ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Juliana Rotich - Tech entrepreneur
Juliana Rotich is the co-founder of Ushahidi, open-source software for collecting and mapping information -- and of iHub, a collective tech space in Nairobi, Kenya. She is a TED Senior Fellow.

Why you should listen

Juliana Rotich is co-founder and executive director of Ushahidi, a nonprofit tech company, born in Africa, that develops free and open-source software for information collection, interactive mapping and data curation. Ushahidi builds tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories. Through Crowdmap.com, Swiftly.org and accompanying mobile applications, Ushahidi is making crowdsourcing tools available and useful. Their latest product is BRCK, a tool for resilient connectivity -- anywhere.

Rotich is also a founder of iHub, a Nairobi tech space described as "part open community workspace (co-working), part vector for investors and VCs and part incubator." She is a TED Senior Fellow and serves on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Information Communications Technology. She co-founded Mobisoko, a mobile marketplace for language and location relevant apps in Africa. She was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011 by The World Economic Forum.

More profile about the speaker
Juliana Rotich | Speaker | TED.com
TEDGlobal 2013

Juliana Rotich: Meet BRCK, Internet access built for Africa

Juliana Rotich: Njihuni me BRCK, Aksesi Internetit i ndertuar per Afriken

Filmed:
665,111 views

Komunitetet teknologjike po lulezojne kudo neper Afrike, thote Juliana Rotich nga Nairobi, bashkethemeluese e programit burim-hapur Ushahidi. Por ngelet sfiduese per te marre dhe te qendrosh i lidhur ne nje rajon me shkeputje energjie te shpeshta dhe me lidhje interneti te pjesshem. Per kete Rotich dhe miqte krijuan BRCK, duke ofruar lidhje fleksibel per boten ne zhvillim.
- Tech entrepreneur
Juliana Rotich is the co-founder of Ushahidi, open-source software for collecting and mapping information -- and of iHub, a collective tech space in Nairobi, Kenya. She is a TED Senior Fellow. Full bio

Double-click the English transcript below to play the video.

