{"id":2853,"date":"2012-02-05T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2012-02-05T08:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fpisani.wpengine.com\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/"},"modified":"2012-02-05T09:00:00","modified_gmt":"2012-02-05T08:00:00","slug":"learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces – Francis Pisani"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Since Africa is trying to solve problems that we in the Western world do not have, it\u2019s tempting to say that\u00a0innovation there isn\u2019t really relevant to us. But upon visiting Africa, one realizes that to ignore its recent innovations is a big mistake.<\/p>\n

Take the case, for example, of the most modern payment technology commonly used today in the North: the credit card. It has hardly changed since the 50s in the last century. If they really wanted to simplify our lives, the heads of Visa, MasterCard and American Express would take a trip through Africa.<\/p>\n

M-Pesa<\/h3>\n

In Kenya, you\u2019ll find\u00a0M-Pesa<\/a>. It\u2019s not a banking system for mobile phones, but a technology that facilitates money transfers. This is a major difference, since M-Pesa doesn\u2019t require users to have a bank account, a necessity its Kenyan innovators were responding to.<\/p>\n

\"Screen\u201cWhen we launched M-Pesa, only a tiny fraction of the population had a bank account. It was too expensive,\u201d Waceke Mbugua, director of marketing and communication at Sararicom, told me.\u00a0Safaricom<\/a>\u00a0is the primary mobile operator in Kenya, and the initiator of\u00a0M-Pesa<\/a>\u00a0(\u2018pesa\u2019 means \u2018money\u2019 in Swahili, so M-Pesa means \u2018mobile money.\u2019)<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cA large number of Kenyans live in the big cities and send money every week to family members in the interior. Without access to the banking system, they had to travel there themselves, or find a trusted bus driver and give him a handful of bills for their family to collect when the bus stops in their village,\u201d Mbugua said.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Launched as a pilot project in March 2007 (with help from a Vodafone investment and aid from the Danish government), the service already has more than 15 million users, 80% of Safaricom\u2019s customers. The company now controls 75% of Kenya\u2019s mobile phone market.<\/p>\n

But what\u2019s even more impressive:<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cThe funds transferred by M-Pesa are equal to 25% of the country\u2019s GNP,\u201d said Sitoyo Lopokoiyit, an economist at the company. It\u2019s even more remarkable when you consider that most of the transactions are for fifty cents (U.S.) or less.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cSince we started, nearly $11.5 billion dollars have passed through our service. There\u2019s no interest and we don\u2019t do loans. The transactions occur instantaneously, and most of the time the money stays in the account less than a week,\u201d Lopokoiyit adds.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Kenyans use the service today to pay for water and electric and cable bills, as well as for their children\u2019s schools. They can use it to make purchases at certain stores, even mom-and-pop shops.
They can withdraw or deposit their money through a network of more than 2,000 sales points throughout the country, where they can buy the scratch cards containing the codes needed to fill their account.<\/p>\n

\u201cM-Pesa makes people\u2019s lives easier and helps them save money while traveling,\u201d Mbugua explained.
I have the bank accounts (not very full, but I have them) and credit cards that the majority of Kenyans do not, but the truth is that when a user loading his account at one of Nairobi\u2019s stores told me that he could buy vegetables and pay for his electricity with his mobile phone, I realized the less connected of us was not who you might think.<\/p>\n

iHub, A Space for Ideas<\/h3>\n

\"Screen<\/p>\n

Nairobi, Kenya\u2019s largest city and capital,\u00a0is an extremely active place for geeks, entrepreneurs and activists. Many of whom meet at\u00a0iHub<\/a>, a nearly mythical co-working space throughout Africa. It is associated with the birth of\u00a0Ushahidi<\/a>, the best-known African software platform, which allows users to create crowdsourced maps for reporting everything from voting fraud (Mubarak in Egypt) to locating aid stations during catastrophes like\u00a0Fukushima<\/a>. It has been used in more than 20,000 situations and events.<\/p>\n

