The iPhone comes to Malawi

I'm here in Malawi visiting William Kamkwamba and my friends at Baobab Health Partnership: Gerry Douglas, the founder; Soyapi Mumba, Oliver Gadabu, Alex Gondwe, Mwatha Bwanali; and when he returns September 3rd, Mike McKay,

I brought my iPhone with me and the guys were so excited to play with it. Soyapi figured it all out instantly as is his nature; after all, he is the first Twitterer in Malawi, and certainly one of the first in Africa. Then I showed them that it worked on their wifi network and they instantly tried their HIV patient care software which normally operates on touch-screen-retrofitted NetPliance I-Openers running Linux and Firefox. The touch screen terminals allow caregivers to give better care to more patients than using paper charts.

HUGE Smiles all around... Not only did it work perfectly, but the interface actually looked better than its already very high standard, thanks to Safari on the iPhone interface toolbox. All the touch screen buttons worked just like they do on the full size terminal.  It also works great on a Nokia N800 Internet Wifi tablet that Gerry brought from his the other half of the year home in Pittsburgh, although that requires a stylus.

Then Gerry came in and saw the app on the iPhone and the pictures speak for themselves.

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Mwatha, Soyapi (with iPhone), and Oliver

Comments

[Juliana]

Hi Tom! Glad to find your blog, (subscribed to the feed!) i hope all is well in malawi.
Best,
Juliana

[Victor Kaonga]

So that is how Soyapi goes his! He blogged about it. Great news. You are right about your observations on Soyapi-"Soyapi figured it all out instantly as is his nature; after all, he is the first Twitterer in Malawi, and certainly one of the first in Africa."