This past weekend, we were invited by the Africa Cancer Foundation for a health camp at Sinai in Viwandani, near Doonholm Estate.

Unlike the last screening, this one was more holistic, incorporating dental and blood-sugar, weight and height checkups and HIV tests, all for free!

BRCK provided the connectivity to transmit patient data to their cloud database, just like the last time. It is a very simple thing – being able to get online, access, and transfer data (and update social media pages) – but technology does not have to be complicated.

Pictures tell a better story, so here you go!

Registration

Weight and height measurements

Blood-Sugar Test Station

BRCK co-founder Juliana Rotich taking one of the volunteers through the connection process

And we have lift-off! Data sent!

We also had BRCKs in the screening areas

A mobile ODT (optical detection technology) machine using a BRCK to send images and other screening information

If you would like to become a volunteer for the Africa Cancer Foundation, go to this page. To keep up-to-date with the organization, follow them on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

You can also follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you would like to become part of initiatives such as this, visit BRCK.org and send us and email.

Last Friday we were in Mlango Kubwa in Mathare to give a demo on the Kio Kit at the Mathare Environmental Conservation Group (Facebook page), a UN Habitat and Samsung C&T-funded youth self-help organisation. Doug Regan, one of the directors of the program, invited us and the reception was warm. Mathare is an informal settlement located on the eastern side of Nairobi and has a population of at least 500,000 people.

The Kio Kit is designed to be intuitive and easy to use, a fact that was proven again when the youth at the centre took to it fast. It is a wonderful tool for learning and outreach programs. Isaac Mwasa, the chairman of the centre, was especially excited about its potential for civic education. There are plenty of pre-loaded materials about this and other subjects on the Kit.

In addition to being a place where young women and men can learn marketable skills, the centre runs a National Youth Service (NYS) feeding program, which is an important aspect of community outreach programs, and has a program for recycling plastic, which generates income and keeps the neighbourhood clean.

The photos tell the story better 🙂

If you would like to partner with us to make a difference, like what the youth group is doing, send us an email at [email protected] or [email protected].

Zadock bringing the Kit in

Left-to-Right – Alex, Isaac, Doug

Written on the wall is “elimu ni haki” (Education is a right).

Alex explaining the Kit

Here is a short interview with Isaac:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KQFpu9NKQAg

Everyone in the technology sector has done field work. Visits to customers homes or offices to fix loose cables, mount antennas, install kitchen equipment, and to carry out regular maintenance are part of it. Sometimes, it is to touch base and find out how clients are doing and how you could make their lives easier. Others, to dismantle an installation and end a service, or check for the viability of a product or service.

We do field work all the time here, with The BRCK Expedition being the clearest example. One of our (less-enforced) rules is that whenever you go out of the office on BRCK work, go on leave or travel somewhere new you have to carry a BRCK to test and take photos; otherwise, you did not go.

It is exciting and nerve-wracking at the same time. You meet new people, and see how your gadgets perform in the wild. In some cases, you climb tall buildings and experience the panoramic view of a town that those heights afford (anyone who has worked with antennas has done this). Most importantly, you learn how to troubleshoot and configure devices on the fly and think on your feet.

The feeling of accomplishment at getting people connected or making their lives a bit simpler and seeing the satisfied smiles on their faces is unlike anything you could ever feel. It is the warm glow of doing a good job that matters.

The best part of field work, aside from experiencing the impact of your products, is to gather feedback on what to improve. Field work validates or invalidates your assumptions about your product’s reception, usage, and performance. The office is an ideal testing ground since all the conditions are under your control. The field is another matter. It is the perfect testing ground. Incorporating the takeaways and test results into your product or service is a big step in building a usable, reliable and relevant solution.

A Little About OMO

Growing up in Kenya it was common to see in many households OMO as the first washing powder, so much so that OMO was used to mean “detergent.” It was not surprising to hear children at kiosks asking the shopkeeper for “OMO ya Sunlight” or “OMO ya Toss.” Such was OMO’s influence. OMO is an acronym for Old Mother Owl. This name brings to mind wisdom and nurturing care, connotations which are not accidental.

