Cache memory in computer terms is the stuff that remembers short-term processes. If you repeat the processes, and have you not cleared out your cache memory, they will load quicker than if you had no cache memory. A good example you might be familiar with is cache memory for Internet browsers, like Internet Explorer, Firefox, Chrome, etc. There is a cache for remembering the websites you’ve recently visited, and you can actually browse these websites offline from the browser’s memory.
For this blog post, I would like to treat wishes for more web apps (on phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) as cached memory. Humans are very easily swayed by default options and by aesthetics. So naturally, when the question of what technology we need comes up, we think of the most recent stuff; the Internet, touch screens and apps.
But technology is not just about the world wide web, silicon or Objective C. Technology, simply put, is about making everyday tasks easier. Sounds a lot like development rhetoric, doesn’t it? Funnily enough, technology is all about development. But we need to clear out our human cache memory because development is not always about technology.
Systematizing the Internet
The Tanzanian community online grew from less than 1% of the population in 2004 to 11% in 2010.
This community has become louder. The increasing number of people connected is perhaps due to the consistency of broadband connections in general, which has been facilitated greatly by the undersea fiber-optic cables built by SEACOM. It could also be due to the increasing number of smartphones in the market and deals telecommunication companies are dishing out. In 2010, the number of mobile subscriptions in Tanzania was more than half the number of people.
The loudness of users on the Internet has been heard by the geeks in Tanzania. Blogs are flourishing, Facebook is more frequently visited than local sites and more physical get-togethers are being complemented with Twitter hashtags. Much of the Tanzanian population owns mobile phones, money transfers are losing their bureaucracy and the Internet business is looking like the next frontier.
Most remarkably, technology hubs are setting up shop in cities like Dar-es-Salaam. Similar to the likes of Nairobi’s iHub, opportunities are opening up for Tanzanians to develop smart web-based applications at COSTECH, TANZICT and Kinu. About 3 weeks ago I attended a techcamp in Zanzibar, where I met some of the people behind the African News Innovation Challenge. There I got to observe several data and news gathering and analysis tools being developed for Eastern Africa, such as African Spending – a national budget monitoring tool that tells you how much of your tax money went where – and Africa Check – a fact-checking tool for journalists.
But what I also observed, here in Tanzania especially, is that there is a certain excitement about the Internet that seems to dumb down the voices of those who are offline. As it turns out, those who are offline make up about 40 million of the 45 million-strong Tanzanian population, so it only makes sense that any kind of technology development is geared towards them and not only those who post, comment on or develop ideas in the world wide web.
Systematizing ease of life
The word “technology” is made up of two roots: Techne (art, skill, craft, method, system) and ology (discourse, treatise, doctrine, theory, science). We need to remember that “technology” is not 20th or 21st century stuff. Every epoch throughout human history has brought on innovation that made life easy. In turn, later technologies were built on previous ones.
So in modern day Tanzania, technologies that will proliferate well will be built from ideas, tools and devices that people come into contact with every day. This will need a concerted effort to understand what kinds of problems the Tanzanian faces on a daily basis.
For example, finding small ways to improve agriculture could have wide-reaching effects on people’s employment and livelihoods. Aisha Nduka, Nengai Moses and Monica Shirima of the Kibosho Girls’ School in Moshi were recently awarded for investigating the adverse effects of artificial fertilizer on the environment near a coffee plantation in Kilimanjaro (download their poster here). Their project proposes to develop technologies that will protect living organisms in water near the coffee plantation, effectively improving the ecosystem which could yield better crop.
Another example is improving people’s mobility. A recent move by SUMATRA to reinvigorate rail transportation in Dar-es-Salaam is a step in the right direction; it speeds up people’s travel for a modest increase in transportation fares. Wider plans for a rail network across the East African region is still in the works and could significantly influence the movement of people, goods and services in the region.
Agriculture and transport are not immediately related to the Internet and touch-screen devices. They may well be through certain applications, but they are important sectors that help support those who are not necessarily online.
Suggested focus: Root causes, materials and trends
In the grand scheme of things, Tanzania is not alone in having a minority Internet-user population: Only 30% of the whole world is connected to the Internet.
This does not mean that Internet penetration won’t increase; the growth in usage suggests otherwise. What it does mean is that the majority of the population are using non-Internet based technologies to help them do things on a daily basis.
So we could focus more on what problems people face and what causes these problems. Particularly, we need to find the causes of problems that can be eased, fixed or permanently removed with the help of innovation.
We could also try to understand the availability of and access to raw materials. What raw materials are prevalent in the Tanzanian market? Do people have access to these materials on a daily basis, commercially or through public amenities?
In addition, we might find the need to pay attention to market trends. What goods and services are bought and sold? Which ones compete fiercely and which ones have relative monopolies?
Let’s focus on what actually happens in people’s lives and then work on the technology. If the technology comes first, our cache memory will only preserve the nice-looking gadgets and apps that the majority of people do not have access to today. But if people’s needs come first and remain in our cache memory instead, then both developers and users will be more in tune with solving actual problems for tomorrow.
Further reading and resources:
Brilliant post. Loved its use of “cache” to depict our human short-term memory or distraction by the immediate.
Evolutionary psychologists will tell you that we are wired to notice the immediate and the mobile. It served us well when we had to flee danger in the bush! Such wiring in our brains is not going away anytime soon.
I also think that the distinction you make between internet and technology is crucial. One of the best classes I have ever taken in my studies was on how & why economies grow. I learned then of the concept of a techno-economic paradigm in which ‘technology’ included materials, transformation processes and social organisation (from theocracy to democracy and all points in between). Fascinating stuff!
Agreed about the natural wiring. But I feel TZ faces two wirings: One group of people are wired around what we can call “basic” tech; the other group of people are wired around “hi” tech. The anomaly for me lies in the latter (minority) group having a significantly louder voice facing the rest of the world than the former (majority). So the world (and investors) may believe that the Internet is what the common Tanzanian wants… dangerous at all?
Also, I’m glad you brought up the techno-economic paradigm you learnt in school. One aspect of the Industrial Revolution that I admire is the willingness of all people to focus on function rather than aesthetics. Perhaps it was the growth in recognition of capital, but somewhere along the way since the mid-1700s, it seems thinking of function is now restricted to engineers, and everybody else follows. Well, except for the likes of young Mr. Kamkwamba and windmills in Malawi.
Thanks for swingin’ by! Look forward to evolving discussion.
Here is a great read from Vannevar Bush in 1945 about the movement of science and data:
“All this is conventional, except for the projection forward of present-day mechanisms and gadgetry. It affords an immediate step, however, to associative indexing, the basic idea of which is a provision whereby any item may be caused at will to select immediately and automatically another. This is the essential feature of the memex. The process of tying two items together is the important thing.”
Read full article: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1945/07/as-we-may-think/303881/?single_page=true