Image via Wikipedia From TechReview:
...computer scientists in Pakistan are building a system to boost download speeds in the developing world by letting people effectively share their bandwidth. Software chops up popular pages and media files, allowing users to grab them from each other, building a grassroots Internet cache...a team at LUMS is developing DonateBandwidth, a system inspired by...
"...MapNTL is an online mapping and location-based services that delivers more online maps, point-to-point driving directions and geo-spatial ("where's my nearest?") searches to more businesses and consumers than any other supplier in Nigeria..."-Company...
Founded by alumni of Ashesi University, DreamOval's "...products include Outreach, i-Wallet, and Global Virtual Stock Exchange (GVSX). Outreach is a communications solution that enables enterprises to utilize SMS and Email for business-critical communication and relationship management(CRM)..."-Ashesi...
Led by Karanja Macharia, Mobile Planet "...develops voice and data applications for mobile devices. Their applications enable networks and corporate clients entertain, interact and transact via SMS, MMS and WAP with the growing mobile market in Africa..."In a related story White African discusses an equity stock investment in the company by Google, and wonders whether this is the start of a...
Image via WikipediaSean Park at the Park Paradigm writes:One of the most obvious - yet no less powerful or potentially transformational for it - themes is the combination of mobile communications, internet and geo-location technologies to disseminate information and increase connectedness from the bottom up. This emergent collective intelligence is all the more remarkable, given the typical...
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G. Paschal Zachary writes in the NYTimes:
While engineers in the United States lavish attention on expensive phones that boast laptoplike features, in Kenya there are 10 million low-end phones. Millions more are used elsewhere in Africa. Enhancements to such basic phones can be experimented with cheaply in Nairobi, and because designers are weaned on narrow bandwidth, they are comfortable...
Mwangi of Displaced African has a conversation with David Kobia creator of Mashada and co-founder of the award winning...
From the Dimagi project page:
We are developing the process that would facilitate the use of mobile device to transport images taken by nurses at health care centers (point-of-care) in rural Zambia to a server in Lusaka where doctors can access the images in order to provide expert advice on cervical lesions. We would like to explore the use of this approach to facilitate a scalable national...
"...StartUpAfrica is a blog dedicated to new African companies in particular those startups that are in the Technology, Mobile , Internet and Web 2.0 space. Analysing, reviewing and profiling these companies at the same time providing market news, information, tutorials, tips and advice for the entrepreneurs behind...
NoAH69 a communications solutions and marketing company offers services which include:
-Interactive presentations
-Kiosks and In-store displays
-E-Learning Programmes
-Widgets and Desktop Marketing Apps
-Desktop...
As some light relief from the news from Burma and China, it looks as if the One Laptop Per Child project is falling apart under the weight of - well, mainly under the weight of Nicholas Negroponte. Ivan Krstic explains in a fascinating essay on his reasons for leaving his position as security director of [...]...
Founded by Leila Chirayath"...Market for Change aims to catalyze economic development by creating a market for responsible outsourcing to small and medium-sized firms in developing......
The main service offering of Hexfem a software development company is AnchorSystems, an Enterprise Human Capital Management application which is comprised of 4 modules:
-Human Resource
-Payroll Management
-Pension & Gratuity...
Nigel Woof at MapAction has just circulated a briefing paper entitled Google Earth and its potential in the humanitarian sector [pdf], which outlines most of the key issues around the use of GE (and other geospatial visualisation tools). I was particularly pleased that Nigel recognises the way in which GE is a disruptive technology, something...
Co-founded by Tesh Tesfaye "...JEDA Technologies provides advanced Electronic System Level (ESL) verification automation solutions that are scalable and reusable at various levels of SystemC or C++ based designs. JEDA offers products for verification with temporal assertions, simulation coverage measurement and intelligent stimulus generation to accelerate ESL model and design validation, and...
Okay, everybody try not to laugh when you read the quote from this Network World article:
Big Blue this week said its researchers had created specialized algorithms to help model and manage natural disasters such as wildfires, floods and diseases…. The model allows all unforeseen challenges to be solved, mostly within an hour, and has very [...]...
Well, not yet, but they will [pdf]. Janet Ginsburg explains the development of the idea of the Humanitarian Technology Review, while Bruno Giussani covers the recent TED breakfast, where Eric Rasmussen gave an update on InSTEDD.
Initially the idea of a Humanitarian Technology Review sounds like a good idea - if it’s done right. The first two questions - remember the first two questions, everybody! - are: who is the target audience, and what do you want them to do with the information you’re providing? The briefing paper I linked to above says
The Review’s readers, like the Review itself, span many niches: medical researchers, software developers, policy-makers, funders, doctors, veterinarians, communities trying to prepare for or reeling from disasters - even other media....
