Please give a warm
Georgia Tech Well I guess David.

Thank you and you guys hear me fine.

OK so my name is David.

And I'm actually from Kenya I've lived
in the south for quite a few years.

So we'll tell you a bit about
myself I actually started out in

mechanical engineering at
the University of Nairobi.

Came up to you know come to the states.

And I was a little bit in a hurry
this was in the late ninety's.

And internet access was kind of
limited in Kenya at the time so

I put in my application online and

I was trying to get through everything as
quickly as possible so I started at a.

And that's how I got to
the University of Alabama.

And then I read the history on my way
there and I thought well crap I should

have waited till C.

So I'm here today to talk about innovating
on the edge our company is actually based

in Nairobi Kenya I came came in late last
night some of the jetlag so forgive me.

I want to try to run through quite
a few slides and I'll pack it in.

So you just have probably have
quite a few questions after this

before I start I'm going
to brag a little bit.

So the secretary general of
the United Nations stopped

by office on Thursday and we got to hang
out for the day which is kind of cool so

these are some of my guys from.

From Kenya.

So.

What is.

This is actually you know the.

Which he means testimony
in Swahili a witness.

And it was actually a Web
site we developed to report

to map reports of violence in Kenya.

This is kind of an old explanation
now because this was six years ago

a lot has happened since then.

So shady has become actually
very many things because.

We're realizing that there's so
many problems to Seoul in Africa.

So fast forward six years into she
has grown into a global nonprofit

technology company with
origins in Kenya and

today our mission is to change the way
information flows in the world and

empower people to make an impact
with open source technologies.

Partnerships and groundbreaking ventures.

So we actually started right after
post election violence in Kenya.

Two candidates went you know neck to neck
and I think it was fifty one percent forty

nine percent and you know for
most countries in Africa that's too close.

In kind of it's come that close so
the country broke down.

There are reports of violence all
over the country police brutality so

we created a very simple map at the time I
think this was shortly after Google Maps

became a THINK SO map map mashups Worthing
in two thousand and seven two thousand and

eight right obviously this looks very
old today but this is where it began.

And after mapping all
this stuff we thought

you know this happened over
the course of one weekend.

And we thought we'd go back to our day
jobs but then this became a thing we

started to get calls from all over the
place from you know South Africa to India.

You know people saying hey we need
something like this we need to

you know we need this for election
monitoring or disaster one thing or

another so we started.

Building a an open source
crowdsourcing platform you know it

accepted all this different types of
data and output output things like

alerts S.M.S..

And actually maybe I'll just give you

some quick examples of how exactly
our open source platform was used.

So we have been used for.

Citizen journalism harass
map was a big map in Egypt.

And it maps.

Awareness of sexual harassment which
is a really big issue in Egypt.

And I'm sure media familiar with
the oil spill crisis the B.P.

oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico and
they were running around the Gulf.

Mapping the impact of the oil spill
crisis on the communities around the Gulf

of Mexico.

Maps being platform was
used in social revolutions.

And actually one of the one
of our biggest uses in

during the Arab Spring was the Muslim
Brotherhood which was interesting they're

actually quite a few Gyptian Maps
using a platform back then and

of course me if you remember.

But the biggest use of.

Open source platform was
in disaster response.

Haiti was particularly big we worked
with quite a few partners including U.S.

Southern Command and the Red Cross.

You know just mapping needs for
water or to be rescued at one thing or

another in Japan it was you know the.

Fallout of this anomaly
in the nuclear crisis.

These were particularly popular they got
you know where Japan was more advanced and

they used mobile apps in Haiti it
was primarily text messages system.

Actually received forty five thousand
text messages during that time from

a partnership with the telcos in eighty.

And I should mention too that as these
text messages came in volunteers were

translating and helping map all this stuff
and then all this was forwarded on to

force respondents.

Election monitoring is
the other use case for

Shahidi amongst quite a few other use
cases actually in India and in Kenya.

So what's what's really involved
in doing all this stuff.

