Belinda Japhet
By Belinda Japhet
In Summary
In some of my more frustrated and self pitying
moments I wonder: what exactly are we communicating with all our 3 smart
phones per person?
Living and hustling in Dar can be extremely
challenging . And while doing both on a daily basis I’m often left
shaking my sweat covered brow at just how life in this exciting- albite
chaotic- city really doesn’t seem to be getting easier even with
technological advancements.
In some of my more frustrated and self pitying
moments I wonder: what exactly are we communicating with all our 3 smart
phones per person?
Where are we rushing to in all the bijajies, cars,
bikes and daladala clogging the city’s roads like poison in the
arteries? Where do all the cues lead to?
What is this utaratibu everyone keeps talking
about? When getting a new bank card takes 3 weeks after having to file a
missing complaint at the police station which of course takes up the
whole day. And as you walk away-again drenched in sweat- you know your
piece of paper will surely end up as a sleeve for your unprescribed
prescription pills at one of your more than various local pharmacies.
phew.. I seem angry I know, but this is all leading to some positive
solutions:
Ordering pizza
Ordering pizza or any yummy food is a basic human
right. What is the point of technology if it doesn’t allow us to laze
around in our pyjamas and order someone else to bring our food to us?
Unfortunately ordering pizza is the least of our
worries. We have all had to give directions and failed at it miserably. I
will refrain from making any comments about the our home grown ways of
giving direction. Google maps just does not cut it in Dar. It can give
you a certain sense of direction of where you ought to be headed but as
for figuring your way through the haphazard maize layout of residential
areas, you are on your own.
But people really forget the GPS application on their phones.
Indeed, it would seem that GPS is one of the most
overlooked applications in consumer technology. GPS is a gold mine of
possibilities and just as useful and game changing as the Internet .
Tracking apps can be easily installed on your smart phone. Surprisingly.
Android has a great solution in the form of the GPS Tracking app. Once
installed on a mobile device with GPS, its location can be checked from
another phone. I Now what if this same phone tracking method can be
applied to the home delivery system in Tanzania? We don’t have formal
street names and house numbers in most of our city, but this should not
stop entrepreneurs from targeting individuals to sell their products to.
Traffic
Ok, this one is a bit ambitious. Other than
loading our tabs and phones with some good 3G, movies, books and music
to keep us sane during those epic jams, is there anything else we can
really do?
Traffic apps are still relatively new and many
people are still sceptical as to their ability to really help in reality
especially in African countries.
Traffic Apps like Waze cannot work in Africa and don’t let
anyone lie to you about that. So what option do we have? Traffic butter
its called and wait for it..it designed for dodging traffic in Nigeria.
I’ve never been, but I’ve heard that Lagos traffic
jams are what all good Christian Nigerians think of when forced to
imagine hell. The app sounds just wonderful and can easy be used in TZ.
Why? Imagine being able to dodge traffic by
getting data from traffic by community-powered notifications, and
updates for users by SMS, Twitter or on iOs/Android apps. So people are
basically helping each other. We’ve all seen daladala drivers do it, but
just imagine it on a bigger scale , with better communication tools.
While we’re on the issue of traffic and GPS
Singapore has used GPS technology to try to solve its traffic problem,
and many experts feel that it is a country to watch in this department.
Why? because with more than 5.6 million people living in an area of 700
sq km Singapore is one of the most highly congested places out there.
But authorities along with California-based Urban
Engines, which uses data from travel cards which are issued to
residents, along with GPS data from trains and buses to draw up a
detailed model of how the residents of a city move through their
transport system. Part of the solution has come in the form of an
incentive for passengers: if they registered their smart travel cards
and commute in the hour after these peak times, they would earn points
which can be used in a raffle to win cash.
Littering
This one just gets me down. But no app can really
fix this until we all decide that we want a clean city. But if only
there was an app...an app that allows you to send a zaap of extremely
high voltage electric shock (not lethal but almost) at anyone you see
littering.....
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