The history of IoT starts with the old hands in the factories knowing their machines inside out and hearing when they would break down. From the fifties their skills were exchanged for tailored sensors for all of the indicators that the factory people knew: vibration, heat, sound, rhythm… The data from these sensors was stored in local (LAN) environments from the fifties. This was automation. As more machines, also from other locations were connected, more data from machines in other locations was stored and Machine Learning and now AI was able to find new connections to make the machines run better and build better ones. It was always at the edge, before it was called the edge.

IoT (Internet of Things) might have an image of complexity and expensive hardware, but actually it is not. It is perfectly capable of starting with affordable and fixable open source software and hardware, open source AI and Machine Learning and available connectivity. 

The real benefit of IoT is not data as such but creating a decision making system based on as objective as possible data. This makes good decisions possible  in agriculture (smart irrigation, livestock monitoring), healthcare (remote diagnostics for rural areas), mining(safety, asset tracking), smart cities (energy, waste, traffic), and logistics (fleet management, supply chain security) and emergent scenarios.

In this webinar we want to introduce the work of Abdur Rahim Biswas, Managing Director at WAZIUP and David Li, Director at Shenzhen Open Innovation Lab in various African locations, their lessons learned and the motto to look very carefully at what has worked so far, before starting projects with assumptions not based in local realities.

At the heart of the discussion is the work of Joy Tang, Internet of Things Whole System & Innovation Strategist,  who for the past decades has been working in different African contexts. 

With the evolution of the Internet, she has been focusing on the design, development and deployment of oneVillage Initiative (OVI) for whole system thinking and collaboration:

• Highlights the role of ICT in building an interdisciplinary, bottom up approach

• Focuses on critical issues that threaten the viability and stability of global villages;

• Provides capacity building services to unleash human potential and motivation to do good.

She is currently in Zinder, Niger, attempting to create a Tech Hub for local production. Through the seminar we want to find ideas, projects and sponsors.