We're realizing that technology all
along is probably been ten percent of

the solution most of the most of the work
in crowdsourcing is actually you know

in outreach missions and
project planning and

verification you know geotagging stuff
that comes in manually is actually really

really difficult right it takes time so
it takes a lot of people and this was a.

During the Kenyan election I think about
three hundred people were involved in this

effort so I think all along you
know we have been assuming that

you know we can build
a technology platform and

you know to crowd source that
doesn't use as many people or

doesn't require as much work but it
actually requires quite a bit of work and

these are the different teams that
are working on stuff doing you know like

one event.

So he and crowd my approach is
one of our the platforms have

been deployed more than forty thousand
times over the course of the last five or

six years in over one hundred fifty nine
countries in over thirty five languages.

Moving on.

So crisis obviously has been what we
have been working with for the last.

If years and using our experience we've
tapped into you know some of the big

companies so we partnered with
Facebook and Twitter in an effort to.

You know use their fire
hoses to extract crisis data

just because a crisis during a crisis
things happen so quickly and

develop journalists and I know it's
trying to analyze stuff quickly but

it's very tedious and
by the time they're done you know creating

actionable data is really difficult
right and it takes too long so.

This is hard used to be
before you're writing so

much code to try to extract crisis data
but we're now doing this for you guys so

that it takes only six lines of
code to extract crisis data.

Yeah so basically the idea of crisis net
and actually this site is crisis dot net

is you know combining all Aparna efforts
you know into a single platform and

hopefully let files and
apps Bloom you know that most required.

Moving on paying is another
effort out of which he

how many of you guys a familiar with
the mall terrorist problem that happened

in Kenya this year.

And I think H.B.O. did a special as well I
don't know if you guys watched it but for

terrorists took over I mean this is
one of the scariest things you know.

Can you imagine.

And you guys remember seeing
this picture right this

this was during that
during that crisis and.

My partner went like this but this is
actually my partner's daughter right so

we built ping because.

It is a consistent problem in every
disaster and not just in Kenya but

you know everywhere we need to
quickly check in with each other.

So we built a you know
a binary channel check into

four groups families and
everyone in between.

You know just ask you OK
not OK it is binary on off.

So.

And our goal for
this has been to make it available for

anyone to use around the world.

And switching gears a little bit.

Talk a little bit about Africa in general.

The number of Internet users
has grown at seven times that

global average you know that's clocking.

Over three thousand percent
growth between two thousand and

two thousand and twelve alone.

And there are almost three hundred
million uses of the Internet in Africa

it's a very under-served community.

I thought through this in.

The true size of Africa and.

My notes for this was that it's explaining
that Africa is not a country and

it is not all over the continent.

Some people and
I tell them I just came from Kenya and

something gave me that look
of a wait a minute you know.

But this is actually a really really it's
a big continent you know a lot of people

very into served and.

We have been saying that if we can
build technology in Africa and

it works there we believe
it'll work anywhere.

And next I'll talk about our
community that we call innovation.

This is a facility in the you know this
is just based on our experience you

know we all you know the people that came
together to put a shady The four of us.

We started this thing but
we all have ties to Kenya and

we figured we need to get something going
for people over there because all that

tech people have been working into moat
outpost So this was so it has over sixteen

thousand members we host we have hosted
over five hundred events to date.

We try to bring people technologists from
all over the world you know we've had in

recent actually in the last year we've
had people like Stephen Elop come and

talk to our community and hang out and
folks this was the C.E.O.

You know we've had to come out and
hang out for a week.

Eric Schmidt and
you know from Google was there as well and

we had all kinds of people come and
hang out with our community.

So this is a this tech community
is a facility that focuses

on young entrepreneurs.

And it's kind of a it's
partly a co-working space

it's partly a victory for investors and
if he sees and it's part incubate or.

This is kind of how it
looks this was the initial.

You know what it was one floor and
now we occupy four floors of a building.

So it's grown significantly.

Be includes quite a few
things that has a U.S.

lab which was the first
in sub-Saharan Africa.

We just want people to design
effective technology for

communities for
it to be to create the biggest impact.

So we do all these things
we also have a mobile lab.

