TEDGlobal 2013
Toby Shapshak: You don't need an app for that
Du behøver ikke en App til det
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Er de simpleste telefoner de smarteste? Mens resten af verdenen opdaterer statusser og spiller spil på smartphones, udvikler Afrika nyttige SMS-baserede løsninger til hverdagens behov, siger journalist Toby Shapshak. I denne øjenåbner af en tale, udforsker Shapshak grænserne af de mobile opfindelser i Afrika mens han beder os genoverveje vores forudindtagede forestilling om innovation.
Toby Shapshak - Technology writer
The publisher and editor of Stuff magazine, Toby Shapshak is a South African writer focusing on innovation — and the role it plays in Africa. Full bio
The publisher and editor of Stuff magazine, Toby Shapshak is a South African writer focusing on innovation — and the role it plays in Africa. Full bio
Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.
00:12
Let me start by asking you a
question, just with a show of hands:
question, just with a show of hands:
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Lad mig starte med at stille jer et spørgsmål, bare ræk hånden op:
00:15
Who has an iPhone?
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Hvem har en IPhone?
00:17
Who has an Android phone?
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Hvem har en Android telefon?
00:20
Who has a Blackberry?
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Hvem har en Blackberry?
00:22
Who will admit in public to having a Blackberry?
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Hvem vil offentligt indrømme at de har en Blackberry?
00:24
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
00:27
And let me guess, how many of you,
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Og lad mig gætte, hvor mange af jer,
00:29
when you arrived here, like me, went and bought
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da I ankom, som jeg, gik hen og købte
00:31
a pay-as-you-go SIM card? Yeah?
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et pay-as-you-go SIM kort?
00:35
I'll bet you didn't even know
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Jeg vil væde med at du ikke engang ved
00:36
you're using African technology.
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at du bruger Afrikansk teknologi.
00:38
Pay-as-you-go was a technology, or an idea,
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Pay-as-you-go var en teknologi, eller idé
00:40
pioneered in Africa by a company called Vodacom
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der startede i Afrika, af et firmaet Vodacom
00:43
a good 15 years ago,
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for ca. 15 år siden,
00:46
and now, like franchising,
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og nu, ligesom franchising
00:48
pay-as-you-go is one of the most dominant forces
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pay-as-you-go er en af de mest dominerende kræfter
00:51
of economic activity in the world.
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i økonomisk aktivitet i verden.
00:53
So I'm going to talk about innovation in Africa,
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Så jeg vil snakke omkring innovation i Afrika,
00:55
which I think is the purest form,
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som jeg mener er den reneste form,
00:57
innovation out of necessity.
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innovation ud af nødvendighed.
00:59
But first, I'm going to ask you some other questions.
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Men først, stiller jeg jer et par andre spørgsmål.
01:02
You don't have to put your hands up.
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I behøver ikke at række hånden op.
01:03
These are rhetorical.
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De er retoriske.
01:06
Why did Nikola Tesla have to invent
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Hvorfor måtte Nikola Tesla opfinde
01:08
the alternating current that powers the lights
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vekselstrømmen der giver strøm til lysene
01:10
in this building or the city that we're in?
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i denne bygning eller byen vi er i?
01:13
Why did Henry Ford have to
invent the production line
invent the production line
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Hvorfor måtte Henry Ford opfinde produktionslinjen
01:15
to produce these Fords that came in anything
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for at producere Ford der kom med alt
01:18
as long as they were black?
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så længe de var sorte?
01:20
And why did Eric Merrifield
have to invent the dolos?
have to invent the dolos?
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Og hvorfor måtte Eric Merrifield opfinde dolos?
01:24
Blank stares. That is what a dolos looks like,
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Tomme blikke. Det er hvad doloer ligner,
01:27
and in the background, you can see Robben Island.
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og i baggrunden, kan du se Robben Island.
01:30
This is a small dolos, and Eric Merrifield
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Dette er en lille dolos, og Eric Merrifield
01:34
is the most famous inventor you've never heard of.
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er den berømte opfinder du aldrig nogen sinde har hørt om.
01:37
In 1963, a storm ripped up the harbor
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I 1963, en storm sønderrev havnen
01:41
in a small South African town called East London,
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i en lille sydafrikansk by kaldet East London,
01:43
and while he was watching his kids playing
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og mens han så på hans børn der legede
01:46
with toys made from oxen bones called dolosse,
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med legetøj lavet af okseben kaldet dolosser,
01:49
he had the idea for this.
