How are all things Kenyan?

So here we are actually in Kenya! Certainly there's more to be thought about here than originally anticipated. We were always interested in a socio-technical perspective on the kinds of issues we'd be attempting to address. After all, the issue of 'development' (hopefully sustainable) concerns humans so we should really perhaps consider the social above the technical?

Anyhow, more posts perhaps as things become a little clearer.

We've been meeting a number of people in the local community here in order to get a feel for the place, or create a 'rich picture' as Social Scientists would say. Data so far consists of field notes in the form of a diary and photographs. Hopefully this afternoon we'll get a chance to run a focus group with some local school children plus we hope to interview a local key actor in various community organisation initiatives.

On the technical side of things it certainly seems like mobile technology is the way to go. In a way this may be a self-fulfilling prophecy of some kind since the renewable energy for the Asus Eee PC was not a viable option at this time. However, the HYMini is working admirably or at least the solar panels are. There is little wind here so the wind turbine is not getting up to a great enough speed to charge the internal battery. There is, though, plenty of sun to be charging solar panels. It is therefore possible to be charging the HYMini by day then use it to charge the Palm Centro PDA over night. The Palm Centro then becomes the technical tool of choice for everything. At least that is the current focus of exploration.

So that maybe brings you up-to-speed. More (shorter) posts from the PDA perhaps as the project progresses.

Thanks,

DIYNGO.