MobileActive.org

Mobile Security Survival Toolkit for Activists

admin — Wed, 23 May 2012 14:57:58 +0000

MobileActive's SaferMobile project is running two trainings at the Internet at Liberty conference on mobile security with colleagues from IWPR, the Committee to Protect Journalists, and UC Berkeley. We’ll be demoing common mobile threats and provide hands-on tips on how to better protect yourself.

We put together a set of resources in a ‘mobile security survival kit’ for activists and journalists with practical tips and advice. They are all online at SaferMobile.org but we are also compiling here in a Primer Toolkit on Mobile Security. You'll find:

Tips for SaferTwitter, SaferYoutube, SaferFacebook, SaferEmail, and SaferPhotos on your mobile phone
Mobile Risks Assessment Guide
Mobile Tactics for Participants in Peaceful Assemblies
Mobile Journalist Survival Guide
Primer on Geolocation
Important Security Considerations for Satellite Phones
And lots of useful worksheets that guide you in assessing your operational environment: Rating Your Mobile Info Sensitivity, and your operational environment 1, 2, 3, 4
We are also including the slides we are using for this workshop on MobileSecSurvival Slides 1 and MobileSec Survival Slides 2.

All materials are available in html on SaferMobile.org.

An important note: You should know that is nearly impossible to stay entire safe on your mobile device. Mobile networks are designed to be monitored so that mobile operators can charge you for using their services. We want to be clear that the tips and tactical advice we provide is meant to keep you safer as you work on making the world a better place – they can not keep you completely secure. A good start is to clearly understanding your mobile communication risks and learn more about some ways to better protect yourself. If you have questions or comments, leave us a note!

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An Open Letter to the International Telecommunications Union

KatrinVerclas — Thu, 17 May 2012 20:28:43 +0000

We are interrupting our usual programming on MobileActive.org for an important message on the future of the opennness of the Internet. Civil society groups from around the world have signed on to an open letter to the International Telecommunication Union Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré, objecting to the lack of openness and inclusion in recent attempts by the ITU to increase its control over the Internet. MobileActive.org is one of the signers of this letter.

The background is this: In December 2012, the International Telecommunication Union will convene a meeting of the world’s governments to renegotiate the ITU’s underlying treaty, the International Telecommunications Regulations. Currently, these ITRs do not address Internet technical standards, infrastructure, or content. However, some states, notably China and Russia, are advocating for an expansion of the ITRs to include Internet regulation.

The emergence of the ITU as the primary regulatory body for the Internet would represent a sea change in Internet governance and could undermine the success of the Internet as an open platform for innovation, economic growth, human development and democratic participation.

We believe that there is a lack of opportunity for civil society participation in the World Conference on International Telecommunications meeting in December. We also believe that this does not bode well for the future of an open Internet. We urge all civil society members of MobileActive's community to review the key issues at hand and become involved.

We are indebted to the Center for Democracy and Technology which is circulating this open letter. A PDF of it is here. For more background on the WCIT, see the post by CDT on why Civil Society Must Have Voice as ITU Debates the Internet, and for even more, see the ITU resource page. If your organization is interested in signing the letter, please contact signon@cdt.org.

17 May 2012

To Secretary-General Dr. Hamadoun Touré, the Council Working Group to Prepare for the WCIT-12, and ITUMember States:

The undersigned human rights advocates, academics, freedom of expression groups, and civil society organizations write to express our desire to participate in the preparatory process undertaken for the World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT). The current preparatory process lacks the transparency, openness of process, and inclusiveness of all relevant stakeholders that are imperative under commitments made at the World Summit on Information Society (WSIS). We ask that the Secretary-General, the Council Working Group, and Member States work to resolve these process deficiencies in several concrete ways.

The continued success of the information society depends on the full, equal, and meaningful participation of civil society stakeholders (along side the private sector, the academic and technical community, and governments) in the management of information and communications technology, including both technical and public policy issues. Indeed, WSIS outcome documents recognize the need for a multi-stakeholder approach in technical management and policy decision-making for ICTs. The Tunis Agenda for the Information Society urges international organizations “to ensure that all stakeholders, particularly from developing countries, have the opportunity to participate in policy decision-making … and to promote and facilitate such participation.” And such participation depends on transparency and openness of process at every stage of substantive and procedural dialogue.

Yet there has been scant participation by civil society in the Council Working Group’s preparatory process for theWCIT so far, even as media reports indicate that some Member States have proposed amending the International Telecommunication Regulations to address issues that could impact the exercise of human rights in the digital age, including freedom of expression, access to information, and privacy rights. Under the current process, civil society participation is severely limited by restrictions on sharing of preparatory documents, high barriers for ITU membership (including cost), and lack of mechanisms for remote participation in preparatory meetings.

As an important step towards fulfilling WSIS commitments for building a more inclusive information society, the undersigned request that the Secretary-General, the Council Working Group, and Member States:

Remove restrictions on the sharing of WCIT documents and release all preparatory materials, including the Council Working Group’s final report, consolidated reports from all preparatory activity, and proposed revisions to the International Telecommunication Regulations;
Open the preparatory process to meaningful participation by civil society in its own right and without cost at Council Working Group meetings and the WCIT itself, providing formal speaking opportunities and according civil society views an equal weight as those of other stakeholders. Facilitate remote participation to the extent possible; and
For Member States, open public processes at the national level to solicit input on proposed amendments to the International Telecommunication Regulations from all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, and release individual proposals for public debate.

We welcome Secretary-General Touré’s commitment to creating a more inclusive information society and ensuring equitable access to ICT around the world. Collectively and individually, the undersigned human rights advocates, academics, freedom of expression groups, and civil society organizations work to fulfill this vision through a range of national and global institutions and we call for the same opportunity to engage at the WCIT, consistent with WSIS commitments. We urge you to ensure the outcomes of the WCIT and its preparatory process truly represent the common interests of all who have a stake in the future of our information society.

Sincerely,

Access

Article 19

Association for Progressive Communications (APC)

Eduardo Bertoni, Centro de Estudios en Libertad de Expresión y Acceso a la Información (CELE), Universidad de Palermo, Argentina

Bytes for All, Pakistan

Canadian Internet Policy & Public Interest Clinic (CIPPIC)

Center for Democracy & Technology

Center for Technology and Society (CTS/FGV), Brazil

Centre for Internet & Society (CIS), India

Consumers International

Digitale Gesellschaft e.V.

Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights

Electronic Frontier Foundation

European Digital Rights

Freedom House

Global Partners & Associates

Global Voices Advocacy

Human Rights in China

Human Rights Watch

Internet Democracy Project, India

Internet Governance Project (IGP)

Kictanet, Kenya

Rebecca MacKinnon

MobileActive Corp

New America Foundation’s Open Technology Institute

ONG Derechos Digitales, Chile

Open Rights Group

Panoptykon Foundation, Poland

Public Knowledge

Reporters sans frontières / Reporters Without Borders

World Press Freedom Committee

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Do You Hear Me (In a Disaster)?

KatrinVerclas — Wed, 16 May 2012 15:50:10 +0000

We just came across this video, posted by our ever-innovative colleagues at LIRNEAsia. In partnership with Sarvodaya, Sri Lanka's largest development organisation, LIRNEAsia recently conducted research on how to best use mobile technology in emergencies.

With ubiquitous and affordable mobile technology a reality not just in Asia but the world over, LIRNEAsia set out to ask a number of important questions: Can talking on the phone help those responding to emergencies to be better organized? How can voice services be used more efficiently in alerting and reporting about disasters than other channels? Where can computer technology make a difference in crisis management?

The video details how LIRNEAsia is experimenting with the open-source Sahana disaster management platform, and with Freedom Fone's interactive voice response system to investigate whether voice-based reporting can fit into globally accepted standards for sharing emergency data. LIRNEAsia found that while the technology isn't perfect, there is much potential for crisis and disaster management. Give it a look - well worth your while.

Countries and Regions

Asia

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Jobs! Check Out Current Tech- and Mobile-in-Social-Change Positions!

EKStallings — Thu, 10 May 2012 21:21:25 +0000

Looking for a job in the field of mobile tech for social change and development? The MobileActive Discuss list and the MobileActive newsletter are great resources not only for talking about the latest issues and topics in the ICT4D world, but also for jobs. Here's a sampling of some of the recent openings posted:

Inveneo is seeking an ICTD Network Operations Engineer. The position is based in San Francisco with some travel. Available immediately.

There is an open Programme Coordinator ICT for Development (ICT4D) with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

Human Rights Watch is seeking a Researcher on the Internet and Human Rights. The position is based in Washington, DC (or flexible). Deadline is May 18, 2012.

The Chiapas Institute of Health (ISECH) is looking to fill some technical positions for the Mesoamerican Health Initiative project in Mexico.

Tobacco Free Kids, based in Washington, DC, is looking for an experienced applicant for an Associate Director of International Communications (Social Media) position. The position will be open until filled.

