Act One:Dramatis personæ

Act Two:The Setting

Africa Today

Africa’sreallybig.

photo by Gbaku

Africa 2’sAfrica 1’s Africa 3’s

Vijay Mahajan, UTexas Austin

Kampala

Accra

Nairobi

Cape Town

-100 million handsets in sub-Saharan Africa- 2.5 billion worldwide, rising to 3.3 billion in 2010- 97% of Tanzanians say they can access a phone

photo by Esthr

charts by Vanessa Gray, ITU

Computer and Internet usage

Over $135min year one.

Remittance market is almost

$750m per year.

Celpay - 2% of the

Zambian economy

Act Three:OLPC

A Friendly Critique

OLPC vision:

- One laptop computer per child

- Internet connectivity to every school, wifi mesh to share connectivity with surrounding community

- Local educational content loaded onto computers

- Designed for self-directed, exploratory learning

- Creative, generative machines that allow students to express themselves, write original software

Cost near $200, not $100Equipping Nigerian children - 73% of government income, 13% of government spending per year (Edward Cherlin)

Roughly 500,000 sold, far below projections

Dual boot Linux and Windows XP - responding to feedback from education ministries

Strong pushback from local manufacturers

Inverted pyramid problem

Cranks might power laptops, but not VSATUntil we solve power, OLPC is a middle-income solution

What’s wrong with this picture?

Act Four:Alright, Wise

Guy. Can You DO Better?

...so, what’s Google doing?

...so, what’s Google doing?

1. Advertising ecosystem: Monetization for local content

2. Mobile search: SMS search

3. Infrastructure: Google Global Cache

4. Maps and Apps: e.g.: Kenya

Nairobi... before

...and after.

Akosombo Dam, Lake Volta, Ghana

from 10,000 - 1.5 million, $0 - 1.5b in ten years

Incremental infrastructure

- What types of infrastructure can we build with initial investments of $500k - $5m?

- Can infrastructure beget other infrastructure - mobile phone towers leading to power infrastructure?

- Can this approach work for larger public goods? Roads, railroads, ports, airports... undersea communications cables?

Act Five:The Unexpected

Conclusions

despite the infrastructure of connectionwe often connect badly

or fail to connect

photo by xeni

homophily

photo by Cobalt123

bridge bloggers

photo by subpop77

engineer serendipity

cultivate xenophiles

photo by david sasaki

Postlude:Q&A

(In which you get a word in edgewise)