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zimbabwe

 
MobileActive08

A Global Summit about
Mobile Technology for Social Impact
October 13-15, 2008
Johannesburg, South Africa

 
 
Wireless Technology for Social Change
Read the new report on trends in mobile use by NGOs:
Wireless Technology for Social Change.

The report was commissioned by the UN Foundation/Vodafone Group Foundation Partnership and written by Katrin Verclas and Sheila Kinkade.
 

Beating censorship in Zimbabwe via SMS

March 4, 2007 | KatrinVerclas
file under:
mobileactive, radio, sms, zimbabwe

Gerry Jackson reports on Media Helping Media about the radio station SW Radio Africa outsisde of London that is sending sms headlines about news in Zimbabwe to it's subscriber base of about 2,000 mobile users. Jackson writes:

"We generate news headlines on a daily basis anyway - so this is just another way of using what already exists.

It’s nice and cost effective for any additional donor because there is only the one cost, actually sending the texts. In two months we’ve built up an address database of about 2,000 mobile phone numbers. Like many, Zimbabweans truly love their mobile phones and of course what we’re banking on is the virus effect.

We also get up to 100 requests a day to be added to the service so it’s growing rapidly. What becomes interesting is what business model to use?

Read More >>



SMS as Alternative Media in Elections

April 7, 2008 | admin
file under:
election, kubatana, malaysia, political jokes, sms, zimbabwe

As the standoff in Zimbabwe continues after the election a week ago, mobile phones are used as a vital communication tool to disseminate news and information - sometimes to the point of jamming the networks. We have previously written about how jokes are used as a way of political expression. Dumisani Ndlela, in Zimbabwe, writes about this as well, and how the networks are overloaded with both messages from abroad and with the county. She also describes the jokes circulating:

Read More >>



Send Mugabe to the Farm - Text Messaging and Ringtones in the Zimbabwe Election

March 26, 2008 | KatrinVerclas
file under:
election, monitoring, political ringtones, zimbabwe

Zimbabwe is going to the polls on Saturday and candidates there have made extensive use of mobile phones to get their message out. In what is likely going to be a fraught election with poll irregularities and violence feared, the three main candidates are nonetheless using mobiles to engage their supporters and get them to the polls.

Zimbabweans, faced with a state-controlled media with few independent outlets, are also using text message jokes to express their opinions, as we have reported previously here at MobileActive.org. According to the Voice of America, "One of the most popular messages, at the moment, among Mutare residents is one that reads "President Robert Mugabe should be sent to farm, while Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition movement For Democratic Change should be sent to school... And [former ruling party finance minister] Simba Makoni must be allowed to rule."

The message is believed to the brain child of Makoni's backers."

The joke refers to Mugabi's controversial land reform, and candidate Twvangirai's limited formal education.

Read More >>



Mobile phone lifeline for world's poor

February 22, 2008 | Simon Pavitt
file under:
bbc, india, m-banking, zimbabwe

There's a great article about spread of mobile phones in India and Africa on the BBC News website.

For instance, it mentions how migrant Zimbabwean workers in South Africa send money back using M-banking and avoid having to pay bribes to border guards when they go home.



MobileActive07 Preview! Mobiles as Alternative Media in Zimbabwe

November 17, 2007 | CorinneRamey
file under:
dialup radio, kubatana, mobileactive07, zimbabwe

MobileActive07 is quickly approaching, and as we get ready, we bring you a series of sneak peaks of some of the interesting people, projects, and technologies that will be at the conference.

Brenda Burrell, who will be joining us from Zimbabwe, is one of founders of Kubatana.net. Brenda sat down with MobileActive for a discussion about her work using mobiles as an alternative media source in Kubatana and Dialup Radio.

Read More >>



Mukuru.com

file under:
sms, voucher, zimbabwe, 2. WIRELESS APPLICATION SERVICES PROVIDERS
operates in:
Zimbabwe

contact:
www.mukuru.com

Mukuru.com is a voucher system for food, money, SIM cards, fuel, and other items in Zimbabwe. The vouchers are sent over SMS.

References / Past Projects

WHO is Mukuru.com? Mukuru.com is run by a team of Zimbabweans that moved to this ridiculously cold place about 4 years ago but still keep strong ties with the goings on back home. The idea to use SMS or email as a means to deliver value back to Zim came to us by chance as we had done some work in the IT and mobile industry in the UK - also, every year we went home we felt that more and more of us were getting to grips with email and mobile phones - and that if only we could think of a cool way for relatives to load value into an SMS then we would have a great solution for letting relatives abroad help their friends back home. Our solid relationships with suppliers on the ground in Zim ensured that customers would be looked after from begining to end of their experience. Which leads us onto... What is Mukuru.com?

Mukuru.com is a website fundamentally intended to enable YOU to help your friends and relatives in Zimbabwe. The concept is very simple, you pay Mukuru.com for products and services that we ensure get delivered to the Zimbabwean recipient through our network of local agents.

 

Mukuru Vouchers – the power of SMS
Mukuru.com has been founded on a voucher system. These Mukuru Vouchers are 10 digit codes that are redeemable for the product or service you paid for. When your payment for an order has cleared we SMS this code to the recipient in Zimbabwe and email a copy of the order details and voucher to both YOU the buyer and to the recipient.

Fast and Effective
This means that in a matter of minutes you can complete a purchase on Mukuru.com and trigger a Mukuru Voucher via SMS and email to your friend in Zimbabwe. They can then follow the pertinent product instructions and redeem the voucher immediately.

Is there any hold up?
Yes, Mukuru.com will not generate the Vouchers for your order until your payment has been confirmed. So whether you are paying by credit card, paypal, wire transfer or cash, we will only send out the vouchers once your payment has cleared.

How secure is this process?
Very! Not only are Mukuru Vouchers highly encrypted, but as the buy you have to specify the recipients identification details - this means that even if a tsotsi manages to get their hands on a Mukuru Voucher they still have to prove who they are when they try to redeem it. The website itself is protected by Thawte - encrypting your communications with us so that your information is private and secure. We have also added 3D-Secure to our Credit Card payment solutions to make it harder for stolen cards to be used on our site.