Mobile on the move - Mobile learning publication. Herdict Blog » Blog Archive » DPI Threat to Freedom of Expression. M.guardian.co.uk. Commuters in South Korea. Smartphones account for only one-fifth of world mobile phone sales, so there is plenty of scope for growth. Photograph: Bloomberg/Getty The problem with living through a revolution is that you've no idea how things will turn out. So it is with the revolutionary transformation of our communications environment driven by the internet and mobile phone technology. Strangely, our problem is not that we are short of data about what's going on; on the contrary we are awash with the stuff. This is what led Manuel Castells, the great scholar of cyberspace, to describe our current mental state as one of "informed bewilderment": we have lots of information, but not much of a clue about what it means.
Ms Meeker is now a partner at Kleiner Perkins Caulfield & Byers, one of Silicon Valley's leading venture capital firms, but she has not abandoned her old habits. It's a whopping 112-slide presentation, which bears serious contemplation. What's significant about that? A Voice for the Voiceless: Interactive Radio in Afghanistan and Pakistan. Insecurity and poverty don’t just mean being deprived of material things – they can also deprive people of a voice. Conflict and scarcity make access to information difficult in many regions of the world. Where media are available, it is often the most extreme, dangerous groups who dominate and who falsely represent these regions to the rest of the world.
In this edition of Digital Diversity, Zydrone Krasauskiene, Editorial Manager of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, explains how they try to prevent those extremists from robbing the people of the Federally Administrated Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan and Afghanistan of their voice. By broadcasting in Pashto to the people of the FATA through their station, Radio Mashaal, they have taken back the airwaves, making a place where listeners can finally have the chance to articulate and discuss the real problems, debates and events that make up their everyday lives. But the station doesn’t just provide information. By Zydrone Krasauskiene. Mobile phones help farmers turn a new leaf - Smart Company By JOSHUA MASINDE jmasinde@ke.nationmedia.com Eliud Birgen Kiplimo, a farmer in Eldoret, is full of praise for the mobile phone. He wonders how else his home would manage to cut costs in farming and enhance productivity without the handy gadget.
He uses his handset a lot in seeking information on the best farming practices and techniques, as well as better seed varieties, besides finding the best market prices. Through the phone, he accesses the Internet and the short message services. These, he says, are changing the face of agriculture and conventional extension services. The mobile platform has helped him cut costs, as he does not have to pay an expert for advice on productivity, nor have to travel long distances or spend a lot of time to find appropriate prices or buyers for his produce.
He also has the option of receiving payments via the mobile money service, after which he does a direct transfer to his bank account. Coffee farmers to receive warnings on storms via texts. More than 7500 coffee farmers in Kenya could start receiving message prompts with warnings on storms and plagues by the end of the year, says IICD.
The automated SMS system that connects farmers mobile phones to a central computer is expected to enable farmers around Nairobi and Mount Kenya receive the messages on the phones through an early SMS warning system. International Institute for Communication and development, IICD, country manager Anne Marijke Podt said her organization alongside the Progreso Foundation and the Frontline SMS are setting up a project with three coffee cooperatives in the Mount Kenya region – Ndumberi, Gakundu and Kagaari. Podt told HumanIPO the system is expected to improve service delivery of coffee cooperatives to their members aside from warning farmers of heavy rains ahead.
The software system will also manage automated SMS weight and price systems for the farmers. The project is the first of its kind in the country. Now 4 billion people know the joy of txt | Technology | The Observer. Here's a question: what's bigger and far more important than Facebook? Hint: it's very low-tech and doesn't need a smartphone or even an internet connection. And this year marks its 20th birthday, which means that in internet time it's 140 years old.
Oh, and it doesn't involve LOLcats either. Got it yet? It's SMS – text messaging to you and me. Or txt msng, if you prefer. Interestingly, Silicon Valley played almost no role in it. Five years later, 13 European countries signed an agreement to develop and deploy a common mobile telephone system across Europe. The idea for SMS emerged during the GSM project. The strange thing was that almost nobody paid any attention at first.
The reason for this became obvious only with hindsight. Then, in 1996, something changed: pay-as-you-go sim cards were introduced. The story of GSM and SMS has interesting lessons for technology policy. So here's the most important msg 4 2day: txt is gr8. BLOOMBERG: Solar Venture Lights Up Indian Village With an SMS | Simpa Networks. April 12th, 2012 – The villagers of Halliberu in southern India are on the crest of an electricity revolution. Bangalore-based Simpa Networks Inc. has been installing solar power equipment in their non-electrified houses. See the video below and read the articles:Bloomberg – Solar Venture Lights Up Indian Village With an SMSBloomberg – Farmers Foil Utilities Using Cell Phones to Access Solar Bloomberg Markets Magazine, April 12, 2012. “On a January evening, Anand is shelling betel nuts by the light of an electric lamp in Halliberu, his village in India’s Karnataka state.
As his friends gather on the lamp-lit porch to swap stories, children play in the yard, Bloomberg Markets reports in its May issue. In October, Bangalore-based Simpa Networks Inc. installed a solar panel on Anand’s whitewashed adobe house along with a small metal box in his living room to monitor electricity usage.
Read the full article here. World News: How the developing world is using cellphone technology to change lives. In Nigeria, a young girl can ask questions about sex discretely through SMS and get accurate information. After the earthquake in Haiti, survivors in remote towns could receive money for food straight to their cellphone. In Senegal, election monitors sent updates on polling stations through their mobile phones, revising an online map in real time with details about late openings or worse.