The team that created Ushahidi in 2008 was part of a small community that had to use cafes and conference rooms when they wanted to meet. Until they decided to create their own space.<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cWe didn\u2019t want Ushahidi to be the only success story to come out of the country,\u201d said iHub\u2019s Community Manager, Tosh. \u201cWe were convinced that, since it\u2019s based on open source, our community could make an even greater contribution.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The first thing the team installed was broadband (now 20 MBps). \u201cPeople started coming as soon as we opened, which shows how big the need was.\u201d The broadband lines got overloaded and they had to get organized.<\/p>\n

iHub now has more than 5,000 members, of varying status, indicated by colors.\u00a0The majority of members are called White Members. This is a virtual community, which has access to information and conversations, but not to the physical space itself. There are nearly 250 Green Members who have free access to everything, but must renew membership every year. \u201cWe want people who are doing things, not just talking about doing things,\u201d Tosh said. \u201cAnd we want to see what they are doing, how they benefit from iHub.\u201d The ten Red Members pay $100 USD a month for a \u201csemi-permanent\u201d office and locker, for up to six months.<\/p>\n

The idea situation is \u201cto have a group of brilliant people with similar interests, capable of creating web sites, mobile apps or quality design all under one roof. A lot of great ideas come out of random conversations. The main thing is to have direct access to the ideas coming out of this collective space.\u201d
Besides being around other people, an essential aspect of iHub\u2019s dynamic comes from events organized around the companies that work there, notable people, and group activities like conferences, hackathons and workshops.<\/p>\n

Something like this is harder to create than one would think. Several factors seem to have played a vital role. The first two, noted by Tosh himself, are government funding and the fact that many in Kenya are interested in\u00a0ICTs<\/a>. More important was the pre-existing community of \u201cindependent and free-lance workers. It\u2019s their interaction that created the community,\u201d Tosh said.<\/p>\n

The funding \u2013 millions of dollars over several years \u2013 and advice provided by theOmidyar Network<\/a>, created by eBay\u2019s founder, helped immensely. What also struck me was the existence of a research unit, since you need to do more than just put geeks in a room with broadband. You need to work on the overarching objective of a space like this: how to help people who want to collaborate do so in the most fruitful way.<\/p>\n

Finally, as a not-so-strange-attractor, iHub also acts as a magnet for a host of other initiatives located on different floors of the same building: incubators like\u00a0Nailab<\/a>, for social entrepreneurs, and\u00a0m:lab<\/a>, for mobile specialists.<\/p>\n

iHub is a fascinating space where one realizes that those who bet on information technologies to change the world \u2013 be they geeks, entrepreneurs or activists \u2013 have a lot in common.<\/p>\n

What do you think? How can we, in the Western world, learn from Kenya?<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\"shutterstock<\/p>\n