And this particular center focuses
on mobile into porno ship.

Business incubation training you
know just because mobile is so

big in most developing countries
we figure that you know we need

to put quite a bit of emphasis on making
sure people know how to implement it.

You know we're doing a lot
of testing as well and

we have you know all these are just
some start ups that have come out of.

This mobile lab we also now run a.

Scan of a mini shucked Inc It's
called a pivot we do that

once a year and you know when we started
out you know when it's got anywhere from

ten to twenty thousand
we have quite a few.

Sponsors now so we're trying to get
that amount going up to fifty and

one hundred thousand and all this is
in innovation hoping there will be.

So what's what's going on now is
just innovation I've been there

already it's been a catalyst for
other labs all over Africa so

this is just a map of some of the stuff
that's happening around Africa and

recalled of this effort after lab so
this is a partnership

of all these you know innovation
hubs all over the continent and

you know just trying to
support each other and.

This is one you know that's
been growing out of added.

You know it's a very cool space it
looks like kind of looks like that

space in Las Vegas I
remember the name of it

downtown Las Vegas if
you guys heard of it.

Huge The founder of.

Never mind where we go.

Next is cure Chicks you know obviously.

Women have been you know
extremely under-served and

especially in Africa I mean we
hear about it over here right but

it's specially bad in Africa so this was
started by some people out of innovation.

And.

You know if.

There is there's an enormous potential for
for maximizing growth of technology by.

I in Africa by a you know
increasing the number and

quality of women enter
producers on the continent so

this is why we're doing this and
you know it focuses on training and

everything else in between it
has almost five hundred members.

Switching gears a little bit I'll
talk about hardware efforts and

I know this is a lot we're doing a lot of
things but we're realizing you know this

has to scratch and so much opportunity in
Africa so we're doing a lot of things.

So what is brick.

Brick is a hardware and cloud services
technology company based in Africa.

In Nairobi Kenya to be specific.

And the focus for
us has been on rugged connectivity.

You know people you know
sitting in Atlanta it's hard to

understand the some of the challenges and

realities of connectivity in
some countries around the world.

Those of us who live in Nairobi and New
Delhi have very different infrastructure

needs and
very different infrastructural issues.

So why do we use technology designed for
London and L.A. when you live in Nairobi.

So there are there reality for
us in Africa is the power is unreliable

it also late between you know one hundred
fifty to two hundred fifty even four

hundred volts right so
you carry a bunch of routers from here and

you know they constantly Shorten.

Connectivity is unreliable you know.

Challenging environments this dusty heat.

And these are things that no one designing
technology over here thinks about for

a place like that.

And I thought I'd throw up my.

Human needs and.

Realizing that today.

Twenty fourteen I think
I should add wife I.

And this this is all kind of leading
up to talking about Brick So

this is a device that we built and
designed in Nairobi Kenya and

actually have one over here that's what it
looks like that's the finished brick and

that's actually an antenna that
goes on on the brick right.

So when we started out with brick weren't
sure if this was something people would

actually be interested in.

So we launched a Kickstarter and
we were looking for

an event twenty five thousand dollars
we raised one hundred seventy two.

So that's kind of what the brick looks
like it it's a device that has a battery

it has a hard drive it'll provide
wife eye for up to twenty people and

it has eight hours of battery life and
you can also charge your phone and

i Pad on this device as well.

If you have a really bad connection
you can plug in an antenna like this

or you can you know there's some big ones
out there you can put on top of a car or

of a building.

So we have been testing and you know
work on this device for the last year

we like to do brick expeditions like
this is one where we drove to North and

Kenya to try and capture and
stream video stream the solar

eclipse this is one of the most
adverse environments out there and

brick worked out there so.

What does a brick ecosystem look like.

So there's the core brick we call the
additions the brick and mortars brick and

mortar.

And obviously a play on words.

My mother in law is us.

Principal and
she takes offense to water and brick.

For misspelling.

And then we also have the brick cloud so
you can manage these devices off the brick

cloud you can have one you can have ten
twenty can manage all of them remotely And

just to give you an idea of what
the brick mortar looks like.