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fik han en idé til dette.
01:50
It's a bit like a huge jumping jack,
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Det er lidt som en stor sprællemand,
01:53
and they have used this in every harbor in the world
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og de har brugt den i enhver havn i verden
01:56
as a breakwater.
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som en bølgebryder.
01:58
The global shipping economy would not be possible
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Den globale shipping økonomi ville ikke være mulig
02:01
without African technology like this.
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uden Afrikansk teknologi som denne.
02:04
So whenever you talk about Africa,
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Hver gang du taler om Afrika,
02:07
you have to put up this picture
of the world from space,
of the world from space,
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er du nødt til at bruge dette billede af verden fra rummet,
02:10
and people go, "Look, it's the Dark Continent."
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og folk siger, "se, det er det Mørke Kontinent"
02:14
Actually, it isn't.
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egentlig, er det ikke.
02:16
What it is is a map of innovation.
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Hvad det er, er et kort over innovation.
02:18
And it's really easy to see
where innovation's going on.
where innovation's going on.
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Og det er meget nemt at se hvor Innovationen sker,
02:21
All the places with lots of electricity, it isn't.
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alle stederne med meget elektricitet, er det ikke.
02:25
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
02:28
(Applause)
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(Bifald)
02:33
And the reason it isn't is because everybody's
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Og grunden til at det ikke er det, er fordi allesammen
02:35
watching television or playing Angry Birds.
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ser tv eller spiller Angry Birds
02:39
(Laughter) (Applause)
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(Latter) (Bifald)
02:42
So where it's happening is in Africa.
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Så hvor det sker, er i Afrika.
02:45
Now, this is real innovation,
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altså, dette er rigtig innovation,
02:47
not the way people have expropriated the word
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ikke den måde folk har forvandlet ordet
02:50
to talk about launching new products.
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til at tale omkring lanceringen af nye produkter.
02:52
This is real innovation, and I
define it as problem-solving.
define it as problem-solving.
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Dette er rigtig Innovation, og jeg definere det som problem-løsende.
02:56
People are solving real problems in Africa.
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Folk løser rigtige problemer i Afrika.
02:59
Why? Because we have to.
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Hvorfor? Fordi vi er nødt til det.
03:01
Because we have real problems.
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Fordi vi har rigtige problemer.
03:03
And when we solve real problems for people,
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Og når vi løser rigtige problemer for mennesker,
03:05
we solve them for the rest of the world
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løser vi dem for resten af verdenen
03:08
at the same time.
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på samme tid.
03:10
So in California, everybody's really excited
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Så i Californien, er alle meget begejstrede
03:13
about a little square of plastic
that you plug into a phone
that you plug into a phone
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over en lille firkant af plastik der kan sættes i telefonen
03:16
and you can swipe your credit card,
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og du kan køre dit kreditkort igennem,
03:18
and people say, "We've liberated the credit card
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og folk siger, "Vi har befriet kreditkortet
03:21
from the point of sale terminal."
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fra salgsterminalen."
03:23
Fantastic. Why do you even need a credit card?
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Fantastisk. Hvorfor har du overhovedet behov for et kreditkort?
03:27
In Africa, we've been doing that for years,
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I Afrika, har vi gjort det i årevis,
03:30
and we've been doing it on phones like this.
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og vi har gjort det fra en telefon som denne.
03:32
This is a picture I took at a place called Kitengela,
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Dette er et billede jeg tog et sted kaldet Kitengela,
03:35
about an hour south of Nairobi,
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omkring en time syd fra Nairobi,
03:37
and the thing that's so remarkable
about the payment system
about the payment system
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og det som er så bemærkelsesværdigt ved dette betalingssystem
03:40
that's been pioneered in Africa called M-Pesa
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det er pioneret i Afrika, M-Pesa
03:42
is that it works on phones like this.
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er at det virker på telefoner som denne.
03:45
It works on every single phone possible,
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Det virker på hvilken som helst telefon,
03:48
because it uses SMS.
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fordi den bruger SMS.
03:50
You can pay bills with it,
you can buy your groceries,
you can buy your groceries,
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Du kan betale regninger med den, du kan købe dagligvare,
03:53
you can pay your kids' school fees,
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du kan betale dine børns skoleudgifter
03:55
and I'm told you can even bribe customs officials.
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og jeg har fået af vide, at du selv kan bestikke toldere.