Read all of Francis Pisani\u2019s posts\u00a0here on The Next Web<\/a>.<\/p>\n

image credits:\u00a0Anna Omelchenko<\/a>\u00a0via\u00a0shutterstock<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since Africa is trying to solve problems that we in the Western world do not have, it\u2019s tempting to say that\u00a0innovation there isn\u2019t really relevant to us. But upon visiting Africa, one realizes that to ignore its recent innovations is a big mistake. Take the case, for example, of the most modern payment technology commonly […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"newspack_featured_image_position":"","newspack_post_subtitle":"","_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[344,652,651],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2853","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-english","category-technos-3","category-winch5-3","entry"],"yoast_head":"\nLearning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces - Francis Pisani<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces - Francis Pisani\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since Africa is trying to solve problems that we in the Western world do not have, it\u2019s tempting to say that\u00a0innovation there isn\u2019t really relevant to us. But upon visiting Africa, one realizes that to ignore its recent innovations is a big mistake. Take the case, for example, of the most modern payment technology commonly […]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"FRANCIS PISANI\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francis.pisani\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francis.pisani\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-02-05T08:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/02\/05\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Francis Pisani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@francispisani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@francispisani\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Francis Pisani\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Francis Pisani\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/23840424e18a129b90f71aba0809a74d\"},\"headline\":\"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces – Francis Pisani\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-05T08:00:00+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":1172,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/23840424e18a129b90f71aba0809a74d\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\\\/0\\\/73\\\/87\\\/12\\\/2012\\\/02\\\/05\\\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"english\",\"technos\",\"winch5\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/\",\"name\":\"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces - Francis Pisani\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\\\/0\\\/73\\\/87\\\/12\\\/2012\\\/02\\\/05\\\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2012-02-05T08:00:00+00:00\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"http:\\\/\\\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\\\/0\\\/73\\\/87\\\/12\\\/2012\\\/02\\\/05\\\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"http:\\\/\\\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\\\/0\\\/73\\\/87\\\/12\\\/2012\\\/02\\\/05\\\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\\\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces – Francis Pisani\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/\",\"name\":\"FRANCIS PISANI\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/23840424e18a129b90f71aba0809a74d\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":[\"Person\",\"Organization\"],\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/23840424e18a129b90f71aba0809a74d\",\"name\":\"Francis Pisani\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i2.wp.com\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/francis-pisani-photo.jpeg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i2.wp.com\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/francis-pisani-photo.jpeg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i2.wp.com\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/francis-pisani-photo.jpeg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1\",\"width\":200,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"Francis Pisani\"},\"logo\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/i2.wp.com\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2020\\\/08\\\/francis-pisani-photo.jpeg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1\"},\"description\":\"J\u2019enqu\u00eate, je suis et j\u2019analyse les technologies de l\u2019information et de la communication depuis la pr\u00e9histoire (1994). Piqu\u00e9 par la curiosit\u00e9 et l\u2019envie de comprendre ce que je sentais important, je suis all\u00e9 m\u2019installer dans la r\u00e9gion de San Francisco (janvier 1996) o\u00f9 j\u2019ai pass\u00e9 quinze ans \u00e0 enqu\u00eater sur ce qui s\u2019y faisait : l\u2019\u00e9mergence, le boom, le bust et la reprise. Un cycle complet \u00e0 la suite de quoi j\u2019ai trouv\u00e9 que m\u00eame \u00e0 Silicon Valley on peut se r\u00e9p\u00e9ter. En fait j\u2019ai la bougeotte. De retour en Europe (2010), j\u2019ai lanc\u00e9 un tour du monde de l\u2019innovation, le projet Winch 5 -- 45 villes, 32 pays entre septembre 2011 et octobre 2012 - enti\u00e8rement consacr\u00e9 \u00e0 l'\u00e9tude des conditions \u00e9conomiques, financi\u00e8res, culturelles et sociales du d\u00e9veloppement de l'innovation. J\u2019en a rapport\u00e9 des enseignements sur les meilleures fa\u00e7ons de la rendre possible, de l'encourager, de