00:12
Living in Africa is to be on the edge,
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Te jetosh ne Afrike do te thote te jetosh ne skajet,
00:15
metaphorically, and quite literally
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ne menyre metaforike, dhe ne kuptimin e plote te fjales
00:18
when you think about connectivity before 2008.
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kur mendon per rrjetin e lidhjes para 2008.
00:21
Though many human intellectual and technological leaps
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Edhe pse shume hapa ne fushen e teknologjise dhe intelektit njerezor
00:25
had happened in Europe and the rest of the world,
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kane ndodhur ne Europe dhe ne pjesen tjeter te botes,
00:28
but Africa was sort of cut off.
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por Afrika nuk eshte perfshire aty.
00:31
And that changed, first with ships
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Dhe kjo ndodhi, fillimisht me anijet
00:33
when we had the Renaissance, the Scientific Revolution
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kur kishim Rilindjen, revolucionin shkencor
00:37
and also the Industrial Revolution.
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si dhe revolucionin industrial.
00:39
And now we've got the digital revolution.
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Dhe tani kemi revolucionin dixhital.
00:42
These revolutions have not been evenly distributed
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Keto revolucione nuk jane shperndare ne menyre te barabarte
00:45
across continents and nations.
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neper kontinente dhe kombe.
00:47
Never have been.
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Kurre nuk jane bere.
00:50
Now, this is a map of the undersea fiber optic cables
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Kjo eshte nje harte e kabllove te fibrave optike te nendetit
00:54
that connect Africa to the rest of the world.
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qe lidh Afriken me pjesen tjeter te botes.
00:57
What I find amazing is that Africa
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Ajo cfare me mahnit eshte se Afrika
00:59
is transcending its geography problem.
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po e kapercen problemin e saj gjeografik.
01:01
Africa is connecting to the rest of the world
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Afrika po lidhet me pjesen tjeter te botes
01:03
and within itself.
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dhe brenda vetes.
01:05
The connectivity situation has improved greatly,
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Situata e rrjetit te lidhjes eshte permisuar ne mase te madhe,
01:08
but some barriers remain.
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por ngelen disa pengesa.
01:10
It is with this context that Ushahidi came to be.
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Ne kete kontekst u krijua dhe Ushahidi.
01:14
In 2008, one of the problems that we faced
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Ne 2008, nje nga problemet qe kishim
01:19
was lack of information flow.
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ishte mungesa e rrjedhjes se informacionit.
01:21
There was a media blackout in 2008,
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Kishte nje erresim te plote mbi median ne 2008,
01:24
when there was post-election violence in Kenya.
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kur ndodhen dhunimet e pas-zgjedhjeve ne Kenya.
01:26
It was a very tragic time. It was a very difficult time.
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Ishte nje periudhe shume tragjike. Ishin kohe te veshtira.
01:29
So we came together and we created software
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Ne u bashkuam dhe krijuam programin
01:32
called Ushahidi.
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i quajtur Ushahidi.
01:33
And Ushahidi means "testimony" or "witness" in Swahili.
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Dhe Ushahidi do te thote "deshmi" ose "deshmitar" ne gjuhen Swahili.
01:37
I'm very lucky to work with two amazing collaborators.
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Jam shume e lumtur qe punoj me dy bashkepunetore te mahnitshem.
01:40
This is David and Erik.
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Ky eshte David dhe Erik.
01:42
I call them brothers from another mother.
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Une i quaj vellerez me nje nene tjeter.
01:44
Clearly I have a German mother somewhere.
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Sigurisht qe kam nje nene Gjermane diku.
01:47
And we worked together first with building
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Kemi punuar bashke fillimisht gjate ndertimit
01:50
and growing Ushahidi.
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dhe gjate rritjes se Ushahidi-t.
01:51
And the idea of the software was to gather information
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Idea e programit ishte te mblidhej informacion
01:54
from SMS, email and web, and put a map
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nga SMS, e-mail dhe rrjeti, dhe te vendosej nje harte
01:57
so that you could see what was happening where,
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ne menyre qe te shihet cfare po ndodh dhe ku,
02:00
and you could visualize that data.
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dhe ju mund te kujtoni te dhenat.
02:02
And after that initial prototype,
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Dhe pas atij prototipi fillestar,
02:04
we set out to make free and open-source software
