RootIO Demo

We arrived in Kampala almost a week ago, and have spent our days acclimating to the environment and timezone, and preparing demos for the Uganda Radio Network and UNICEF Innovation Lab. Much of the work has been integrating the web interface, telephony server and mobile client, and preparing compelling user scenarios and documentation. Ruth has been a great help with graphic design, creating beautiful illustrations and useful maps.

We have mainly been working at the Outbox Hub in Kampala, a few blocks from our apartment. They are located in what used to be the local Google office, and share a building with ThoughtWorks. Their office is colorful, lively and breezy, and if this is indicative of the rest of the tech scene in the city, the future looks bright indeed.

Recording sample voice prompts

Coworking at Outbox

The demos to URN and UNICEF involve an example use by a journalist on the scene of breaking news, who can call in to the system and be patched through live to stations that have subscribed to the reports. While it isn’t much more than a conference call at the moment, we are building the underlying infrastructure to be flexible, powerful, and easy to use. And Chris says that five phones going off at the same time makes a compelling demo.

Demo Setup

RootIO Presentation to URN

We’ll spend the next week on building out the rest of the scheduling and telephony tools, and working with URN and UNICEF to identify areas for pilot stations. And also enjoying vibrant and verdant Kampala, while avoiding being struck by the ubiquitous boda drivers. More updates and adventures to come!