Made in Burkina

In 2009 and 2010 Giovanni, together with Franco Papeschi and supervised by Valentina Nisi, installed a satellite Internet connection in the town of Ouahigouya, in the north of Burkina Faso. A group of Locals took part in a series of workshops intended as an introduction to the Internet and an opportunity for them to generate concepts for services on a local and global scale.

In this page, you see the concept of Abel and Olle'.

Abel was very fascinated by Google Maps. So he imagined a system in which visitors coming to Ouahigouya would be given a printed map where interesting locations are highlighted. Together with some basic information about the location, there was the telephone number of a local person who had some specific information about the place. This person, when contacted via the phone would offer a voice-guided tour. The concept revealed to us a lot about the local culture, the dreams and the needs of the local people.

Our participant Ollé proposed a simple idea, he says: “When a Western visitor comes here, most likely he will buy a drum to bring home. I know that after some weeks, when back home, he won’t enjoy his drum much, because he lacks of technique. I would like to combine my drums with my Skype contact. So that after I sell it, I can provide him or her with extra lessons on remote, and establish a relationship.” Ollé combined a service, the lessons, with a product, the drum. He created a strategy aiming to get some revenue out of these ‘drum lessons’ in the long term, as well as gaining in contacts and personal network.

This project is broadly illustrated in the book “Made in Burkina”. Read it online, download the PDF or buy your printed copy

More information about the project can be found by following this link.

Year: 2009

Description: A series of workshops with Locals in Ouahigouya (Burkina Faso) based on the availability of an Internet connection.