pr\u00e9parer individus, entreprises et nations \u00e0 participer ainsi \u00e0 la construction de leur propre futur. Une aventure fascinante qui m\u2019a permis de rencontrer des gens audacieux, dot\u00e9s d\u2019une grande intelligence ou d\u2019un grand c\u0153ur. Parfois les deux ensembles. Je donne r\u00e9guli\u00e8rement conf\u00e9rences et s\u00e9minaires sur ce sujet dans certaines entreprises fran\u00e7aises de poids : Bouygues Telecom, CapGemini, L'Or\u00e9al, SFR, SNCF, entre autres ainsi que dans des forums moins prestigieux mais dans lesquels l\u2019assistance est passionn\u00e9e Convaincu que l\u2019am\u00e9lioration de nos villes et de la d\u00e9mocratie locale est un enjeu technologique et social majeur, je viens de me lancer dans une nouvelle s\u00e9rie d\u2019enqu\u00eates \u2013 un tour du monde en plusieurs \u00e9tapes nomm\u00e9 Participolis - sur les villes intelligentes ou qui s\u2019efforcent de l\u2019\u00eatre : 20 villes entre janvier 2014 et avril 2015. Je le con\u00e7ois comme une tension constante entre deux p\u00f4les d\u2019un m\u00eame probl\u00e8me : CitySmarting ou l\u2019effort pour rendre les villes plus intelligentes gr\u00e2ce, notamment aux technologies de l\u2019information et Participolis, le fait qu\u2019un meilleur futur pour nos villes ne peut \u00e9merger que de notre participation \u00e0 leur conception et \u00e0 leur gestion. Mes articles et chroniques ont \u00e9t\u00e9 publi\u00e9s par plus de 100 m\u00e9dias sur quatre continents dont Le Monde, El Pa\u00eds (Madrid), Reforma (Mexico), The Next Web (Amsterdam) et Folha de S\u00e3o Paulo (Br\u00e9sil). J'enseigne aussi \u00e0 la Paris School of International Affairs de l'Institut d'\u00c9tudes Politiques de Paris et \u00e0 la WebSchoolFactory. J\u2019ai donn\u00e9 des cours \u00e0 l'Universit\u00e9 de Berkeley et \u00e0 l'Universit\u00e9 de Stanford. Je participe en temps qu\u2019expert au r\u00e9seau Netexplo. J\u2019ai publi\u00e9 plusieurs livres dont Comment le web change le monde, l'alchimie des multitudes (Pearson) avec Dominique Piotet (2008 et 2011). Quand je ne suis pas en vadrouille autour du monde, je vis entre Paris, Barcelone et Mexico. Mais toujours je suis int\u00e9ress\u00e9 par vos commentaires, critiques et suggestions. Francispisani \u00e0 gmailvousconnaissezlasuite Google http:\\\/\\\/tinyurl.com\\\/francispisani Twitter: @francispisani A tout de suite\u2026\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.facebook.com\\\/francis.pisani\",\"https:\\\/\\\/www.linkedin.com\\\/in\\\/francispisani\",\"https:\\\/\\\/x.com\\\/francispisani\",\"https:\\\/\\\/fr.wikipedia.org\\\/wiki\\\/Francis_Pisani\"],\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.francispisani.net\\\/en\\\/author\\\/francis-pisani\\\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces - Francis Pisani","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces - Francis Pisani","og_description":"Since Africa is trying to solve problems that we in the Western world do not have, it\u2019s tempting to say that\u00a0innovation there isn\u2019t really relevant to us. But upon visiting Africa, one realizes that to ignore its recent innovations is a big mistake. Take the case, for example, of the most modern payment technology commonly […]","og_url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/","og_site_name":"FRANCIS PISANI","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francis.pisani","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francis.pisani","article_published_time":"2012-02-05T08:00:00+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/02\/05\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg","type":"","width":"","height":""}],"author":"Francis Pisani","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@francispisani","twitter_site":"@francispisani","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Francis Pisani","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/"},"author":{"name":"Francis Pisani","@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/23840424e18a129b90f71aba0809a74d"},"headline":"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces – Francis Pisani","datePublished":"2012-02-05T08:00:00+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/"},"wordCount":1172,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/23840424e18a129b90f71aba0809a74d"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/02\/05\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg","articleSection":["english","technos","winch5"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/","url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/","name":"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces - Francis Pisani","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"http:\/\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/02\/05\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg","datePublished":"2012-02-05T08:00:00+00:00","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/#primaryimage","url":"http:\/\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/02\/05\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg","contentUrl":"http:\/\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/02\/05\/ob_fe7d13_screen-shot-2012-02-05-at-10-07-41-am-220x60.jpg"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/learning-from-kenya-mobile-money-transfer-and-co-working-spaces\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Learning from Kenya: Mobile money transfer and co-working spaces – Francis Pisani"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/","name":"FRANCIS PISANI","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/23840424e18a129b90f71aba0809a74d"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":["Person","Organization"],"@id":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/#\/schema\/person\/23840424e18a129b90f71aba0809a74d","name":"Francis Pisani","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.francispisani.