Across The Milgis

Today marks the last day of our annual expedition. We had a great time, learned a lot and made many new friends. It seems to be over all too soon, especially given that we feel that we were just getting started. With our endless spirit for adventure, we could have gone further into our beautiful country, but there remains work to be done. There will always be rivers to ford, mud to get unstuck from and mountains to climb. One mountain I feel we are well on our way to conquering is the building of relevant, context-specific and useful products, products that addressed poor connectivity, power outages and limited access to up-to-date and affordable digital devices and content.

The yearly expedition is not merely for the fun. We use it to push ourselves out of our city bubble and see the real world where we intend to have our products used. I remember when we got to Kiltamany on the first day, one of the guys we met told us “Karibu Kenya.” We had a good laugh about this and on reflection he was right: those far-flung places are just as much a part of our country as Nairobi. Our intention is not just to build cool things but to build cool things that matter.

The Long Road Ahead

You can do hard things. – BRCK Mantra

Coming Back

And what harder thing is there in technology than to bring the same level of quality affordable and reliable products as there is in more developed countries. Useful relevant solutions do not have to be grand and expensive, nor do cutting-edge technologies only have to exist in high-end consumer products, for example wireless charging.

The people we interacted with have the same ambitions for themselves as we do – to be in touch with the world, to have a voice and to educate their children. We still have a long way to go before we achieve everything we have set out to do. The Kio Kit has had some hiccups and the actual BRCK does require coaxing sometimes to make it work (fewer than when I came on-board, that is). From personal experience, and I may be biased when I say this, we have come a long way since I joined BRCK six months ago.

My biggest take-aways from our recent journey are:

1. Constant Improvement.

Part of our ethos is the striving for better every day, in whatever little way, whether it is taking the extra effort to ensure a BRCK is delivered to a customer who is flying out in a few hours, or our engineers pulling all-nighters to make sure the Kio Kit performs better when it is deployed. The tiny gains make a significant and long-lasting impact and should never be underrated. I remember our CEO Erik giving us hell as we were leaving Ngurunit – we took a little too long in breaking camp and ended up being rained on. We delayed just a bit, barely ten minutes, and our whole journey took much longer than we had anticipated. If we had stayed any longer, we would not have been able to cross the seasonal rivers that were ballooning with each passing second. Small things that do not seem important if not done correctly the first time, roll over and become huge problems that are much more challenging to tackle. A big part of

A big part of constant improvement is always being prepared, taking the time to iron out the small stuff, to sweat the small stuff, and I believe that at BRCK, we are prepared to take on the challenges in connectivity, content delivery and education. We sweat the small stuff, for example, the colour-coded earphones in the Kio Kit to enable kids to put them on more easily.

The left earphone is yellow and the right one is green.

2. Being a champion of your own ideas.

All the blog posts, except this one, were uploaded using a connection from the BRCK. It seems pretty obvious but I had to mention it. If you set out to build a product, then you have to be its first user. The cliché used is eating your own dog food. We put ourselves in a situation where the BRCK would be the best alternative. This became especially apparent when all of us had to catch up with the news and the goings-on online in the evening. Multiple simultaneous users is one of the key features of the BRCK. And I must say, it worked flawlessly out of the box – it got a connection faster and was more stable when more users jumped on it.

Still connected, even in the bush.

3. Demystifying technology.

When you hear the term “digital solution”, an image of a fancy shiny product may come to mind, something that makes use of an often-heard yet obscure technology, or such like. It does not have to be this way. A product can be simple, cost-effective, usable and effective all at the same time. For example, the Kio Kit – simple, rugged tablets (for accessing the content), a BRCK (for storing and updating the content), a wireless charging system (to eliminate cable breakages and reduce the time spent plugging in the tablets at the end of a work day). Voilà! One of the most touching moments of our trip was when we were at Tirrim Primary School in Korr – seeing the faces of the light up as they completed their memory games is a feeling you cannot put into words. Only one word comes close – magical. These kids will be going up against other pupils from much better equipped and funded schools. I firmly believe in the potential of technology to be a leveller in this playing field.