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ne vendosem te bejme nje program burim-hapur falas
02:07
so that others do not have to start from scratch like we did.
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ne menyre qe te tjeret te mos fillojne nga zero ashtu sic beme ne.
02:11
All the while, we also wanted to give back
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Gjate gjithe kohes, ne donim gjithashtu te shperblenim
02:13
to the local tech community that helped us
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ne komunitetin lokal teknologjik qe na ndihmonte
02:16
grow Ushahidi and supported us in those early days.
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te rrisnim Ushahidi-n dhe na mbeshteti ne ato vite te fillimit.
02:19
And that's why we set up the iHub in Nairobi,
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Dhe per kete ne vendosem iHub ne Nairobi,
02:22
an actual physical space
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nje hapesire fizike
02:24
where we could collaborate,
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ku ne mund te bashkepunonim,
02:26
and it is now part of an integral tech ecosystem in Kenya.
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dhe tani eshte pjese e nje ekosistemi teknologjik integral ne Kenya
02:31
We did that with the support of different organizations
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E realizuam ate me mbeshtetjen e organizatave te ndryshme
02:34
like the MacArthur Foundation and Omidyar Network.
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si Fondacion MacArthur dhe Rrjeti Omidyar.
02:37
And we were able to grow this software footprint,
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Dhe ne ishim te afte te rrisnim gjurmet e ketij programi,
02:40
and a few years later it became
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dhe pas disa vitesh u be
02:43
very useful software,
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nje program shume i dobishem,
02:45
and we were quite humbled when it was used in Haiti
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dhe u nderuam shume kur u perdor ne Haiti
02:48
where citizens could indicate where they are
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ku qytetaret mund te tregonin ku jane
02:52
and what their needs were,
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dhe cilat jane nevojat e tyre,
02:53
and also to deal with the fallout from the nuclear crisis
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si dhe te perballonim renien e shkaktuar nga kriza nukleare
02:56
and the tsunami in Japan.
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dhe cunami ne Japoni.
02:58
Now, this year the Internet turns 20,
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Kete viti, Interneti mbush 20vjec
03:02
and Ushahidi turned five.
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dhe Ushahidi mbushi pese.
03:04
Ushahidi is not only the software that we made.
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Ushahidi nuk eshte vetem programi qe ne krijuam.
03:07
It is the team, and it's also the community
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Eshte ekipi, eshte edhe komuniteti
03:10
that uses this technology in ways that we could not foresee.
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qe perdor kete teknologji ne menyra qe ne nuk mund te parashikonim.
03:14
We did not imagine that there would be this many maps
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Nuk e imagjinonim qe do kishte kaq shume harta
03:17
around the world.
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perreth botes.
03:19
There are crisis maps, election maps, corruption maps,
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Keto jane harta krizash, harta zgjedhjesh, harta korrupsioni
03:22
and even environmental monitoring crowd maps.
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akoma dhe harta per monitorimin e mjedisit.
03:26
We are humbled that this has roots in Kenya
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Jemi te nderuar qe kjo ka rrenje ne Kenya
03:29
and that it has some use to people around the world
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dhe qe mund te ndihmoje njerez perreth botes
03:32
trying to figure out the different issues that they're dealing with.
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duke u munduar te zgjidhin ceshtje te ndryshme me te cilat ata po meren.
03:35
There is more that we're doing to explore this idea
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Ne po bejme me shume per te shqyrtyar kete ide
03:38
of collective intelligence, that I, as a citizen,
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mbi inteligjencen kolektive, qe une, si nje qytetare,
03:41
if I share the information with whatever device that I have,
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nese e ndaj informacionin me cilendo pajisje qe kam,
03:44
could inform you about what is going on,
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mund t'ju informoj per cfare per ndodh,
03:46
and that if you do the same, we can have a bigger picture
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dhe nese ju beni te njejten gje, ne do kemi nje imazh me te gjere
03:49
of what's going on.
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per ate cka po ndodh.
03:51
I moved back to Kenya in 2011.
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U ktheva perseri ne Kenya ne 2011.
03:53
Erik moved in 2010.
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Erik u zhvendos ne 2010.
03:55
Very different reality. I used to live in Chicago
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Nje realitet shume ndryshe. Une kam jetuar ne Chicago
03:57
where there was abundant Internet access.
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ku ka akses interneti te bollshem.
