The Challenges of High Tech, e.g. Bikes

Nicholas Kristoff wrote a good story in the Grey Lady on the power of bikes to transform lives in Africa.

It's a nice Kristoff-style human interest piece. What really intrigued me was his comment on the bikes they chose and the methods of maintaining them:

[The donor's] plan was to ship used bicycles from the United States, but after visits to the field he decided that they would break down. ... After consulting with local people and looking at the spare parts available in remote areas, Mr. Day’s engineering staff designed a 55-pound one-speed bicycle that needed little pampering. One notorious problem with aid groups is that they introduce new technologies that can’t always be sustained; the developing world is full of expensive wells that don’t work because the pumps have broken and there is no one to repair them.

So World Bicycle Relief trains one mechanic — equipped with basic spare parts and tools — for every 50 bicycles distributed, thus nurturing small businesses as well.

Those are the problems encountered with mechanical bikes. The same idea applies to deploying technology - computers and software can't just be airdropped into a country if you want to actually make anything happen. More on our work with the high-tech equivalent of bike mechanic entrepreneurs later today.