Amy Smith states:
Something like 90% of the world’s resources creates products and technologies that serve only the wealthiest 10% of the worlds’ population. There’s a revolution afoot to promote R&D to get designers to work on technologies for the other 90%.Watch her presentation at The International Development......
Make Magazine's Tim Anderson takes us through the fabrication of a Swahili Bed:
In most houses you find only one type of furniture:the Swahili Bed,Its used as a couch,bed table an everything else.It's comfortable and perfect for the hot,humid climate.And it's quite similar to the Shaker bed once used in the United States...
Making the Bed:
It takes at least two people to weave a bed both to get...
Orun Energy Co-Founded by Kwabenah Smith is a pioneer indigenous low-cost base station fabricator.Russell Southwood of Balancing Act discusses their cost savings strategy with company partner Joe Jackson who stated that:
The design for the original GSM base station originated in Scandinavia and not much has changed since then. The equipment has to be kept at 22 degrees and as a result there is a...
Engineerinng News reports on a South African effort to overcome a shortage in a key fabbing skill-Welding:
The Southern African Institute of Welding (SAIW) is developing skills of welders and welding practitioners across South Africa to combat the severe skills shortage in the country says Andreas Koursaris(the SAIW president)...he believes that the manufacturing capabilities of South African...
Open Source Hardware may have even greater impact on the continent's "making capacity" than the software equivalent. Why? The existing copycat industrial culture(a natural phase of industrial development) already exists within the informal sector, OS hardware fabrication could further energise and highlight an area that up on till now has remained on the margins. A Wired article on the subject...
Africa Science News reports on the increasing adoption of secondary usage products derived from the Banana plant,in this instance they focus on banana fibre:
From the fibre, farmers weave the traditional baskets (kyondosi), photo albums, table mats, ear rings, wall mats, fruit mats, bible carriers, picture frames, among other products. Ciondos from banana fibre.Farmers also make honey care...
Ethan Zuckerman suggests "7 rules explaining how developing world innovation":- innovation (often) comes from constraint (If you’ve got very few resources, you’re forced to be very creative in using and reusing them.) - don’t fight culture (If people cook by stirring their stews, they’re not going to use a solar oven, no matter what you do to market it. Make them a better stove instead.) -...
Hash at Afrigadget reports on the plans for a Maker Faire-Africa 2009:
The focus here is not on high-tech, but on manufacturing. Specifically, fabrication, the type of small and unorganized businesses that pop up wherever an entrepreneur is found on the African continent. It gets exciting when you think about gathering some of the real innovators from this sector into one place where they can...
More from the world of fabbing,David Schneider at IEEE Spectrum writes about Techshop a model worthy of emulation throughout the continent:Its a high‑tech workshop open to anyone who pays a modest membership fee. Think of it as a health club for geeks. Instead of treadmills and elliptical trainers, you’ll find laser and plasma cutters, milling machines and lathes, oscilloscopes and frequency...
Technology Review reports on Promethean Power Systems, their:
...design uses off-the-shelf components: silicon PV panels, thermoelectric modules, and a compressor-based refrigeration unit. The company's control system directs the two cooling components to work together so that they squeeze as much juice out of the solar panels as possible, Sorin Grama the cofounder explains. Early in the...
The Haldane Martin "furniture collection consists of 31 unique, furniture products all originally designed and produced in South Africa. The designs have won a number of design awards, and have been exhibited in New York, London, Paris, Oslo, Stockholm, Johannesburg, Cape Town and Durban. The furniture has been featured extensively in the local press and international newspapers and design...
A series of articles highlight the opportunity for entrepreneural solar power deployers within the continent.Starting off with Madagascar where "Several rural hospitals were equipped with solar technology four years ago to produce their own electricity." To Burkina Faso where "a solar panel lies on the roof of Pierre Guissou's home feeding power to his water heater and allowing his family to...
Update from the world of fabbing the folks over at OpenSourceMachine designers of the Multi-machine covered earlier have released the freely accesible how to build a multi-machine book......
Googles Project 10^100--Project 10100 (pronounced "Project 10 to the 100th") is a call for ideas to change the world by helping as many people as possible.
via neXt...
From wheelchairs to police cruisers Jr Neville Songwe founder of Joneso Design "experience follows form" philosophy espouses the "...creating and developing of concepts that optimize the function value and usability as well as usefulness of products,for the mutual benefit of the end-user and...
