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Why won't we see Mxit in the Developed Countries? Interestingly this is one of those technologies that has an easy fit to Africa even though it may never gain traction in developed countries. • SMS costs nothing
The format of books is changing. As the emerging technologies converge, so too the way the world handles written text is also converging. This will affect three arenas of development – research policy communication; children’s education; and adult learning.
A new technology has crept onto the African scene that has enabled a step change in the way that the poor can access and share information. This concept note outlines why we believe that Instant Messaging (IM) through services such as Mxit can make a significant difference to the provision and impact of information services. It proposes a programme of action research
FAO have run a number of e-fora on their e-agriculture site. I think this one is likely to be of widespread interest because it's scope is much broader than agriculture: "This forum will examine the challenges that rural communities face in enhancing the benefits of mobile telephony, and look at some examples of interesting initiatives and good outcomes from around the globe". Have a look at:
So Nigel tells me from his recent research asking farmers in 4 countries about their information needs that many of them are frustrated by the current weather forecasts. A daily forecast is not so much use - they want a two week forecast so they can take those stategic decisions whether to plough, plant or harvest. Makes sense.
At the GK3 recently, Steve Song pointed out that open hardware was becoming an option. Mobile phone circuit diagrams opened up in Australia, were picked up by two small factories in China, and the designer invited to come and see them making his design. Interesting -the factories made circuit but had not previously made phones. Mind you the working conditions sounded a bit dodgy - soldering by dipping the board into a pan using fingertips!
Met with Research into Use, who are conducting a multi million pound programme for DFID on Natural Resources and Livelihoods. The short version seems to be, DFID spent 200+ Million over the last 30 years on research in Natural Resources, this resulted in 2800 projects. 3 years ago they considered enough was enough and reassessed what they were doing. They noted that the important bit was to get the research used. So they have committed 35+ million to the next 3 (or 4?) |
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