Our Mission

Wakoma Incorporated is a social enterprise building open source hardware and software to improve the provision of public services around the world.

Wakoma invests in applied research and development to tackle the most difficult challenges in education, internet access, WASH, agriculture, disaster & humanitarian response, and other sectors.

Our Approach

Just over 50% of the world’s population is online – but we know that this was the “easier” half to connect and that the rate at which new users are connecting is slowing.

On the supply side access growth is slowing because of a lack of investment in infrastructure in more sparsely populated rural areas – “the last mile”. On the demand side growth is slowing because of the lack of relevant and affordable content and services for communities, and the lack digital skills needed to use and build them.

Why should communities demand internet access if they do not see the value in it? Why demand access when there is no existing entertaining, educational, or otherwise valuable content in local languages relevant to local communities, no mechanism to create and share this content, or the digital skills or financial resources to do either?

Wakoma is tackling these challenges by building connectivity and EdTech solutions that start with communities at the “first centimeter”. At the same time we are working with our partners to deploy community-based telecommunications infrastructure where there no access and where access is unreliable, unaffordable, or excessively censored.

If incumbent operators are the rocks in the jar, Wakoma is empowering communities to become the sand that fills in the unconnected spaces.

Our Team

From academic research to drafting policy and regulations, from teaching F2F or eLearning courses to crimping cables and hanging APs, our team, advisors and partners are tackling connectivity, education, and other global challenges in innovative, collaborative and open ways.

Eric is an educator at heart, serial sharer, and appropriate tech whisperer.

María is a member of Redes AC (México) and graduate student in communications and technology. She is engaged in rethinking technology through community-based processes of communication and connectivity.