Boing Boing's Xeni Jardin visits and profiles one of our favorites the Songhai Centre in Benin, West Africa:
She writes:Aid creates dependence, but small businesses foster independence, the group's logic goes -- and unlike other anti-poverty projects, this one exports more than it imports: specialty food and beverage products produced here (cashew butter, cookies, fruit beverages) are sold and...
Discovery Channel profiles innovators from the Honey Bee Network covered earlier:
via AIDG...
Ghana Chronicle reports:
Mahindra & Mahindra, will soon start assembling about 100 tractors in Ghana, with the support of local artisans from the Suame Magazine in Kumasi.
The tractors, which will be customized to suit the preference of agriculture in the country, are expected to help farmers boost their output, thereby tackling food shortages and soaring prices...[continue...
Afrigadget reports on Dominic Wanjihia's invention:
An elevated metal box is lined interior and exterior with a fabric. In this case I used locally available corrugated galvanized iron sheets for the container and sisal sacking fabric for lining. The upper ends of the fabric overhang in a water trough that rings the top of the cooler. Capillary action causes the water to slowly trickle over the...
At Core77 Niti Bahn and Dave Tait write:
Recent observations in the field on the BoP consumer's lifestyle and buyer behavior in Africa led us to conclude that their product choices and decision-making criteria are based on an entirely different set of values than those that influence the design of most consumer products today. A combination of factors such as local culture and history, as well...
From Perspective 2.0:
Mobile phone maker Nokia is set to open a regional research center to study consumer behavior in low income communities. The study is aimed at understanding the need of mobile users in Africa in order to create concepts that address the needs of consumers.The research Lab dubbed Nokia Research Africa is partnering with a local Non Governmental Organization and local...
From the TED Blog:
For four weeks at IDDS, some 50 students from more than 20 countries designed and built new tools that could improve quality of life in some of the world’s poorest communities. Among the projects: * A device for decreasing the transmission rate of HIV/AIDS from mothers to their babies
* A charcoal-crushing machine to help make charcoal briquettes from carbonized corn cobs
*...
The Make Philosophy continues to blossom,G. Paschal Zachary writes in the NYTimes:
“A lot of people get lost in the world of computer simulation,” says Bill Burnett, executive director of the product design program at Stanford. “You can’t simulate everything.”
Using computers to model the physical world has become increasingly common; products as diverse as cars and planes, pharmaceuticals and...
Fabrication in South Africa writes about the need for a "Maker" Culture:
The biggest problem with doing your own fabrication is the tools. Most of the tools such as laser cutters and mills are very expensive and the ordinary person/student doesn't have access to these tools...The aim of this blog is to discuss various options for fabrication in South Africa. I'm not talking about major...
Knowledge@Wharton reports on Global Resolve's smokeless stove system:
The group developed a system that could be deployed in rural Africa using only components and materials available in Ghana, Brad Rogers (professor at ASU) explained. The resulting system consists of four integrated subsystems:
1. Corn is milled and steeped, exposing the starches and converting them into fermentable sugars.
2....
Omatek covered earlier, raises N6bln ($51mln) in their recently concluded IPO.
A $100 Million Legacy Africa Alpha Hedge Fund Launched By INTL Consilium and First City Monument Bank.- HedgCo
Oson Chemist describes itself as "...a leader in pharmaceutical distribution and supply chain management..."
Emmanuel Banza a mechanic, describes his mill for crushing cassava leaves,a necessary food...
In
markets,
funds,
entrepreneurship,
Health,
Finance,
invention,
hardware,
food,
manufacturing,
Innovation,
fabrication
Marissa Fick Jordan discusses Wire Weavers at......
Companies we need more of...From Kenya's Numerical Machining Complex to the machine tools manufacturer,Harp and the precision engineering firm Sheaf, along with others covered earlier Sub-Saharan Africa cannot escape the unavoidable necessity of the Toolmakers.
The NMC for example, a progenitor of what could be the substrate of a locally assembled car the Nyayo, would if successful and moreso...
From the TED website:
Adam Grosser talks about a project to build a refrigerator that works without electricity -- to bring the vital tool to villages and clinics......
"...The Kisangani Smith Group has developed two types of efficient biomass stove which can be hand-made by local smiths. One stove replaces the widespread use of charcoal in towns: it burns sawdust (readily available as a waste in the Njombe region of Tanzania) or agricultural residues. The other stove is an improved wood-burner, targeted at rural areas..."-Ashden Awards
via African...