04:00
I had never had to deal with a blackout.
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Nuk me eshte dashur kurre te merrem me nderprerje korenti.
04:02
And in Kenya, it's a very different reality,
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Ne Kenya, eshte nje realitet shume ndryshe,
04:05
and one thing that remains despite the leaps in progress
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dhe nje gje e cila riqendron pavaresisht hapave te progresit
04:08
and the digital revolution is the electricity problem.
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dhe te revolucionit dixhital, eshte problemi i elektricitetit.
04:12
The day-to-day frustrations of dealing with this
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Frustrimi i dita-dites qe te merresh me kete
04:15
can be, let's just say very annoying.
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mund te jete, le te themi shume e bezdisshme.
04:18
Blackouts are not fun.
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Bllokimet nuk jane argetim.
04:20
Imagine sitting down to start working, and all of a sudden
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Imagjino te ulesh per te filluar punen dhe papritur
04:23
the power goes out,
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te nderpritet energjia,
04:25
your Internet connection goes down with it,
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lidhja me internetin shkeputet,
04:27
so you have to figure out, okay, now, where's the modem,
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dhe ti duhet te gjesh ne ate moment se ku ndodhet modemi,
04:31
how do I switch back?
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si e rindez?
04:33
And then, guess what? You have to deal with it again.
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Dhe pastaj, mendo, duhet te meresh perseri me ate.
04:36
Now, this is the reality of Kenya, where we live now,
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Tani, ky eshte realiteti ne Kenya, aty ku jetojme tani,
04:39
and other parts of Africa.
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dhe ne vende te tjera te Afrikes.
04:41
The other problem that we're facing
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Problemi tjeter qe hasim
04:43
is that communication costs are also still a challenge.
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eshte se kostot e komunikimit jane nje tjeter sfide.
04:48
It costs me five Kenyan shillings,
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Me kushton mua pese shilling Kenian,
04:50
or .06 USD to call the U.S., Canada or China.
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ose 6 cent ne minute te telefonoj Ameriken, Kanadan ose Kinen.
04:56
Guess how much it costs to call Rwanda, Ghana, Nigeria?
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E merrni me mend sa kushton te telefonosh ne Rwanda, Ghana dhe Nigeri?
05:00
Thirty Kenyan shillings. That's six times the cost
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Tridhjet shilling Kenian. Kjo eshte gjashte here me shume,
05:04
to connect within Africa.
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per tu lidhur brenda Afrikes.
05:06
And also, when traveling within Africa,
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Gjithashtu dhe kur udheton perbrenda Afrikes,
05:08
you've got different settings for different mobile providers.
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keni konfigurime te ndryshme per kompani te ndryshem celulare.
05:11
This is the reality that we deal with.
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Ky eshte realiteti qe ne perballim.
05:14
So we've got a joke in Ushahidi
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Ne kemi nje shaka nje Ushahidi
05:17
where we say, "If it works in Africa, it'll work anywhere."
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ku themi "Nese funksionon ne Afrike, do funksionoje kudo."
05:21
[Most use technology to define the function. We use function to drive the technology.]
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(Shumica perdorin teknologjine per te percaktuar funksionin. Ne perdorim funksionin per te drejtuar teknologjine.)
05:23
What if we could overcome the problem
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Po sikur te mundeshim te kapercenim kete problem
05:26
of unreliable Internet and electricity
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te internetit dhe elektricitetit te pasigurt
05:30
and reduce the cost of connection?
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dhe te reduktonim koston e lidhjes?
05:32
Could we leverage the cloud?
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Mund ta perdorim ne avantazhin tone kete re?
05:34
We've built a crowd map, we've built Ushahidi.
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Kemi nje ndertuar nje harte te ngjeshur, kemi ndertuar Ushahidi.
05:35
Could we leverage these technologies
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Mund te perdorim ne avantazhin tone keto teknologji
05:38
to switch smartly whenever you travel from country to country?
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te transferojme ne menyre te zgjuar sa here udhetoni nga nje shtet ne tjeter?
05:43
So we looked at the modem,
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Keshtu qe vezhguam modemin
05:44
an important part of the infrastructure of the Internet,
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nje pjese e rendesishme e infrastruktures se internetit
05:47
and asked ourselves why
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dhe pyetem veten pse
05:50
the modems that we are using right now
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modemat qe ne perdorim momentalisht
05:52
are built for a different context, where you've got
