Hardware Things: Lessons from Scaling Solar Zambia
Hope you’re doing well, compliments of the season! Over the last few months, I've come to the realization that I can't keep up with the Hardware Things...
Hardware Things: Some thoughts on mobility
Hope you’re doing well. Later this month, I'll be attending the International Conference on Engineering Design presenting a paper. If you're going to be...
Hardware Things: For the love of digital fabrication
Hello there, I'm Bukunmi Oyedapo. I specialize in digital fabrication, where I provide support services to woodwork businesses, and design and construction...
Hardware Things: Introducing Super Display
Hope you’re doing well. It's officially Q2, which is around the time I stop saying 'Happy New Year.' Last month's Community Chat with Kayode Alade was...
Hardware Things: What does decentralized manufacturing look like?
Hope you’re doing well. The last few weeks have been very busy! I’ve been running a Kickstarter campaign for one of my products, helping the winning team...
Hardware Things: Partnerships for hardware development
Happy New Year! Hope you’re doing well. A new year is a great opportunity to sell Hardware Things a little bit, so if you enjoy the newsletter I’d like to...
Hardware Things: A special invitation
Hi there! Hope you’re doing well. I’m breaking protocol and sending an email mid-month, but with good reason. Tomorrow at 4.30pm GMT, we’ll be hosting Latiff...
Hardware Things: On Makerspaces
Hope you’re doing well. I haven’t done a good job of promoting the monthly Community Chat. Every month on the third Thursday, I invite someone working on...
Hardware Things: On Digital Agriculture
Hope you’re doing well. TK In case you missed it, here’s last month’s newsletter. First Things First New on hardwarethings.org Things I Enjoyed Reading...
Hardware Things: Build, Prove, Go Offshore
Hope you’re doing well. After writing The Prize Economy last year, I meant to write a follow-up piece focusing on venture capital firms on the continent who...
Hardware Things: Much ado about supply chain
Hope you’re doing well. At the beginning of every year, when I start planning the zine, I have a very faint idea of what is going to be in it. I commission...
Hardware Things: COVID and Cold Storage
Hope you’re doing well. As you may have noticed, there was no newsletter last month. I was dealing with COVID, my first time, and was going through a tough...
Hardware Things: Any luck for remote hardware work?
Hope you’re doing well. After months of work by the teams, I’d like to invite you to the Finals Ceremony of the Welcome To Nigeria Challenge holding tomorrow...
Hardware Things: Community building as a supply chain hedge
Hope you're doing well. This month's letter is a week late due to some personal circumstances, my apologies for that. I'm happy to share that the Welcome to...
Hardware Things: April is here
Hope you're doing well. While I've been a part of design competitions, The Welcome To Nigeria Challenge is the first time I've had to run one. Last week, we...
Hardware Things: Food processing tech in Burkina Faso
Hope you’re doing well. A couple of months ago, I tweaked the structure of the newsletter to have a Q&A with an entrepreneur. I received some positive...
Hardware Things: Some thoughts on battery recycling
Hope you're doing well. A few months ago, Kọ́lá Túbọ̀sún, a Nigerian linguist who's done some NLP work with Google, tweeted about landing in Lagos and seeing...
Hardware Things: The economics of electric motorcycles
Hope you're doing well. It's a new year, and I've got a few plans for Hardware Things that should be interesting. I shared a letter with with members...
Hardware Things: Five years, one paying customer
Hope you're doing well. This month I thought to do something a little different with the newsletter. Instead of the usual headings, I will share the...
Hardware Things: Textile Tech in Mauritius
Hope you're well. My apologies that this is coming a day late. I've become very interested in the construction and design of African musical instruments...
Hardware Things: What's left to learn about Transsion?
Hope you're well. Nick Allen runs Savant in Cape Town, it's an incubator and venture fund that's focused on hardware. Of course, I was interested in learning...
Hardware Things: The case for biomethane
Hope you're doing well. In the editorial for Outside Influence, I mention an excerpt from my interview with Olugbenga Olubanjo who develops battery...
Hardware Things: SHS systems and manufacturing relationships
Hope you’re doing well. To understand how subscribers consume the newsletter, I’ve kept track of the most clicked links from the last 12 months. It’s shown...
Hardware Things: South Africa’s burgeoning space landscape
Hello, I’m David. I’m a satellite technology and space industry analyst focused on the fast-growing African space industry. That involves fun things like...
Hardware Things: On rural schools and electric vehicles
Hope you’re doing well. If you’ve missed travelling due to the pandemic as much as I have, here’s something I think you will love: Drive & Listen. In case...