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/francis-pisani-photo.jpeg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1","url":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.francispisani.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/francis-pisani-photo.jpeg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1","contentUrl":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.francispisani.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/francis-pisani-photo.jpeg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1","width":200,"height":200,"caption":"Francis Pisani"},"logo":{"@id":"https:\/\/i2.wp.com\/www.francispisani.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/francis-pisani-photo.jpeg?fit=200%2C200&ssl=1"},"description":"J\u2019enqu\u00eate, je suis et j\u2019analyse les technologies de l\u2019information et de la communication depuis la pr\u00e9histoire (1994). Piqu\u00e9 par la curiosit\u00e9 et l\u2019envie de comprendre ce que je sentais important, je suis all\u00e9 m\u2019installer dans la r\u00e9gion de San Francisco (janvier 1996) o\u00f9 j\u2019ai pass\u00e9 quinze ans \u00e0 enqu\u00eater sur ce qui s\u2019y faisait : l\u2019\u00e9mergence, le boom, le bust et la reprise. Un cycle complet \u00e0 la suite de quoi j\u2019ai trouv\u00e9 que m\u00eame \u00e0 Silicon Valley on peut se r\u00e9p\u00e9ter. En fait j\u2019ai la bougeotte. De retour en Europe (2010), j\u2019ai lanc\u00e9 un tour du monde de l\u2019innovation, le projet Winch 5 -- 45 villes, 32 pays entre septembre 2011 et octobre 2012 - enti\u00e8rement consacr\u00e9 \u00e0 l'\u00e9tude des conditions \u00e9conomiques, financi\u00e8res, culturelles et sociales du d\u00e9veloppement de l'innovation. J\u2019en a rapport\u00e9 des enseignements sur les meilleures fa\u00e7ons de la rendre possible, de l'encourager, de pr\u00e9parer individus, entreprises et nations \u00e0 participer ainsi \u00e0 la construction de leur propre futur. Une aventure fascinante qui m\u2019a permis de rencontrer des gens audacieux, dot\u00e9s d\u2019une grande intelligence ou d\u2019un grand c\u0153ur. Parfois les deux ensembles. Je donne r\u00e9guli\u00e8rement conf\u00e9rences et s\u00e9minaires sur ce sujet dans certaines entreprises fran\u00e7aises de poids : Bouygues Telecom, CapGemini, L'Or\u00e9al, SFR, SNCF, entre autres ainsi que dans des forums moins prestigieux mais dans lesquels l\u2019assistance est passionn\u00e9e Convaincu que l\u2019am\u00e9lioration de nos villes et de la d\u00e9mocratie locale est un enjeu technologique et social majeur, je viens de me lancer dans une nouvelle s\u00e9rie d\u2019enqu\u00eates \u2013 un tour du monde en plusieurs \u00e9tapes nomm\u00e9 Participolis - sur les villes intelligentes ou qui s\u2019efforcent de l\u2019\u00eatre : 20 villes entre janvier 2014 et avril 2015. Je le con\u00e7ois comme une tension constante entre deux p\u00f4les d\u2019un m\u00eame probl\u00e8me : CitySmarting ou l\u2019effort pour rendre les villes plus intelligentes gr\u00e2ce, notamment aux technologies de l\u2019information et Participolis, le fait qu\u2019un meilleur futur pour nos villes ne peut \u00e9merger que de notre participation \u00e0 leur conception et \u00e0 leur gestion. Mes articles et chroniques ont \u00e9t\u00e9 publi\u00e9s par plus de 100 m\u00e9dias sur quatre continents dont Le Monde, El Pa\u00eds (Madrid), Reforma (Mexico), The Next Web (Amsterdam) et Folha de S\u00e3o Paulo (Br\u00e9sil). J'enseigne aussi \u00e0 la Paris School of International Affairs de l'Institut d'\u00c9tudes Politiques de Paris et \u00e0 la WebSchoolFactory. J\u2019ai donn\u00e9 des cours \u00e0 l'Universit\u00e9 de Berkeley et \u00e0 l'Universit\u00e9 de Stanford. Je participe en temps qu\u2019expert au r\u00e9seau Netexplo. J\u2019ai publi\u00e9 plusieurs livres dont Comment le web change le monde, l'alchimie des multitudes (Pearson) avec Dominique Piotet (2008 et 2011). Quand je ne suis pas en vadrouille autour du monde, je vis entre Paris, Barcelone et Mexico. Mais toujours je suis int\u00e9ress\u00e9 par vos commentaires, critiques et suggestions. Francispisani \u00e0 gmailvousconnaissezlasuite Google http:\/\/tinyurl.com\/francispisani Twitter: @francispisani A tout de suite\u2026","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/francis.pisani","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/francispisani","https:\/\/x.com\/francispisani","https:\/\/fr.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Francis_Pisani"],"url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/author\/francis-pisani\/"}]}},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3195,"url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/it-isnt-a-priority-for-south-africa\/","url_meta":{"origin":2853,"position":0},"title":"IT Isn\u2019t a Priority for South Africa – Francis Pisani","author":"Francis Pisani","date":"4 July 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"South Africa has some strong performers in its Internet and communications technologies (ITCT) activity, but the country doesn\u2019t seem to be making them a real part of its development strategy, and that\u2019s too bad.Let\u2019s begin with the SuccessesPaypal was born from the fusion of two companies, one of which