Kenyan Company Rolls Out First African-Made Video Conferencing App
VOA News｜Africa
June 08, 2020 01:00 PM (source)
Kenyan Company Rolls Out First African-Made Video Conferencing App
肯亞公司推出首款非洲製造的視訊會議應用軟體
June 08, 2020 01:00 PM
Lenny Ruvaga
NAIROBI —
A Kenya-based company has developed a video conferencing application, the first made in Africa, designed to be more affordable than foreign counterparts. Gumzo, which means "chatting" in Swahili, is free to join and costs only per week for users who want to host meetings.
Eight weeks -- that's the amount of time it took for the first African-made video conferencing system to becreated [sic].
Gumzo – which is Swahili for "chatting" was made in the offices of Usiku Games, a Nairobi company that until a few months ago, focused on making video games for the African market.
In the wake of COVID-19, only a small staff routinely reports to the company's office.
But that didn't stop Usiku's coders and programmers from quickly developing and rolling out the video conference app.
Jay Shapiro, Usiku's CEO, said Gumzo is built to be used on the wide variety of devices used across Africa. "Africa is a mobile phone first continent and so you have to have a platform that works on mobile devices [that are] older, less memory and so that's why we built a download app that is web-based and is accessible on all smart phones [sic] or PC or tablets to try and reach as many people as we can," he said.
In early March, the Kenyan government closed all learning institutions in a bid to curb the spread of coronavirus. About 17 million students have been kept out of schools since.
Teachers have used a variety of conferencing apps, including Zoom, Skype and Whatsapp, to keep in touch with students.
Gilbert Walusimbi, a teacher at Upper Hill High School in Nairobi, is one of the users of Gumzo. On average his video conferencing class has forty-five students.
Walusimbi likes the fact that he can have an unlimited number of students in meetings and still have clarity because Gumzo's servers are in Kenya and South Africa.
However, Walusimbi adds that digital access to all learners is an issue.
"Now the challenges are where that particular receiver, that is the student is, because not every area in the country has the infrastructure for receiving this particular type of digital learning material. Electricity is also a challenge in some areas," he said.
Vincent Omondi, an information technology expert at Makini School in Nairobi, points out that the digital divide in Africa could pose a challenge in the uptake of emerging innovations and technologies.
"The latest statistics that we have 2019 that was conducted by the International Telecommunications Union, 29 percent of the population in Africa had access to internet. After internet access there's now the issue of device, the appropriate devices to use to access video conference softwares that would also play a big challenge," said Omondi.
Although the digital divide in Africa is still quite large, Usiku hopes that Gumzo will help make it smaller.
