RootIO Visits Kenya
Kenya has a vibrant media sector, with radio being the most popular medium, especially in rural areas. In addition, Kenya is in the midst of a 'startup boom,' initiated by creative technology and business incubators such as iHub. But at what point does Kenyan radio intersect with Kenyan startup culture? Possibly with rootIO.
Jude Mukundane, rootIO's Chief Technology Officer, traveled to Kenya recently to check out some of the innovations at iHub and other innovation labs in Nairobi and assess how they could benefit from radio as a medium for information dissemination.
iHub in Nairobi, Kenya.
At iHub, Jude came across the following initiatives and mobile applications that have emerged from the space:
Eneza is an app that delivers educational content over SMS upon subscription. The company has considered using radio for hard to reach areas, but it is currently too costly as a channel for information delivery. However, rootIO's goal of creating small, local stations with low setup and overhead capital requirements could provide a unique point of intersection with companies such as Eneza.
Mzalendo is an initiative that collects Parliamentary Hansards and makes them available to the general public in a searchable format. Through searching Hansards and using MP scorecards on the Mzalendo website, Kenyan citizens can assess the performance of their Parliamentary representatives and hold their leaders accountable.
Mzalendo blog posts and relevant information about the National Assembly's activities assists citizens in making informed political engagements, and could serve as a crucial source of content for rootIO radio stations.
After leaving iHub, Jude met up with Jude Mwenda (formerly with the Nation Media Group but now a student at MIT researching into development of civic radio engagement tools among other things), a potential contributor to the rootIO's open source software. Together, they made their way to Radio Africa Group, which runs Classic FM, Kenya's most popular radio station.
Jude Mukundane and Jude Mwenda meet with the technical team at Radio Africa Group, discussing everything from IT to transmission.
At Radio Africa Group, the commercial and technical staff explained the in's and out's of programming and airing of shows, right from the studio to the technical aspects of having a show aired to the factors that determine what show is aired. Such large stations need to invest a lot in both technology and human assets.
Alex from Classic FM, explains studio procedures to Jude Mukundane and Jude Mwenda.
Jude's final destination was the Innovation Lab at Strathmore University. Speaking to a group of about 10 students and administrators, Jude led a discussion about the current model of radio and the potential benefits that could be introduced by rootIO.
After the discussion, the students played with an example rootIO station, which used a Samsung Galaxy Pocket, a car FM transmitter, and a 9V battery for power.
rootIO micro station demo at Strathmore University.
To test the rootIO station's diverse functionality, Jude played a music program, interrupted it with news streamed from the cloud server, and added a voice call-in to simulate a talk show. The demonstration left students wondering how they could appeal for a rootIO station spanning their university!
There generally was appreciation of the rootIO concept as a potential solution to the problems associated with radio and as a way of making a very powerful communication medium even more valuable to the societies that depend heavily on it. Without a doubt, the challenges facing radio in Sub-Saharan African countries are largely the same and rootIO is applicable beyond the boundaries of Uganda.