The newly founded Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) in Berlin is seeking applications from researchers and phd candidates for several positions:
- Research Position at the Policy & Governance Section. Backgrounds in STS, Political Science, Sociology, Cultural Studies or Media and Communication Studies are especially welcome.
- Doctoral Positions at the Institute.

The Archives & Special Collections at UConn is looking for a Curator of Human Rights Collections who has a strong interest in Human Rights as well as experience working with digital content and archives.

eQualit.ie is looking for a Server Administrator for Maintenance and Development of the Deflect DDoS mitigation project and participation in eQualit.ie's other projects. This is a full time position but two part-time roles,especially if located within the Western European and South East Asian timezones, would be considered. Please send your application and questions to dmitri AT equalit DOT ie.

mSwali.org, is looking for a solid Python webapp developer to participate in a 3-month internship in Nairobi this summer.Interested candidates should send a short letter of interest, CV, and any applicable projects to jobs AT mswali DOT org.

The International Broadcasting Bureau, Office of Technology, Services and Innovation is looking to fill an open position for the Director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The position is located in Washington, DC and only US citizens are eligible.

Computer Aid International is hiring for two London-based positions:
- Director of Fundraising
- Director of Marketing and Communications (10-month maternity leave cover)

shiftLabs has announced three Summer Digital Innovation Fellowships. Applicants must be over 18 and currently be currently enrolled Undergraduate or Graduate students, or recently graduated (past six months). The closing date is May 18.

Google is currently hiring for the Regional Lead of Program Management for Emerging Markets, a position based either in Nairobi, Kenya or Lagos, Nigeria.

Village Tech Solutions is looking for two unpaid Summer interns familiar with Linux/PHP. The positions are based in California and Nepal supporting intensive field testing and equipment redesign. The contact for the position is David Sowerwine, david AT villagetechsolutions DOT org.

If you have any job openings, please email them to us at info AT mobileactive DOT org. If you are seeking a job in the field, please sign up for the MobileActive newsletter where we regularly list job openings that we receive.

Image courtesy of Cinty Ionescu on Flickr.

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The Funding Divide: Examining The Lack Of Funding For Mobile Phone Strategies In The United States

EKStallings — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:48:19 +0000

Written by Katrin Verclas and Emily Stallings

Why, despite wide-spread use of mobile tech for social change around the world, has the U.S. social sector been so slow to adopt mobile technologies? What do funders need to understand to support grantees' efforts to harness the power of the mobile phone? What strategies can help service organizations realize the potential of mobiles? Since phones are ubiquitous for most demographics but particularly so for young people and communities of color who use phones more intensively, this is becoming a critical question for the social sector in the US.

Funding Mobile Strategies for Social Impact: The Future is Now from ZeroDivide examines these questions, asking how to increase grantmaking for projects that utilize mobile technology to target groups working for social equity.

The U.S. Mobile Landscape

The paper notes that the vast majority of American adults, 86%, own mobile phones, and 50% of these phones are smartphones with access to the Internet. More than other groups, minorities, youths, individuals from lower income brackets, and those with no college experience rely on a mobile phone for Internet access. Yet, serious barriers to full Internet participation persist. These include phone capabilities, costs, network speeds, and accessibility of mobile phones over Internet access on a computer.

Ways in Which U.S. Organizations Use Mobile

The report, authored by Amy Gahran and Jeff Perlstein, outlines some ways in which organizations are using the various mobile channels. For instance, it highlights the work of Txt2Wrk and Text4Baby that both utilize SMS or text messaging as a channel for outreach, or Mobile Voices that utlitizes the phones' multi-media capabilities for story telling.

The report unfortunately also highlights projects that are no longer active and clearly were a failure, such as Witness' Hub (featured at a recent Failfaire that we hosted). There is also no discussion about the actual effectiveness of some of the projects described and some notable examples of projects that might actually have an impact are not even mentioned. (We are thinking here of Do Something's SMS channel, for instance.)

This diminishes the credibility of the report, especially in a section that is entitled "Making an Impact." More careful vetting of the case studies and example mobile uses in the report would have been useful here to make the point that, in fact, there is very little being done today in the US with mobile tech that is really having any impact at all.

Keys to Success For Mobile Programs With Underserved Communities

Based on interviews with practitioners, the the authors suggest that there need to be a number of key factors in place to help organizations best harness the potential of mobile phones for social impact. They include many factors that we have written about time and time again. These factors are really no different from those that have been identified for any successful use of technology in social change projects:

Build powerful partnership;
Prioritize publicity and outreach;
Involve the target community;
Foster strong ties with technologists;
Be realistic about the limitations of technology and access; and
Always include training.

Many of these issues are not necessarily related to funding, however; a point the report leaves woefully unaddressed. It would be our contention that a lof of the lack of expertise with fast-changing tech such as mobile is, in fact, a symptom of fundamental structural and management weaknesses in the US nonprofit sector, and especially so amongst organizations explicity focused on social change issues and marginalized communities.

Ways Funders Can Support Mobile Strategies By And For Underserved Communities

The report states that funding mobile phone-based programs as a way to reach underserved group is clearly needed. Yet, the philanthropic sector's investment in such solutions continues to be modest. What are the barriers to investment?

Based on a 2011 survey of foundations, there are considerable obstacles to funding mobile-oriented solutions: Funders lack expertise or even familiarity with technology, there is a lack of clarity on funding strategies to foster grantees' use of tech for social change, there is little dedicated funding for grantees' media/tech work, and not enough attention and funding for intermediaries to assist foundations/nonprofits with tech strategies.

What comes next? How can funders overcome these barriers and best support grantees and communities in seizing opportunities? The author notes:

"The sweet spot for funders working with underserved communities lies in increasing the value people can generate from the types of mobile devices and access they already have. For now and the next few years, this means ensuring accessibility —designing projects for feature phone users— and emphasizing the strengthening of community capacity, knowledge, and strategy development."

The report suggests that support can come in a number of forms, not just as funding. Some of the ideas presented include:

Foster learning
- Support research on local mobile usage, ownership
- Support nonprofits' learning
- Promote funder education (i.e. professional development)
Supporting Grantees
- Conduct a mobile assessment of grantees, fund mobile elements for existing projects
- Fund a cohort of existing grantees to experiment and generate mobile projects
- Develop a Tech Talent Bank
- Subsidize bulk text messaging
Convening Key Stakeholders
- Sponsor hackathons and "mobile challenges," encourage participatory design
- Collaborate on matching funds
- Convene potential partners from different sectors
Expanding the Audience
- Provide translation and localization support for existing mobile offerings

Playing Catch-Up

The social sector in the United States already lags far behind international deployments of mobile technology for social impact, in no small part dues to funders inability to work within a fast-changing and technically sophisticated environment.

Funding Mobile Strategies for Social Impact: The Future is Now serves as an introduction to the obstacles to funding mobile phone-based strategies in the United States. While the report lacks depth and nuance, as well as a substantive discussion of the lack of impact of even existing projects in the US, it does provide a primer to key issues.

We applaud some of the creative ways suggested in which funders can address their lack of innovation in this field (even if we believe that hackathons are overrated to produce shippable product).

But nonprofits and funders alike are playing catch-up with technology, and they better get on it.

Follow the link here to view ZeroDivide's list of resources to help funders and grantees seize the capabilities of mobile phone technology.

(Image by JR_Paris on Flickr)

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United States

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Innovation by Users in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Mobile Banking Services

EKStallings — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:23:50 +0000

Author:

van der Boor, Paul, Pedro Oliveira, Francisco Veloso

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Feb 2012

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

This paper examines the extent to which users in emerging economies innovate, and whether these innovations are meaningful on a global stage. To study this issue, we conducted an empirical investigation into the origin and types of innovations in financial services offered via mobile phones, a global, multi-billion dollar industry where emerging economies play an important role. We used the complete list of mobile financial services, as reported by the GSM Association (GSMA), and collected detailed histories of the development of the services and their innovation process. Our analysis shows that 85% of the innovations in this field originated in emerging markets. We also conclude that at least 50% of all mobile financial services were pioneered by users, approximately 45% by producers, and 5% jointly by users and producers. Additionally, services developed by users diffused at more than double the rate of producer-innovations. Finally, we observe that three-quarters of the innovations that originated in emerging markets have already diffused to OECD countries and that the (user) innovations are therefore globally meaningful.

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/pa...

Citation:

van der Boor, Paul, Pedro Oliveira, Francisco Veloso. "Innovation by Users in Emerging Economies: Evidence from Mobile Banking Services." 2012.

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Understanding Negotiation in Airtime Sharing In Low-Income Microenterprises

EKStallings — Tue, 01 May 2012 20:10:11 +0000

Author:

Sambasivan, Nithya, Ed Cutrell

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Apr 2012

Publisher/Journal:

Nithya Sambasivan & Ed Cutrell

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

Shared access to airtime is a prominent mode of connectivity access in the developing world. We seek to understand airtime sharing among low-income microenterprises in India (small, low-capital businesses, such as flower sellers and milkmen), that constitute 90% of the total enterprises in India. We introduce social negotiation as the foundation of airtime sharing. We highlight negotiation mechanisms in the microenterprise, showing how shared resources are used towards personal interests amidst tensions and value conflicts, by adapting, modifying, subverting, and repurposing airtime. We then explore the design space of airtime and bandwidth sharing in low-income communities, including designing for negotiation and improving readability of airtime.