This is one and it actually it plugs
into the bottom of the of the brick so

there's an expansion slot
at the bottom of the brick.

You guys familiar with Arduino and
Raspberry Pi

one I'm sure everyone is kind of.

So this is built with Raspberry Pi It
includes our drive and

learning materials and why did we build
this because we had a problem in Kenya and

in some schools their government
in Kenya has been handing out

you know tablets but
connectivity is a problem right.

So what we did with that
particular Raspberry Pi and

water that attaches to the brick is we
packed it with with a learning material

from Wikipedia to can academy to you know
all the stuff the Kenyan curriculum so

that you know a brick running in this
particular class can power the class so

that people are pulling all their learning
materials they have to get online right.

We have been selling it for
one hundred ninety nine we're

trying to push it down because
the building the brick for for the for

developing economies you know
this is sub-Saharan Africa.

Brazil India Indonesia and

this these this is kind of
what the specs look like.

The role of the brick is number
one connecting people you know but

to connecting sensors.

You know the whole
Internet of Things thing.

So you know we're talking about some
people like you know a case putting.

Brick with sensors you know to
monitor water levels and wells.

We've been working with charity water and
a few other groups.

And that's that's you know that's.

What the long term objective is final mile
connectivity you know there is you know

potentially eight hundred million
people that need to get connected.

And just to show you kind of.

What the opportunity looks like in
emerging markets Well I don't need to say

it but you guys can see for yourself.

So moving on is realizing that
if we built this in our old B.

We wanted to create an opportunity for the
people you know community to do the same

so gearbox is.

Kenya's first Open make a space for
design and rapid prototyping.

And it's inspired by work with brick and
Shahidi And you know.

And the first brick was actually built
up you guys know about the fab lab it's.

So fabulous began as an outreach
project by MIT Center for

Bits and Adams and they've been building
fab labs all over the world and

stalk them with equipment and everything
from three D. printers to you know C.N.C.

milling machines all that good stuff.

So gear boxes actually you know
will offer a unique space for

members to showcase innovative ideas.

And share skills you know Bill
kinds of cool stuff for you guys.

I mean it would make a fair one.

Yeah it was a make a fan
Atlanta What was it like a month or

two ago yeah so you know there was
one make affair in Nairobi and

there's one in Ghana as well so
we're trying to get into

you know building real tangible things and
solving real problems right.

And I guess the quote to throw in
here is do what you can with with

what you have where you are.

So.

Very quick lessons for us from doing all
this stuff you know obviously I've been

doing a lot of stuff and I hope I
didn't go over all this too quickly.

So you know obviously with regards
to my specially crowdsourcing

plan plan plan start early.

And this alludes to the ten percent
problem because I think sometimes we over

estimate the value of technology and

solving problems right you can't
build an app for everything.

You have to be immediately useful.

Technology must be easy to deploy.

It must be intuitive to use and simple
to localize or customize just because

again it's a global economy.

Engage the crowd because
feedback is important.

Protecting the crowd why
would I throw this up here.

Again there's a little this has been
quite a bit of naivety over the is about

technology.

We realized especially working
with countries in the Middle East.

That pseudonym pseudonymity unknown in
T.V. You know there's a very big things

you need to be aware that you know people
like you know governments are tracking us

you know so we can't put everything out
there especially if it's too sensitive.

And you guys know about Edward Snowden.

Local knowledge is very important and
we have to help

a community solve its own problems we
cannot create technology and look for

a problem to solve That's
the whole point have an impact.

You know like for us we could be
making pancake apps in Silicon.

Value and get ten million
dollars to start a company.

To track.

Shops But
really when just an impact around

the world I'm very happy to say
that everything we have done is.

For us as you know maybe in Africa you
know we're trying to build self-esteem on

the continent we can solve problems
you know like I said before

we believe it's made in Africa
work anywhere and you know what if

what if the solution to the world's
problems came from places like Africa.

Out of adversity can come innovation.

You know which which has
been a driving force.

