BRCK Founders Embark On Epic Roadtrip To Promote African Connectivity

This is pretty cool: the folks behind BRCK — the device that allows you to connect to the internet, no matter where you are and without electricity — are embarking on an epic roadtrip from Nairobi to Johannesburg.  The aim of the trip is both to stress test the tech and to network with various tech communities along the way. Using a Land Rover and three motorcycles, the group hopes to arrive in Johannesburg in time for Maker Faire Africa, taking place from 3 to 6 December. That’s 4 400km in nine days, going rom Kenya through Tanzania, Zambia, Botswana and into South Africa.

As Ushahidi co-founder Erik Hersman writes on his blog, it’s pretty important that the crew actually gets to the maker-fueled gathering:
Since I’m a founding organizer for Maker Faire Africa, I’m excited to go back, and this time have a product of our own to show for it. Besides demoing the BRCK and sharing how to build a hardware business in Africa, we’re also going to have some fun hacking on the devices with whoever is around and wants to play with them. We’ll have a couple of our engineers on hand as well.

Interestingly, it looks like the team will also be testing a few new technologies concerning the BRCK.  These include BRCKPi, which is what happens when you combine a BRCK with a Raspberry Pi; integration with satellite communication services (including Immarsat’s iSavi); and Poytning antennas in a bid to create “quick, deployable units at the edge of the grid”.  Included in the places it’ll stop at on the way down is Zambia’s Bongohive, with Hersman set to give the keynote speech at Lusaka’s Startup Weekend...