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No sooner had I written yesterday’s post about digital security than the New York Times has a piece by Nicholas Kristol on how the Save Darfur campaign website has been under attack recently - from Chinese IP addresses.
As the coalition’s China advocacy campaign has intensified, officials have noticed increasingly sophisticated and subversive attempts to intercept emails and infect computers with malicious programs.
Kristol relies mainly on innuendo to suggest that the Chinese government might be behind the attacks, with very little evidence to support the accusation. From a technology point of view, though, it’s irrelevant who’s responsible - this is a cautionary tale for NGOs and other organisations. We can enjoy the benefits that technology brings - but we also need...
Public transport doesn’t often provide pointers for the humanitarian community. The recent cracking of the London OysterCard (following hot on the heels of the earlier crack of the Dutch transit card system) came as no surprise to digital security experts, but it should teach us fundamental lessons about information security and personal privacy issues.
Security researchers say they’ve found a way to crack the encryption used to protect a widely-used smartcard in a matter of minutes, making it possible for them to quickly and cheaply clone the cards that are used to secure office buildings and automate the collection of mass transportation fares.
No electronic identification scheme is secure. It doesn’t matter how good your technology is, any system which is built by...
Herman Chinery-Hess, a TED Global speaker covered earlier, is the founder of BSL which has just introduced a SMS/Internet Scratch Card- Global Electronic Payment Solution:
It allows the average African to enter into remote and electronic business transactions...Permit the average, small, rural African business operator to easily engage in global transactions for the first time...It will enable...
Businessweek reports:
Hasso Plattner, the billionaire co-founder and former CEO of German software giant SAP (SAP) announced in Cape Town, South Africa, that he is starting a new $42.3 million pan-African venture capital fund-Hasso Plattner Ventures Africa-...In addition to providing capital, the new fund should help open doors for African companies throughout the tech industry and in such...
Tom asked me to elaborate on a point about NGO technology choices and (despite the fact that he’s failed to deliver the blog posts he promised, ahem) I think it’s worth putting something out there. I haven’t seen anything written about the issue of NGO technology markets anywhere else, but it seems to be a key issue given the recent development of some key applications and platforms. Basically the problem is this: the humanitarian community (but particularly NGOs) seems to make quite poor choices in terms of software. We then have to live with legacy software and all sorts of compatibility issues, while we lag behind developments such as Web2.0 and tend to deploy the sort of technology that only increases the gap between ourselves and our beneficiaries.
To some extent...
Joel Selanikio refers to Datadyne's EpiSurveyor application in a BBC article on 'Invisible Computing',where he contends that "an international network of wirelessly-connected computers" already exists--the mobile phone network--His companies application:
EpiSurveyor allows anyone to very easily create a handheld data entry form, collect data, and then transfer the data back to a desktop or...
NextBillion profilesTapan Parikh's Ekagon Technology which:
Developed Cam, a toolkit to use the capability of phones to capture images and scan documents, enter and process data, and run interactive audio and video. Parikh built a software system on top of Cam to assist self-help groups in managing their information and their operations. Without requiring the users to change their style of...
Turnkey Africa is a "...enterprise systems integrator. Which architects, implements and manages production quality enterprise computing solutions.They provide services which include:
-Enterprise systems engineering expertise
-Strategic application development
-Infrastructure solutions and systems...
Founded by Tes Meharenna, Keysoft International "... implements and supports enterprise-wide system solutions and services for large- and mid-sized organizations..."Their products include:
-The KeyPoints loyalty product
-hApp Manager an ObjectStar® enhancement...
MicroCapital reports:
The Africa Financial Grid is specifically designed to help MFIs reduce operating costs, streamline lending processes, and expand into additional financial services such as micro-insurance, bill pay, credit scoring and history, and international remittances. Its resource-sharing feature will also enable MFIs to collaborate with credit bureaus, international payment networks,...
The Meltwater Entrepreneurial School of Technology's aim is to train young Africans to develop and market commercial software.They state that their"...Main focus is to teach trainees different ways to test ideas and to understand the logics of programming. While maintaining high standards, trainees' work will be practical and relevant to real world...
WhiteAfrican reports on StocksKenya, which has:
Taken a very hyper-local approach to information on the stock market in Kenya. They’re building a strong and focused community, and they have a real chance to grow this into a money-making...
African Loft reports on VTN ,a new mobile phone payment system:
At VTN, you are not tied down to one bank. VTN is a revolutionary payment engine for buyers and sellers of services in Nigeria The virtual account can be loaded at any branch of a designated Bank in Nigeria. Once funded, you can begin to pay for services nationwide. It’s built for increased flexibility in accessing your money...