肯亞（Kenya）的公司開發(develop)出一種視訊會議應用軟體(application)，該軟體為非洲首創，希望能比其他國家的類似軟體(counterpart，註 1)更實惠。軟體名為 Gumzo，在斯瓦希里語（Swahili）中為「聊天」的意思。用戶可以免費加入，且每週只需付一美元即可使用軟體開會。
這套由非洲首次製造的視訊會議系統大約花了 8 週的時間創建。
Gumzo 源自斯瓦希里語中的「聊天」，由 Usiku Games 這間公司製作生產。Usiku Games 位在肯亞首都奈洛比（Nairobi），直到幾個月前還專注於為非洲市場製作電動遊戲。
今年（2020 年）新冠肺炎（COVID-19）流行期間，僅有少數員工定期到辦公室上班。
不過，這並沒有阻止 Usiku 的編碼員(coder) 和程式設計師(programmer) 快速開發並推出(roll out)這款視訊會議應用軟體。
Usiku 的執行長(chief excutive officer，CEO) 傑伊．夏皮羅（Jay Shapiro）表示，希望 Gumzo 可以廣泛運用在非洲各地使用的各種裝置設備上。
他進一步說明：「非洲剛開始有手機，因此必須設計一個平臺(platform)，可以在較舊、記憶體較少的行動裝置上使用，這就是我們建構可從網路下載的應用軟體的原因。這個軟體在所有智慧型手機、個人或平板電腦上都可使用(accessible)。透過這種方式盡可能吸引更多的人下載使用。」
肯亞政府為了控制(curb，註 2)冠狀病毒的傳播，於 3 月初關閉了所有學習機構。從那時開始，大約有 1700 萬名學生無法到校上課。
老師為了與學生保持聯繫，已使用了 Zoom、Skype 和 WhatsApp 等各種會議應用軟體。
奈洛比上丘高中（Upper Hill High School）的老師吉爾伯特．沃盧辛比（Gilbert Walusimbi）是 Gumzo 的使用者之一。他透過視訊會議的方式上課，班上平均有 45 名學生。
沃盧辛比喜歡這樣的上課方式。由於 Gumzo 的伺服器(server) 位於肯亞和南非（South Africa），因此他的課堂會議可以讓無數的學生參加，並且仍能保持視訊的清晰(clarity，註 3)度。
然而，沃盧辛比補充說，如何讓所有學習者都能使用數位資源是目前需要面對的課題。
「現在面臨的挑戰是特定的接收者，也就是學生所在的位置，因為並不是每個地區都具備基礎設施(infrastructure)，能夠用於接收這種特定類型的數位學習資料。電力對某些地區來說也是挑戰。」他進一步解釋。
文森．奧蒙迪（Vincent Omondi）是奈洛比馬基尼學校（Makini School）的資訊科技專家。他指出，非洲的數位落差(digital divide)可能對採用(uptake，註 5)新興的(emerging，註 6)新方法(innovation) 和技術形成(pose，註 4)挑戰。
「國際電信聯盟（International Telecommunications Union，ITU）在 2019 年蒐集的最新統計資料顯示，非洲 29% 的人口有網路可用。經歷網路連線的問題後，目前出現了設備問題，也就是使用視訊會議軟體所需要的合適裝置。這也會帶來很大挑戰。」奧蒙迪描述著。
儘管非洲的數位落差情形仍然很嚴重，但 Usiku 希望 Gumzo 將有助於改善當地的數位落差問題。
Language Notes
註 1： counterpart 為名詞，意指「（與不同地方或組織的人或物）作用相同者，相對應者」
註 2： curb 於本文作動詞，意思是「控制；限制，約束；抑制」；本字也可作名詞，指「控制；限制，約束」或「勒馬繩」
註 3： clarity 為名詞，於本文指「清楚明瞭；清晰易懂」；本字也常指「（畫面或聲音的）清晰」或「思路清晰」
註 4： pose 於本文作動詞，意思是「造成，引起（尤指問題或困難）」；也常指「擺好姿勢（拍照）」或「提出（問題）；質詢」；本字也可作名詞，意即「（身體擺出的）樣子，姿勢」或「裝腔作勢」
註 5： uptake 為名詞，意指「吸收（率），攝入（率）」；本字也常指「接受（率）」或「領會；理解」
註 6： emerging 於本文為形容詞，意指「新興的，發展初期的」，源於動詞 "emerge”「浮現；出現」；注意重音在第 2 音節
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Check your comprehension!
Choose the BEST answer to each of the questions below. After you finish, highlight the parentheses to reveal the hidden answers.
1. ( B ) According to the article, what is the main purpose of the innovation of Gumzo?
(A) To promote the first made-in-Africa video conferencing application to the world.
(B) To accommodate users with a more affordable video conferencing application than other foreign brands.
(C) To promote an affordable host meeting function for users worldwide.
(D) To accommodate an unlimited number of students with free applications.
2. ( C ) The phrase "roll out" in paragraph 5 is closest in meaning to:
(A) abandon
(B) conceal
(C) display
(D) extend
3. ( A ) According to the article, which of the following statements is INCORRECT?
(A) To constrain the spread of coronavirus, the Kenyan government closed some of the learning institutions.
(B) The first African video conferencing system needs around two months to be established.
(C) Vincent Omondi mentioned that Africa's digital divide might present a challenge for addressing
emerging innovations and technologies.
(D) According to the 2019 statistics by the ITU, approximately 71% of Africans have no access to the Internet.
編譯：外語教學暨資源中心 編輯小組
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