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jane te ndertuara per kontekst ndryshe, kur kemi
05:54
ubiquitous internet, you've got ubiquitous electricity,
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internet te kudogjendur, kur kemi elektricitet te kudogjendur,
05:58
yet we sit here in Nairobi and we do not have that luxury.
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por ne jemi ne Nairobi dhe nuk e kemi ate luks.
06:03
We wanted to redesign the modem
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Donim te riprojektonim modemin
06:06
for the developing world, for our context,
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per boten ne zhvillim, per kontekstin tone,
06:09
and for our reality.
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dhe per realitetin tone.
06:11
What if we could have connectivity with less friction?
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Po sikur te kishim lidhje me me pak pengesa?
06:14
This is the BRCK.
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Kjo eshte BRCK.
06:18
It acts as a backup to the Internet
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Perdoret si nje rezerve per internetin
06:21
so that, when the power goes out,
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ne menyre qe, sa here te kemi shkeputje te energjise
06:24
it fails over and connects to the nearest GSM network.
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fiket dhe ben lidhje me rrjetin me te afert GSM.
06:31
Mobile connectivity in Africa is pervasive.
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Lidhja celulare ne Afrike eshte e perhapur.
06:33
It's actually everywhere.
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Ne te vertete eshte kudo.
06:36
Most towns at least have a 3G connection.
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Shumica e qyteteve kane nje lidhje 3G.
06:39
So why don't we leverage that? And that's why we built this.
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Pra pse mos ta perdorim kete ne avantazh? Dhe kjo eshte arsyeja pse e ndertuam kete.
06:42
The other reason that we built this
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Arsyeja tjeter pse e ndertuam
06:44
is when electricity goes down, this has eight hours
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eshte se kur elektriciteti shkeputet, kjo ka tete ore
06:46
of battery left, so you can continue working,
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bateri te ngelura, ne menyre qe te vazhdosh punen,
06:48
you can continue being productive,
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mund te vazhdosh te jesh produktiv,
06:51
and let's just say you are less stressed.
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dhe le te themi qe je dhe me pak i stresuar.
06:55
And for rural areas, it can be
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dhe per zonat rurale, mund te jete
06:57
the primary means of connection.
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mjeti kryesor i lidhjes.
06:59
The software sensibility at Ushahidi is still at play
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Ndjeshmeria e programit ne Ushahidi eshte akoma ne loje
07:02
when we wondered how can we use the cloud
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Kur pyesnim veten se si mund te perdornim ren
07:05
to be more intelligent so that
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per te qene me inteligjent ne menyre qe
07:07
you can analyze the different networks,
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te analizosh rrjetet e ndryshme
07:09
and whenever you switch on the backup,
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dhe sa here transferoheni ne rezerve
07:12
you pick on the fastest network,
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ju zgjidhni rrjetin me te shpejte
07:15
so we'll have multi-SIM capability
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keshtu qe do te keni kapacitet SIM-te shumfishte
07:17
so that you can put multiple SIMs,
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keshtu qe do mund te vendosni SIM te shumifshta,
07:19
and if one network is faster, that's the one you hop on,
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dhe nese nje rrjet eshte me i shpejte, ate do zgjidhni
07:23
and if the up time on that is not very good,
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dhe nese koha e ngelur ne te nuk eshte mjaftushem mire,
07:26
then you hop onto the next one.
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atehere do zgjidhni tjetren.
07:29
The idea here is for you to be able to connect anywhere.
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Ideja kryesore ketu eshte qe ju te keni mundesi te lidheni kudo.
07:32
With load balancing, this can be possible.
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Me balancimin e ngarkeses, kjo eshte e mundur.
07:35
The other interesting thing for us -- we like sensors --
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Pjesa tjeter interesante per ne --ne na pelqejne sensoret--
07:39
is this idea that you could have an on-ramp
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eshte idea qe ju mund te keni nje On-ramp
07:43
for the Internet of things.
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per gjerat e internetit.
07:44
Imagine a weather station that can be attached to this.
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Imagjinoni nje kanal moti qe mund ti bashkangjitet kesaj.
07:48
It's built in a modular way so that you can also attach
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Eshte e ndertuar ne nje menyre modelare, sa te bashkangjisesh
07:51
a satellite module so that you could have
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nje modelar satelitor qe te keni
07:53
Internet connectivity even in very remote areas.
