A Conversation Between Fritz and Fee

Fritz Ekwoge, the serial entrepreneur co-founder of Kerawa.com and creator of iYam.mobi, has returned from a prolonged blogging hiatus with a creative and entertaining interview with…himself. Fee, a self-described African geek (pictured at right, below) sat down for a talk with his alter ego, Fritz, the Cameroonian technology journalist, at Limbe Labs Ventures’ third floor balcony.

An excerpt from their unique conversation follows:

Fritz: Hi Fee.
Fee: Hi Fritz.
Fritz: So this is one of those bizarre moments when you talk to yourself, huh?
Fee: I guess it is.
Fritz: What do you suggest we talk about today?
Fee: How about we do a talk on the new product I am about to launch, iYam.mobi. Some nice folks out there might be interested in the whats and whys and hows even before launch.
Fritz: That will be cool. It definitely might give some answers to those who want to know what you’ve been cooking up lately, especially after the success of your online classifieds site Kerawa.com has had in Cameroon for some years now.
Fee: That’s the idea. If we’re cool with the concept, I’ll play myself. An African geek, who is now trying to obtain more money from his passion. You’ll play the Cameroonian journalist who likes reporting more on tech than politics. Strange, huh?
Fritz: What’s strange? You having a conversation with yourself, or a Cameroonian journalist reporting on tech.
Fee: Both actually.
Fee: Do you think we can do this?
Fritz: Definitely. I like this idea. Shall we begin?

Fritz and Fee discuss the evolution of iYam.mobi, an SMS-based ‘mobile mobile’ phone directory he prototyped last year. The centerpiece of the new iYam.mobi service is the SMS Apps Store—a distribution platform which allows anyone to create, consume and profit from local content. The service was designed from the outset to meet the needs of African customers, many of whom rely on low-end handsets or cannot afford cost-prohibitive mobile data rates. The platform uses a virtual currency of “iYam credits” to deliver prepaid content to subscribers daily, weekly or as-it-happens.

In addition to one-way Apps Store content delivery, iYam.mobi has extended its two-way search that allows users to query the directory and have results returned via SMS. Today, the platform enables content providers to post updates via web or SMS, so publishers can broadcast updates from any device and subscribers can get their chosen content in real-time. For developers, iYam.mobi’s application programming interface (API) opens up possibilities such as interactive SMS apps, games and custom search (flight schedules, market prices, etc.) limited only by the imagination of the developer. In this way, an entrepreneurial coder can focus on creating a compelling service and leave the heavy lifting to iYam’s hosted application framework.

Fritz is in the process of obtaining his VAS (value added service) license now. In the meantime, the SMS Apps Store is in private beta, with a public debut for Cameroon scheduled in June. Read more about the iYam.Mobi Apps Store in the full interview.

Big Welcome to AMIS Project Cameroon

We’re very pleased to have Nyiwung Valery Colong, the technical lead of the AMIS Project Cameroon team, join us as a full-time coworker at Limbe Labs. Valery is an articulate and inspirational young software entrepreneur whose passion for technology is superseded only by his desire to improve the lives of others. His particular focus is on smallholder farmers in Cameroon—a group with whom he shares a very personal connection.

African smallholder farmers strive to increase the productivity of their farms and make economic gains for themselves. Unfortunately, despite all their labor inputs, most African farmers end up subsisting on $1 per day while their goods are bought and sold on open markets at many times their wholesale price. Many farmers struggle to provide basic needs for their families and are unable to purchase equipment and supplies to enhance the output of their farms. Other times, following a harvest, market demand falls off and produce is sold at a loss. Combined with poor roads, pests and unpredictable weather, these challenges are often collectively referred to as the “Farmers’ Plight.”

AMIS seeks to empower smallholder farmers in two innovative ways. First, by using mobile phones, AMIS connects farmers and buyers directly with SMS thus bypassing often exploitative middlemen. Both parties benefit from the transaction; the farmers fetch better prices for their goods while buyers enjoy high quality products at reduced costs. At the same time, information about weather forecasts, sustainable farming practices and so on can be easily distributed to stakeholders. Secondly, in conversations with farmers, AMIS found that they are keen to form local associations that are able to pool resources and store their harvests until market conditions are favorable. SMS is an inexpensive, ubiquitous medium to enable this sort of community-building effort.

In May of this year, Valery traveled to San Jose, California to take part in TechSoupGlobal’s N2Y4 Conference to present AMIS as a finalist in the N2Y4 Mobile Challenge. While AMIS did not win the overall competition, Microsoft awarded the project team with an honorary cash prize to recognize their vision. EnvisionGood.tv had a chance to talk with Valery at the conference and learn how mobile phones and SMS are being used in Cameroon to help farmers: