“A little over a year ago I found myself sitting in the San Francisco offices of an international humanitarian NGO. Their main focus at the time was a major human-rights treaty, and they wanted advice about mobilizing rural communities to lobby their governments to ratify it. There was clearly great potential for a mobile phone-based … Continue reading Mobile phones join the rural radio mix
Month: January 2009
Sitcoms+SMS: Tackling HIV/AIDS in the DRC
In this, the first of a series of guest posts on how FrontlineSMS is being used around the world, Becky McLaughlin – Marketing Director at Rien que la Vérité – talks about their current use of the platform, and the impact it has had on their work “Based in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Rien … Continue reading Sitcoms+SMS: Tackling HIV/AIDS in the DRC
Earth and sun and moon
Well, not quite. But it is another personal charging option to add to the solar and hand-crank mix (thanks to Guy Yeomans for pointing this in my direction over lunch last week). The HYmini is a cool compact wind-powered charger with an internal lithium ion battery (there’s also an optional solar panel and hand-crank attachment). … Continue reading Earth and sun and moon
A glimpse into social mobile’s long tail
Although I’ve only been writing about the social mobile long tail for a couple of years, the thinking behind it has developed over a fifteen year period where, working on and off in a number of African countries, I’ve witnessed at first hand the incredible contribution that some of the smallest and under-resourced NGOs make … Continue reading A glimpse into social mobile’s long tail
Low(er) cost computing
In the middle of everything else that’s going on right now, we’re working to get the latest FrontlineSMS ready for launch. Among a few of the more minor changes (bug fixes and additional language support, for example) this new release will see the inclusion of FrontlineForms, a fully integrated SMS-driven data collection tool. Although it’s … Continue reading Low(er) cost computing
What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
This is a diagram for Bushmail, a system which allows users in very remote locations to send email using high-frequency radio signals. No need for a mobile signal, no need for cell towers and no need for any infrastructure. A wire strung up over a tree is enough to act as a transmitter/receiver, and a … Continue reading What’s the frequency, Kenneth?
The “long tail” revisited
Four years ago was a very lonely time. Not for me personally, understand, but in the social mobile space. The wider non-profit world was just beginning to take a serious interest in what the technology had to offer, and in 2004 I’d just co-authored one of the earlier reports – funded by the Vodafone Group … Continue reading The “long tail” revisited
Building our Clinton Commitment
Those following kiwanja’s work will remember last September’s invitation to the Clinton Global Initiative in New York, where we proposed the “FrontlineSMS Ambassadors Programme” as our 2009/2010 Commitment. This Commitment was announced live on-stage during the ‘Poverty and Information’ workshop on the final day, and I also had the huge honour of meeting President Clinton … Continue reading Building our Clinton Commitment
Let there be light. And water. And education
At first glance you’d be forgiven for thinking it was another UN Millennium Village, part of the Geoffrey Sachs poverty alleviation experiment. It’s not, but it does sound strikingly similar (you know, take a village of poor, impoverished Africans and bring them ‘development’). Whether you agree with the approach or not – and there’s been … Continue reading Let there be light. And water. And education
Dispelling the myth?
I spent the best part of spring and summer ’99 working on my anthropology dissertation, passionately arguing that anthropologists had been wrongly excluded from much of the earlier global conservation process. The rationale behind my several-thousand word essay was that the view of indigenous peoples as ‘outside of nature’, or ‘a blot on the landscape’, … Continue reading Dispelling the myth?