Then, I said, let us begin and create in idea a State; and yet the true creator is necessity, who is the mother of our invention.English lessons give us a chance to discuss and possibly innovate ways to address our needs in Istanbul. Innovation demands creativity, and creativity requires a unique perception of our needs and challenges. Let's start with our perception of innovation in Africa:
Listen for the answers to these questions while listening to the TED talk, Toby Shapshak: You don't need an app for that:
- What innovations come from Africa?
- How is mobile technology being used in Africa?
- How does the English proverb "necessity is the mother of invention" apply to Africa?
- Africa
- African
- breakwater
- Dark
- electricity
- innovation
- invent
- inventor
- need
- out of necessity
- pay-as-you-go
- plug
- problem-solving
- produce
- product
- production
- solve
- swipe
- television
0:26 And let me guess, how many of you, when you arrived here, like me, went and bought a __________SIM card? Yeah? I'll bet you didn't even know you're using __________
technology. __________was a technology, or an idea, pioneered in Africa by a company called Vodacom a good 15 years ago, and now, like franchising, pay-as-you-go is one of the most dominant forces of economic activity in the world.
0:52 So I'm going to talk about __________in Africa, which I think is the purest form, innovation __________. But first, I'm going to ask you some other questions. You don't have to put your hands up. These are rhetorical.
1:05 Why did Nikola Tesla have to __________the alternating current that powers the lights in this building or the city that we're in?
1:12 Why did Henry Ford have to __________the __________line to __________these Fords that came in anything as long as they were black?
1:19 And why did Eric Merrifield have to __________the dolos? Blank stares. That is what a dolos looks like, and in the background, you can see Robben Island. This is a small dolos, and Eric Merrifield is the most famous __________you've never heard of. In 1963, a storm ripped up the harbor in a small South African town called East London, and while he was watching his kids playing with toys made from oxen bones called dolosse, he had the idea for this. It's a bit like a huge jumping jack, and they have used this in every harbor in the world as a __________. The global shipping economy would not be possible without __________technology like this.
2:03 So whenever you talk about __________, you have to put up this picture of the world from space, and people go, "Look, it's the __________Continent." Actually, it isn't. What it is is a map of__________. And it's really easy to see where __________'s going on. All the places with lots of __________, it isn't. (Laughter) (Applause) And the reason it isn't is because everybody's watching __________or playing Angry Birds. (Laughter) (Applause)
2:41 So where it's happening is in __________. Now, this is real __________, not the way people have expropriated the word to talk about launching new __________. This is real __________, and I define it as __________. People are __________real problems in Africa. Why? Because we __________. Because we have real __________. And when we __________real __________for people, we __________them for the rest of the world at the same time.
3:09 So in California, everybody's really excited about a little square of plastic that you __________into a phone and you can __________your credit card, and people say, "We've liberated the credit card from the point of sale terminal." Fantastic. Why do you even __________ a credit card? In __________, we've been doing that for years, and we've been doing it on phones like this.