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Mobile Minute - Daily m4Change News

Today's Mobile Minute covers the mobile gender gap, mobiles in the classroom that allow deaf children to learn alongside hearing children, a study about mobile over-sharing, mobile credits on cell phones during disasters, post-Haiti disaster management with ICTs, and a 90-second interview with Patricia Mechael about mobile health. 

• In developing countries, there is a 300 million-person gap between male and female phone ownership.  "A New ICT4D Paradigm: Women + Mobile Phones + mServices = Economic Development" examines the findings of Women and Mobile: A Global Opportunity and covers how women using mServices (mHealth, mPayments, mEmployment, mAgriculture) could lead to greater opportunities and economic development in developing countries. 

• The Child Africa International School in Kabale, Uganda encourages the use of SMS at school in order to foster communication between hearing and non-hearing students, as described in "Deaf Children are Being Heard in Africa." (Hat tip Textually.org)

• According to a Webroot Study of 1,645 social network users, 55% of people polled said "they worry over loss of privacy incurred from using geolocation data" on mobile phones."

• The Wall Street Journal writes about Concern Worldwide, an NGO, that is testing a mobile credit system in Niger for cash aid: "Looking to Cellphones to Deliver Aid in Africa." We wrote about the scheme a while back.

• "Disaster Response 2.0: Learning from Haiti" looks at how ICTs were used after the January 2010 earthquake in Haiti, covering mobile donations, Ushahidi, and how ICTs can help during emergencies. 

• In a short, 90-second audio piece on Earth Sky, Patricia Mechael talks about mobile health, her work with ChildCount+, and the promise of mhealth.
  

[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

The Mobile Minute - Monday's Edition

The Mobile Minute - Friday's edition

The Mobile Minute, our new feature, is here to keep you up-to-date on mobile-related news. Today's stories are about the number of Google searches made on mobile phones, an updated version of the PDA survey kit, the relationship between ICTs and accountable governments, and an octopus-themed mobile app.

• "Mobile Accounts for 10% of Google Searches, Says Analyst" This Read, Write, Web article looks at comScore search market data – and found that mobile phones are used to make more than 1 billion monthly Google searches in the U.S. 
• "WFP PDASurvey" The World Food Program released an updated version of its PDA-based data collection tool. The group says that the program "allows very large questionnaires to be built very rapidly and deployed onto many PDAs using flash memory cards."
• "Full Circle: ANSA-Africa Newsletter" The latest ANSA-Africa Newsletter looks at government accountability and the role ICTs can play in giving citizens a means of expression. Other topics include local government social media and responsibility, ICTs in Kenya, and creating connections in Bangladesh. (via Accountability 2.0)
• "Paul the Psychic Octopus Gets an App" If you find yourself without psychic guidance now that Paul the Octopus (who gained fame by correctly predicting all of Germany's World Cup matches, as well as the final) has retired, a new iPhone app called "Ask the Octopus Oracle" can fill the void. 

[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

New Feature! The Mobile Minute - Daily M4C News!

We have a new feature!  We want to keep you updated with fresh content all the time - in addition to our-indepth content.  So - it’s time for the Mobile Minute, your daily guide to the latest mobile news and information. Today's post covers Google's App Inventor, SMS farming alerts, using a phone for eye exams, why your nonprofit needs a smartphone, and reaching another milestone: 5 billion worldwide mobile subscriptions.

• “Google Demos Codeless Android Development Tool for Students.” Google’s new “App Inventor” tool (still in Beta) lets users create Android apps through a simple drag-and-drop system – no knowledge of code required.

• “Philippines Farmers to Get Rice-Growing Advice Via Text Message.” International Rice Research has developed an SMS program that will text rice farmers information about crops. Farmers fill out information about their crops over their mobiles, and receive back information about timing, fertilizer, and growing amounts. (via Textually.org)

• “Eye Exams Using a Mobile Phone.” MIT researchers developed an eye exam that runs on mobile phones. The article quotes the MIT News, describing the tool as, “In its simplest form, the test can be carried out using a small, plastic device clipped onto the front of a cell phone's screen. The patient looks into a small lens, and presses the phone's arrow keys until sets of parallel green and red lines just overlap. This is repeated eight times, with the lines at different angles, for each eye.”

• “Five Reasons Why Nonprofit Communicators Need Smartphones.” This article looks at the five key ways mobiles (and specifically, smartphones) are a necessary tool for nonprofit communicators.

• “Over 5 Billion Mobile Phone Connections Worldwide.” This BBC article looks at the rapid growth and high penetration rates of worldwide mobile phone subscriptions, examining the mobile boom in India and China, multiple mobile phone ownership, and what those numbers might mean. The article is based on information from Wireless Intelligence, the database for the GSMA. As of this mobile minute, the exact number of subscriptions is at 5,019,477,554.

[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