MobileActive.org - A global network of people using mobile technology for social impact.

Rede Jovem: Wikimapa

CorinneRamey — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 16:15:34 -0600

In the favelas, or slums, of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, unnamed streets meander through the hillsides. There are hospitals, coffee shops and restaurants, none of which appear on a map, and mail carriers struggle to get letters to homes without addresses.

A new project by Rede Jovem, a Brazilian nonprofit that loosely translates to "Youth Net," seeks to change that. With the help of five young "wiki-reporters" and GPS-equipped mobile phones, the nonprofit is building a map of five Brazilian favelas: Complexo do Alemão, Cidade de Deus, Morro do Pavão-Pavãozinho, Morro Santa Marta and Complexo da Maré. By uploading information to the phones, the reporters are mapping the unmapped, one road and cafe at a time.

Mobiles Hidden in Monks' Robes, Part III: Cracks in the Walls

admin — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:17:43 -0600

This article was written by Emily Jacobi from Digital Democracy. We are publishing her extensive report on Burmese dissidents' use of technology in three parts. Part I with an overview of mobiles in Burma is here and part II that describes cross-border dissident communications here. All names of individuals have been changed to protect their identity.

Cracks in the Fortress' Wall

It was May 2008 in Thailand, and Win Tun was anxiously watching his phone. Early May marks the beginning of rainy season, and reports were coming in of a major cyclone hitting Rangoon. A couple of days after the initial landfall on May 2, residual rains had made it to Thailand, and it was clear that Cyclone Nargis - “butterfly” - had destroyed major swaths of land in the Irawaddy delta. Up to 140,000 were missing or dead. Win Tun was worried about his family in Rangoon.

A former political prisoner, he spent 5 years in the infamous Insein prison for democratic activities in university in the ‘90s. When we met in early 2008, he had a sad air to him. Twenty years have passed since since the uprising of ’88, in which he was too young to participate. The exhaustion of fighting for something that seemed so far out of reach was wearing on him. Worse yet, he missed his family but couldn’t return home without bringing undue attention to them or risking another prison sentence.

After Nargis he was lucky. It took three days for him to get through to his family on their mobiles, and he learned they were okay – just upset, like most Burmese, at the government’s negligence of the victims. In the wake of Nargis, international aid groups waited in Thailand and offshore as the government refused to grant entrance to most.

The first few days after the Cyclone, bewildered Burmese in Rangoon stumbled out of their houses to survey the damage. In the streets, monks helped residents clear felled trees and downed power lines. But there were much bigger problems in the delta. Entire villages had been destroyed, and farmland had turned into swamps, contaminated by drowned bodies.

IFFCO: Cell Phone Messages with Farmer Advice

CorinneRamey — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:10:51 -0600

Chandra Shekar, a farmer who grows crops such as tomatoes and carrots and raises cows and other animals, lives in a remote village in Kolar, India. For the past year, he's received daily voice messages with advice which have helped him to keep his sheep healthy, control diseases that threaten his crops and know what medicines to feed his animals. He has also had access to a helpline that allows him to ask questions to experts, while standing in the field of his farm, next to his animals. "Messages on animal husbandry are serving like daily doctor to me," Shekar said. "When cow was suffering from bloating, it was effectively controlled by making cow to drink groundnut oil which was given in the message."

Mapping Incidences and Disease Surveillance: Two New Tools

AnneryanHeatwole — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:05:33 -0600

A few weeks ago, the Open Mobile Consortium and MobileActive.org hosted the first Open Mobile Camp. Discussions focused on open source mobile development and how mobile tools can and are being used in humanitarian work. Here are two profiles of interesting projects that were presented at the Camp.

Humanitarian FOSS Project: POSIT

The Humanitarian FOSS Project (H-FOSS) offers summer internships for undergraduate computing students who want to get involved in building free and open source software for humanitarian organizations. As part of H-FOSS, students from Trinity College designed a phone-based tool for search and rescue missions, scientific field-work, and other applications. Called POSIT (Portable Open Search and Information Tool), the application runs on the Android platform. In this video, H-FOSS project director Trishan de Lanerolle and Trinity College students Prasanna Gautam and Christopher Fei present POSIT.

Betavine Social Exchange

SteveWolak — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 03:47:36 -0600

Mobiles Hidden in Monks' Robes, Part II

KatrinVerclas — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 10:45:27 -0600

This article was written by Emily Jacobi from Digital Democracy. We are publishing her extensive report on Burmese dissidents' use of technology in three parts. Part I of her report is here. Names of individuals have been changed to protect their identity.

Internet crackdown

New technology had fundamentally changed the context inside Burma. Although access at 2007 was less than 1%, even such low penetration of mobile technology and Internet presented a challenge to the regime.

