The idea behind the platform is simple. That anyone, given a channel to say ‘This is what I see’ and send that information via SMS, email, web and twitter. With Ushahidi’s plethora of mobile apps, reporting via smartphones can also be done quite seamlessly. With the Android app SMSsync, you can be your own SMS gateway. What this means is you can run a hub from your Android phone, such that any sms’s sent to you get sync’ed with a call back URL which can be an Ushahidi deployment or another server based application. So with the channels of data collection sorted, you of course have the processing capability that is available on the cloud (Think SwiftRiver), and the visualization component which can help convey the data in a compelling way.Maps. Things are getting even more compelling with plugins such as Cloudmade (Think preety, preety maps), and bookmarklets that can overlay Ushahidi data with other data available in the open layers format. Point is, the tools to create a visual from the collected data is also sorted. Beautifully too.

Now to the Internet of things. My first encounter with this idea was from listening to Elder of the Internet Vint Cerf at Lift09. He mentioned how you can have sensors in your cellar that make sure the temperature of the wine stays constant, and does some automatic reporting via internet to you if there is an anomaly. Those sensors have IP addresses and are nodes in your network. I did not think of it in terms of ‘Internet of Things’ at the time, but looking back now, that is exactly what he was describing. Other sensors abound, from the innovative Enphase inverter for giving you information on your energy generation from solar panels to the trash tracking devices used in the MIT Senseable City lab projects. Another great way to grasp this concept is to check out the twitter account of London’s Tower Bridge, and read this account of how it was set to tweet.

Now take these two ideas and meld them in different ways. Allow me to use the word holistic. As in holistic near ‘real time sense-making‘, incorporating the internet of things, with crowdsourced data delivered through channels that encourage participation. There is an opportunity to see things dynamically and not just do after-the-fact post mortem. This could work for flash point events like the Haiti earthquake (taking data form Geiger counters etc + crowdsourced data like that available on the haiti deployment run by Noula.ht. It could also work for longer term events such as the BP Oil spill in Louisiana.

…the closer to real-time one can get the right answer and respond, the better. And milliseconds matter.

-Jeff Jonas on a smarter planet

- Data from things/sensors can trigger a report online if a tracked value reaches a certain threshold or meets certain criteria. For example, the Copenhagen Wheel by MIT Senseable lab. The wheel contains sensors that monitor carbon monoxide levels in the air,NOx/Nitrogen Oxides, a measure of air pollution, noise, ambient temperature and relative humidity. The data is accessible on a mobile phone app and can be shared with friends or even the city.

- Data from people filling out a form, sending an email, SMS or twitter message. This can be qualitative in nature, and use of the Ushahidi platform provides a way for citizens to participate in data gathering, plus sign up for alerts that are relevant to their concerns. An example that can be useful to check out is the Where Are The Cuts map from The Open Knowledge Foundation in the UK.

Combining the various sources of data (Open layers can be used to distinguish various types of data/color coding points of data can help to differentiate between sensor data and crowdsourced data). A dynamic map of information can then emerge that is not so much a snapshot, but an animation.

Cue: Augmented Reality (AR).
The Mobile Individual Measurements of Air Quality (MIMAQ) project out of Netherlands gives a perfect example of combining sensors, air pollution information and AR.

This wired piece on ‘When augmented reality hits the Internet of Things’ is also instructive and interesting.

Change is at times compelled by insight. The insight from using technologies/ideas outlined above could lead to behaviour change if we can make data relevant to an individual. Relevant to the decisions they have to make based on the information they have at the time. For an idea that mixes some of the above ideas and adds relevance, have a look at Mapnificent.

Mapnificent from Stefan Wehrmeyer on Vimeo.

[Mapnificent] …allows you to set a point in your chosen city and a map will display the entire area over which you could travel by public transit in a given amount of time. It also allows you to see an area that is both 15 minutes away from yourself and 15 minutes away from a friend by transit, and since it is integrated with Google Maps, allows you to search destinations within that specified area.

The recent deployment of the Ushahidi platform by The South China Morning Post is one to watch. “CitizenMap starts with environmental issues, focusing on the destruction of natural beauty in Hong Kong – from illegal dumping to unauthorized development, from vegetation removal to columbarium construction.”

The reason why this could be interesting, is that it has the potential to give journalists leads that they can follow up on and gather more facts on issues such as toxic waste dumping. It is harnessing the power of the people to help make Hong Kong a better place. This feeds into the idea of changing behaviour. If individuals/corporations realize that the public is watching and able to report incidents, would they still engage in such activities?

Say we had near-real time crowdsourced data from the public, and data from sensors all in the public domain; what could we do? What kind of projects could we come up with?

During TEDxNairobi, Erik Kigada an architect with Planning Systems shocked many of us in the audience by revealing something we did not know about. The city of Nairobi does not have a coherent master plan. The city is using 1999 plans to build in 2010. This presents myriad problems for businesses and individuals who need to plan. His point was made stark by the road construction happening while the event was going on. If a master plan existed showing that a bypass was planned, the architect who built the auditorium would not have put it near the road. There is an opportunity for emerging economies, rapidly growing cities to become smart cities. They can do this by taking a cue from the Senseable city projects. Current, near-real time data can be gathered with the help of the crowd, to provide pertinent information to urban planners, academics and leaders. The hope here is that they can make well informed decisions that take into account the flowing reality of the city.

