Living with Gadgets

When we were young boys between the age of six to twelve , we used to make toys such as cars, aeroplanes, bicycles, cattle and so on from natural clay , stripped maize cobs, stalk and reeds. The making of these toys was quite fun for us as each one was made to stretch his mind of creation to the limit.
I remember the making of a self propelled gadget which was called the "Kadalala". This device was made from the wooden drum of a cotton reel. My mother used to throw these away, after the cotton was used by the domestic science class she used to take.
The Kadalala looked more or less like an imitation of a road construction Roller. I can't recall how this invention came about because none of us has ever seen the Roller before.

To make the Kadalala , a piece of rubber strip was secured on one side of the drum by a locking wooden pin. The rubber strip (from an old motor vehicle tube) was then passed through the central hole of the drum. On the other side the rubber strip passed through a piece of soap cut to be slightly smaller than the diameter of the drum. Thereafter, the rubber strip was secured in tension by a piece of wood which was made to run from the middle of the drum and was some five centimeters longer than its diameter. This piece of wood was used as the crank of the toy.

To put the Kadalala in motion, the crank was wound several times using the right hand to twist the rubber strip whilst the drum was held by the left hand. The toy was then put on the ground and the drum would then roll on its own for several metres. This was to our great amusement.

We used to hold competitions amongst ourselves to get a champion whose Kadalala would move furthest than that of the others.

Over a period we learnt that the stronger the rubber strip the longer the toy would travel as one was able to wind it more times. The rubber strip would snap if it was over wound !

As adults, we own gadgets that are manufactured in modern factories from all over the world. These include cameras , cell phones , computers, televisions and music centres. The sophistication of these gadgets is growing year by year.

Let us consider the cell phone.

In 2000 I owned my first cell phone. It was a Bosch make with a green monochrome screen. It was very bulky and had to be secured in a pouch worn around the waist . In terms of functionality, it was a device with a phone, an alarm clock , a calendar and could send and receive SMS. At that time the Cell phone provider Telecel did not provide the SMS facility. The price of the phone ($150 ) was equivalent to a quarter of one's monthly salary. To buy the phone I had to commute some leave days into cash !

Today, I own a Nokia 6300 cell phone which cost me some $290 in 2007. The same phone is costing less than $200 in 2010.

The Nokia phone is a multimedia device with more than 10 functions which include a web browser, a music player, voice recorder , a camera, a radio, etc.

An equivalent of my first Bosch cell phone which I had in 2000 , is today costing $20 . This is some 13% of the price I had to pay then.

In 2000 people who owned cell phones in the country was limited to the middle and upper income group. Today a lot of people in the lower income group like, school going children and villagers own them.

The price of electronic gadgets is falling at a faster rate than the rise of their sophistication. Some individuals in the higher income group who have to buy the more expensive gadgets in order to maintain their status quo in society, have a challenge to keep up with the higher technology coming with them.

A number have a tough time using them. I had a light moment recently, when a colleague of mine requested me to save a phone number of someone who has just called him in his N95 Nokia phone. He confessed to me that he has not yet mastered how to use it. He only knew how to make a call and send an SMS. He had no idea of using the browser, the bluetooth, the radio and music player, etc.

Why not buy something one is able to comprehend ?

The ICT Challenge

The Zambian Government recently announced that it is going to use ICT as one of the tools for accelerating development in the country. ICT stands for Information Communication Technology. This incorporates the use of the Internet , Computers , Telephones and other related equipment. In the communication sector the country has made some tremendous strides by the presence of three Cell phone providers with millions of subscribers.

Internet usage on the other hand has been restricted to a few thousand users, most of whom are corporate users who connect via equipment connected to one of the several ISP companies that provide Internet by cable or wireless. For the general public the usage of internet has been restricted to Internet Cafes that are found in most urban and some periurban areas. A few individuals who own multimedia cell phones have access to the internet via the GPRS and , nowadays , EDGE protocols provided by the two of the three Cell phone providers.

To the average citizen the use of internet is limited to sending and receiving e.mail and reading online newspapers and magazines.

Some students in higher institutions of learning use the Internet for study material research.

The main reason why the Internet has not been widely used is because of the prohibitive cost of using it. An average cost of browsing in an Internet Cafe is around $2 per hour. This cost is fixed irrespective of the speed of connection ! For the GPRS and EDGE connections the cost is around $0.25 per Megabyte and is not depended on the time it takes to be connected to the Internet. The two Cell phone providers do sell some modems which can be connected to Personal Computers . Some smart phones can also connect direct to the Internet or can be used as modems for Personal Computers. This is a cheaper form of Internet currently available to the general public.

With the installation of the fibre optic cable by ZESCO and Zamtel around the country, the cost of using Internet is expected to drop sharply in due course.

This will see a greater use of the Internet by the general public to the extend it is used in other countries in America, Europe, Asia and in South Africa. In these countries, Internet is provided to homes via high speed broadband connections at very cheap rates. High speed free Internet is also provided to customers in some restaurants and airports via Wifi connections. There are some places in Zambia where Wifi is available to customers.

The use of Internet is unlimited . It can be used for Internet Marketing , Social Networking and Communication. Nowards most Businesses are run online with minumum use of paper. Online libraries are now becoming popular world wide. The sky is the limit !

The use of ICT in the country is expected to increase sharply during the coming months. It is up to the citizens to make good use of it for business , study and entertainment.

To every good thing there is always the bad side of it. The use of ICT has seen the proliferation of high technology crime. (cyber crime).

Goverment should take measures to train our law enforcement agents in detecting and arresting this new type of crime.

This is our ICT challenge !