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Mobile Technology for Social Impact
October 13-15, 2008
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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.

MobileActive News Aggregator

Jun 27: Everything You Needed To Know About The Symbian Foundation
Jun 26: Linux phones get boost with OpenMoko distribution agreement
Jun 26: Internet telephone encryption stumps police
Jun 26: Burma blocks emergency telecoms
Jun 26: Google's Open Source Android OS Will Free the Wireless Web

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Grameen Village Phone Ladies: Unplanned Obsolescence After A Window of Opportunity?

September 18, 2007 | KatrinVerclas

file under:
economic development, Grameen, mobileactive, mobiles, village phone program

Grameen Foundation's Village Phone program has long been touted as the poster child for using mobiles in the economic empowerment of poor women. The program gives villagers in Bangladesh-- and now in several other countries -- access to microcredit to buy a mobile phone that can then be rented to other villagers who do not have a mobile of their own.

Much has been written about Village Phones in the media and in research reports, often describing in glowing terms the economic impact and gain in social status that the women in the program have achieved. Yet, most of these studies are fairly old at this point, predating the exponential growth of mobiles around the world.

Now questions are being raised in some mainstream media about whether renting out minutes on mobile phones is economically beneficial to the so-called village phone operators -- at a time when mobiles have become so much more ubiquitous, even in remote rural areas.

The Future is Mobile: Ndesanjo Macha from Highway Africa

September 18, 2007 | KatrinVerclas

file under:
blogging, highway africa, mobileactive, mobiles

Brenda Zulu interviews Ndesanjo Macha, the Regional Editor for Sub Saharan Africa (Global voices) at Highway Africa.

He says: "Mobile technologies are cheaper, they do not require the infrastructure and investment other technologies need...Africa has the fastest growing number of subscribers....mobile phones are the key to producing content, sharing content, reading, looking at pictures and images, and even doing businesses."

He describes how mobile technology facilitates rural development and participation, linking rural farming communities with the global public sphere; mobile blogging; and mobile reporting.

Check out the blog at Web2fordev.net for other great content. Hat tip to Christian Kreutz!

KatrinVerclas's blog

Using RSS to SMS for rapid notification of emerging information

May 9, 2006 | marshallkirkpatrick

file under:
IM, mobiles, net2, RSS, sms

I have a robot that constantly looks for select information online about my campaign. It sends me an SMS if and when it finds what I need.

The world today is clearly threatened by information overload, but that's far from the worst problem we face. The right tools for dealing with the barrage of information available can help us deal with the long list of other, more frightening problems facing humanity.

One new class of tools will do just that - by delivering new items in any RSS (Really Simple Syndication) feed to your mobile device by SMS or to your IM client. (If RSS is new to you, there are intro links at the end of this post.)

What does that mean? It means that you can receive automatic near-real-time notification on your phone of, for example, any new internet search results for a query you've set up, any press releases or media statements from corporate or government adversaries or allies, or notification of any other new information that you've set one of these tools to be constantly looking for. Look once and subscribe. This does not require computer programming skills; it's only as new as e-mail was a decade ago.