This is just some of our team I thought
I'd throw that up there before I wrap

up this.

Stock so hopefully that was good and
useful for you guys.

Thank you for the to

thank.

You know put up questions will.

I did it.

Right here OK.

So clearly you have a lot of ideas
in your moving on them I'm just

wondering what idea do you wish
the you had thought of first in the

world.

It is.

The best example of democracy
we have on the planet today so.

Yeah.

Sure about being on e Bay.

Earlier in your talk you talked about.

Mapping platforms in with your and

silly cows even used with the Arab Spring
so was wondering like if you could speak.

More to that how do you know how to
respond in those situations do you think

politically and socially.

Like while you're giving advice
how you have to protect the crowd.

So I think the one example I use is
harass my app which is based in.

Egypt and that that actually that
deployment happened right before

the Arab Spring.

And I think during that particular
deployment the government you know folks

from the Egyptian government would
show up and knock on the door.

Of this particular group and

tell them that hey we have been
reading all your messages.

And that just you know told
him hey you know wait a minute

you know if we're putting personally
identifiable information.

On these platforms we need
to be absolutely careful.

If the.

Did things like encrypting communication
between people on the platform

you know that would throw up red flags so
they were.

Worse security by openness I guess just
being completely open and transparent but

you know of a lot of other countries
where like in Libya Syria.

We have over the years I've had to
build manuals and instruction on how to

deploy securely and I would deal
with things like personally and

in a fall of identifiable information
like mobile phone numbers if you're

reporting police brutality in Syria
you know or getting shot by a soldier

that might be a problem if you know
they can trace that back to you so

it's I think for
each particular deployment is you know.

Is saying here's the manual Here's how to
use it here's what to do but we don't run

it ourselves but I just want you to be
careful and less and I hope that answers.

Thank you for coming I think what you're
doing is very great world thank you

my question to you is.

So I don't have any back on your company
were you for profit or not for profit and.

What led to that decision and
how does it affect your business so

he is a nonprofit software company.

We have thankfully been funded for
the last couple years.

But when we.

We actually spun out the hardware
company brick just because

we felt that to successfully
create a world class hardware and

services company it had to be a for
profit.

We have actually you know
we got seed funding for it.

We believe and software component of

you know our crowdsourcing
platform being completely.

Number one being completely open and.

As a nonprofit obviously just so
that we can get more people involved in.

This because if we did make it out for
profit I think a lot of people using

our platform around the world would take
issue with it you know the big questions

that are on who's funding it and you know
which government are you working with.

We try to remain country agnostic for.

Open source platforms just because most
of the time we're dealing with sensitive

stuff so I don't know that makes us get.

Yeah.

Yeah yeah.

I mean yes one.

It was interesting when you spoke
on the truth that you took a break

I was writing some information down citing

everything you saying Do you mind
going back over to religion.

Yeah sure.

And actually I should say the brick
team is right now as we speak.

In the middle of Lake Victoria in Africa
you know they're working with a school

that is in the middle of the lake you
know and the whole point is we need

to make sure that this device we
are building the brick is is as rugged and

as tough as we say it is and it serves the
communities for whom we're building it for

so going up to the northern deserts of
Kenya the whole point was to find out

if it actually worked could we set this
thing up could we set up on time as and

everything and get it rolling within
a matter of hours which which we did and

it's also partly you know P.R.
You know it's.

For us talking about the brick and
selling it as well so.

There so

I'm kind of interested in knowing more
about you know what your plans are for

the more turn that works to the brick
especially high version yes

obviously you know education in Africa is
again one of the critical things to do to

help Africa you know kind of
take a leap in this century so

what are your plans you know in terms
of spreading throughout the continent.

Erotic power definitely makes like using
technology in a classroom in Africa

really hard yeah.

So you know I know a lot of
people remember the oil P.C.

It wasn't particularly successful
because the oil P.C. while having really

good intentions this is that one laptop
per child you guys remember the green.

Oil P.C.B. the rabbit ears.

And.

I feel like the way they
designed it was almost like.

