Digitaltoybox is a blog on things I find interesting. This may cover anything from business strategy, financial markets, to interesting projects, innovation, scuba diving, photography and anything else in between
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This short questionnaire is intended to conduct market research and collect information from entrepreneurs, founders and start-ups primarily in South Africa but also elsewhere in the region. But if you are from somewhere else and want to participate, please give it a go and let us know what you think!
The objectives of this survey is to identify specific areas or steps in the process of getting a start-up off the ground where entrepreneurs may experience difficulties, or where they require assistance to assist in achieving lift-off. If you know of other entrepreneurs, founders and start-ups, specifically in South Africa or in the region, please forward this link to them so that they can also participate in this survey. We will really appreciate it if you do - thank you!
Imagine the end of slums... The end of multi-year construction projects... Imagine radically different costing approaches, and construction projects being completed for substantially cheaper, and much much faster than currently possible.... Imagine how cheaper infrastructure can vastly improve the lives of many. The enormous impact on public budgets if savings can be realised... 3D printing has the potential to completely disrupt a number of industries. To date most of the attention seems to have gone to the potential impact on the manufacturing industry. Various models of affordable entry-level 3D- printers are now available that can print all kinds of interesting items in the comfort of your own house. The technology is perhaps not quite there yet to e.g. print your own stylish clothes, bit I am sure somewhere somebody is working on just that already. Now new developments in technology, and importantly new applications, and the potential impact of these on the building industry is now also starting to draw attention. Read the Popular Mechanics article here
Source: TED Talks
If you own a construction company, its maybe time to start paying attention, that is if its not too late for you already
Now here is something you don't read about every day. Yes, you read that right the first time - Rats can save lives!
Hey mister, did you move my cheese?
Pic - Courtesy of http://blogs.independent.co.uk/2011/05/12/herorat-no-ordinary-rat/
But it is not just any old rat.... Introducing APOPO's specially trained heroRATs. APOPO is a Belgian NGO currently operating in Tanzania, Mozambique, Thailand, Angola and Cambodia.
As you may have guessed, these are not your run of the barn, common garden variety grey rat. No Sir. These are specially trained African giant pouched rats.
And did I mention that they are huge?
So how do they save lives, you might wonder ...
Detection of land mines
Pic -Courtesy of http://blogs.cfr.org/campbell/2011/06/20/herorats-corner-landmines-and-tuberculosis-in-africa/
The HEROrats have been used with great effect to clear land-mine infected areas in Mozambique , Angola, and areas as far as Cambodia, where many many still un-exploded landmines, bombs and other devices remain as potentially fatal reminders of the wars thought in these countries in years gone by.
This short video clip below explains how the rats are trained to detect land mines:
Some of the statistics to date indicated below. These stats from the APOPO website pretty much speak for themselves:
MOZAMBIQUE
Cambodia
If you think about the fact that each of the landmines detected (if still active), and each weapon and each item of ammunition detected through this process, are theoretically capable of killing or harming many, many individuals and or livestock, the number of human lives potentially saved through this intervention are enormous.
Now think of the amount of economic activity (farming, manufacturing, businesses) that now can use the newly reclaimed land for economic activity to operate on, creating jobs, supporting families, - think of the multiplier effect this could have on an economy.
At least 11 scientific papers have been published on the use of rats to clear explosives to date.
Detection of Tuberculosis
But wait, there's more - the HEROrats can also sniff out tuberculosis (TB). You can read more about the TB sniffing process here or watch the short video clip below.
It takes about 9 months to train a rat how to detect TB. But once trained, the rats can assess batches of samples faster than their human lab-assistant counter parts - and in fact they have found that in only 10 min, one trained rat can assess more samples that a human lab-assistant can complete in a day.
To improve the accuracy, teams of 3 or more rats are used to screen the samples. Positive identification is reward with a sound and food treat - Pavlov would have been so happy. To keep the rats honest, every now and again a known positive sample is slipped in between the other test cases (planted so to speak) to check if they still detect it.
Over the last few years in only 1 country these clever rats have identified almost 3,000 wrongly diagnosed TB patients - not a very high number, but it would surely have made a big difference to those 3,000 people and their families. Added to which, you need to consider how infectious TB is - one person infected with TB can over the course of a year infect 10-15 others, which in turn can infect 10-15 others. Etc.
At least 10 scientific papers have been published on the TB detection process to date.
More about Bart, APOPO and his army of HEROrats
This relatively young organisation was started by Bart Weetjens, who used to keep rats as pets during his early childhood. As a young adult, Bart started investigating the highly problematic issue of landmines in Sub-Saharan Africa, and eventually quit his job to pursue this. There are still currently approximately 66 countries and 7 territories in different parts of the world which are affected by landmines, as well as other types of explosive remnants of war. Not only do these items pose a real risk to human and animal life and limb, but they also pose structural barriers to development and economic growth in the regions and countries where they remain.