According to a Democratic Voice of Burma TV producer based in Thailand, in the days leading up to the military crackdown, the camera phones concealed in monks' robes and the footage groups like his smuggled out were the only barriers preventing the government from an all-out massacre of protesters.

On Sept. 29, 2007, faced with widespread international condemnation, the junta resorted to a tactic that other governments are increasingly daring in the 21^st century and pulled the plug on all internet and mobile phone use in the country, preventing news from coming in or out. The world was watching – and then the screen went blank.

Mobiles Hidden in Monks' Robes

admin — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 16:27:33 -0600

This article was written by Emily Jacobi from Digital Democracy. We are publishing her extensive report on Burmese dissidents' use of technology in three parts. Names of individuals in this account have been changed to protect their identity.

Burma – a modern anomaly

In September 2007, Buddhist clergy in the Southeast Asian nation of Burma (also known as Myanmar) led hundreds of thousands of citizens in peaceful protest against the ruling military regime. Armed with camera phones and limited internet access, they coordinated the largest protests the country had seen in 19 years, and broadcast the story to the outside world. These tools proved so threatening that the Burmese government responded by shutting off all Internet and mobile phone communications for five days. Why is this significant?

Globally, mobile phone penetration has reached an estimated 4.6 billion subscribers by the end of 2009, more than half the world’s population. Yet in Burma, mobile phone usage remains the exception rather than the rule. Government-imposed barriers and prohibitive prices have kept mobile penetration to approximately 1% of the population, a rate comparable to Internet access in the country.

Burma’s technological isolation accompanies the country’s greater political isolation. Ruled by a military dictatorship since 1962, the nation has become increasingly estranged from the global community. Even the name, changed from Burma to Myanmar by the military government in 1989, is disputed around the world as well as among Burmese political groups. Economic sanctions have been leveled against the country by the US and EU for its human rights abuses, and The Economist ranked Burma163 out of 167 countries in its 2008 Democracy Index.

Burma’s ruling military junta does maintain business deals with neighboring countries including China and Thailand, but the nation lags far behind its neighbors economically and technologically. While there were only 610,000 mobile users in the country at the end of 2008 (1% of the population), India and China were expected to account for a quarter of global mobile penetration – approximately 1 billion subscriptions - by the beginning of the year, according to the ITU. In neighboring Thailand, meanwhile, approximately 92% of the population is covered by mobile telephony.

Compared to its neighbors, Burma’s mobile access seems woefully behind. Despite this, mobiles have played a critical role in crisis moments, such as the monk-led protests in 2007 and in coordinating recovery from the devastation of Cyclone Nargis in May 2008. Additionally, mobile availability in neighboring countries has been effectively harnessed by Burmese groups operating in the bordering countries, where an estimated 3.5 million Burmese have been displaced.

What Makes a Successful Mobile Money Implementation? Learnings from M-PESA in Kenya and Tanzania

AnneryanHeatwole — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 14:23:38 -0600

Regulation and the Digital Divide

AnneryanHeatwole — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:01:33 -0600

Taxation and the Growth of Mobile in East Africa: Making Connections

AnneryanHeatwole — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:37:12 -0600

Harnessing the Mobile Revolution

AnneryanHeatwole — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:17:21 -0600

Global Mobile Tax Review

AnneryanHeatwole — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:07:16 -0600

Project ABC: Using Cell Phones as a Platform for Literacy and Market Information in Niger

AnneryanHeatwole — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 22:59:38 -0600

TxtLatino

TxtLatino — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 19:29:42 -0500

Put up a Billboard and ask the Community: Using Mobile Tech for Program Monitoring and Evaluation

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 19:05:24 -0500

Guest post by Christine Martin, Tufts University.

The potential for mobile technology to impact development has been researched and reported on in areas ranging from job matching services to financial inclusion. More and more development agencies are adopting mobile communications in their programmes in innovative ways. However, there is a lack of research on how mobile technology is being used to monitor and evaluate programs in the field.

RapidSMS

kmulloy — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:00:41 -0500

A Cleaner, Safer Way to Cook (tracked with Mobile Tech)

admin — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 09:44:30 -0500

Cross-posted by permission. Written by Michael Benedict.

Suraj Wahab is passionate about cookstoves. Indeed, efficient charcoal burning stoves like those made by his company, Toyola Energy Limited, offer a lot to be passionate about.

For hundreds of thousands of families in Ghana who cook using traditional methods, these simple metal and clay devices provide a cleaner, safer, more efficient way to prepare their daily meals, while also reducing greenhouse gas emissions and deforestation. The stoves are sold in markets and door-to-door by Toyola “evangelists”, individuals who record each sale in a notebook and then are paid on commission. With 50,000 stoves projected to be sold this year and double that possible in 2010, the paper records are becoming increasingly difficult to maintain.