Certain factors made it possible for OMO to have such a significant impact. It is not that there was no competition. There was Persil, Orbit, and Sunlight. OMO had first-mover advantage. According to the Unilever website, it was introduced in Kenya in 1953. By the time similar products had hit the market, it was a bit too late.

OMO had also garnered mass appeal from a favorite quiz show called OMO Pick-A-Box. It was a Sunday-night staple of every household. By the end of the month, and thus shopping day, OMO was the only thing on almost everyone’s mind as far as a detergent was concerned.

You may wonder what a short history of a traditional soap and its marketing might have to do with educational solutions built for the periphery. During the 2015 BRCK Expedition, while we were at Kiltamany Primary School, an interesting thought occurred us: this was the first time a lot of the people there were seeing and using tablets. Not just any tablets, but bright yellow ones with the word “Kio” at the back. Like OMO, it is a simple, easy-to-remember two-syllable word that captures the imagination.

It would be a welcome thing to have our product synonymous with tablet computing, and thus digital education. We could work on this aspect of our brand to ensure that in every country the Kio Kit is shipped to, any similar devices will be referred to as Kios, much like quite a few of us call non-Apple tablets iPads. That kind of brand recognition would put us miles ahead.

But, we would be putting on a show, instead of striving to build something that makes a positive difference to pupils and teachers in remote areas. The attention that we garner has to come from a sincere and honest place. We want to hear teachers telling us how the Kio Kit has made their work easier. We want to see children’s eyes going wide at the prospect of using a Kio during class, and we want to see their grades getting better because of the Kio Kit. We would like parents to let us know what an improvement The Kio Kit has made in their children’s lives.

Awareness about us has to come from being genuine and building relevant products.

We have tested The Kio Kit extensively.

We go for expeditions, not merely for the fun, but to put our products out there and ensure they live up to our brand’s promise, that it will work in the places we claim it will work and in the way we guarantee. We have also tested the Kit in schools in and around Nairobi and not just in exotic locations. The value that the Kio Kit can deliver goes for both private and public schools. Partnering with content publishers such as eLimu and Pearson ensures that we provide the most up-to-date and relevant learning materials.

OMO is still in great ways interchangeable with laundry washing. The word “Kio” is a play on the Swahili word “kioo” meaning mirror. The Kio tablet (and Kit) is intended to make you see your potential, what you could become. We do not just imply this. We firmly believe that making learning devices and materials easily and affordably accessible to children in the remotest regions of the country (and the world) will put them on a better footing with their age mates in more affluent and well-developed areas. The Kio Kit is the best solution for this.

The Kio Kit is built specifically for regions with limited or no internet connectivity, places that are far from modern civilization, like large swathes of our country and the African continent. However, it is highly adaptable and can be used in all parts of the world.

It eliminates the need to be constantly online to access a broad range of learning materials, is hardy and rugged and is easy to charge.

The Kio Kit

With these advantages, one would think that teachers will eventually become obsolete. In discussions concerning digital literacy, this question invariably comes up, “Will The Kio Kit replace teachers?” No. Digital literacy solutions work best to enrich, not replace, human-to-human experiences. They enable us to reduce teacher and student effort and help us help educators and students even faster.

This task is a great responsibility, and the people behind these processes (ourselves and others) determine their success or failure. And let us not forget, whenever technology lets us down, we will always want a friendly human to pick us back up. In other words, the quality of a digital learning experience will never exceed the quality of the people building the solutions and working with them.

A teacher with the Kio tablet

The BRCK team has grown up, lived and works here in Kenya, a place in the developing world, and the kind of place for which we build technologies. We are in a superb position to develop relevant solutions that affordably address education and connectivity challenges. Our diverse set of skills and context-specific knowledge have enabled us to build the best device for turning an ordinary classroom into a digital classroom, The Kio Kit.