Location

Countries:

India

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://www.ics.uci.edu/~nsamba...

Citation:

Sambasivan, Nithya, Ed Cutrell. "Understanding Negotiation in Airtime Sharing In Low-Income Microenterprises." 2012 ACM 978-1-4503-1015-4/12/05.

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How Users Understand Cellular Infrastructure

EKStallings — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:49:34 +0000

Author:

Heimerl, Kurtis, Tapan S. Parikh

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Apr 2012

Publisher/Journal:

University of California at Berkeley

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

In this study, we investigated how users throughout the world understand and make use of their cellular networks. We conducted semi-structured interviews of 17 different people, both rural and urban, across three different countries; the United States, India, and Uganda.

Location

Countries:

India

Uganda

United States

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/P...

Citation:

Heimerl, Kurtis, Tapan S. Parikh. "How Users Understand Cellular Infrastructure." University of California at Berkeley. 2012.

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Deprivation, Distance and Connectivity: The Adaptation of Mobile Phone Use To A Life in Wesbank, A Post-Apartheid Township in South Africa

EKStallings — Tue, 01 May 2012 19:15:56 +0000

Author:

Velghe, Fie

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Oct 2011

Publisher/Journal:

Tilburg University

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

The high uptake of mobile phones in the developing world has instigated studies on the impact of the use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) on poverty reduction programs and other programs that would benefit the poorest and most excluded sections of the global population. It has created new hopes as to how mobile phones would be able to close the so-called global digital gap that exists between the developed and the developing world and transform the fortunes of the poor. As ICTs are always embedded in social and economic realities and practices which deeply influence, define, and restrict people's mobile phone use, one should however be cautious in transporting and applying findings and studies focusing on the created opportunities of mobile phone use from one continent, country or even society to another.

This article focuses on mobile phone use of middle-aged women, living in Wesbank, a post-apartheid township in Cape Town. By highlighting the main characteristics of the community (poverty, unemployment, crime, multilingualism and migration) we discuss the influences of these characteristics of 'a life in Wesbank' on mobile phone use. Although the adoption of amobile phone creates diverse opportunities with regards to connectivity, safety and re-imagination of the self, poverty proved to put a major constraint on the full use of the potentials.

Location

Countries:

South Africa

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://tilburguniversity.acade...

Citation:

Velghe, Fie. "Deprivation, Distance and Connectivity: The Adaptation of Mobile Phone Use To A Life in Wesbank, A Post-Apartheid Township in South Africa" Tilburg University, 2011.

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Early Experience of Mobile Telephony: A Comparison of Two Villages in Papua New Guinea

EKStallings — Tue, 01 May 2012 18:56:51 +0000

Author:

Watson, Amanda H. A.

Publication Type:

Journal article

Publication Date:

Jan 2011

Publisher/Journal:

The Asian Media Information and Communication Centre

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

This paper examines social change following the recent introduction of mobile telephony into rural communities in Papua New Guinea (PNG). It presents the findings of substantial fieldwork conducted in 2009, and suggests ways in which the new technology is already changing people’s lives and relationships. The paper identifies the roles of mobile telephones in two communities, the changes taking place, and how villagers are responding to them.

Comparison of the two villages is strategic as it highlights similarities in perceptions of mobile phones in these two very different settings. An ethnographic approach is adopted, situated within an interpretative methodology. Data collection methods include semi-structured interviews, orally-administered surveys and participant observation. The theoretical lens is focused on the ‘communicative ecology’ concept, which stems from the communication research tradition. This research is significant as it addresses changes currently occurring in the communication methods of whole communities.

Location

Countries:

Papua New Guinea

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://eprints.qut.edu.au/4885...

Citation:

Watson, Amanda H. A. (2011) Early Experience of Mobile Telephony : A Comparison of Two Villages in Papua New Guinea. Media Asia, 38(3), pp. 170-180.

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Using ICT to Promote Governance

EKStallings — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:23:30 +0000

Author:

Siceloff, John.

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Apr 2012

Publisher/Journal:

DANIDA

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

In the fall of 2011, Danida commissioned a study with the objective of:

• Examining strategic opportunities for using ICT for promoting governance and democratization efforts within development assistance; and

• Exploring opportunities for ICT in the present Danish portfolio of development programs and within the vision of the Strategy for Danish Development Cooperation.

The study touches on a range of ICT technologies but its focus is the use of mobile phones, including voice calls, SMS- Text, mobile internet, and social media. This report presents the findings, conclusions and recommendations of the study and falls in 6 chapters: an introductory part outlining study objectives and the methodology applied (Chapters 1-2); a presentation of why ICT is important (Chapter 3); a presentation of ICT case studies from Kenya emphasizing transparency, accountability and empowerment (Chapter 4); a presentation of other donor practices and experiences with emphasis on institutional issues (chapter 5); and a concluding chapter outlining the conclusions/recommendations (Chapter 6).

Location

Countries:

Kenya

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://um.dk/en/~/media/UM/Eng...

Citation:

Siceloff, John. "Using ICT to Promote Governance." DANIDA. 2012.

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Funding Mobile Strategies for Social Impact: The Future is Now

EKStallings — Tue, 01 May 2012 16:01:44 +0000

Author:

Gahran, Amy, Jeff Perlstein

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Apr 2012

Publisher/Journal:

Zero Divide

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

Mobile strategies provide tremendous opportunities for funders interested in strengthening grantees' social impact and generating a strong return on investment. The technology required is (relatively) inexpensive, nearly ubiquitous and already in the hands of underserved communities. Unfortunately, despite many proven successes, clear best practices, and numerous available approaches, funding for U.S.-based projects still lags significantly behind international deployments. What, then, do funders need to under- stand to support their grantees in seizing these opportunities? How can funders support mobile projectsbeyond fundraising campaigns and communicat- ing via social media? What are strategies to help grantees realize the broader potential to amplify program impact? This paper takes on these questions and provides background information derived from interviews with practitioners and secondary research. Examples are given from various mobile projects by and for underserved communities, on issues that range from health disparities to work- force development and more.

Location

Countries:

United States

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://zerodivide.org/sites/de...

Citation:

Gahran, Amy, Jeff Perlstein. "Funding Mobile Strategies for Social Impact: The Future is Now." Zero Divide, 2012.

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Mobile Security for Journalist - The Essential SaferMobile Survival Guide

KatrinVerclas — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 14:30:57 +0000

The new Mobile Security Survival Guide for Journalists from SaferMobile helps you better understand the risks inherent in the use of mobile technology. It also discusses tactics you can use to protect yourself.

As someone working with sensitive information, mobile communications are inherently insecure and expose journalists and citizen reporters working in sensitive environments to risks that are not easy to detect or overcome. This guide is designed to help you navigate these challenges.

We outline the risks and offer tips to help mitigate them. SaferMobile's primary goal is to help you make better decisions about using your mobile phone as a journalist, rights defender, or activist. SaferMobile is a project of MobileActive.org.

The Mobile Security Survival Guide is written with the workflow of a journalist in mind and covers Mobile Network Basics, Prepping for Assignment, Reporting with your Phone, Filing the Story, and considering for Social Media use on your phone. Check it out.

There is much more at SaferMobile - resources, apps, and training materials to make you and your mobile communications more secure.

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Can Cash Compete with a Pig?

olga_moraw — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 01:51:18 +0000

Editor's Note: This is the second blog in a three-part series co-authored by Ali Ndiwalana, Lisa Kienzle and Ignacio Mas on mobile money. Post #1 can be found here.

What are the rewards or incentives and mechanisms that are needed to help poor customers set aside money to meet their financial goals? Banks in Uganda are taking numerous measures to capture the market – from offering unusually high interest rates (Crane Bank is advertising 20% on fixed-deposit accounts) to introducing lottery schemes that offer houses and cars for new savings account customers (e.g., Vimba with Bank of Africa or Fuuka binojjo with Housing Finance Bank).

But even this fierce competition and significant incentives, the majority of Ugandans still prefer stuffing cash under their mattress or converting their cash into in-kind assets such as chicken, pigs, goats and cows. Lack of access to formal financial tools is just one reason for this preference. There is something fundamentally important that the banks have not considered when cultivating their incentive schemes: The rewards offered by these assets are hard to beat.

Take the example of the pig, which produces three cycles of eight piglets, or 24 piglets, per year. A grown pig can be sold for 200,000 UGX ($80), which amounts to a return of 4.8 million UGX, or a bit more than $2000, per year minus the cost of their upkeep. Not bad for some swine! These in-kind investments also regularly produce other goods that can be consumed or sold – for example, chickens produce eggs, and cows and goats produce milk.

Within the context of such returns, cash can never really be king in poor communities because it does not quickly multiply or consistently produce anything of palpable value. What you see is what is printed on the note. It is only what you can buy with it in the market that changes. And with food inflation as high as 42%, cash is quickly losing its value. So why would anyone in their right mind keep their value in cash in the context of such high returns? More importantly, how can we design appropriate financial products in communities where it pays off to be “cash lite”?