During Bart's research he discovered an article written in the 1970's about gerbils, dealing specifically with their’ ability to detect explosives in a laboratory setting. This got him thinking of his ratty childhood friends again. The Belgian Directorate for International Cooperation (DGIS) provided the initial financial support to develop the concept in 1997. In the next year APOPO vzw was registered under Belgian law as a non-profit, and started its first research.
Bart and his HEROrats have been featured around the world - here he is giving a TED talk.
Want a novel gift for that friend that already has everything?
Give him a rat. Even better, give an APOPO HEROrat.
APOPO is an NGO and will greatfully accept any individual and corporate contributions and donations. They have created an "Adopt a HEROrat" programme which allows interested individuals the opportunity to support the cause and contribute to saving lives by adopting a HEROrat.
Olympics, World Cups, and other large scale projects qualify as mega projects. These projects are huge in scope, have large budgets, and sometimes very complex requirements. They typically impact not only the local community, but have an international reach - as anybody close to a TV or radio over the next couple of days will tell you. Its that time again - at time of writing this blog, the Sochi Olympics are in full swing. The 22nd Winter Olympics are scheduled to take place from 7 to 23 February 2014, in Sochi, Russia, with some events held in the resort settlement of Krasnaya Polyana.
The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics has not really been the media darling in the last couple of months. Quite far from it actually. Sochi has recently been in the news for all the wrong reasons - really not what you expect from an Olympic Games.
Firstly it has been slated and tarred forperceived, and actual legislated discrimination. This topic was the cause of quite a lot of public debate and negative feedback. But this is an article about mega projects, so that part of the discussion will have to wait for another day.
Secondly, the press has been abuzz with news that thefacilities will not be complete. This picture of surprisingly social toilet facilities went around the world on Twitter. The Olympics are known for breaking down borders (literally) - maybe they intended to create new opportunities for bi-lateral discussion ?
Humour aside, in the weeks and days prior to the event, specifically the Western press has been particularly negative about the extent of preparations. They have been grilling Sochi 24/7, as can be seen from the following rather non-flattering selection of articles:
Originally 1 more pic included but it turned out to be a fake, so I removed it
This type of negative commentary is sadly quite normal, as the hosting country and host city or cities are put under a microscope in full public view with a spot light like never before. And, journalists are out in full force to create stories - that's their job.
Yes, it does happen that not everything might not be 100% finished. It might even be that due to shortage in resources, the project teams had to prioritize and decided to rather install the curtain rail in a hotel room before installing the man-hole cover on the pavement. I am not saying that that is the way it should be, but give credit where it is due.
Even the smallest item gets blown out of perspective and becomes an international media feeding frenzy. Everybody seems to find sadistic joy (schadenfreude) in downplaying the hosts' ability to successfully deliver the event.
When comparing against other events, the state of preparedness is not necessarily far off.
For the Greece Athens Olympics in 2004, there was huge public hysteria, wet paint and work done up to the day of the event. About 3 years after being awarded, the IOC had to reprimand Greece for the lack of progress and they had to call in international assistance. To catch up and save money they e.g. abandoned the construction of the roof over the Olympic swimming pool, cancelled landscaping of certain public areas
Even in Germany, the pinnacle of efficiency, there were challenges during the 2006 World Cup, with the Organizing Committee only getting access to their offices in the main stadium in as little as days or hours before the opening event.
South Africa risked a so-called "Plan B" in the event of not being ready for the 2010 FIFA World Cup, but still managed to complete stadium and other preparations months in advance.
So yes, it is possible to run slightly late or re-prioritize certain parts of the infrastructure planning. Normally the event is an enormous success regardless.
The problem is not with either of the above issues, but rather clearly with the following:
Thirdly, and most importantly - cost. "According to an analysis by Bent Flyvbjerg, chair of major project management at the University of Oxford, and his colleague Allison Stewart, all Olympic games since 1960 have had a cost overrun. On average, they cost nearly three times the initial budget. " - read Akshat Rathi's full article here
So what happened in Sochi? Well they decided to use a resort town that did not have sufficient or appropriate type of facilities to host the Winter Olympics. Fortunately this is a winter Olympics and not the summer event, so it only has to host about one third of the number of events. This might be where you can expect a saving, right ?
Surprisingly not so. Despite having to host a smaller number of events, on average, then, each Winter Olympic event will cost +- $520m. Bargain. But wait, there is more ....
The Sochi Olympics originally proposed a budget of around $12 billion during the bidding stage. This has since mushroomed to an eye-watering $ 50 billion - making Sochi the most expensive Olympic event ever. MOST EXPENSIVE EVER...