Projects like Learning about Living in Nigeria, MercyCorps in Haiti and Senevote2012 in Senegal are just a few examples of how the rapid spread of mobile technology has changed life in the global south. Many places are jumping straight from paper records to mobile information because they are getting cellphone towers before Internet connections or even traditional phone lines. “If that’s your data collection tool instead of papers that get blown away and eaten by goats, that’s valuable,” said Sterling. In 2001, just eight out of 100 people in the developing world had a mobile phone subscription.
ICTD2012-Rangaswamy_Anthropologists_and__ICTD.pdf (application/pdf Object) Mobile Technologies and Empowerment: Enhancing Human Development through Participation and Innovation. Author: Raúl Zambrano Ruhiya Kristine Seward Affiliation: United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) "[M]obile technologies are starting to have an indelible impact on human development, enhancing democratic governance and other development areas such as health, education, agriculture, employment, crisis prevention and the environment... " The main objective of this primer is to provide United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) programme staff and development partners and practitioners with a practical understanding of how mobile technologies - even as basic as a mobile phone with SMS (text messaging capacity) - can become an important tool for civil society, enabling local mobilisation and networking among geographically dispersed people.
The primer first outlines development in terms of the growth of mobile technologies. Mobiles also offer greater independence for women by opening new channels of information and affording greater personal privacy. Local radio and mobile phones improve access to information for communities in south east Kenya | infoasaid.org.
World Vision and infoasaid recently teamed up in Taita-Taveta County, south east Kenya to implement a communication project aimed at improving the delivery of World Vision’s food aid programme. The project also aims to improve the timeliness and efficiency of data collection from rural communities who are engaged in World Vision’s Cash for Assets and Food for Assets programmes. Through a sponsored 45 minute weekly show on local radio station Anguo FM and via messages sent to mobile telephones, communities are relayed information on issues ranging from how to spot signs of malnutrition in children to prices of livestock in the main local markets to a description of content on the latest food aid package along with date of delivery.
The communication project was designed following a scoping mission, conducted by infoasaid in November 2011. Within a week of the training, the first interactive radio show on Anguo FM went on air, with the head of WVK’s Voi office being the live guest. Mobile Apps for Development: Focus on Content By Users, Not Just For Users. Posted by Ignacio Mas on Mar 28, 2012 (This blog post was co-authored by Rafael Anta, a Technology Specialist at the Inter-American Development Bank, and Ignacio Mas, an independent consultant .) Most applications for development (m-whatever) are based on giving poor people access to information that the provider of that information thinks people need. There is little interaction and no user-generation of content in many first. Does it need to be like that? There are two basic attributes of mobile communication. First, it is immediate. These applications implicate us in one more sense: we are also marketers of our content.
That is well understood in the social arena. When it comes to applications for development, though, we tend to fall back on one-way communications and or external content. What are the development-related mobile services that have gotten most attention and traction? Photo courtesy: Rede Jovem, Brazil. Research Report: 2012 Mobile Banking Study | Mobile Payment Magazine. Key findings in the recent ath Power Mobile Banking Study reveal that banks are not adequately promoting their mobile banking offerings, and that Remote Deposit Capture is the missing feature most sought by customers. The National study ranked customer satisfaction with today’s mobile banking offerings, and USAA earned the top spot with 73 percent of its users claiming high satisfaction.
Based on combined survey and user audit research, “ath Power designed this first-of-its-kind study to provide banks with direct customer feedback about their mobile banking offerings and to offer actionable insight into how they can leverage this channel for improved adoption, customer loyalty and revenue opportunities,” said Mike McEvoy, Managing Director, ath Power. “The revenue potential for banks who add compelling features to their mobile offerings could be significant,” noted Frank Aloi, President and CEO, ath Power. Other Key Findings: Mobile customers are more loyal.
About The Study. Ethiopian agriculture and mobile phones. When analyzing innovative ways to use ICTs for the development of agriculture, the sharing of experiences among different actors becomes a key aspect. For this reason, e-Agriculture organized a Forum in November of 2011 on Mobile Telephony services. The discussion continues in the field. In February of this year representatives of USAID and GSMA arranged an informal meeting in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The goal was to share ongoing experiences of projects that used ICTs as tools for development and agriculture sector.
According to Judy Payne, USAID e-Business Advisor, there is a positive environment for the implementation of rural ICT applications in Ethiopia, since the spread of internet and mobile coverage is spreading more and more. One of the examples mentioned was the GSMA’s initiative called mFarmer. According to ILRI Communications, this project is considered a sustainable business model: Two Guides You Must Read Before Using Mobile Technology for Behavior Change.
Photo Credit: Larissa Frei As the desire to utilize mobile phones in international health projects has increased in the last few years, organizations continually ask a similar question, “We want to use mobile phones. Now what?” But the decision to introduce or start a mhealth project needs to come after answering many questions before “now what?” Especially when dealing with behavior change communication projects. Enter Abt Associates , FrontlineSMS , and Text to Change . Two guides have recently been released to help organizations assess whether or not mobiles are the right tool, and if they are, the process moving forward. One is from Abt Associates and is entitled mBCC Field Guide: A Resource for Developing Mobile Behavior Change Communication Programs . mHealth is a sexy term these days but it is not always the best approach to creating behavior change. Reason for the Guides The mBCC Field Guide Frontline/Text to Change Both are very useful guides for the intended audiences.
Mobile Trends 2020 Africa. TTC_Online_Final.pdf (application/pdf Object) Sr2010-12_sida_hellstrom.pdf (application/pdf Object)