under-pressure Simone Alexander from the TED Fellows team.

When we returned to Five Rand in January to collect data from our first deployment and distribute the next generation of fuel cells, Justy was able to give extremely valuable insight into the everyday needs of the community, and the the evolving design challenges of building a low-cost, durable technological product for a rugged and disadvantaged environment.

The visit, though brief, reaffirmed our optimism.  With the each deployment reaching a wider audience, and with a even more developments in the pipeline, we are very excited for the next few months and designing with Africa.

The 2009 conference was particularly relevant for Lebone and off-grid African technologies. The FLAP (Flexible Light and Power) Bag, a very innovative collaboration brokered by Pop!Tech between the Portable Light Project and Timbuk2 Designs, was unveiled. We also learned more about the design and process behind Project Masiluleke “a signature program of the PopTech Accelerator – a social innovation incubator designed to foster breakthrough, interdisciplinary solutions to pressing global challenges” to use mobile devices in the fight against HIV/AIDS and TB in Southern Africa.

Special thanks to Ollie for being a lifesaver and hat tip to Andrew and his talented team for an amazing conference and courageous new steps.

Just being in the same room as the other award winners (please read more about their truly remarkable work) is an experience that we will carry with us for many many years.

A special thank you to the Popular Mechanics team for making our brief trip to New York so much fun. Science is indeed sexy.

Lebone + OLPCorps

Lebone is excited and honoured to join the inaugural Africa OLPCorps. We decided to join the summer OLPCorps program because we share a similar vision for using technology to unleash the potential of the emerging world, specifically Africa.

The OLPCorps program, launched last week with President Kagame of Rwanda, will see more than two dozen student teams deploy 100 XO laptops each all over Africa.

The Lebone team is currently undergoing training in Kigali, Rwanda, with the OLPCorps core team and teams from other deployment sites before we travel to Windhoek, Namibia to deploy our XOs at a primary school whilst testing our next MFC prototypes in the surrounding area.

We have a deep belief in the power of technology, innovation, and education to spur development. We are very happy to join, learn from, and contribute to the OLPC team in Africa and will use this blog-post over the the next few week to update everyone on our work and share our experiences.

Hugo “Bru” Van Vuuren

20.06.09

Technical Issues and What We Learned

Internet connection was the first hurdle that we faced. Earlier this year, Five Rand Primary school had received dial-up internet connection services from Telekom. The telecommunications company had paid a year’s worth of credit for the use of the internet services. We found out from the teachers that the internet was not working. The PC could not recognize the HUAWEI modem even though it had worked before. We later found out that the teachers had upgraded the Operating software to Windows XP and the dial-up software was outdated and therefore not compatible with XP. We downloaded new modem software and installed it and the internet was back.

The second technical problem that same week was connecting the internet to the school server and the access points(APs). We had planned on using one 4-port switch and three APs to create a Wireless network around the school. We configured the office PC at the teachers office to share internet connection with other computers. We then connected the server to the PC and then the switch between the server and the three APs. This did not work. For some reason, connecting the server and the PC with an Ethernet cable did not work. After consulting with Reuben, we ended up getting another switch to put between the PC and the server and this worked well.

Africa is not (yet) the easiest place to set up networks but with some help from OLPC HQ, local friends, and good old trial and error, it all worked out.

Stephen “Take” Lwendo

02.07.09

OLPC. Pedagogy. Philosophy

Depending on whom you ask, Africa should prioritize multiple different paths towards extreme poverty eradication. No path is the absolute one and there is no short cut. Nonetheless, laptop computers — whether low-cost, robust, child friendly or not — would hardly make a competitive entrance into a list congested by malaria, HIV/AIDS, lack of good roads, inconsistent energy supply and bad governance. But again, it would be hard for any development expert to suggest that quality education should not be put at the same level with quality healthcare as a means to increased freedoms (socio-economic and civil).

The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) has engaged in a very adventurous plan to provide children in these low economic environments with laptops, or should we say tools of education, to enhance learning. The XO laptop empowers students to promote learning in a way schools don’t provide, and it is this freedom – this ability to imagine and create – that makes the XO a great education tool. It is only when we dream that we can innovate and Africa does need it’s young ones to think big and start putting their ideas into action.

The XOs use solar panels to answer the energy question and the multiple activities on the laptops bring education to a whole new level. Different family members gravitate to different activities (programs) and education is seen as a community activity – students interact with each other through the activities available. Not only are the XOs a constant source of learning, they also engage the minds of Africa’s youth outside schools. Information is key to development and we cannot engage youths with health related messages if the ideas are foreign to them. This is where the XOs come in and we should not look at these robust machines as toys or mere laptops, but rather, as complimentary tools to existing development efforts towards Africa’s renaissance.

David “Moi” Sengeh

09.21.09

OLPC Recap: Back in the USA

The Lebônê team is now back in the United States after a summer in Namibia, and we’ve been thinking about the experience of working at Five Rand Primary School in Okahandja, a small town an hour’s drive north of Windhoek. We had an incredible time working with the teachers and the students, surrounded by the harsh natural beauty of Namibia, but what we took away from the experience was an enduring optimism about the One Laptop Per Child project and the possibility of technology education in extremely disadvantaged areas, one that we hope justified when we return to Okahandja in a few months time.

At the start of the deployment, we were uncertain what would happen when we arrived on the ground, and what the impact of the XO laptops would be in the community. It seemed possible that they might be viewed as an expensive toy, an unbelievable candy-colored extravagence in a place where one meal per day–not three–was the norm, and where many of the informal and cramped shacks lacked electricity.

Even as we began working with the students for the first time, as wonderful as it was to see their enthusiasm, we were cautious about our expectations: most had never used a keyboard before, and had trouble typing. Others took a long time to realize a connection between their finger’s movements on the trackpad and the actions on the screen, or what it meant to “click” on something. Having used computers from a young age (like most people our age in America), we couldn’t even remember what it was like to have to learn the sometimes counterintuitive ways of navigating a virtual environment. And as we reminded our students for the hundredth time that they must always “click” the green button to trigger something they wanted to happen, we were reminded that it would take time and effort to integrate the computers successfully into the classroom.

But as the days went on, we were more and more encouraged: the students (called “learners” in Namibia) really did learn exponentially more each time they used the laptop. Soon, they were confident with all the controls and were making their own wireless networks and creating chat circles, taking photographs of themselves and their friends, or exploring articles on Wikipedia. The transition was much quicker than we had expected, and our worries about the slow start seemed silly and premature. We’ve come away from the experience with a deep belief that children, especially, can learn so much and so quickly from the XO: it isn’t an extravagence, or a toy, but an incredibly powerful tool that can help the children I met grow up to their full potential.

Alex “I can drive manuel now” Fabry

10.12.09