Grameen Foundation’s AppLab Money team, together with its advisor Ignacio Mas, went out to the field to answer such questions while testing deferred – or “Me2Me” – payments. The concept works on the assumption that people find value in setting savings goals and that they regularly put cash away to meet those goals (see the first post for a summary on how this would work). But we quickly learned that our informants capped the amount of the money that they held in cash, usually at 50,000-100,000 UGX (about $20-$40). They did this not only to curb their own temptation to spend it but also because in-kind assets offer much larger returns.

The team further tested several different types of reward features – varying by type, timing, certainty and beneficiary. Reward types were either cash or in-kind (e.g., airtime, sugar, etc.); most people preferred cash. When asked about timing, most preferred immediate rewards – that is, they preferred a small reward after each deposit rather than a large one at the end when the goal was met. They liked the certainty of a guaranteed reward, even if small (e.g., 2,000 UGX, about $1), compared to the likelihood of winning a bigger but uncertain reward, such as through a lottery. They also wanted rewards to be personal as opposed to contributing toward a communal or group goal (e.g., building a school). They expressed that savings was a personal endeavor and rewards should be no different.

Although our informants preferred their rewards in cash, they stored their savings in-kind, even though much of the literature tells us that such in-kind assets are risky – if animals get sick and die, wealth is gone. The reason? If you put all your savings in only one type of animal, then that is indeed risky. But most of our interviewees noted that they diversified their assets to minimize such risks. They kept chickens, cows, pigs, goats, and a little bit of cash. When they needed more cash, they would liquidate an asset.

We did discover one small problem with the liquidation process. Most large expenses are recurrent and have to be paid by everyone in the community at the same time – school fees are a good example. About a week before these fees are due, everyone starts to offload their assets to get cash. With much more supply in the market than usual, the price of these assets can fall significantly.

There are two options to circumvent this asset deflation. The first is to sell the asset earlier, which few want to do because they fear that they will spend the cash. The second is to lock cash away until the payment is due, which is where deferred or Me2Me payments could potentially be interesting. We could never compete with the rewards offered by in-kind assets, and we shouldn’t have to. But we could help the poor mitigate the risk of asset deflation by enabling them to keep just a little more cash on hand – at least enough to meet the next school-fees payment. While everyone else is scrambling to sell their assets, Me2Me customers can have the cash sent back to them and use the “pay school fees” mobile-money function to transfer cash directly to the school.

This makes sense to us, but there is one more thing that we need to explore – will customers agree? If we offer them such a product, and ask them to use it to save, will they think more about the opportunity cost (“I could have bought two chickens that produce 20 eggs”) than the potential value they could lose on the asset when they sell while everyone else is? Most important, how do we design appropriate financial products in a context where cash is not always king? We will will look at liquidity options that encourage customers to save to meet financial goals in our third and last post!

Countries and Regions

Sub-Saharan Africa

Uganda

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The Mobile Phone as a Megafone: Immigrants Telling Stories in Their Own Words

AnneryanHeatwole — Tue, 17 Apr 2012 12:56:18 +0000

Every Saturday, a group of Queens, New York residents gathers to learn how to use mobile technology to tell their stories. Megafone, a mobile-based citizen media project, provides an outlet for groups that are often not covered by traditional media organizations. In Queens, a group of Chinese immigrants use Megafone to document their daily lives and experiences in New York City.

Antoni Abad, the founder and director of Megafone, started in 2003 when camera phones first started appearing on the market. He realized that having a low-cost, portable documentation tool would create new opportunities for capturing every-day life – especially for marginalized communities that either are portrayed negatively in the media or aren't covered at all.

Built on the Open Data Kit platform, Megafone content is directly uploaded from mobile devices to the Megafone website. The project has been in operation since 2004 in a number of countries, each time focusing on a marginalized group such as Roma in France, disabled people in Barcelona, or taxi drivers in Mexico. Abad says that by using Megafone, "Communities that suffer stigma have the opportunity to counteract the media and prejudices they encounter in society."

The Queens Megafone project focuses on daily life for the participants, to post interviews and news about what they see, hear, and experience in their lives. Each week, in a meeting at the Queens Museum of Art, they review how to use the technology and talk about how they have used the tool, focusing on tagging content, posting media, and using the ODK workflow. Below is a video of Abad and some of the Megafone participants explaining how the project works and why they were drawn to it.

Countries and Regions

Europe

North America

South America

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Designed to Scale: How Programme Mwana Uses SMS to Get Health Results Across Zambia and Malawi

AnneryanHeatwole — Mon, 09 Apr 2012 13:12:37 +0000

In Zambia, roughly 13.5% of the population is estimated to have HIV/AIDS, while the number of children (ages 0-14) with the disease is estimated to be 120,000. Programme Mwana uses SMS technology to send lab results between community health clinics and diagnostic labs to improve the process of early infant diagnosis across the country.

Launched in 2010 through a partnership with UNICEF Innovation, the Zambian Ministry of Health, Boston Univeristy, CHAI, and the local UNICEF office, Programme Mwana was designed to be a scalable system to help with infant health interventions, allowing HIV/AIDS results to be sent securely from labs to district clinics. The project was launched simultaneously in Malawi. Merrick Schaefer, who led the development of the project with UNICEF, says that the group focused on participatory design to develop agile, adaptable software that meets the needs of community health workers.

Creating Buy-In, Cultivating Sustainability, and Protecting Privacy

Schaefer says that Programme Mwana focused on the community since its beginning. He explains, "We were trying to design a system that would scale from the get-go. And we looked around at what everyone else had done and what we had previously done and the mistakes we'd made and the pitfalls. We knew we were looking for a system that would work under the harshest constraints in the hardest-to-reach areas that would not cost a lot to operate and run, but still have a large health impact."

Programme Mwana's SMS systems, called Results160 and RemindMi, are built on RapidSMS, an open-source framework for designing SMS-based projects. While Schaefer said that the organization considered using Android/JAVA solutions, SMS was ultimately their best choice for creating an affordable, scalable system.

When results from a test are ready, clinic workers get an SMS saying that the results are available. Workers respond to the message with a personal passcode, and then receive the results via another text with the patient only identified as an anonymized number. Community health workers use their own phones, so Programme Mwana doesn't have to buy phones for participants (which they may have had to do in order to use higher-end features like data transfers), and the text messages are bought bulk at a reduced rate through partnerships with telecoms, with no charges to the health workers.

Programme Mwana operates under the Zambian Ministry of Health, and was developed with local software developers so that there will be on-going, in-country support. Schaefer says that although working with many partners made the initial development process slower, it has ultimately been a boon as the government support helped create buy-in among participants. Also, they found that building the system within national health regulations made the scaling process simpler than if they had built it independently. He says, "The vision was not so much that UNICEF would come in and do this project, but that UNICEF would work with whoever was already in that area. [...] Ultimately, the government had ownership of it and participated the whole way. When it came time to scale, we didn't have to go to the government and say, 'Here's the solution you should be implementing,' it was rather '[Here's] the solution we've been building with you the whole time.'"

The Zambian pilot sites were chosen by the HIV and Nutrition groups in UNICEF as some of the highest-need clinics in the hardest-to-reach areas, so the system was designed to work under harsh conditions. Results160 stores messages when phones are outside of network coverage so that workers can access it even when not in service. In Zambia, Programme Mwana is now used in 61 clinics, and in Malawi it is used in 44 clinics (the Malawian project launched six months after the Zambian pilot began). The goal is to have 250 clinics using Programme Mwana by the end of the year, and complete coverage of Zambia in three years.

Schaefer says that privacy and accountability were huge concerns while developing Results160. All the data coming in and out of the phones is anonymized via a lab requisition number. Results are not sent directly – health workers get a notification that the results are ready and then enter their passcode to obtain the results. After getting the results, workers receive a reminder to delete the message. Finally, results are sent for all mothers covered by health clinics that use Programme Mwana, not just HIV-positive mothers, so being associated with the system does not incur stigma in the community.

Programme Mwana's costs are divided among partners, but UNICEF covered most of the initial development costs. Now that it's moving to scale, the Ministry asks partners to cover the costs of training in the areas they work in, while the Ministry pays to maintain the tool (the servers are hosted by the Zambian Ministry of Health).

Results from an early evaluation of the Programme Mwana pilot in Zambia found that the turnaround time from when community health workers collected data to when lab facilities received it was 57% faster when using SMS. The study also found that the turnaround time between sample collection and delivery to caregivers was 56% faster than the pre-SMS system. Designing with end users in mind and ensuring that there is buy-in from local developers, the government, and beneficiaries are key to creating a successful mobile tool. Programme Mwana is an example of how designing in-country and building partnerships helps create sustainable, scalable mobile projects.