03:59
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
04:01
Something like 25 million dollars a day
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noget der ligner 25 millioner dollars om dagen
04:04
is transacted through M-Pesa.
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bliver overført gennem M-Pesa.
04:06
Forty percent of Kenya's GDP
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Fyrre procent af Kenya's BNP
04:08
moves through M-Pesa using phones like this.
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bevæger sig gennem M-Pesa ved brug af telefoner som denne.
04:11
And you think this is just a feature phone.
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Og du tror det blot er en normal mobiltelefon
04:13
Actually it's the smartphone of Africa.
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Men faktisk er det Afrikas smartphone
04:16
It's also a radio, and it's also a torch,
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Det er også en radio, og det er også en fakkel
04:19
and more than anything else,
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og mere end noget andet,
04:20
it has really superb battery life.
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har den en enestående batterilevetid.
04:23
Why? Because that's what we need.
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Hvorfor? Fordi det er hvad vi har brug for.
04:25
We have really severe energy problems in Africa.
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Vi har virkelig alvorlige energiproblemer i Afrika.
04:29
By the way, you can update Facebook
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Forresten, du kan opdatere Facebook
04:30
and send Gmail from a phone like this.
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og sende G-mail fra en telefon som denne.
04:34
So we have found a way to use
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Så vi har fundet en måde at bruge
04:36
the available technology to send money via M-Pesa,
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den tilgængelige teknologi til at sende penge via M-Pesa
04:39
which is a bit like a check system
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som er lidt ligesom et checksystem
04:41
for the mobile age.
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for den mobile tidsalder.
04:44
I come from Johannesburg, which is a mining town.
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Jeg kommer fra Johannesburg, som er en mineby.
04:46
It's built on gold.
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Den er bygget på guld.
04:48
This is a picture I Instagrammed earlier.
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Her er et billede Jeg instagrammede tidligere.
04:50
And the difference today is that
the gold of today is mobile.
the gold of today is mobile.
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og - forskellen fra i dag er, at i dags guld er mobilt.
04:55
If you think about the railroad system
in North America and how that worked,
in North America and how that worked,
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Hvis du tænker på jernbanesystemet i Nordamerika og hvordan det virkede,
04:59
first came the infrastructure,
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først kom infrastrukturen,
05:01
then came the industry around it, the brothels --
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så kom industrien omkring den, bordellerne
05:05
it's a bit like the Internet today, right? —
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det er en lille smule som Internettet i dag, ikke?
05:07
and everything else that worked with it:
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og alt andet der fungere med det;
05:09
bars, saloons, etc.
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barer, pubs osv.
05:11
The gold of today is mobile,
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I dags guld er mobilt,
05:13
and mobile is the enabler
that makes all of this possible.
that makes all of this possible.
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og mobilitet er katalysatoren der gør alt dette muligt.
05:16
So what are some of the
things that you can do with it?
things that you can do with it?
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Så hvad er nogle af de ting man kan gøre med det?
05:18
Well, this is by a guy called
Bright Simons from Ghana,
Bright Simons from Ghana,
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Tja, dette er af en fyr der hedder Bright Simons fra Ghana.
05:22
and what you do is you take medication,
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og hvad du gør er at tage medicin,
05:24
something that some people might
spend their entire month's salary on,
spend their entire month's salary on,
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noget som nogle personer måske bruger hele deres måneds løn på,
05:28
and you scratch off the code,
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og du kradser koden af,
05:30
and you send that to an SMS number,
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og sender det til et SMS nummer,
05:32
and it tells you if that is legitimate
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som så fortæller dig om det er legitimt
05:34
or if it's expired.
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eller om det er udløbet.
05:36
Really simple, really effective, really life-saving.
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Meget simpelt, virkelig effektivt og virkelig livreddende.
05:40
In Kenya, there's a service called iCow,
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I Kenya, er der en service der hedder iCow
05:42
which just sends you really important information
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som blot sender dig super vigtig information
05:45
about how to look after your dairy.
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omkring hvordan man skal se efter sit mejerikvæg
05:47
The dairy business in Kenya
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Mejeribranchen i Kenya
05:48
is a $463 million business,
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er en $463 millioner dollars forretning.
05:51
and the difference between a subsistence farmer
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og forskellen mellem en subsistens landmand
05:54
and an abundance farmer
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og en overflodsproducerende landmand
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is only a couple of liters of milk a day.
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er kun et par liter mælk om dagen.