People in this starship making something
and dropping and dropping down into Africa

and tossing these things out you know I
think I vaguely remember people saying why

don't we drop oil P.C.'s from helicopters.

And people we figure
out what to do with it.

But we realizing in emerging markets
people love to tinker like to take apart

this stuff they like to go to their local
hardware store to find parts to fix it and

you know it doesn't walk you know people
have flip phones with two different

you know phones attached
to each other you know so

we wanted to build a device
that people can unscrew and

take apart right and building.

Building especially that one mortar
with Raspberry Pi was important I think

electronic prototyping platforms like
Raspberry Pi are perfect for this right

because they encourage people to tinker
and you know write their own stuff.

But it's particularly important
in education technology.

Because.

Obviously there connectivity issues you
know we're talking about you know packing

these this this particular mortar
with educational materials.

It's really just for for
access we don't want people to

have to connect to the Internet
download and you know walk again.

And I'm kind of veering off.

Your question but.

I hope that kind of gets to

it.

So we we have talked to the government.

We are also talking to other
organizations like Mozilla.

Particularly interested in throwing.

Have some educational apps you know for
you know designing and

building web applications.

That they hope to plant on this device so

we're hoping that partnering up with
people like Mozilla can help us push this

message you know across to
a few other countries but no we

don't have any direct commitments from
the government yet we made the pitch for

that last week which is part of why
the U.N. secretary general came down so

we'll see how that goes.

Sure we have a question from the Georgia
Tech Twitter Filey What role has.

Played in the spread of the you
pull up I was in the west Africa.

It's a tough question.

So we actually don't deploy
ourselves you know the platform.

We don't some people have taken it and
used it themselves but.

We just because of how
much effort it takes.

We don't actively deploy
you know crisis and

he's asked if situations
ourselves we just support.

So I yeah there are a couple
deployments out there but.

I don't know which ones
off the top of my head.

Sorry.

Sure.

High You had a tag on it like made in
Africa so I was wondering what was your

biggest What were the struggles you kind
of went through with you to overcome when

making your products in Africa or did you
have major struggles to make products.

Well what's the biggest the biggest
one had to overcome essentially.

You know funding is always
an issue just because.

When you pitch.

Venture capitalists are.

Building something like brick in Kenya.

They give you that to look for.

I'm not sure people can actually
build this stuff there.

So it was really tough to raise money.

The other thing is actually building
the brick in Kenya it's tough

we don't have the capacity it's
something we're working on but

we don't have the capacity at the moment.

We are actually having
these mine effected.

Here in the night here in
the United States right in Austin.

Hopefully in China at some point but

really more than that hopefully in Kenya
so it's just the capacity to build

those kind of electronic products
in Kenya hasn't existed really.

So that's that's been tough it's actually
costs you know when you think about

government tariffs it costs forty percent
more to bring a brick in in parts.

You know just because of taxes on
you know electronic components so

there's been quite
a variety of difficulty so.

They did I have a question back
here yeah clearly you guys are very

innovative I'm very prolific with coming
up new programs and new products and

new services so
from an organizational standpoint and

specially being a nonprofit and
you're one of the four co-founder So

you were there from the beginning how
did your organizational structure change

throughout these years and then how do
you not get you know over extended by new

programs that you're developing and coming
up so how how how from an organizational

structure perspective how does that
work that's a that's a great question.

So when we we started out we go is
kind of thought of ourselves as

this because when we started out we
didn't plan on building a shady right.

We like to think of ourselves
we liked to anyway.

At the time I think of ourselves
as a flat organization.

You know once a boss.

Obviously that became
problematic over the years.

Because number one.

As a nonprofit interacting
interacting with other non-profits

you need some kind of structure that has
to be some kind of what to work with other

big nonprofits especially for
the work we do.

So yeah we have had to
adjust you know to fit in.

And over time you realize there's no
way around it you have to make it work

team has also grown so we've had to
build some you know formal hierarchy

to manage the different teams you
know we have different small teams.

My name is on the.

I'm an entrepreneur based in your Delhi
India Great to be here it was a pleasure

you had India I have two questions for
you.

Or.