(Image via Programme Mwana Posterous Blog)

Countries and Regions

Zambia

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Kenyan Farmers’ Use of Cell Phones: Calling preferred over SMS

Honoluluskye — Sun, 08 Apr 2012 13:34:16 +0000

Author:

Angela Crandall

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Mar 2012

Publisher/Journal:

Karlstad University Studies series

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

The increasing penetration of mobile phones in Kenya has led to a rise in SMS-based information dissemination services. Such services have potential to reduce information asymmetry and empower farmers with weather, market, and other relevant information. However, a number of factors other than the sheer existence of the phone need to be in place for such potential to be realized. Data was gathered using 117 questionnaires administered in 6 Kenyan provinces, as well as 12 focus groups conducted in 4 locations around Kenya. Findings revealed that Kenyan cell phone users still prefer to call rather than SMS (short message service) due to the ease of calling and little practice using SMS. SMS-based information providers should, therefore, consider adding a voice-based product to their services in order to expand their market reach.

Location

Countries:

Kenya

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Upload Paper:

m4d2012_submission_34.pdf

Citation:

Crandall, Angela. “Kenyan Farmers’ Use of Cell Phones: Calling preferred over SMS.” Karlstad University Studies series: m4d Conference. 2012. Print.

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The Developmental Contribution From Mobile Phones Across The Agricultural Value Chain In Rural Africa

EKStallings — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 17:26:49 +0000

Author:

Furuholt, Bjorn, Edmund Matotay

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Sep 2011

Publisher/Journal:

The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries (EJISDC)

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

The most widespread information and communication technology (ICT) in developing countries today is the mobile phone. The majority of people in the least developed countries still live in rural areas and their livelihood depends on the primary industries. This study investigates the use of mobile phones among farmers in rural Tanzania in order to supply empirical data on the developmental role of this technology. The results show that the improved access to communication and information that mobile phones represent affects the entire cyclic farming life during the year and has resulted in considerable changes in the entire livelihood constructs, increased opportunities and reduced risks for rural farmers.

Location

Countries:

Tanzania

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://www.ejisdc.org/ojs2/ind...

Citation:

Furuholt, Bjorn, Edmund Matotay, "The Developmental Contribution From Mobile Phones Across The Agricultural Value Chain In Rural Africa." EJISDC (2011) 48, 7, 1-16.

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April Events: Join a Mobile Discussion!

AnneryanHeatwole — Tue, 03 Apr 2012 01:44:20 +0000

Ready for April events? This month has plenty of conferences and panels to keep anyone with an interest in mobiles entertained. Check out the upcoming events to see what's happening this month.

2-3 April, Africa Mobile Money Research (Nairobi, Kenya) The goals of this two-day event are to examine opportunities, trends, and growth strategies in mobile money initiatives, and to highlight African mobile money innovation.

Mobile Mondays: Each month independent branches of Mobile Monday gather together to discuss different aspects of mobile technology. Some of this month's events are:

2 April, Mobile Monday (Montreal, Canada) The organization will be discussing mobile advertising.
4 April, Mobile Monday (Bangalore, India) This meet-up is centered around the Ubuntu Cloud Day presentations.
5 April, Mobile Monday (Tokyo, Japan) This is an open event focused on socializing with other fans of mobile technology.

17-18 April, The Mobile Show (Dubai, United Arab Emirates) The Mobile Show is a multi-track event focusing on a variety of mobile themes: App Development, Mobile Advertising, M-Entertainment, M-Commerce, and M-Health. The conference has panels and exhibits focusing on different aspects of mobile phone use.

18-19 April, Market Research in the Mobile World (Amsterdam, Netherlands) Want to know how mobiles work in the business world? This two-day event is all about marketing for businesses. Discussion topics include user-centric data collection, mobile behavior, the use of game mechanics, and feedback gathering.

18-19 April, e-Health Africa Conference (Nairobi, Kenya) The theme of this conference is "Integrating m-Health into e-Health Strategy Implementation," so mobile technology is at the center of the agenda. The event focuses on how mobile tech can be used to leverage health care in Africa.

19-20 April, Mobile Payments and NFC World Summit (Hong Kong) Curious about mobile payments, NFC technologies, mobile money transfers/remittances, mobile banking, banking the unbanked, and microfinance services? This mobile money event is for you!

20 April, Fill The Gap (Amsterdam, Netherlands) IICD and HIVOS are hosting a free event to discuss moving beyond mobile hype, with a focus on the challenges around developing scalable, affordable mobile solutions.

23-25 April, 19th International Conference on Telecommunications (Jouneih, Lebanon) This event doesn't focus on just mobile phones, but on ICTs in general. There will be presentations of research papers and panel discussions on everything from telecom sector reform to digital video broadcasting.

24-26 April, mLOVE (Monterey, United States) mLOVE describes itself as a place where "CEOs, innovators and entrepreneurs from across multiple disciplines to share, learn and cross-pollinate ideas with an array of scientists, artists and other thought leaders. The event exposes the mobile industry to the best minds outside of mobile to maximize the opportunity of creating life-changing services and applications that can impact us all for the better." Check it out!

Countries and Regions

Asia

Europe

Middle East and North Africa

North America

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GetH2O Mobile Game

Emer Beamer — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:10:13 +0000

game-flyer.png

Basic Information

Website URL:

http://www.butterflyworks.org

Organization involved in the project?:

Butterfly Works

Project goals:

The project goals were two fold:

1. Action research: Can a mobile game provide an engaging learning experience on a social topic with young people in East Africa.

2. The learning goals of the game are to increase awareness and critical attitudes amongst young people in urban areas in relation to the bad conditions of people living in informal settlements and their relationship to conflict escalation.  

And more specifically the goals are to:  

Raise awareness about conditions in informal settlements and how they can lead to conﬂict. 
Reﬂect on the responsibility of the individual to contribute to their community good.  
Raise awareness about the water shortages in informal settlements.

Brief description of the project:

GetH2O Mtaani is a serious game, which simulates the complexity of life in an informal settlement, focusing on the scarcity of resources, especially that of water and housing. Players learn how to manage resources, invest in the community and prevent escalation of conﬂict.

Target audience:

Detailed Information

Mobile Tools Used:

Wordpress Mobile Pack

Length of Project (in months) :

Status:

Ongoing

What worked well? :

Development and Creation Process:

The game was developed in a series of co-creation workshops with designers and young people in Nairobi and designers from Butterfly Works. Similarly the testing was a collaborative process.

Background context and theories:

As the game was to deal with the themes leading to violent conflict amongst young people in Urban Kenya (specifically in slum areas.) the first workshop was held in Nairobi with a range of young people, policemen, teachers, community workers and parents. Together, the group listed the main issues in their lives, the types of regular conflicts they deal with and their causes, they then wrote scenarios on how these conflicts typically arise and do or don’t get solved.

Conflict Escalation

Informed with a number of theories on conflict escalation and specifically Staub and Pearlmans’ ‘Continuum of violence', including scapegoating, we started on the board game development. This concept session was held in Amsterdam and led by games designer Joris Dormans, using his game development kit, whereby we played a blank board game with blank counters and projected various scenarios and rules onto the board. What quickly surmised was that resources contestation was a good game dynamic and water was chosen as common good which needed to be shared and which could lead to conflicts. Inspired by the game Werewolf, we added a number of player roles to increase complexity, such as the thief, the arsonist and the land developer.

Following a workshop in Nairobi, again with young designers (all of whom grew up in the slums) served to fine tune the game rules and choose the game roles (characters) so that they were a true reflection of how things work in the slums in Nairobi. The designers also reviewed the draft game visual designs and suggested improvements. We first developed the board game and were kindly sponsored in the production of the boards by the German company Ludo Fact. 1000 games were produced in English language and 1000 in the Dutch language. The Dutch version was sold in the Netherlands in specialist game shops. The profit was used to cover the costs of the English language game.

The next step was to translate the multi-player board game rules into a single player experience suitable for the mobile phone. Game design is very much an emergent process, you can’t know before hand how the sum of the game rules will turn out as an experience, so you need to do a number of development rounds. We had to redraw all the graphics into small bitmap pixels.

Young people and downloads

The game targets young people in the age group of 15 to 28 years that live in urban areas, informal settlements and smaller towns in East Africa and specifically Nairobi and Kampala. A third version of the game targets young people in the Netherlands, but that game falls outside of this short case study. The mobile game was launched globally on September 21st, 2011 International peace day and was promoted in Kenya and Uganda, through Facebook, twitter, the online game platforms, GetJar and Nokia’s Ovi Store. In Uganda, city radio promoted the game calling users to text in for the game.

Although the game had more than 50,000 downloads globally in less than 2 months, and the 85,000 downloads in 8 months, the original plan was to reach 50,000 downloads in East Africa (Kenya and Uganda mainly). In fact there were only 5000 downloads from the online channels in Kenya and Uganda. The board game is played in 25 centers in Nairobi and 15 schools in Kampala. These are facilitated sessions called ‘Game Gatherings’ where a group of young people play together and discuss the issues that come out of the game. These sessions are organised by Tobias Ouma in Nairobi and ‘Reach a Hand’ in Kampala.

