Low-cost technology
News, via SMS, claimed to reach 60,000 subscribers in eastern India
A journlalist I know, Jatindra Dash from the eastern Indian state of Orissa, started this rather interesting SMS-based news-service in the Oriya language which is spoken by some 31 million people.
APC's WOUGNET soars high in the use of SMS to share information
WOUGNET has explored the use of SMS in information sharing and carrying out SMS campaigns around different themes. In a test of Mobile Advocacy Tools a campaign on ICTs and poverty reduction, was successfully carried out in April/May 2008 and proves that SMS is a powerful tool of information sharing. WOUGNET members, partners and interested persons discussed questions sent out by the secretariat on the theme, ‘ICTs: Is your wealth a click away?
Networking communities in the South -- challenges for diverse actors: Remittance, microfinance and technology
In 2003 a Pew Hispanic Center survey found that 40% of the adult, foreign-born Latino population in the United States, some 6 million people, send money home on a regular basis. This paper deals with the issue of the high cost to migrants of sending money back to their families at home, i.e. international money transfers and who controls them, and discusses opportunities of creating an alternative system.
Scott Robinson is a Mexico-based anthropologist who has been a pioneer in community based information services, telecentres and ICTs for social justice in Latin America. APC thanks Scott for permitting us to reproduce his paper here.
Kenya’s Potential to produce Agro-fuels
In Kenya especially the arid and semi-arid areas, scenes of idle land are common. These pieces of land are deemed unproductive.
NepaLinux, Free Geek win int'l award
NepaLinux and Free Geek have been announced co-winners of APC Chris Nicol FOSS Prize 2007 in Montevideo, Uruguay.
Every laptop assigned a child
Journalist Miguel Peirano finds that "Many people think that a laptop for every child is a magic solution and that just giving the children a machine will make them happy," in his well-documented opinion piece about the CEIBAL Plan. This Uruguyan adaptation of the One Laptop Per Child project turns this South American nation into the only country in the world that has adopted, as government policy, the proposal to endow every schoolchild with a low-cost laptop connected to the internet.
Engendering localization: from apps to end users
Erika Smith, from APC’s women’s programme, blogged live from the Gender Evaluation Methodology (GEM) global trainers exchange, held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 23-27 July 2007.
Did you say cell phones for development? “Yes, technology can do anything, really, but people have to drive it”
Considering the demographic overlap between those most affected by HIV/AIDS and cell phone users, it only makes sense that a major focus be put on how this low-cost technology can fight this deadly pandemic. APC-member Women’sNet recently engaged in a UNICEF-driven speed assessment of fifteen projects that apply cell phones towards development objectives in Africa, with a particular focus on HIV/AIDS prevention, treatment and care.
"IT spreads throughout society at all levels, and is not concentrated in the hands of a few"
APCNews interviewed Nicholas P. Sullivan, author of ‘You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World’s Poor to the Global Economy’, a book published in February 2007 by Jossey-Bass. Sullivan argues that ‘inclusive capitalism", combined with the ‘external combustion engine’ are better approaches to development than foreign aid. Do you agree?
'Gold in the mud' unleashed through ‘inclusive capitalism’?
In 1993, Bangladesh was considered a no-go zone by foreign investors. Foreign direct investment in the country totalled USD 3 million that year. Today, it has multiplied to around USD 1 billion, three quarters of which feeds the telecommunications industry. How did foreign investment skyrocket in such a short period of time? The answer lies in the story of the GrameenBank, if we are to believe Nicholas P. Sullivan, author of You Can Hear Me Now: How Microloans and Cell Phones are Connecting the World’s Poor to the Global Economy.