05:58
And if you can do that,
you can rise out of poverty.
you can rise out of poverty.
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og hvis du kan gøre det, kan du overkomme fattigdom.
06:01
Really simple, using a basic phone.
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Virkelig simpelt, ved brug af en basal telefon
06:05
If you don't have electricity, no problem!
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Har du ingen elektricitet? Ikke noget problem!
06:08
We'll just make it out of old bicycle parts
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Vi laver det bare ud af gamle cykel dele
06:10
using a windmill, as William Kamkwamba did.
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ved at bruge en vindmølle som William Kamkwamba gjorde.
06:12
There's another great African that you've heard
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Der er en anden stor Afrikaner som du har hørt om
06:14
that's busy disrupting the
automobile industry in the world.
automobile industry in the world.
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som har travlt med at forstyrre bil industrien i verdenen.
06:18
He's also finding a way to reinvent solar power
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Han er også ved at finde en måde at genopfinde solenergi
06:21
and the electricity industry in North America,
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og den elektriske industri i Nordamerika,
06:23
and if he's lucky, he'll get us to Mars,
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og hvis han er heldig, vil han få os til Mars,
06:26
hopefully in my lifetime.
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forhåbentligt i min livstid.
06:28
He comes from Pretoria, the capital of [South Africa],
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Han kommer fra Pretoria, hovedstaten i Sydafrika
06:31
about 50 kilometers from where I live.
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omkring 50 kilometer fra hvor jeg bor.
06:34
So back to Joburg, which is sometimes called Egoli,
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Så tilbage til Joburg, som nogle gange er kaldet Egoli,
06:38
which means City of Gold.
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der betyder Byen af Guld.
06:40
And not only is mobile the gold of today,
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Og ikke kun er mobilitet dagens guld,
06:44
I don't believe that the gold is under the ground.
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jeg tror ikke på at guldet er under jorden.
06:46
I believe we are the gold.
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Jeg tror på at vi er guldet.
06:48
Like you've heard the other economists say,
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som du har hørt andre økonomer sige,
06:51
we are at the point where China was
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vi er på det punkt Kina var
06:53
when its boom years began,
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da det´s boom begyndte for år tilbage,
06:55
and that's where we're going.
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og det er der vi er på vej hen.
06:56
So, you hear the West talk
about innovation at the edge.
about innovation at the edge.
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så, du hører Vesten snakke omkring innovationer på kanten.
07:01
Well, of course it's happening at the edge,
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tja, selvfølgelig sket det på kanten,
07:03
because in the middle,
everybody's updating Facebook,
everybody's updating Facebook,
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for i midten opdatere alle folk Facebook,
07:06
or worse still, they're trying to understand
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eller værre endnu, de prøver at forstå
07:08
Facebook's privacy settings.
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Facebook's privatlivsindstillinger.
07:10
(Laughter)
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(Latter)
07:12
This is not that catchy catchphrase.
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Det er ikke et så fængende slogan.
07:15
This is innovation over the edge.
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Det er innovation ud over kanten.
07:19
So, people like to call Africa a mobile-first continent,
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Folk kan lide at kalde et første-mobil kontinent
07:24
but actually it's mobile-only,
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men faktisk er det kun-mobil,
07:26
so while everybody else is doing all of those things,
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så mens alle andre gør alle de ting,
07:30
we're solving the world's problems.
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løser vi verdens problemer.
07:31
So there's only one thing left to say.
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Så der er kun et ting mere at sige.
07:34
["You're welcome"] (Laughter)
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[Det var så lidt] (Latter)
07:36
(Applause)
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(bifald)
ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Toby Shapshak - Technology writerThe publisher and editor of Stuff magazine, Toby Shapshak is a South African writer focusing on innovation — and the role it plays in Africa.
Why you should listen
Casual readers of Stuff magazine, with its smart and provocative gadget reviews, might not know the glossy comes from not London or New York but offices in South Africa. Toby Shapshak leads the magazine and news site; he's been called "the most high-profile technology journalist in the country" by GQ South Africa. Formerly a senior newspaper reporter covering everything from crime to politics, Shapshak shadowed Nelson Mandela when he was president, and covered the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission after the abolition of apartheid.
He's been writing about innovation, telecommunications and the Internet — and the impact they have on people's lives — for more than 15 years. He's now working on a book about a passionately held belief: that in Africa, necessity is the mother of innovation.
Toby Shapshak | Speaker | TED.com