“Insight from data can be used to leapfrog.” -Assaf Biderman

There is also the opportunity for education and academia to use participatory systems to link science, data and student participation. Relating the exploration of built/urban environment to the scientific method of observation, data collection and analysis.

I am interested in your ideas on how we can use these technologies and ideas to address the many challenges facing our world in Health, Education and Environment. I am particularly interested in figuring out a joint project in Kenya, please leave a comment or contact me to explore and collaborate.

Events to check out if you are interested in this topic:
-The Urban Internet of Things Conference Tokyo Nov 29th – Dec 01
- Vlad Trifa’s Lift@home workshop ‘Hack your city – Urban IOT after party’ Nov 29th Tokyo
- Open Data Hack Day Dec 4th all over the world
- Workshop on Applications of Wireless Sensor Networks for Environmental Monitoring in Developing Countries to be followed by Conference on Wireless Sensors Technologies for Environmental Monitoring 28th February – 11th March 2011 Trieste, Italy.

Additional resources/reading
- MIT Senseable City site and twitter @SenseableCity
- Peter Hirshberg’s blog
- Free M-science book Sensing, Computing and Dissemination
- UCLA Center for Embedded Network Sensing CENS
- JP De Vooght blog and twitter @jdevoo. This post titled ‘Arduino Meets Ushahidi’ is particularly fun.
- The Economist special report on smart systems
- Jeff Jonas blog IBM

The ‘Sun King’ consists of a polycrystalline solar module, cable, a stand and a ring of LED lights. It can work as a small torch, a task light, and a hanging light.

Below is the video with a brief overview.

Solantern from afromusing on Vimeo.

It retails for 25 usd/ 2000 kes and you can call +254 721 211 406 to order.
Email: info [at] africarenewables [dot]com
Twitter: @thereva

Physical Address:
150 James Gichuru Road Opposite Lavington

PS: I would dissuade anyone from getting the Safaricom ZTE Simu Ya Solar. Its shoddy and a waste of money at 3000kes. I bought one in August of this year and its Kaputt now. A much better gift is this solar lantern which is priced quite well at 2000kes. I will be testing it further this christmas, but from initial looks of it, the module is sturdy and the design is quite functional.

There doesn’t seem to be a workable deal that would take into account the developing countries’ vulnerability to climate change (think Maldives and Madagascar) with money allocated for helping them deal with climate change. Without this it is unlikely that the poor countries will agree to any deal. It is a standoff, a mexican standoff with no one as a clear winner, but the climate ofcourse as a clear loser.

Just hearing that people pepper sprayed on the bridge near the Bella center. There is just too much drama here. That aside… as the plane circled in to approach the runway at Copenhagen airport, I saw a glimpse of the offshore wind power turbines. It is a magnificent sight.

cc licensed photo by Pastalane.

That Denmark generates 25-30% of their energy from renewable energy is commendable and is often an example to many countries, and probably the reason why COP15 is being held here. I spoke with a local Danish citizen and he expressed his dissatisfaction with the progress towards targets for increasing the %. I am not sure what % of energy generated in Kenya is from renewable energy, but I can tell you this… I am quite envious of the Danish 30%. With all the craziness happening now in CPH, It helps to refocus on the specific ways that we each can contribute positively to the environment. It is unlikely that some substantive agreement will be reached this week at COP15 talks, so its probably more useful to focus on what you and I can do and the technology that can help.

I am going to start with taking a ride in a hybrid bike by MIT, then continue planting trees during the christmas holidays in Kenya.

For COP15 updates, I am checking the Dot Earth blog, Tck Tck Tck and ofcourse Global Voices Online.

PS: I saw a christmas tree with lights connected to a bike, so when a child pedals, the christmas trees light up! A festive example of using human power! Sorry, no pic, its snowing a lot here.

Back in Nairobi, finally boarded the flight to Zurich, which was delayed by more than 45 minutes, meaning I would miss my connection. That is why I am typing this at Zurich airport. The roaming wifi is so slow, I had to use the voucher for free wi-fi. Problem is the voucher is only good for an hour. Enough time to just look through emails, download docs and get berated on twitter about my carbon footprint

So, I will be in Copenhagen later today for some Ushahidi meetings, get caught up on the COP15 talks (which were thrown into disarray last week, and this week, the G77 negotiator walked out of the negotiations with some African countries in tow.) Still hoping that ‘Nopenhagen’ does not become the pun of the week. Denmark has already embraced’Hopenhagen’ (There is a Danish person somewhere grimacing at this chicanery- sorry!). I shall cover what I can on this blog, but do check out the Global Voices aggregator for COP15, which collates posts from GV authors in Copenhagen.