On a rainy Friday last week we went to Joyland Primary School in Gatundu to carry out teacher training for the Kio Kit. We went with Jeff Crystal of Voltaic Systems, Jamie Drummond (co-founder of ONE.org), Mwambu Wanendeya (ONE.org Africa Executive Director) and Keith Stewart (CTO of Thomson Reuters).

The Kio Kit empowers pupils and enables teachers to have an easier time with their jobs. Our approach is to introduce them to the Kit and then let them explore it on their own. The reception was encouraging. The teachers took to the Kit fast.

Peer learning and collaborative learning are integral parts of our training. After we introduce the Kio Kit, we find teachers are more receptive to it when we give them the freedom to learn with other faculty and by learning from other teachers.

We also installed solar-powered lights for eight of the classrooms with Jeff. It seems like a small thing, but a well-lit classroom makes teaching and learning much more efficient.

We took a lot of photographs, and they can best tell the story.

The class where the training took place.

BRCKs + Kio Kit

Mark Kamau, our UX Lead, taking the teachers through the training.

Bottom-right corner – Mr. Nguuuo, the school manager

Teachers playing a memory game to help “flex their fingers” and minds.

eLimu Content

Juliana on the roof installing the solar panels.

Juliana and Reid installing solar panels.

Jeff Crystal of Voltaic Systems installs lights in one of the classrooms.

Jeff testing the lights.

Juliana fastens the solar panels.

A sample of the solar panels and cables used.

Mark and Keith having a chat with Jamie in the back.

Teachers getting more acquainted with Kio tablets.

One of the teachers heading a lesson.

L to R: Juliana Rotich, Jamie Drummond, Keith Stewart, Mark Kamau, and Mwambu Wanendeya

Here is a short interview with Jamie Drummond:

Consider the power button. We only pay attention to it when at its push our devices do not come on, or when we hear a suspicious noise after pressing. The majority of the time, as long as our screen lights up or some machinery purrs, we forget about the power button. We just know where it is and what it is supposed to do when pushed.

Most power buttons are ordinary and forgettable. They are dull-coloured, unremarkable in texture and seldom give any feedback. We rely on some other external action to determine whether the button has worked. At best what you get is a click, a snap or a gentle push back from the resistance of a spring or some such mechanism.

Out first Kio Kit had a decent button. It was stainless steel, durable and had a ring of light that let you know what you were doing and what was happening. The LEDs would first light up for about three seconds to let you know the Kit was booting up. It would then pulse rapidly in yellow indicating the boot-up process was going on smoothly and ultimately settle into a gentle pulse, what we called a heartbeat.

The button responded to a gentle push, was pleasant to the touch and did what any ON button does. Another simple push was required to switch off the Kit. The lights would blink rapidly for about six seconds then the Kit would go off.

We thought we got it right until we received feedback. Feedback is an integral part of our work. How would we know our product works the way it was intended? Feedback one of the reasons we continually test and gather information, even if we will have to get stuck in the mud and cross rivers to do it.

There were challenges we could not have foreseen in the office. The lights were visible only in brightly-lit places, the information relayed by the tiny LED lamps was ambiguous to new users, there was no way to tell how long to keep the button pressed to bring on the Kit, and the button itself was small.

People with large fingers had trouble turning on the Kit. On placing one such finger on the power button, the full button, including the shielding was covered, necessitating use of such objects as pencils to push the button.

The Old Kio Kit Button Against a Twenty-Shilling Coin

A major issue brought about by these shortcomings was making users feel daft. A great product empowers a user. A mediocre one makes them feel weak, and no one likes to feel this way. The Kio Kit is a great product.

Because of this, a new button was required, one that took care of a major pain point: it had to be big enough to accommodate all finger sizes while at the same time enabling the users to see the feedback lights. The button chosen is more prominent and allows users to see what is going on with the Kit when they press it.

The New Kio Kit Button Against a Twenty-Shilling Coin

In this way, we saw a marked improvement in engagement with the Kio Kit. At first, it seems inconsequential. You just need the Kit or any other gadget ON. But, it is the little things that make a difference, like the oft-forgotten and neglected power button. Incorporating this kind of feedback is a great first step in tweaking the button to meet our users’ needs.