Are you facing any cyber security threats
considering some of the information that

you have is very sensitive and
you will lose to but the government so

how do you deal with that and
second question related to brick

it's a profit for profit organization so.

How do you do.

Considering you are on the board off
board or nonprofit nonprofit try so

how do you deal with the differences and
of course.

The skill ability of brick into emerging
countries right so how do you deal with

would be I mean you know the Enterprise's
since you have the same owner.

So these are the questions and what do you
mind repeating the first the first from.

The cyber security cyber
security happy issue.

So.

You know like I said before we try to
remain government and not stick well.

You know.

So we have over the years you know

done things like moving our
servers I know the United States.

You know just because when you
work with countries like Don or

most countries in the Middle East you
know it's always the U.S. government.

Actually more worried about
governments than side but security.

Just because a lot of times you're
dealing with governments that can be

directly affected by the outcome
of you know some of these events.

So it's doing things like storing data in
countries like Germany you Iceland you

know which have strong copyright laws data
protection laws you know things like that.

You know they have a right to of
ways we have dealt with this stuff

cyber security is always
a problem I mean much like.

Any other tech company you know we have
to do a lot of aggressive and I was his.

Software you know monitor for
potential security vulnerabilities or

or vectors for threats.

We deal with people like the open
web application security.

Team I don't know if you had or.

It's this is a group of people
that help with ensuring that open.

Open Source Applications are secure so
we do a lot of constant you know

checking all of our software.

In the second question is.

About the difference between a for
profit and nonprofit.

So we're actually trying to make
this kind of a hybrid right social

enterprise where our nonprofit
is working with for profit and

at tech space is one place
where to come together we have.

To work together in this space obviously
culturally within you know both brick and

shady things a little different just
because a for profit is driven by

obviously beyond impact you
know sale of widgets right so

the team and
generally the people that work on it.

You know a little different you
know we have to sell so much or

we have to be this access will
meet our numbers or you see so

culturally both companies
are slightly different.

And as hard as it is to raise angel and
venture capital for a for

profit enterprise and
you give away some of your control

when you do that it seems to me it's
really hard to collect money for

a nonprofit so how do you.

Manage.

Your sustainability and
your scale up on the nonprofit.

On the nonprofit side and how did you get
the start with your first funding for

the nonprofit organization so.

Here's the thing the nonprofit

actually owns twenty percent of
the I mean of the for profit.

So we're hoping that.

For Profit is successful
because it is then we will

no longer have to try to raise money
constantly grant funding is a long

tail right for
which you know over the years.

You know funding gets less and
less and less.

We've got the first bit of funding for
the nonprofit for all media networks.

This pyramid for those of you know
I don't know is the founder of.

And he has a nonprofit that focuses on.

Technology startups so we have we have
actually been working on them for

quite a few years and they're funded
people like we can media that owns and

runs with.

Amongst others and we have had other
funders thankfully through the years but

I'm.

Sure.

One of the largest problems in crisis
situations is the an available a frequency

everyone's trying to basically access
the same wave and that's a natural thing.

What do you see with technology in
the future like I know cognitive radio is

something that people are talking about
a big buzzword especially in crisis

situations have you guys looked
into that for paying in crisis.

I'm sorry with the radio.

Which I buy and some of the classes
here in the business school where it

scans the frequencies to see what's not
being you say it's mainly for military and

if it's not being used that people can is
it especially in crisis situations but

then once it's in military needs to use it
for whatever reason it'll kind of block

off that traffic until it's
done being use and reopen it.

So yeah you know there have been
quite a few people think about the.

Almost like a doomsday connectivity
doomsday of some kind right

what happens if a government
shuts off the Internet.

What do you do you know I know
there are people working with.

President data over radio right over C.B.
right.

And cognitive radio I think I've heard
of it in different different for

different names.

But ultimately I think we are we
are very dependent on connectivity.

Especially cell phone connectivity I think
in places like Syria they start off into.

That.

Becomes really difficult
Don they did the same.