Social Impact

The learning goals of the game are to increase awareness and critical attitudes amongst young people in urban areas in relation to the bad conditions of people living in informal settlements and their relationship to conflict escalation.

And more specifically the goals are to:

Raise awareness about conditions in informal settlements and how they can lead to conﬂict.
Reﬂect on the responsibility of the individual to contribute to their community good.
Raise awareness about the water shortages in informal settlements.

Board game versus Mobile game

Broadly speaking, the board game is more effective than the mobile game in reaching the learning objectives. This is due both to the multi-player nature of the board game and the space that affords for discussion and reflection. And it is also due to the better game dynamics of the board version. Practically speaking though, the board game is a much more expensive tool, due to it’s physical production and transport costs, while the digital version can be copied and sent for a negligible amount. There is also a Game Gathering kit for the mobile game, which has proved effective. It includes a phone with the game pre-installed and a booklet explaining the game and how to facilitate the ensuing discussions.

Lessons Learned

Below we present some of the outcomes of the recent game gathering event held in Kampala: More than 3/4 of participants played the game in pairs. Half of them enjoyed playing the game a lot and the other half just enjoyed it. All of the users discussed the game with the person who was playing with them while playing the game.

Conditions leading to conﬂict: Most of the users found the game’s situation similar to problems in their communities in real life. They named the stealing and lack of water as the main common issues between the game and real life. Before playing the game participants named poverty, corruption and child abuse as the main conditions that lead to conﬂicts in their community. Interestingly after playing the game most of the users also named misunderstanding as a main driver of conﬂict. After playing the game “over population” was also added to the list as an issue leading to conﬂict in the community.

Contributing to community good: All of the participants believed they could contribute to their community. Before playing the game majority of youth noted “friendship” and “helping people in need” as their contribution to their community. Few of them also named involvement in community works and guiding other people as their contribution. However, after playing the game participants also noted “building public toilets and community houses”, “protecting the resources like water” and “working together and cease revenge” as their possible contribution to the community as well as the other contributions they mentioned before.

Interestingly, the participants’ responses after the game directly reﬂect some of the options available in the “actions’ menu” in the game. The actions presented in the game are result of the collaboration with the youth living in the same context as the participants. They are facing the same issues in the game as they face in their day to day life and their answers show that the game had been helpful engaging the users to reﬂect on their community’s issues they face in their daily life.

What did not work? What were the challenges?:

Going forward: The mobile game is a low cost way to engage young people in social discussions, through the use of games. That being said, a mobile game must present a casual game experience, that is: have almost no learning curve (it should be immediately obvious how to play; unlike a computer game where players will invest more time in order to learn how to play the game) and the game duration is about 3 to 5 minutes in duration. This is a relatively narrow window of opportunity to engage the player in any complex issue while still delivering a fun experience. In the case of the GetH20 the game errs on the side of complexity, the complexity is needed for the topic at hand, at the same time this lessens its ease of play as a casual game, thus impinging on the greater spread of the game. For future games we are looking at a serial model, introducing game levels as new scenarios.

Regions Deployed

Global Regions:

Europe

Sub-Saharan Africa

Countries:

Kenya

Netherlands

Uganda

Contact Info

Last Name:

Beamer

First Name:

Emer

City:

Amsterdam

State/Province:

Noord hollnd

Country:

Netherlands

Email:

emer@butterflyworks.org

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Mobile Apps for Development: Focus on Content By Users, Not Just For Users

Ignacio Mas — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 13:07:03 +0000

(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. A person with a phone can communicate right here and right now, the result of the expansive mobile network coverage and our ability to carry a network end-point (a.k.a. a mobile phone) with us wherever we go. Secondly, the communication is interactive - a two-way communications, with equal capacity for sending and receiving. Both these factors – immediacy and interactivity— involve users not just as consumers but as contributors of content. In fact, the most widely-used mobile channels are purely user-generated: voice and SMS, some picture messaging, more recently Facebook and Twitter.

These applications implicate us in one more sense: we are also marketers of our content. User-generated content involves a level of audience targeting and content tailoring that no studio executive will ever achieve. Our content fills the airwaves in ever-growing quantities, but any bit of it has scarcity value – at least for the sender and for the intended recipient. Content is king, but our content is supreme.

That is well understood in the social arena. User-generated content happens in the context of communities – the set of people for whom my user-generated content is relevant, and whose user-generated content I am curious about. I belong in various degrees to a bunch of social circles, some concentric, some overlapping, some I want to keep strictly apart. Social networking innovations have been precisely about giving people tools to zoom in and out of various communities that they identify with. It may also be easier to assess the quality and relevance of information by and for a well-defined community, in which case it can be more readily trusted.

When it comes to applications for development, though, we tend to fall back on one-way communications and or external content. First-generation mobile applications do not engage people in the content creation process, and their interaction with content is limited to searching and filtering. Such is the case with mobile applications that let farmers get crop pricing information, make it possible for extension workers to send updates to farmers, or remind patients of when to take important pills.

What are the development-related mobile services that have gotten most attention and traction? There’s the M-PESA mobile money service in Kenya: it’s all user-generated content (my transactions, my balance), it’s interactive (P2P payments, primarily), and it occurs in real-time (essential to drive trust). There’s Ushahidi, a platform for crowd-sourcing information and displaying information in a visual and interactive way: it’s about engaging users as content contributors, creating communities through collaboration. Twitter and Facebook themselves have grown particularly rapidly in some developing countries, opening up new social marketing opportunities for small businesses and NGOs without access to traditional advertising media.Business networks, crowdsourcing and P2P – these features need to be at the core of second-generation mobile applications for development.

The starting point for developers need not be what information does the farmer/microentrepreneur need and from there think of who can supply it. Developers might instead ask what information people can and want to contribute and who else might be interested in that. A lot of traditional development work is based on the notion of local communities, be they savings-and-loan groups, farmer associations or local purchasing groups.

We need to think about how mobile phones (and more broadly the internet wherever it is available) can be used support more association and mutual support at the grass-roots level. If we succeeded with that, it would be a beautiful case of the new digital tools supporting the way things have always been done. What will online productive communities in developing countries look like? We’d love to hear from you if you are working on mobile apps for development purposes that are based on user-generated content.

Photo courtesy: Rede Jovem, Brazil

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M-governance: Exploratory Survey on Kenyan Service Delivery and Government Interaction

EKStallings — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:24:47 +0000

Author:

Crandall, Angela, Leonida Mutuk

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Feb 2012

Publisher/Journal:

iHub

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

This paper shares the initial findings from the fieldwork focusing on how Kenyan citizens understand governance and how they currently interact with the government. This information is important as a first step to studying the potential role of technology in Kenyan governance.

Mobile phones have been cited by many as the best technology for interacting with citizens due to widespread user uptake; as of September 2011, Kenya had 25.27 million mobile subscribers. However, understanding the opinion of the citizen users is important to assess the real viability of using such mobile technologies to improve service delivery and citizen-government interactions. Therefore, with the aim of investigating citizens’ opinions on the best methods to interact with government, one-week of exploratory fieldwork was conducted in Nairobi in November 2011.

Location

Countries:

Kenya

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://ict4dem.dsv.su.se/wp-co...

Citation:

Crandall, Angela, Leonida Mutuk. "M-governance: Exploratory Survey on Kenyan Service Delivery and Government Interaction" iHub, Nairobi. 2012.

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Activist Media from the Frontlines: Mobile, Strategic, and Much More Than Just at "The Right Place at the Right Time"

KatrinVerclas — Sun, 25 Mar 2012 04:32:35 +0000

In Syria, activists and citizen journalists fill a media void and strategically inform the global conversation on the uprising by capturing and sharing their own footage. They are organized, trained, smart, strategic, and promote media - much of it mobile - with a purpose.

Mass demonstrations and continued state violence continue in Syria. Authorities are largely banning foreign reporters and have arrested Syrian journalists and bloggers. Outside of the country, news outlets report on the major events there citing “Syrian activists” as the source of information. Day-to-day events in cities around the country come to our attention largely because of the activists and citizen journalists who are systematically providing information to news outlets worldwide.

Perhaps the way the term citizen journalism has been used to date is a misnomer in the context of recent events in Syria, Egypt, Libya, and Bahrain. Activists on the ground and online do not ‘just happen’ to capture and record media because they are in the "right place at the right time" but instead systematically gather, and strategically disseminate media. It may be time for a new term - ‘activist media' who are reporting from the frontlines - that describes the organized media campaigns waged by these activists in a place where traditional media is largely absent.

A report from Channel 4 News notes that a “a band of brand-new, out-of-nowhere, self-styled TV news reporters has sprung up in besieged Syrian cities,” contributing to a media revolution. The article highlights the video below, in which a video journalist from the Baba al-Sebaa area of Homs reports, all the while dodging bullets toward the end of the video.

But videos like these are more than just valuable content. They are part of a cogent global narrative from a well-informed and well-equipped group of activists who use mobile phones to live-stream, video, Skype, and photos in very strategic ways to provide witness and testimony to the events in Syria. They inform a public outside of the country, as well as reinforce activism in many areas within the country, conveying the story of an opposition movement.

