Kenya’s Tech Innovations, Japan’s Digital Divide

If you follow my blog, you know that I like to report on the many technological innovations coming out of East Africa, especially Kenya. There is no shortage of subjects to report on, from the nationwide spread of mobile money to portable solar solutions, but also the inventiveness of individual “hacks”, such as SMS-powered remote locking systems and home-made mobile phone sonar fishing devices.

While Kenya’s young tech entrepreneurs show no shortage of ingeniousness, the lack of technological advancement in Japan, of all places, is becoming a major cause of concern for policy makers and analysts.

“Police stations without computers, 30-year-old “on hold” tapes grinding out Greensleeves, ATMs that close when the bank does, suspect car engineering, and kerosene heaters but no central heating.”

In a recent piece for the BBC entitled Revealing Japan’s Low-tech Belly, Michael Fitzpatrick paints an alarming picture of a nation whose hi tech prowess was once the envy of Germany and the US.

“Japanese banks, post offices, government offices, all are staffed with three to five times the employees because they must do every process once on paper and then again on computer.”

An aging technophobic population, a government bureaucracy which refuses to go digital, local phone manufacturers rapidly losing market share to Apple, “tech standards and business practices incompatible with anything beyond its borders”. This is the digital divide crippling Japan that we rarely hear about.

iPad: a Distraction From the Joys of Boredom

Peter Bregman writes a guest blog post for Harvard Business Review on why he returned his iPad to the store after a week. His reason: he found himself using the iPad so much that he missed being bored.

“Being bored is a precious thing, a state of mind we should pursue. Once boredom sets in, our minds begin to wander, looking for something exciting, something interesting to land on. And that’s where creativity arises.

My best ideas come to me when I am unproductive. When I am running but not listening to my iPod. When I am sitting, doing nothing, waiting for someone. When I am lying in bed as my mind wanders before falling to sleep. These “wasted” moments, moments not filled with anything in particular, are vital.

They are the moments in which we, often unconsciously, organize our minds, make sense of our lives, and connect the dots. They’re the moments in which we talk to ourselves. And listen.”

He also hilariously describes the unjustified sense of “material pride” he felt during his week as an iPad owner.

“And, of course, I proudly showed it to, well, anyone who indicated the least bit of interest. (That could be a whole post in itself. We proudly show off new purchases as though simply possessing them is some form of accomplishment. Why? I didn’t create the iPad. I just bought one.)”

So you want to follow tech trends in Africa…

I follow high level and low level African tech trends and the development of the emerging African semantic web. I’d be happy to give you my list of Top 10 bloggers on these subjects but Jonathan Gosier at Appfrica has already done it for me.