Freedom Toasters on the rise in South Africa

I have had the pleasure of spending some time on the VeloCITI business incubation programme with Brett Simpson of Breadbin Interactive, one of the entrepreneurs going through the paces of taking a technology-focused business to the greater South African market.

The product of interest is called the Freedom Toaster, first conceived by the Shuttleworth Foundation’s Jason Hudson who now heads up Breadbin Interactive, the company driving further development and marketing of the product. The Freedom Toaster is a content-dispensing kiosk that is used to distribute open-source and other digital content without the need for an internet connection, thereby bringing the content into the reach of a much wider audience.

Freedom Toasters are conveniently located, self-contained and computer-based “bring and burn” facilities: http://www.freedomtoaster.org/.

The user brings along a disc or flash drive and can burn software, media, courseware or any other digital content. The beauty of it all is that the content is made available without charge.

The Freedom Toaster started its life in the MTN Science Centre but has been making appearances throughout the country and is sure to become a household name due to its far-reaching implications and huge savings passed on to the end user of the downloaded media.

Unisa has already latched on to the concept and started using the machine to distribute its full curriculum of courseware at its satellite offices nationwide. You can imagine the benefit of using a product of this nature might have for Unisa and its many students in terms of both convenience and saving.

The Western Cape education department has also adopted a mobile version that visits schools to increase understanding of the benefits of computers and technology in furthering education.

The company’s website expresses the uniqueness of its product in the following manner:

Imagine a vending machine that allows you to pick what you want at the touch of a button, then “spits” it out in a format that allows you to slip the product in your pocket and carry on with your day. Best of all, whatever you order is never out of stock, and it’s always free!

e.tv recently screened a clip entitled: “Freedom Toaster — Alive with Possibilities”.

Breadbin was also promoted on Talk Radio 702 on Monday, so it’s getting some significant coverage around the country.

A number of case studies have been developed to assess the impact the Freedom Toaster has had in its current usage. You can also give it a test run by checking out a Freedom Toaster near you.

The guys at Breadbin are also working on a Mini Toaster as well as other content delivery ideas to establish further their dominance in this newly carved media space. In a bandwidth-starved country like ours with a small percentage of the population able to access online content, it was only a matter of time before something like this arrived on the scene.

Knowledge is power
The Freedom Toaster definitely has the potential to empower those with less access to information resources, thereby creating more opportunities to change society for the better. Power to the people!