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OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

okhi.co

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Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#11

Post by timwiththebo »

Thanks for all for the feedback, we clearly need to work on our website messaging!

To be honest, we just pulled together the website last week; we weren't quite expecting this attention... but bring on all the early feedback!

To try to help explain in a little more detail what we're up to...

* Problem * The lack of physical address system is a huge problem here in Kenya. Here is the GPS trail of a fast food delivery rider that we tracked recently in Nairobi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cIaBTJxdddY

He went 462% further than he needed to because there was no clear destination address. Imagine what that's doing for business efficiencies and customer experience? Imagine that track is not a delivery motorbike but an ambulance.

Last week an ambulance driver told us he was so lost earlier in the week that he spent 20mins in a 500m radius trying to find the house. Unfortunately when he arrived, the casualty was dead.

This is happening 1000s of times a day all over Kenya and other emerging markets around the world.

* Solution *

The short/honest answer is that we don't know yet. The longer answer is our vision.

We believe that at OkHi we can build the next generation of an address system. A system that can truly scale in countries like Kenya and beyond.

Imagine OkHi as a simple address book on your phone that allows you to easily create a digital equivalent of a physical address. You also have access to the addresses of family, friends and useful businesses.

With the OkHi address book, you can now securely share or receive addresses to: - ensure the ambulance trying to find your mum's house doesn't get lost - help the pizza delivery restaurant get food to you still piping hot - be confident that you're not going to be late for your first interview

Exactly what an OkHi address is, we don't know right now. GPS will be part of it but not all of it. Each week we're running lean experiments to try to find out.

We're super keen to get everyone's input and ideas so comment away or ping me directly at timbo@okhi.co.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#12

Post by ithkuil »

brianbreslin wrote: post #6

Hmm this is interesting. I could see the value in other developing countries like Nicaragua where there are no street signs anywhere. Directions are "100 meters from the chicken shop, take a left"

Rural Ireland has the same problem. Streets usually do have a name, but often they have more than one name and it's not clear which segment has a name and which another. Houses don't have numbers but names, and it's often not written on the house. Postcodes are only available for Dublin.

And it's funny how people don't see it as a problem, even after you spell it out.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#13

Post by ColinWright »

timwiththebo wrote: post #11

Thanks for all for the feedback, we clearly need to work on our website messaging! To be honest, we just pulled together the website last week; we weren't quite expecting this attention... but bring on all the early feedback! To try to help explain in a little more detail what we're up to... * Problem * The lack of physical address system is a huge problem here in Kenya. Here is the GPS trail of a fast food delivery…

OK, here are my immediate thoughts about solving the problem. It comes in two parts - setting up, and finding.

Setting up ...

* Take a photo of your front door (or where ever it is you're meeting),

* Include your lat/long,

* Create a unique, private ID (or URL of some sort),

* Share it.

Finding ...

* Point the app at the URL

* The app guides you to the lat/long

* The app displays how close you are, and the photo.

Is that what you do? If it's slick and usable then it could be really good. If it's something else that you do then it would be fascinating to see a compare-and-contrast.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#14

Post by doxcf434 »

BronSteeDiam wrote: post #10
jhull wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. They list "Create" "Share" and "Relax" but there is no "Why"

If you live in a country with no addresses, you don't need to be told "Why". From their blog "So what’s wrong with the physical address system in Kenya? It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s that it fundamentally doesn’t exist. The majority of homes do not have a name or number, rarely have a street name and definitely no national level post or zip code. This leads to major social and economic issues that are throttlin…

The screen shots of the app on Google Play do show streets and names on a map though.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#15

Post by jhull »

BronSteeDiam wrote: post #10
jhull wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Exactly. They list "Create" "Share" and "Relax" but there is no "Why"

If you live in a country with no addresses, you don't need to be told "Why". From their blog "So what’s wrong with the physical address system in Kenya? It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s that it fundamentally doesn’t exist. The majority of homes do not have a name or number, rarely have a street name and definitely no national level post or zip code. This leads to major social and economic issues that are throttlin…

My point is, why do I need to dig to the bottom post of their blog in order to find out what they do. That should be clear on the homepage.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#16

Post by deftnerd »

I thought that What3Words.com had a clever solution to this problem but they just didn't seem to get any traction. They simply sliced the planet into billions (trillions?) of pieces geographically and assigned 3 words to each square meter space. This allowed someone to say "meet me at foggy banana stovepipe".

Some of the downsides was that it only used the english language and that the next square meter over might be "purple dolphin bug" so there was no intuitive relation between square meter locations in any region.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#17

Post by doxcf434 »

ithkuil wrote: post #12
brianbreslin wrote: post #6

Hmm this is interesting. I could see the value in other developing countries like Nicaragua where there are no street signs anywhere. Directions are "100 meters from the chicken shop, take a left"

Rural Ireland has the same problem. Streets usually do have a name, but often they have more than one name and it's not clear which segment has a name and which another. Houses don't have numbers but names, and it's often not written on the house. Postcodes are only available for Dublin. And it's funny how people don't see it as a problem, even after you spell it out.

Japan doesn't have street names (normally), they number the blocks and houses. Which is a bit confusing, since the numbers of the houses are not necessarily in order either, other than generally assigned clockwise as they're built. So finding an address with out a map or asking someone can be tricky.

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#19

Post by patcon »

jhull wrote: post #15
BronSteeDiam wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you live in a country with no addresses, you don't need to be told "Why". From their blog "So what’s wrong with the physical address system in Kenya? It’s not that it doesn’t work, it’s that it fundamentally doesn’t exist. The majority of homes do not have a name or number, rarely have a street name and definitely no national level post or zip code. This leads to major social and economic issues that are throttlin…

My point is, why do I need to dig to the bottom post of their blog in order to find out what they do. That should be clear on the homepage.

I think their point was that it might not be a matter of how easy it would be to help you understand, but that not every website is trying to communicate with a Western man or woman.

On the flip, can you imagine how inadequate most landing page messaging is for someone from Botswana or even Nicaragua :)

Re: OkHi – Solving the lack of a physical address system in Kenya

#20

Post by eertami »

kmarima wrote: post #18

sounds very similar to http://mydoor.co/

Maybe it's just me and I'm missing the point entirely, but what is the difference between linking to a "door handle" or just a map. You can include some text? I just don't see what the problem they are trying to solve is.
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