was\u00a0X.com,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "english"","block_context":{"text":"english","link":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/english\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3313,"url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/design-thinking-how-to-innovate-if-youre-not-an-engineer\/","url_meta":{"origin":2853,"position":1},"title":"Design thinking: How to innovate if you\u2019re not an engineer – Francis Pisani","author":"Francis Pisani","date":"10 September 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Tech innovation will always need engineers \u2013 and savvy geeks \u2013 entrepreneurs, and investors excited by risks and the opportunities that come with them.Everyone has their own recipe for success, so there really is no one true way to do things.It\u2019s like brewing, the co-mingling of important elements. The mix\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "english"","block_context":{"text":"english","link":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/english\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"silvio meira Design thinking: How to innovate if youre not an engineer","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/09\/10\/ob_48c821_silvio-meira.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":3033,"url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/journal-off-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":2853,"position":2},"title":"JOURNAL \u2013 Off again – Francis Pisani","author":"Francis Pisani","date":"3 April 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"It\u2019s that time again. I\u2019m writing this in Recife, the first city I\u2019m visiting during my first \u201creal\u201d world tour. By this I mean that, after Mexico, North Africa and part of the Middle East, this time I headed west out of Paris, and am coming back from the east.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "english"","block_context":{"text":"english","link":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/english\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"flight JOURNAL \u2013 Off again","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/04\/03\/ob_07b741_flight.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2946,"url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/accelerating-innovation-in-lebanon-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":2853,"position":3},"title":"\u201cAccelerating\u201d Innovation in Lebanon – Francis Pisani","author":"Francis Pisani","date":"8 March 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"I have no idea how many innovators there in Lebanon fiddling around in their mountain garages with dreams of dethroning Facebook, Google and Twitter. But I\u2019m sure they can find all the resources they need in Beirut\u2019s startup accelerators.Since there\u2019s not really a clear definition, you can get an idea\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "english"","block_context":{"text":"english","link":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/english\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3041,"url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/brazil-ledface-answers-your-subjective-questions\/","url_meta":{"origin":2853,"position":4},"title":"Brazil: Ledface Answers Your Subjective Questions – Francis Pisani","author":"Francis Pisani","date":"6 April 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"Where was Einstein born? You probably don\u2019t know (I don\u2019t), but no big deal: Wikipedia, Google, Yahoo and Bing, to name a few, can give you the answer almost instantaneously. But if you want to find the best book for exploring his theory \u2026 then things get hard.Search engines and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "english"","block_context":{"text":"english","link":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/english\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"ledface Brazil: Ledface Answers Your Subjective Questions","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/04\/06\/ob_da4fdc_ledface.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2925,"url":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/can-turkeys-contribution-to-the-web-be-reproduced-elsewhere\/","url_meta":{"origin":2853,"position":5},"title":"Can Turkey\u2019s contribution to the Web be reproduced elsewhere? – Francis Pisani","author":"Francis Pisani","date":"18 February 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"\u201cIt\u2019s Turkey\u2019s major contribution to the Internet,\u201d says professor Ozg\u00fcr U\u00e7kan of Istanbul Bigli University, of the site ironically called\u00a0Ek\u015fi S\u00f6zl\u00fck, the \u201cSour Dictionary.\u201dThe site has 36,000 authors, and an equal number of users who hope to become authors. It contains more than 10 million entries, gathered into more than\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "english"","block_context":{"text":"english","link":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/english\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Screen shot 2012 02 18 at 12.16.06 PM Can Turkeys contribution to the Web be reproduced elsewhere?","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/img.over-blog-kiwi.com\/0\/73\/87\/12\/2012\/02\/18\/ob_ae4805_screen-shot-2012-02-18-at-12-16-06-pm.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"amp_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2853"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2853\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2853"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2853"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.francispisani.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2853"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}