Most of the reporting is, of course, coming from the front lines. But there is support and training from organizations in and outside of the country with mainstream media outlets publishing and pushing citizen content to a larger global audience to help reinforce the narrative of the rebellion.

Read the complete story on the Mobile Media Toolkit. We highlight ways that acitivsts and citizens are strategically capturing, crafting, and sharing news, as well as organizations that help support their work.

Image courtesy of Flickr user Syria-Frames-of-Freedom, licensed under Creative Commons.

Countries and Regions

Middle East and North Africa

Bahrain

Egypt

Libya

Syria

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Please Call ME.N.U.4EVER: Callback and Social Media Sharing in Rural Africa

EKStallings — Fri, 23 Mar 2012 18:27:19 +0000

Author:

Bidwell, Nicola J, Mounia Lamas, Gary Marsden, Bongiwe Dlutu, Matt Jones, Bill Tucker, Elina Vartiainen, Iraklis Klampanos and Simon Robinson

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Nov 2011

Publisher/Journal:

Proceedings 10th International Workshop on Internalisation of Products and Systems

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

In this paper we report findings generated during the early phase of a research project that aims to design and develop social media sharing systems to benefit marginalized communities. Studies of cell-phone network users in the developing world have shown that the relatively high tariffs for network access have resulted in new and innovate uses of technology to circumvent these costs.

In this paper we describe a completely new form of service appropriation and how it is being used to overcome tariff costs in a remote rural area of South Africa. In this country, cell-phone providers offer a highly constrained form of free messaging to their subscribers called “callback”. These requests contain the caller’s cell-phone number and the recipient’s very short personalized message. Up to five free callback requests can be sent per day to any South African cellphone network. This service is provided for emergencies when as pay-as-you-go customers do not have any airtime left. However, callback is used in rural areas in ways that go far beyond emergencies.

As with SMS, the constraints on the callback have been appropriated by people to shape both a new language and cultural interactions. This paper reports the context of our study in communication practices in a remote rural area of South Africa, our methodology which we position within Ethnographic Action Research, and our findings and their implications for the design, development and deployment of social media sharing systems for this area.

Location

Countries:

South Africa

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://pubs.cs.uct.ac.za/archi...

Citation:

Bidwell, Nicola J, Mounia Lamas, Gary Marsden, Bongiwe Dlutu, Matt Jones, Bill Tucker, Elina Vartiainen, Iraklis Klampanos and Simon Robinson (2011) Please call ME.N.U.4EVER: Callback & Social Media Sharing in Rural Africa. In Proceedings 10th International Workshop on Internalisation of Products and Systems, pages 117-138, Malaysia.

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Mobile Money Savings Systems: What Do Users Think?

Ignacio Mas — Wed, 21 Mar 2012 20:59:14 +0000

Editor's note: This post is co-authored by Lisa Kienzle, Olga Morawczynski and Ali Ndiwalana of Grameen Foundation and Ignacio Mas. Mobile money can provide a safe and affordable means of offering the poor in developing countries access to formal savings products and services. In this post, the authors introduce and user-test one concept of savings: deferred payments over mobile money.

Grameen Foundation’s AppLab Money believes that mobile money is essentially a liquidity-management platform. Put differently, it could be described as LiFi: Conncting people to an electronic payment system via their mobile phones that provides Liquidity with Fidelity. What does it take to turn mobile money systems into a full-fledged savings platform? A full savings proposition would address these additional key elements:

Mechanisms to help people link their savings vehicles to particular savings purposes or spending goals
Incentives and discipline mechanisms to help customers set money aside into their savings vehicle(s), or “discipline in"
Incentive and discipline mechanisms to help people keep money in their savings vehicle(s) once it is saved, or “discipline out.”

The challenge is how to optimize the mobile money environment by adding these sorts of features without making mobile money so complex and unwieldy that it is difficult or impossible to manage on simple mobile phones.

As one way of meeting this challenge, Ignacio Mas and Colin Mayer proposed a mobile savings system that is a deferred payment scheme. This would enable individuals to set a savings goal, earmark a date by which to achieve the goal and contribute to that goal by paying money to themselves. Each time they make such a transfer, that cash is locked away in the system. When the earmarked date arrives, the money is sent back to the saver, along with an SMS confirming the savings goal (type and amount) and noting the amount saved toward that goal.

From the customer’s point of view, presenting savings as future payments to oneself has two advantages:

Payments seem more purposeful than savings;
Savings can be made through the same user interface that mobile money customers use for payments today (it only requires adding an optional field for the date of effectiveness of a payment).

When we discussed this concept with Richard Mwami, head of Public Access and Mobile Money at MTN Uganda, he called these “Me2Me payments” – in contrast to the more standard P2P payments, or even sharing airtime or credit between mobile phone users called Me2U.

Grameen Foundation’s AppLab Money tested these concepts in western Uganda. We conducted nine focus groups in mostly rural areas around Fort Portal to test a set of options around the central concept of deferred payments as savings. Because we focused the discussion on the usefulness of the service rather than on specific implementation options, we did not have any prototypes or other props to show them how it might actually look and operate in practice.

What were the user reactions to the deferred-payment model in the context of their current financial management practices and spending goals? We found all groups grasping the concept of Me2Me payments very quickly: If I can send money to others, why not send it to myself? They saw the benefits of being able to “park” money for specific purposes, and having that money re-appear at relevant dates.

On the other hand, in general, their financial management seemed to be less explicitly goal-driven than much of the literature suggests. Users had a notion of explicit goals, the principal one being paying for school fees at the beginning of each school term. But the goals are often aspirational and without a clear timeline – things like buying a motorcycle, a ”permanent” house, a plot of land. Moreover, users seem to operate under a system of “rolling goals”: “I’m saving for a bicycle, but I may change my mind and buy a cow instead,” or “I might apply the funds in the event of a funeral or an illness at home.” There are goals, but there seems to be little earmarking of funds against the goals.

In fact, spending decisions seem to be driven by the size of the savings pot, rather than the other way around. The overall savings pot is often fragmented across a portfolio of savings vehicles (for example, a range of livestock – chicken, goat, pig, cow). The variety seems to be driven more by a diversification of risk and liquidity profiles than by assigning different vehicles to specific objectives.

This looser concept of goals leads to several implications for the design of a savings model based on deferred payments. First, ensuring there are liquidity options on saved amounts is important, because users’ goals might shift, given that they are subject to unexpected events. Second, school fees could be a useful prototypical use case to drive marketing, much like ”send money home” was used to drive the notion of P2P payments in Kenya. Third, future payment dates to oneself must be flexible enough to enable the user to indicate dates that are future financial decision points, rather than when certain payments are planned. Thus, I might push money to April 1 simply so that I don’t have to think about how to use that money until then; on April 1, I might decide to do something with the money, or simply roll it over to, say, July 1.

In fact, we were surprised how useful people found the deferred or Me2Me payments concept, despite them having few clear time-bound spending or financial goals in mind. Can a tool that provides them with more-effective management of goals lead them to articulate their goals more deliberately? Isn’t that what financial education is all about?

Image: Courtesy of Grameen AppLab Money/Ignacio Mas

Countries and Regions

Sub-Saharan Africa

Uganda

DSCN0276_01.JPG

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Sat Phone Insecurity, Sneaky Apps, and SMS Campaigns: News Mashup!

AnneryanHeatwole — Tue, 20 Mar 2012 16:22:55 +0000

The MobileActive News Round Up is a collection of news stories and trends that are shaking up the mobile industry. If you'd like to get this content earlier and delivered right to your inbox, sign up for the MobileActive Newsletter.

Click through to read about reaching multi-lingual audiences with an SMS campaign, new research on the efficacy of mobile tools for health work, SIM card registration requirements in Ghana, and much, much more.

Mobile Trends

Does branchless banking reach the poor and the unbanked? CGAP investigates new evidence on how mobile banking is being used by poor individuals.
A study from Kenya looks at how citizens currently interact with the government, and how mobile tools could affect service delivery and government participation.
If you're sending an SMS campaign to a multi-lingual audience, you need to know about accents and accented characters. Sending a text with accents or different characters means you may have to adjust the length of your message, so choose carefully.
If you read a right-to-left language, Twitter is now much more accessible. Thanks to help from 13,000 volunteers, Twitter is now available in Arabic, Farsi, Hebrew, and Urdu.
What's going on with the African tech scene? Check out this collection of the top ten African tech tweeters.
A new infographic breaks down the ways people are using mobile devices for health, government participation, and financial services.
Mobile phones allow farmers to check market prices and get the latest information to sell their goods at a fair price. This photo story looks at how cashew farmers in Cote d'Ivoire are using mobile technology to stay connected.
If you think mobile Internet is growing, you're right – global Internet usage on mobile devices has almost doubled from 2011 to 2012.
Gallup has released a report on mobile and social media trends and telecommunication techniques drawn from surveys in 44 countries.
Which country has the most mobile phone users? Saudi Arabia has 180 phones for every 100 residents, making it the per-capita winner for mobile connectivity.