Remember the quote about a lie going around the world before the truth has its pants on? Solana writes about the fake press release that ended up on WSJ about Canada’s allegedly shifting policy to a more positive one that supports a reduction in greenhouse gases and contribution to a fund for poorer nations facing climate change.

PS: I covered the plenary meeting on climate change in 2007 for Global Voices, this was a meeting that led to the Bali talks (nothing much happened there because of GW & US’s throwing a wrench in the talks with a last minute proposal that basically scuttled any movement) The talks here in Copenhagen have an air of hope because Barack Obama has indicated a change in attitude. Problem is the change in attitude also needs to happen in the House and Senate back in the US. All in all, I look forward to seeing what comes of this…

Note to self: Find time to see Bjarke Ingel’s building. Below is his TED talk “3 warp-speed architecture tales”

Update: Arrived safely in Copenhagen. Tired… will blog/tweet tomorrow. Cheers!

The sign board is now an exercise in utter irony

Fence around the property

view from the road

view from the side.
All pics taken June 28th 2009.

Anyone with more info, please comment.

Via Kenya Capital Investment Group

Kenya Data Networks, has opted to solve their energy problems by tapping the power of the sun. The KDN solar power plant generates 10MW of power, enough to buffer it from fluctuations in the grid which result in frequent brown outs. Last year, the cost of electricity increased by over 51% so its not only good for the environment, but I am sure it makes a whole lot of sense for the balance sheet of KDN. From the video they are already saving 50% on their electricity bill, I think this is a good example to other companies that they too can embrace renewable energy. Now if only Kengen could make plans to create a smart grid that allows netmetering…

If you are attending the Rhino Charge, its not too late to RSVP on the Facebook event page,, kindly do so as the number of confirmed attendees will determine how many saplings will be made available. The District Officer has pledged to provide a sapling for each person who RSVP’s and shows up.
DATE: 1st June 2009
TIME: 10:30 am – 01:30 pm
LOCATION: Narasha Forest right behind the district forest office at Eldama Ravine.
DIRECTIONS: At the town, turn right after the Kobil gas station (DO NOT proceed towards Maji Mazuri – Timboroa – Eldoret Rd), through the town along the Ravine – Kamwosor – Kaptagat – Eldoret Road. After the river/bridge drive about 0.7 kms from town center on your left sign board, M.E.N.R. Eldama Ravine Forest Station.

I applaud the organizing team, lead by Gerald Chelelgo, the contributions of Kipkorir Chemirmir, and last but not least, the District Forest Officer Timon Mboga.

The idea of coming together during social events to do something positive for the environment is so inspiring to me, and I hope to join Gerald for the next excursion, and to incorporate this in future events i am involved in.

Spotted October 2008 at Moyo Lake Gift shop in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Unrelated PS: Architecture enthusiasts, particularly those interested in Nairobi, help us out with this mystery on flickr? We used to play a game we called ‘Wapi?’ which means ‘where’ in Swahili. I think we started this game in 2006, we’d post a picture on our blogs and have everyone guess as to the location. Steve had the most difficult ones, JKE and Mental too. Might be time to revive the game? *off to go look for an image to stump y’all with*

Spotted in Nairobi, January 2008
At Lagoon, a bar/nyama choma (roast meat) joint.

Got more in your archives? If so, please comment?

Natalie would like imagine a future where environmental matters are not framed as something ‘other’ something far away. When a storm hits and a city is flooded, the act of nature can be framed as something that is part of climate change, yet it could be a failure of infrastructure.

There was a time when there were 350 industrial chemicals in breast milk, because of industrial pollution.

Children in America now have increased rates of Asthma, developmental delays, childhood diabetes and cancer. All these diseases can be traced to environmental contaminants yet peadiatricians are not trained to deal with these diseases, they were trained to deal with mumps and the like.

The environmental health clinic ‘office’ was set up using left over plastic bottles with a polyresin-like ‘floor’. she had it floating on the Hudson river.

She uses performance art to make a point about environmental issues. Case in point, she came up with a name-a-tadpole project where she assigned names of local EPA(Environmental Protection Agency) reps to the tadpoles. She then made a plastic container to ‘walk’ the tadpole. so when someone asks her “Why are you walking a tadpole?” or “what is your tadpole’s name?’ She can initiate a conversation about the environment, that could even lead to the discussion on why there is a 2 1/2 year drop in the age of puberty in young girls. All these things can be tied to environmental contaminants.

Mice are great biosamples. Your urine sample may not really give you much info about your contaminants, but if you had a mouse in your house, checking its bio-profile would give you information about lead levels and other environmental counters.
She set up a mouse trap and set up sections for mice to have a choice for drinking water with zoloft, plain water, vodka or gin. The mice drank the vodka. (please check her site for a better description of this project)

The greenlight is a solar awning powered suspended domestic lighting fixture that uses vegetation to diffuse light and reduce indoor house pollutants.

In the past when nuclear threats were a big issue, there were designs for bomb shelters, which were then included in building plans. What would a bomb shelter for the climate crisis look like?

*If you have the Best of Technology Writing 2007, there is a good piece about her. Fascinating work.