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rrjet interneti edhe ne zonat me te largeta.
07:56
Out of adversity can come innovation,
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Jashte fatkeqesive mund te dali risia,
07:59
and how can we help the ambitious coders and makers
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dhe si mund te ndihmojme shifruesit dhe krijuesit ambincioz
08:03
in Kenya to be resilient in the face of problematic infrastructure?
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ne Kenya te jene elastik ne rastin e infrastruktures problematike?
08:07
And for us, we begin with solving the problem
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Sa per ne, ne fillojme te zgjidhim problemin
08:09
in our own backyard in Kenya.
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ne oborrin tone ne Kenya.
08:12
It is not without challenge.
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Nuk ndodh pa sfida.
08:15
Our team has basically been mules carrying components
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Ekipi jone eshte treguar kokeforte me mbajtjen e komponenteve
08:17
from the U.S. to Kenya. We've had very interesting conversations
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nga Amerika ne Kenya. Kemi pasur biseda shume interesante
08:21
with customs border agents.
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me agjente doganor kufitar.
08:22
"What are you carrying?"
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"Cfare po mbartni"?
08:24
And the local financing is not
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Dhe financimi lokal nuk eshte
08:27
part of the ecosystem for supporting hardware projects.
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pjese e ekosistemit per mbeshtetjen e projekteve programuese.
08:32
So we put it on Kickstarter, and I'm happy to say that,
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Pra e vendosem ne Kickstarter, dhe jam e lumtur te them se
08:35
through the support of many people,
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me mbeshtetjen e shume njerezve
08:37
not only here but online,
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jo vetem ketu por dhe ne rrjet,
08:39
the BRCK has been Kickstarted,
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BRCK ka filluar,
08:42
and now the interesting part of bringing this to market begins.
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dhe tani fillon pjesa interesante e te sjellit kete ne treg.
08:46
I will close by saying that, if we solve this
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Do e mbyll duke thene se, nese zgjidhim kete
08:49
for the local market, it could be impactful
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per tregun lokal, mund te jete ndikuese
08:51
not only for the coders in Nairobi
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jo vetem per shifruesit ne Nairobi
08:54
but also for small business owners
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por dhe per zoterues te bizneseve te vogla
08:56
who need reliable connectivity,
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te cilet kerkojne lidhje te besueshme,
08:59
and it can reduce the cost of connecting,
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mund te reduktoje koston e lidhjes,
09:01
and hopefully collaboration within African countries.
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dhe ti japi shprese bashkepunimit midis shteteve Afrikane.
09:05
The idea is that the building blocks of the digital economy
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Idea eshte qe blloqet e ndertimit te ekonomise dixhitale
09:10
are connectivity and entrepreneurship.
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jane lidhja dhe ndermarresia.
09:14
The BRCK is our part
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BRCK eshte pjese e jona
09:16
to keep Africans connected,
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te mbajme Afrikanet te lidhur,
09:19
and to help them drive the global digital revolution.
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dhe ti ndihmojne te ecin drejt revolucionit dixhital global.
09:23
Thank you.
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Faleminderit.
09:24
(Applause)
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(Duratrokitje)
Translated by Alisa Xholi
Reviewed by Helena Bedalli

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ABOUT THE SPEAKER
Juliana Rotich - Tech entrepreneur
Juliana Rotich is the co-founder of Ushahidi, open-source software for collecting and mapping information -- and of iHub, a collective tech space in Nairobi, Kenya. She is a TED Senior Fellow.

Why you should listen

Juliana Rotich is co-founder and executive director of Ushahidi, a nonprofit tech company, born in Africa, that develops free and open-source software for information collection, interactive mapping and data curation. Ushahidi builds tools for democratizing information, increasing transparency and lowering the barriers for individuals to share their stories. Through Crowdmap.com, Swiftly.org and accompanying mobile applications, Ushahidi is making crowdsourcing tools available and useful. Their latest product is BRCK, a tool for resilient connectivity -- anywhere.

Rotich is also a founder of iHub, a Nairobi tech space described as "part open community workspace (co-working), part vector for investors and VCs and part incubator." She is a TED Senior Fellow and serves on the World Economic Forum's Global Agenda Council on Information Communications Technology. She co-founded Mobisoko, a mobile marketplace for language and location relevant apps in Africa. She was named Social Entrepreneur of the Year in 2011 by The World Economic Forum.

More profile about the speaker
Juliana Rotich | Speaker | TED.com