The Mobile Minute: African Mobile Subscriptions, Twitter's Growth, and Explaining Near-Field Communication

Posted by AnneryanHeatwole on Apr 12, 2011

Today's Mobile Minute brings you coverage on African technology use, an interview with txteagle's Nathen Eagle, the 155 millions tweets that are posted on Twitter each day, a look at why technology isn't a panacea, and the future of near-field communication applications for smartphones.

  • Like charts and infographics? Check out Afrographique, which has posts on everything from African mobile subscriptions, to a breakdown of South African users of Mxit, Facebook, and Twitter, to a look at African Facebook users by gender.
  • Want to learn more about txteagle, the mobile data collection and engagement platform that can reach 2.1 billion mobile subscribers? The Guardian has an in-depth Q&A; with CEO Nathan Eagle, in which he discusses how the system uses airtime compensation in exchange for completing mobile surveys. For more background information, also check out MobileActive.org's case study on txteagle.
  • In one year, Twitter has tripled its daily average of posts – the social media service now receives roughly 155 million tweets per day. Read Write Web investigates how Twitter's growth affects the service's readability and looks at new platforms that can sort tweets.
  • The Atlantic takes a look at why technology isn't a panacea to international development and aid challenges. Kentaro Toyama writes about his time working for Microsoft Research India, and how the success (or failure) of different development projects was less dependent on the technology itself, and more dependent on community involvement, political support and infrastructure. He explains, "information technology amplified the intent and capacity of human and institutional stakeholders, but it didn't substitute for their deficiencies."
  • CNET reports on near-field communication chip technology, and how this data transmission technology can be used for financial transactions in the future.

[Mobile Minute Disclaimer: The Mobile Minute is a quick round-up of interesting stories that have come across our RSS and Twitter feeds to keep you informed of the rapid pace of innovation. Read them and enjoy them, but know that we have not deeply investigated these news items. For more in-depth information about the ever-growing field of mobile tech for social change, check out our blog posts, white papers and research, how-tos, and case studies.]

Image courtesy Flickr user QiFei

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