Possible improvements on the button would be to let users know when there is no charge on the BRCK by lighting up red and having it change colour as the charge gets replenished and depleted, much like a BRCK.

Last week on Friday we had the privilege of seeing first-hand the work of the Africa Cancer Foundation during a two-day screening at Meru Primary School. Despite the dreary weather, the turnout was excellent. Almost 350 men and 200 women had shown up by the time the day was over!

The Africa Cancer Foundation is a non-profit organization that promotes cancer awareness and prevention by early detection, provides support to cancer patients and caregivers, and is involved in the development of guidelines and protocols for cancer diagnosis, treatment and healthcare provision.

With the increase in the uptake of smartphones and the increasing coverage of mobile networks, the foundation has come up with a smartphone app for the collection and storage of the data collected during cancer screenings. A smartphone with the app installed is given to the volunteers. They then use these to gather and send information to a central cloud.

BRCK Providing Connectivity for Uploading Data

The name of the patient, age, phone number and intelligence like drinking and smoking habits is collected and even images from, for example, cervical cancer screenings, can be stored and transmitted using the app.

Mobile ODT (Offline Data Transfer) Device is a smartphone-enabled medical device that is used to detect Cervical Cancer.

Initially, this process required each phone used to have a line and an individual service plan, which was expensive and inconvenient. That is where we stepped in. In four of the data collection points – the reception, breast cancer screening, cervical cancer screening and prostate cancer screening rooms. One BRCK’s connection is shared between four or five people, thus minimizing the overall costs of data.

When you imagine internet connectivity in a people-driven context, you seldom remember that it can be used not just for social media or Education. It also makes it easier to store and retrieve health information, use that becomes more profound when dealing with a disease like cancer where early detection and prevention is a huge factor in minimizing incidences.

The BRCK is not just a device to keep you online but also one that can be used to do good, as we experienced first-hand during the cancer screening on Friday. The ability to set-and-forget a BRCK allows you to focus on what is most important to you, and it allowed the volunteers to focus on their potentially life-saving jobs.

We had fun; we were honored at the invitation, and we hope to do it again sometime soon! Please follow The Africa Cancer Foundation on Twitter for screening dates and locations. Who knows? You just might bump into us 😉

An announcement is coming up soon about how we will continue doing this sort of work through BRCK.org. If you are interested in partnering with us, do contact us at [email protected] and also on Twitter via @brcknet.

It has been three days since our team set off for Mt Kenya and so far the climb has gone well! The weather station, through the PicoBRCK has been sending back data, which you can view here and you also follow the team’s progress up the mountain via GPS. We will leave the equipment there to provide information on the weather for the next year.

The purpose of this expedition is to test our IoT device and to have some fun along the way. We build rugged and reliable connectivity products for this region, so we may as well throw what we can at them and ensure we live up to our promises. We talked to them this morning and this afternoon. They are a bit cold and sore and otherwise all right. The weather station has been set up and they are coming down! Stay tuned for more updates!

In the mean time, you can follow the progress (of the guys and the weather station) on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

When BRCK started out, it was just four of us in 2013.  At the beginning of the year (2015) we had nine people so we did not take up much space.  Ushahidi were gracious enough to share their office space with us as we continued to grow. With time, the BRCK team grew to almost forty, to the extent of squeezing the Ushahidi guys in their own space! It was also a challenge running things out of a small office as BRCK was growing rapidly. In time we got another small space which we called The Kiln (a kiln is where building bricks are baked/made.) We moved our operations department, quality assurance and part of our tech department there. Having two separate offices made it a hassle to get things done as easy communication and collaboration is essential for a company to run smoothly.

The last few months has seen us build out a new space, still in the same building with the iHub, to take advantage of our existing networks within the community.  Last year in December we moved to a single bigger space from where we could effectively operate together on the second floor of the building.

Feel free to drop by and say hi!