No detail breakdown of expenses has been made publicly available to date, and I doubt that it it will. So it is not clear what type of expenses have been included and or excluded from this total cost of $ 50 billion. What is known is that Stochi required quite a bit of work in the line of new venue infrastructure, hotels, and similar to be ready for the various events.
The Sochi Games are also home to one of the most expensive road and railroad combos in the word at $ 9 billion ($ 8.7 to be more precise) for about 31 miles to connect the various towns - read the story on The Economist.
As I have said above, some of the bad press is due to journalists doing their jobs perhaps a bit too well. However, the flip side is that most people would be fired for blowing a budget by more than $ 10, or 20, or 30 billion ... Direct comparison is always difficult. Montreal paid off their Olympic stadium only in 2006, 30 years later. Wonder how long the Russian people will have to pay tax to pay this off?
I have no doubt that the Sochi Olympics will be a tremendous success and wish them all the luck. For anybody who has ever been involved in something like this, it takes a tremendous lot of planning and intensely hard work to make an event of this size work. And even more effort to make it a success. I therefore wish to congratulate everybody that put their hearts and souls into planning and operations of the event, as well as those athletes who reached this level where they compete internationally - I take my hat off to you.
But maybe we need to reconsider what the modern Olympics symbolize in terms of human endeavor - after all, the Olympic motto is Citius—Altius—Fortius, which is Latin for "faster, higher, stronger."
It is not supposed to be a competition where construction companies and politicians compete for gold.
This story that broke on Bloomberg yesterday (30 January 2014) is what I had hoped not to hear for at least another couple of months. The word "contagion"is generally not used lightly
It is estimated that approx 50% of the world's remaining coral reefs either is dead, dying or at the very least damaged. Some estimates go as high as 70%.
There are many causes, sadly most of which have a common denominator - man. One of the major problems - abandoned nets. These throw away nets are not only a risk to coral, but to all wild sea life.
One company is making an effort to stem the tide - See the video below for corporate social responsibility in action
Now to figure out a way to get rid of all the other rubbish, oil and garbage
Ever thought of yourself as a skater boy / skater girl / skater ... erm ... person ? Flying downhill, wind in your hair, doing tricks and being all cool ... just before you fall out your 2 front teeth ? You haven't ? Well why not ?
Well here is something that can change that - introducing the OneWheel:
It might take a second or two to realise that this is no ordinary skateboard. At first you notice the shape is a bit off from what you might be used to. Wait - what happened to the wheels ?
Onewheel, as you may have guessed by now, only has one wheel. But to make up for it, it is a really big and chunky wheel. But wait, thats not all - Onewheel also is an electric, self-balancing skateboard - watch the quick Youtube video below -
So you might even get to keep your front teeth.
The Onewheel has a direct drive motor, seated in the hub of the wheel. It comes with a lithium battery and sensors that control speed and balance (watch the video above). It can reach speeds of 12 mph (20km/h) and has a range of about 4-6 miles (6-9 km).
The Onewheel project is the brainchild of Kyle Doerksen, who set up Future Motion - the company based in Mountain View, California which is developing Onewheel. This product has been literally shooting the lights out on kickstarter, read about them here, and on their own website
Hot on the heels of the Sky Whale, comes the Hoverbike, an invention by an Austrian Chris Malloy.
The pic pretty much says it all - yes his feet are not touching ground (and it doesn't look like he was jumping either). Its inventor believes the bike can travel up to traveling at speeds of up to 173mph at 10,000 feet. (or for those of us who live in the real world 278 km/h at a height of 3 kms). That height might be a bit of an issue for Air Traffic Control, I think
Check out the video (scale model):
Here is a top down view with some key specifications:
Oscar Viñals, a Spanish industrial designer by trade, is clearly a very big aviation enthusiast. So big in fact that he has released details, and his own incredible pictures, of a new proposed airplane he calls the "greenest aircraft imaginable." The Sky Whale - Full story CNN
If the graphics are anything to go by, the Sky Whale makes the average Airbus look like an antique. I would so fly on this !
In my opinion it has a bit of shark in it, maybe a whale shark
In the 1800s there was a railway building craze sweeping through Britain. Just about every Tom, Dick and Harry opened their own railway company - resulting in the British Railway Bubble
For just about as long as I can remember, I have been interested in stock markets and investments
So as part of my investor education, I have decided to do a little research into market bubbles. What causes them, where do they come from, what happens - those kinds of things
I have created a series of presentations on Bubbles which I would like to share with anybody who may be interested - I have also created a dedicated blog for Bubbles specifically - you can find it here: http://bubblespotting.blogspot.com/
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