Press Room

Business Week profiled TED attendees and projects in this article, including MobileActive's Katrin Verclas. Katrin was one of the 40 TED fellows at the event. 

IT Web

Spectrum is a significant national resource and needs to be allocated in a transparent way. This is according to Steve Song, fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, who presented at this year's MobileActive08 Summit, hosted by the Southern African NGO Network and MobileActive.org, this week.

He says countries across the world are allocating spectrum to telecommunications providers and many are exploring an open policy to do it. “With spectrum being opened around the world, I believe that SA could follow in those footsteps and drastically increase competition and innovation.”

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Mail & Guardian

Hundreds of NGO representatives, businessmen and software developers are hunkered down at the MobileActive08 conference in Johannesburg this week, thrashing out ideas and finding out what others are up to in the industry. Encouragingly, there's been talk of collaborating on projects or sharing resources -- why build something from scratch if it already exists?

Part of the buzz around cellphones and the power they have to bring about social changes is due to the pervasiveness of the medium and the greater affordability of handsets, calls and data transfer. Competition among providers has also helped to drive down costs, according to Katrin Verclas, an organiser of the conference.

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Mail & Guardian

The rude honk of vuvuzelas rang through the halls of the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg as the MobileActive08 conference got under way on Monday. The conference brings together upwards of 350 IT professionals, NGOs and others from more than 40 countries to thrash out the role of cellphones in development.

Delegates from five continents were asked to blow the horns as a way of introducing South Africa's hosting of the Soccer World Cup, which, according to David Barnard from NGO Sangonet, was either a reason to attend the event in 2010, or stay away. Delegates also started to get to grips with the challenges of bringing social change using technology.

Thomas Mueller, from Child Helpline International, shared his experiences in setting up a free help service in Uganda. The service now receives thousands of calls every month from children in need of assistance, and local telecom companies carry the cost of the call.

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MobileActive's Katrin Verclas was on a panel called "Mobileactive: How Mobile Technology Impacts Politics and Vice Versa at SXSW.  Listen to a podcast here.

MobileActive's Katrin Verclas was interviewed for a BBC Global Businesss segment on social entrepreunership when she was at the Skoll World Forum on Entrepreneurship. Listen to the segment here.

MobileActive summit comes to Joburg

[ Johannesburg, 3 June 2008 ] - Sangonet, in conjunction with MobileActive.org, will host the MobileActive08 Summit, from 13 to 15 October, in Johannesburg.

Themed “Unlocking the Potential of Mobile Technology for Social Impact”, the event claims to convene over 300 international civil society, development and technology experts interested in the use and application of mobile technology in support of social impact.

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This article is a review of the UNF/Vodaphone report Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use, written by Katrin Verclas of MobileActive.org and Sheila Kinkade.

From BizCommunity.com: How mobile technology is facilitating development work
by Zachary Ochieng

The advent of mobile technology has transformed and facilitated the work of a number of NGOs involved in various forms of development work, mainly relief and advocacy. Nothing attests to this better than a report recently released by the United Nations Foundation and The Vodafone Group Foundation.
The UN Foundation-Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership is a leading public-private alliance using strategic technology programmes to strengthen the United Nation's humanitarian efforts worldwide. The Partnership has three core commitments: to develop rapid response telecommunications teams to aid disaster relief; to develop health data systems that improve access to health data thereby helping to combat disease; and to promote research and innovative initiatives using technology as an agent and tool for international development.

Emerging trends in mobile activism

Sheila Kinkade of ShareIdeas.org and Katrin Verclas of MobileActive.org have co-authored the report titled: Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use. The report examines emerging trends in 'mobile activism' by looking at 11 case studies of groups active in the areas of public health, humanitarian assistance and environmental conservation.

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BizCommunity.com: Summit to unlocking the potential of mobile technology for social impact

SANGONeT and MobileActive.org will be hosting the MobileActive08 Summit, 13 -15 October 2008 in Johannesburg, the theme of which is “Unlocking the Potential of Mobile Technology for Social Impact”. The summit will convene more than 300 international civil society, development and technology experts interested in the use and application of mobile technology in support of social impact.

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International Herald Tribune:

This article is a review of the UNF/Vodaphone report Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use, written by Katrin Verclas of MobileActive.org and Sheila Kinkade.

Cellphones in a supporting role by Eric Sylvers

MILAN: Stories of cellphones' helping people in developing countries abound - some of them highlighted by the industry, in an effort to polish its image, and others by users themselves.

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