SaferMobile: Better Mobile Security and Privacy

SaferMobile, a project of MobileActive, helps activists, human rights defenders, and journalists understand the security risks of mobile technology and use mobile tech more securely in their work. Below are security and privacy-related news stories that highlight some of the threats in the current mobile environment.
After the deaths of journalists in Syria in late February, reports surfaced that the Syrian government was tracking journalists through satellite phone activity. SaferMobile has a breakdown on why satellite phones aren’t secure.
In other government surveillance news, Mexico’s legislative branch has adopted new legislation that will grant the police warrantless access to mobile phone users’ location data in real time.
Want to have a phone in Ghana? You’d better register your SIM Card soon – the government deadline for mandatory SIM Card registration was just pushed back by a month. If you don’t register, your phone will be cut off. We write about the global trend.
A US Senator is pushing for the Federal Trade Commission to investigate the latest smartphone application privacy breaches after news broke that some Apple and Android applications are allowed to copy private photos and address books.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation calls for a privacy bill of rights for wireless users in the hopes of raising public awareness about mobile application privacy issues.

Recent Research: Mobile Tech in the Field

The MobileActive.org mDirectory has lots of new research on how mobile technology is being used for development around the world. Here are a few:
Do mHealth tools really work? A new study is in the process of running a qualitative test on how mobile tools affect community health workers.
March 8th was International Women’s Day, and to mark the occasion the GSMA mWomen Programme released “Striving and Surviving – Exploring the Lives of Women at the Base of the Pyramid." The report offers an in-depth look at how women living on less than $2 per day view mobile technology.
For more on women and mobile technology, new research from India looks at how mobile phones, computers, and the Internet can foster entrepreneurship among women.
Can mobile technology influence participation and action? A collection of case studies analyzes the role of mobile technology in democratic participation, responsive institutions, poverty reduction, and environmental action.
Mobile health and mobile money initiatives present a new opportunity for micro-insurance and payment plans. "Advancing the Dialogue On Mobile Finance and Mobile Health" looks at potential business models for bridging the gap between the two fields.

Find a Job

A new effort focused on mobile security is looking for a number of ethical hackers. The organization is currently hiring for a Tech Researcher for a mobile security lab, and a Mobile Application Developer for open source/security applications. Based in either New York City or Washington, D.C., no deadline listed.
Pathfinder International is currently seeking a Senior Project Manager to expand and institutionalize their mHealth programs. The hire will initiate, implement and evaluate a mHealth capacity-building project in Nigeria that will utilize mobile technology as a tool for improving access to reproduction health information and services.
There is a position open for an evaluator of mobile apps at the VA's National Center for PTSD. The deadline for applications is March 23rd, and they are looking for someone with a strong track record of research on mobile apps or other technologies for mental health.
The Carter Center is looking for a short-term hire with functional French proficiency to work on a series of trips to the DRC, mostly involving training and building technical capacity with partner CSOs for Carter Center programs. Please apply ASAP as they are looking to fill the position quickly.
Internews is seeking a Media and Crowdsourcing Project Manager to implement an exciting new journalism and crowd sourcing program in Niger. They are looking for someone with both traditional and social media journalism skills to help with the project.

If you'd like to get this content several days earlier, and delivered right to your inbox, sign up for the MobileActive Newsletter.

Countries and Regions

Asia

North America

Sub-Saharan Africa

6690912337_ae906cae53.jpg

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Social Networking in Developing Regions

AnneryanHeatwole — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:57:42 +0000

Author:

Azarias Reda, Sam Shah, Mitul Tiwari, Anita Lillie, Brian Noble

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Mar 2012

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

Online social networks have enjoyed signifcant growth over the past several years. With improvements in mobile and Internet penetration, developing countries are participating in increasing numbers in online communities. This paper provides the first large scale and detailed analysis of social networking usage in developing country contexts.

The analysis is based on data from LinkedIn, a professional social network with over 120 million members worldwide. LinkedIn has members from every country in the world, including millions in Africa, Asia, and South America. The goal of this paper is to provide researchers a detailed look at the growth, adoption, and other characteristics of social networking usage in developing countries compared to the developed world. To this end, we discuss several themes that illustrate different dimensions of social networking use, ranging from interconnectedness of members in geographic regions to the impact of local languages on social network participation.

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://www-personal.umich.edu/...

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On The Relationship Between Socio-Economic Factors and Cell Phone Usage

AnneryanHeatwole — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:48:30 +0000

Author:

Vanessa Frias-Martinez and Jesus Virseda

Publication Type:

Report/White paper

Publication Date:

Mar 2012

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

The ubiquitous presence of cell phones in emerging economies has brought about a wide range of cell phone-based services for low-income groups. Often times, the success of such technologies highly depends on its adaptation to the needs and habits of each social group.

In an attempt to understand how cell phones are being used by citizens in an emerging economy, we present a large-scale study to analyze the relationship between speciﬁc socio-economic factors and the way people use cell phones in an emerging economy in Latin America. We propose a novel analytical approach that combines large-scale datasets of cell phone records with countrywide census data to reveal ﬁndings at a national level.

Our main results show correlations between socio-economic levels and social network or mobility patterns among others. We also provide analytical models to accurately approximate census variables from cell phone records with R2≈0.82.

Location

Global Regions:

South America

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://www.vanessafriasmartine...

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"Doing the Internet:" How Young People in a Slum in India are Using the Internet on their Mobile Phones

AnneryanHeatwole — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 20:31:24 +0000

While there's often discussion about the promise of mobiles for development, an important aspect of developing projects that focus on mobile tech is a deep understanding of how individuals already use their mobile devices. "Anthropology, Development and ICTs: Slums, Youth and the Mobile Internet in Urban India" takes a close look at how young people in India use their mobile phones.

Drawn from interviews with twenty randomly selected young people in the Hafeezpet slum of Hyderabad, the study looks at how they use the mobile web. The mobile Internet has become a key feature in the participants' days, with a heavy focus on games, music, movies, and other entertainment options. The authors explain that the focus on entertainment is a new way to look at how ICT4D can reach populations. They write:

...The ICT for development community tends to privilege what are and what are not desired/legitmate developmental impacts of technology. [...] From an anthropological perspective, this distinction is arbitrary, even harmful, because it unnecessarily blinkers the ICTD community into looking only at a narrow slice of the full range of human experience of the people who are using the technologies.

In the study, young people describe in their own words how they access the Internet with their mobile phones, discussing the fun of discovering new games, music, and videos. Participants who discovered new music or games would share them with friends, and those with higher-end phones would pass along discoveries to those with lower-end phones. The participants referred to using the web on their mobile phones as "doing the Internet," as it was viewed as a social and entertaining activity.

Interesting findings:

The researchers found that for fifteen of the twenty interview participants, their first experience with the Internet came through a mobile phone.

Young people create social "hubs" to exchange information on mobile browsing, deals for data plans, sites to access free online entertainment, and various technical fixes.

Mobile phones helped the participants get access to the Internet without depending on Internet cafes, giving them a chance to explore the Internet however they wanted. The mobile device also encouraged socialization, as the young people wanted to share new and entertaining things with friends.

Most of the participants were not using the phones for any specific "development"-oriented reasons, but using their phones for entertainment helped participants become familiar with mobile and computer-based technologies, opening the door for using technology in other ways.

The report concluded:

Adopting a narrow development lens can miss the actual engagements and ingenious strategies marginal populations use to instate technologies into their everyday. Here, seeking entertainment becomes a key behavioral tool to strategize technology use. Indeed, this may require us to broaden our view of how we think about what underlies a good ICTD research project and how we view a range of human behaviors as incremental to development.

Studying how mobile phones are used from an anthropological point of view rather than with a development focus revealed how low-income, urban Indian youths actually use technology in their day-to-day lives. The authors conclude that this information can be adapted for later work to create ICT4D projects that will be useful and entertaining to the target groups.

Countries and Regions

India

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Exploring Mobile-Only Internet Use: Results of a Training Study in Urban South Africa

AnneryanHeatwole — Wed, 14 Mar 2012 14:39:23 +0000

Author:

Jonathan Donner, Shikoh Gitau, Gary Marsden

Publication Type:

Journal article

Publication Date:

Jan 2012

Publisher/Journal:

International Journal of Communication

Publication language:

English

Abstract:

Using an ethnographic action research approach, the study explores the challenges, practices, and emergent framings of mobile-only Internet use in a resource-constrained setting. We trained eight women in a nongovernmental organization’s collective in South Africa, none of whom had used a personal computer, how to access the Internet on mobile handsets they already owned. Six months after training, most continued to use the mobile Internet for a combination of utility, entertainment, and connection, but they had encountered barriers, including affordability and difficulty of use. Participants’ assessments mingled aspirational and actual utility of the channel with and against a background of socioeconomic constraints. Discussion links the digital literacy perspective to the broader theoretical frameworks of domestication, adaptive structuration, and appropriation.

Location

Countries:

South Africa

Research Paper - Link to or Upload

Paper URL:

http://ijoc.org/ojs/index.php/...

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