“The Curry Stone Design Prize was created to champion designers as a force for social change. Now in its fourth year, the Prize recognizes innovators who address critical issues involving clean air, food and water, shelter, health care, energy, education, social justice or peace”. Yesterday was an exciting day for us as we announced FrontlineSMS … Continue reading Rethinking socially responsible design in a mobile world
Category: Social mobile long tail
Ken Banks on the social mobile long tail: how grassroots, locally built mobile tools can reach where large-scale solutions cannot.
The innovation/entrepreneurship divide
Last month I attended the Global Competitiveness Forum in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, and sat on a Panel discussing “Conscious Capitalism” with Sally Osberg from Skoll, Bright Simons from IMANI, Michael Strong from FLOW and Mabel van Oranje from The Elders. It was during preparation for a short ten minute talk that my concept of “reluctant innovators” … Continue reading The innovation/entrepreneurship divide
National Geographic: Interview
The following interview – “Solving eco challenges with grassroots messaging” – was given to the National Geographic website last autumn. It’s republished here after it turned out to be one of the most comprehensive to date – covering everything from the role of anthropology in mobiles-for-development, the environmental impact of mobile phones and the thinking behind … Continue reading National Geographic: Interview
Taking the social mobile “taste test”
“After all is said and done, a lot more will be said than done” – Unknown author Twitter has been abuzz lately with fascinating snippets of advice on how to succeed, how not to fail, what makes a good social venture, what makes a good mobile project or how to be a successful social entrepreneur. … Continue reading Taking the social mobile “taste test”
Leveraging the wisdom of the crowd
Late on Saturday night TV I caught a live performance from Pet Shop Boys, who were headlining one of the stages at Glastonbury. Not only did they go down incredibly well – for the impartial listener, at least – but they ended up trending on Twitter, which must have been a first. Reading the public reaction to their … Continue reading Leveraging the wisdom of the crowd
Our “social mobile” line in the sand
The depth and range of discussion generated by my last post on “the cloud” and “appropriate technology” may have come as something of a surprise, but one thing is clear. There’s a great deal of misunderstanding around the topic, particularly with people who are either developing or promoting tools based on the very technology I was challenging. … Continue reading Our “social mobile” line in the sand
Building for mobile at the margins
Fortunately for us, many of the day-to-day technologies which drive large chunks of our on-line lives quietly tick away in the background, only reminding us of our total dependence on them when something breaks or goes wrong. We take the complex ecosystem which drives much of this for granted. Last month I was invited to … Continue reading Building for mobile at the margins
The Social Mobile Long Tail explained
What follows is a short extract from the recent “Soul of the New Machine” human rights/technology conference hosted by UC Berkeley, in which I explain my theory of the Social Mobile Long Tail. This video is also available on the FrontlineSMS Community pages A full video of the session – PDA’s and Phones for Data … Continue reading The Social Mobile Long Tail explained
Time to eat our own dog food?
Is the future of social mobile an empowered few, or an empowered many? Mobile tools in the hands of the masses presents great opportunity for NGO-led social change, but is that the future we’re creating? In “The White Man’s Burden – Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and … Continue reading Time to eat our own dog food?
Social mobile: Myths and misconceptions
A couple of weeks ago – in “The long tail revisited” – I briefly touched on the topic of “myths in the social mobile space”. It wasn’t the major focus of the post, but as is often the case it kicked off a completely separate discussion, one which took place largely off-blog in the Twitterverse … Continue reading Social mobile: Myths and misconceptions
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
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
The Social Mobile Long Tail 2.0
A few months ago I finally got round to diagramming what I thought mobile applications development in the not-for-profit space looked like. I came up with this, and called it “Social Mobile’s Long Tail“. It was based on the original Long Tail concept, first talked about by Chris Anderson in a Wired Magazine article, when … Continue reading The Social Mobile Long Tail 2.0
Mobile apps for the long tail
Even though I regularly blog about things which directly relate to my work, I rarely make use of any of them in my work. But then a few weeks ago I blogged about “Social mobile and the long tail”, an entry in which I tried to imagine what the non-profit/developing country/mobile applications landscape might look … Continue reading Mobile apps for the long tail
Social mobile and the long tail
Erik Hersman at White African talked about it. The Economist also recently talked about it. And Tactical Tech are talking about it. Three commentators and a common theme, even if they don’t realise it. What am I talking about? Social mobile’s long tail, that’s what. So, why the long tail? Well, it goes something like … Continue reading Social mobile and the long tail