November Mobile for Development (or just techie) Event Round-Up

AnneryanHeatwole — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 13:05:30 -0500

After the hectic month of October where there were way too many events focused on mobiles for social impact, November is a bit more technically focused. To help you find your way in this fast-moving world, we’ve compiled a round-up of some key events that are taking place throughout the month of November.

DroidCon Nov. 2-4 (Berlin, Germany) DroidCon is the first Android business and developer conference in Germany. It covers everyting you want to know about the Open Handset Alliance mobile platform. Not focused on mobiles in social impact, but an indication that Android is starting to hop.

iPhone Developer Summit Nov. 2-4 (Santa Clara, CA, USA) Technical sessions explore web development opportunities on the iPhone, including building social applications and developing high-quality, iPhone-style web-based GUIs for applications.

Dreams of Increasing Connectivity: Virtual SIMs in the Cloud

PrabhasPokharel — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 16:45:10 -0500

People in the developed world consider the phone a very personal object, something that is always on and always with us. In many developing countries, that's not always the case. People share phones, and many don't own handsets because they are too expensive.

A new company, Movirtu (with a catchy tag line: "Mobile for the next Billion"), wants to extend coverage to so-called bottom-of-the-pyramid customers by using a handset-independent way to connect to the mobile network. The company's goal is to "expand the use of mobile communication by the rural poor communities in Sub-Sahara Africa and South Asia living on less than $2 a day" - in order to improve their livelihoods. The method for doing this is to detach owning a phone number from owning a handset--and to allow users to own numbers without owning handsets. And its gaining attention: CEO Nigel Waller was awarded a PopTech Social Innovation fellowship this year, and Movirtu has been shortlisted for Africom's Changing Lives Award.

The idea

Groundcrew

groundcrew — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:24:10 -0500

Mobile Phones for Social Change Video Sampler

KatrinVerclas — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:46:19 -0500

Three recent videos that showcase the potential of mobile tech for social progress. Check out more videos in our playlists on the MobileActive.org YouTube channel!

And an overview of telecoms in emerging markets, from The Economist:

Social Influence in Mobile Phone Adoption: Evidence from the Bottom of the Pyramid in Emerging Asia

AnneryanHeatwole — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:44:18 -0500

Strategic Use of Mobile Telephony at the Bottom of the Pyramid: The Case of Mexico

AnneryanHeatwole — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:36:36 -0500

Green Power for Mobile: Charging Choices

AnneryanHeatwole — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 12:13:38 -0500

Tracking the Introduction of the Village Phone Product in Rwanda

AnneryanHeatwole — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:31:48 -0500

Lessons in Interoperability

KatrinVerclas — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 14:17:01 -0500

This post is reposted from the Open Mobile Consortium, a community of mobile technologists and practitioners working to drive open source mobile solutions for more effective and efficient humanitarian relief and global social development. It is written by Neal Lesh.

One of the Open Mobile Consortium's (OMC) primary goals is to maximize interoperability and data-sharing capabilities among the open-source mobiles technologies so that the whole of our collective effort is greater than the sum of the individual parts.

Mobile Phones for Development and Profit: A Win-Win Scenario

AnneryanHeatwole — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:55:55 -0500

Digital Media in Conflict-Prone Societies

AnneryanHeatwole — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 14:37:37 -0500

Buy Local With SMS: Connecting Suppliers with Humanitarian Operations in East Timor and Afghanistan

saritamoreira — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:36:11 -0500

East Timor is studded with international organizations that are focusing on the country’s reconstruction and development. East Timor’s two-decade-long independence struggle against Indonesia resulted in the country’s independence in 1999. However, after that independence referendum, Indonesian militias destroyed 80% of the infrastructure from which the country is still recovering today.

Thousand of international aid workers move to the country every year but one must wonder how much they consume locally. It is not uncommon when visiting a foreigner’s house in Dili to find furniture made by big international chains, or a refrigerator full of food from Australia, Argentina and the US. Meanwhile, 49% of the Timorese citizens live on 80 cents a day. It is possible to connect the markets – supply and demand – better? Are there technologies, such as SMS, that can be used to connect local producers with this market?

Mobile Citizen Project Launches: Incubator Fund for Mobile Projects in Latin America

CorinneRamey — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:11:10 -0500

The Mobile Citizen Project, which aims to fund and support mobile initiatives for social change in Latin America, launches today. The program is a project of the Science and Technology Division of the Inter-American Development Bank, with the support of the Italian Trust Fund for Information and Communication Technology for Development. MobileActive.org is a media partner, powering the Program's "Ideas Box."

According to the project's press release, the "Mobile Citizen Program aims to accelerate the development and implementation of mobile services to address acute social and economic problems. We will provide support to develop citizen-centric solutions that target low-income groups in urban and rural areas of Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) region."