A Child’s Joy

4. Having fun and making a difference, at the same time!

You spend a large portion of your time at a job. You may as well spend it doing good and enjoying yourself in the process. I was talking to one of my colleagues and he mentioned how he found it difficult to explain to people what he does for a living. He loves what he does (and so do we! Jeff is an amazing designer!) and so do all the people who work here. You can have fun doing important work and still make a positive impact. And, when you really think about it, wouldn’t you rather do this?

I am excited to be a part of this wonderful company and to work with the talented people here. We want to change the world and make it a happier, more livable place, a place where the people on the edges of the grid, the oft-neglected regions, have the same opportunities for education and betterment as the people in the towns and cities. I feel that we are on the cusp of achieving this. Join us on this journey.

Jump Up For BRCK!

To check out the 2015 BRCK Expedition, have a look at our social media pages on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook.

BRCK Education Kio and Kio Kit Launch from BRCK on Vimeo.

When we set out to build the BRCK, we wanted to take care of the rampant connectivity and power issues that prevent many people in the developing world from being as efficient or as effective in their jobs. We did this, and we ended up becoming one of Kenya’s first consumer electronics’ companies. We were very excited about this, and the recognition we were getting, but the BRCK was built to be much more. When it was designed, we included a USB port and a micro web server, that at the time, just seemed like cool features. Over time, we came to appreciate that they were so much more. You could access content from the BRCK but we felt this was not enough, so we combined the BRCK with a Raspberry Pi computing module to give it a bit of a boost. This enabled access to rich and interactive websites and content, from the same rugged form factor as the original BRCK.

There are numerous challenges facing education in developing countries. Since the BRCK together with the Pi, enables access of locally-cached and web-hosted content, we thought it could prove a useful tool to both teachers and students if they could access up-to-date educational materials, and give them an edge and enable them to compete with schools with more resources. This was in line with our ethos of promoting equality in education and levelling the playing field by using the same technologies as the rest of the world but tweaked to our particular context. At BRCK Education, we do not think the only sources of knowledge and information in a classroom should be teachers and textbooks. The four walls of a classroom should not limit a child’s access to learning, playing and growing. This technology, however, cannot replace the role of a teacher. It makes access to information much easier.

The easiest way to deliver educational content to students is through tablet computers. Initially, tablets, even the ones made for schools, were not durable and did not have the kind of features we needed: a long battery life, an easy-to-use interface and some sort of durability. Until now. Due to the demands of our environments, and the fact that children are bound to drop and spill fluids on the tablets, we designed and engineered the Kio Tablet, to be rugged, adaptable and unbelievably functional. We built the Kio specifically to the needs we exhaustively identified during our field tests in schools. Even with the progress we made, we felt like we had only climbed half the mountain.

Having the tablets was well and good, but tablets need to be charged. One of the barriers to using tablets effectively is the inconvenience of remembering to charge them and the fact that charging cables break frequently. Also, tablets present a security fear: they are small and can be easily stolen. So, how about a rugged kit, that provides both the charging and security needed for the tablets in one go? The Kio Kit. It comes with wireless charging and is lockable, and in case a tablet is taken away from it, we built the firmware to prevent flashing of its operating system. The Kio Kit can hold and charge 40 tablets, each of which can run for 8 hours on a single charge.

What we are doing is not just selling technology. We passionately believe in our ability to positively impact the quality of learning of students in Kenya. But, we cannot do this alone. We are proud that both local and international organizations, both big and small, have joined us to make this dream a reality. The Kio Kit will be available for pre-order today, limited availability begin on November 1st and we expect general availability from January 1st 2016. The Kio Kit will go for USD 5,000 and a Kio Tablet will go for USD 100.

For more information, you can visit our website at education.brck.com. Also, feel free to email us at [email protected] or tweet us at @brcknet. You can also find us on Facebook at brcknet.