Hardware Things: Is solar power the right fit for venture capital?
Hope you're well. For the last few months, I've been having monthly calls with newsletter subscribers about what they're building and their thoughts on...
Hardware Things: The Vicious Cycle of Dwell Time
Hope you're well. I've been absorbed the last few months working on a simple timer that is built around my thinking on habit building, it's about 75% done...
Hardware Things: Lessons learnt
Hope you’re doing well. Today is three years since I started writing this newsletter, and in thinking about the time since I would love to learn what you...
Hardware Things: Further down the spectrum
Hope you're doing well. I've done my best to write this newsletter without mentioning COVID-19 so far, but today's letter broke that bet. Hope you enjoy it!...
Hardware Things: How government-led R&D can succeed
Hello there, Happy new year! Hope you’re taking some time to relax. In the spirit of new year resolutions, I would like to invite you to support Hardware...
Hardware Things: Where your tea comes from
Hello there. I hope you enjoyed reading the last two letters from Somto and Wamboga. I’m looking forward to inviting more guests to write the letter....
Hardware Things: On assistive technology
I learnt a lot editing this and it’s always a pleasure having a guest on. Hope you enjoy it - Chuma. Hello, I’m Wamboga, a tyro technology analyst based in...
Hardware Things: What's in the DNA of universal reliable electricity access in Africa?
I love the opportunity to invite guests to write the newsletter, it takes on a different life of its own. Hope you enjoy this - Chuma. Hello, I’m Somto....
Hardware Things: Let there be light
Hello there. Hope you’re doing very well. Something I’ve been thinking about Cape Verde is made up of ten islands off the coast of Senegal. As a result of...
Hardware Things: What's a maternal mortality ratio?
Hello there. Hope you’re doing very well. Something that’s been on my mind As you may know, I’ve been part of a research team documenting maternal health...
Hardware Things: Back to regular programming
Hello there. It's good to be back. There are a number of new subscribers, thanks for joining! This newsletter is primarily to share interesting links from...
Hardware Things: I'm betting that you need a break
Hello there, I’m betting that you need a break from curve flattening, and disinfectants, and Twitter, and Slack, and Zoom, and asking if people can see your...
Hardware Things: One for the road
Happy New Year! I’m taking a break from Hardware Things, so this letter will be the last for a while. I think breaks are good for re-calibrating your energy...
Hardware Things: What does a Made in Africa smartphone mean?
Hello there, Hope you had a great November. The regular newsletter is back. Hardware Things is supported by readers like you, join them on Patreon. Made In...
Hardware Things: Data analytics for PAYGo Solar
Hello there, Today’s newsletter is going to be a long one. As well as this monthly newsletter, I write a profile on a hardware company on the continent doing...
Hardware Things: Community internet networks
Hello there, It’s the best month of the year, and not just because it’s the manufacturing or the open hardware month. Hardware Things is supported by readers...
Hardware Things: The Lean Edition
Hello! This month's letter is slightly leaner and has a spotlight on a cold chain solution. Happy reading! Hardware Things is supported by some lovely...
Hardware Things: On Communities
Hello there! All over the world, communities enable entrepreneurs to develop products and services. Hardware communities tend to be more difficult to set up,...
Hardware Things: The July Edition
Hello there, Happy July! Or Monday, as the case may be. Hardware Things is supported by readers like you, join them on Patreon. Things I Enjoyed Reading A...
Hardware Things: Much ado about motorcycles
Hello there, I hope you had a great May. This month’s letter has a lot of long paragraphs, please accept my sincerest apologies. Hardware Things is supported...
Hardware Things: Interoperable energy systems
Hello there, Hope you had a good month. You may have noticed that the link under the Company Spotlight section goes to a protected post in the last few...
Hardware Things: Listening for the first time
Hello there, Before I get into it, I’ve been enjoying a couple of new-ish podcasts that I think are pretty great: Minor Details, by two industrial designers...
Hardware Things: It's all about perspective, you see
Hello there, There are two ways to look at things: as they are, as Kai Löffelbein examines the disposal of e-waste in Agboloshie, Ghana; or as they could be,...
Hardware Things: A tale of two countries
Hello there, Some numbers caught my attention last month. Due to that, today's letter pays more attention to data than most letters. Nigerians in diaspora...
Hardware Things: A mélange of sorts
Hello there and happy new year! If you're reading this, you're taking time out of your holiday to do so. I'd like to thank you for that and hope you're...