And I don't know we haven't really come up
with solutions yet just because when it

happens you know you almost don't have
time to prepare and you realize that we

we are wholly dependent on this you
know this infrastructure being up.

So we don't really have you know people
have talked about different stuff but

you don't have a solution yet.

You mentioned getting local
knowledge was really important and

since we're in the business of creating
lots of things here Georgia Tech How do we

create things that are more universal and
how do we build empathy for

people that you know we're not familiar
with the conditions in Kenya so

how do we build the apathy
to build better products.

Building better products almost requires.

To some degree you know the technology
we have now like we like to say gives

people digital front seats to events
happening around the world right.

You know even without maps each of those
red dots sometimes represents a person i

Life or something but
we're still kind of disconnected right.

But it requires the marsh
I'll give you an example.

So I like this year I took
twelve MIT students to Kenya

to work on some projects.

And it's them being in a fast space
we're trying to solve problems around.

Poaching because poaching is
a problem like in Kenya and

while we were in this particular
camp three elephants were killed but

you know their thoughts before they got
there was we can just dump a bunch of

sensors around the National Park and
we can solve this problem and then it's

them getting then realizing how vast this
space is you know half a million acres.

It's huge you know the size of
a like the state of Rhode Island.

You know but again you know even building
empathy you know that requires a Martian

as well so
I feel like you have to be there you know.

I think the best quote to put here is
idealism is directly proportional to

the distance from the problem so
we have to be there is no way around it

so.

I want to talk to you about.

The influx of.

African immigrants who've come to the
United States in the past twenty years and

this this notion of brain dream that is
kind of occurred where a lot of people

have stayed as opposed to go going back to
their country their respective countries

so what are your thoughts on
bridging the gap between.

The dissolutions I should be coming from
Africa from Africans as well as an African

who lived in America for these two or
so decades in the two kind of unify and

work together to towards the same goals
are there any particular baiters or

many central points that they
can kind of link up through

because a lot of times you have
people who have the same idea but

they don't know how to get in
contact with each other so.

That's such a tough question.

That has been brain drain but.

You have to remember that the for

the next decade a lot of
Fortune five hundred companies.

The growth market is you know
sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia.

So there is and I'll give an example
I don't know if you saw it and

you know it's based up
here in Marietta and

they said you know there's
an article in Forbes Like

maybe a couple weeks ago and
they basically said that and.

I agree with Mark it is.

Coca-Cola and everyone else.

So I don't necessarily think there's a.

Huge brain drain now you know between one
thousand nine hundred and two thousand and

five it was just because there was a lot
of countries it was very tumultuous right.

Now not so much with the entry of China
into most African countries you know

there's an influx of of capital right so
people are building real

real businesses now I would
encourage Africans in that.

To you know kind of stay on top of
things and connect I think it's their

responsibility and the burden for
this falls on the diaspora to connect.

Not necessarily the people in
Africa anymore so yeah that's.

You have to engage they have to
go back I don't know I can't

really answer that question.

Not well enough anyway so.

I'm a big fan of what the kind
of stuff you've done so

I'm going to put you on
the spot a little bit here.

And it's really a little bit last question
I want to know is what drives you

to do what you're doing because I
mean based on what we've heard and

you capabilities you could
easily be working for

any of the Fortune five hundred and you
know be more of Google and what not but

you doing what you doing and I don't
think I could be wrong it's not directly

profit that drives you something else does
and remember there are lots of students in

this room would benefit from
hearing something like.

Well to answer that
question we have actually.

In this year we have stolen
three employees from Google.

I'm very happy about that.

And I asked that same question to them.

And they just say you know they felt
like they were spinning their wheels and

I huge organization.

Couldn't directly see
the impact of the a work.

So that partly answers
the question it's in fact.

I am from Kenya from Africa and
I like to say that I'm staking

Africa's claim on the future you know
this is one reason we're doing this

we're trying to build this
ecosystem of you know.

Stuff you know for you know world class.

Products and services and you know we're
sitting on the forefront of that wave so

it's a very exciting time you know I think
this is probably the best thing I'll

ever do in my life.

As you can to protect.

Your.