The background is this: In December 2012, the International Telecommunication Union will convene a meeting of the world’s governments to renegotiate the ITU’s underlying treaty, the International Telecommunications Regulations. Currently, these ITRs do not address Internet technical standards, infrastructure, or content. However, some states, notably China and Russia, are advocating for an expansion of the ITRs to include Internet regulation.  

The emergence of the ITU as the primary regulatory body for the Internet would represent a sea change in Internet governance and could undermine the success of the Internet as an open platform for innovation, economic growth, human development and democratic participation. 

We believe that there is a lack of opportunity for civil society participation in the World Conference on International Telecommunications meeting in December. We also believe that this does not bode well for the future of an open Internet. We urge all civil society members of MobileActive's community to review the key issues at hand and become involved. 

• Remove restrictions on the sharing of WCIT documents and release all preparatory materials, including the Council Working Group’s final report, consolidated reports from all preparatory activity, and proposed revisions to the International Telecommunication Regulations; 
• Open the preparatory process to meaningful participation by civil society in its own right and without cost at Council Working Group meetings and the WCIT itself, providing formal speaking opportunities and according civil society views an equal weight as those of other stakeholders.  Facilitate remote participation to the extent possible; and
• For Member States, open public processes at the national level to solicit input on proposed amendments to the International Telecommunication Regulations from all relevant stakeholders, including civil society, and release individual proposals for public debate.  

With ubiquitous and affordable mobile technology a reality not just in Asia but the world over, LIRNEAsia set out to ask a number of important questions: Can talking on the phone help those responding to emergencies to be better organized? How can voice services be used more efficiently in alerting and reporting about disasters than other channels? Where can computer technology make a difference in crisis management?

The video details how LIRNEAsia is experimenting with the open-source Sahana disaster management platform, and with Freedom Fone's interactive voice response system to investigate whether voice-based reporting can fit into globally accepted standards for sharing emergency data. LIRNEAsia found that while the technology isn't perfect, there is much potential for crisis and disaster management. Give it a look - well worth your while. 

My interview with Radio Netherlands about mobile apps, Africa, Abayima, and supporting the continent’s nascent innovators…

“A revolution is taking place in Africa,” according to the Fill the Gap organizers. And it’s “driven by mobile technology and rapidly growing access to the mobile which is the key to smart entrepreneurship and citizen participation.”

What does Gosier think about that? “I would reverse that statement to say, smart entrepreneurship is the key to mobile innovation,” he says. “The same goes for ‘citizen participation’ and ‘need’. The buzz in its current form is flawed because it assumes that innovation in itself provides solutions that can help people.”

Read it In Full

The edited footage of the talk this interview can be found here.

==
Technologie: Les Africains Prennent Leur Destin En Main

Le buzz au cours de l’événement Fill the Gap a été “une révolution se déroule en Afrique, entraînée par la technologie mobile et par l’accès de plus en plus rapide au mobile qui constitue la clé de l’esprit d’entreprise et de la participation citoyenne.”

Selon Gosier, il est essentiel de commencer par un besoin et ensuite voir si et comment la technologie mobile peut faire partie de la solution. “Je voudrais revenir sur cette déclaration pour dire qu’un astucieux esprit d’entreprise est la clé de l’innovation mobile,” explique-t-il. “Il en est de même pour la “participation citoyenne” et le “besoin”. Le buzz dans sa forme actuelle est imparfait, car elle suppose que l’innovation par elle-même fournit des solutions qui peuvent aider les gens.”

Lire l’article complet

• Inveneo is seeking an ICTD Network Operations Engineer. The position is based in San Francisco with some travel. Available immediately.   

• There is an open Programme Coordinator ICT for Development (ICT4D) with the Technical Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation ACP-EU (CTA) in Wageningen, the Netherlands.

• Human Rights Watch is seeking a Researcher on the Internet and Human Rights. The position is based in Washington, DC (or flexible). Deadline is May 18, 2012. 

• The Chiapas Institute of Health (ISECH) is looking to fill some technical positions for the Mesoamerican Health Initiative project in Mexico.
  • Principal Engineer and Advisor
  • Senior Engineer in Electronics and Communications
  • Senior Web Developer (HTML5, jQuery, CSS3, PHP, Java)
  • Senior Graphic Designer Interfaces (Visual: UI) Web and Mobile
  • Senior Mobile Application Developer (Android, Java)
  • Electrical Engineer Trainee Technician I
  • Project Manager

• Tobacco Free Kids, based in Washington, DC, is looking for an experienced applicant for an Associate Director of International Communications (Social Media) position. The position will be open until filled. 

• The newly founded Alexander von Humboldt Institute for Internet and Society (HIIG) in Berlin is seeking applications from researchers and phd candidates for several positions:
  • Research Position at the Policy & Governance Section. Backgrounds in STS, Political Science, Sociology, Cultural Studies or Media and Communication Studies are especially welcome.
  • Doctoral Positions at the Institute.

• The Archives & Special Collections at UConn is looking for a Curator of Human Rights Collections who has a strong interest in Human Rights as well as experience working with digital content and archives.

• eQualit.ie is looking for a Server Administrator for Maintenance and Development of the Deflect DDoS mitigation project and participation in eQualit.ie's other projects. This is a full time position but two part-time roles,especially if located within the Western European and South East Asian timezones, would be considered. Please send your application and questions to dmitri AT equalit DOT ie.

• mSwali.org, is looking for a solid Python webapp developer to participate in a 3-month internship in Nairobi this summer.Interested candidates should send a short letter of interest, CV, and any applicable projects to jobs AT mswali DOT org.

• The International Broadcasting Bureau, Office of Technology, Services and Innovation is looking to fill an open position for the Director of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. The position is located in Washington, DC and only US citizens are eligible.

• Computer Aid International is hiring for two London-based positions:
  • Director of Fundraising
  • Director of Marketing and Communications (10-month maternity leave cover)

• shiftLabs has announced three Summer Digital Innovation Fellowships. Applicants must be over 18 and currently be currently enrolled Undergraduate or Graduate students, or recently graduated (past six months). The closing date is May 18.

• Google is currently hiring for the Regional Lead of Program Management for Emerging Markets, a position based either in Nairobi, Kenya or Lagos, Nigeria.

• Village Tech Solutions is looking for two unpaid Summer interns familiar with Linux/PHP. The positions are based in California and Nepal supporting intensive field testing and equipment redesign. The contact for the position is David Sowerwine, david AT villagetechsolutions DOT org.

If you have any job openings, please email them to us at info AT mobileactive DOT org. If you are seeking a job in the field, please sign up for the MobileActive newsletter where we regularly list job openings that we receive.

Image courtesy of Cinty Ionescu on Flickr.

2546573297_57c6a0372f_z.jpg

Jonathan Gosier, founder of Appfrica speaks about examples of good mobile technology initiatives in Africa at Fill the Gap 9 in NEMO, Amsterdam. Moving ‘beyond the mobile hype’ requires asking different questions about what we do and what we’re trying to accomplish. Moving forward we should consider not just the effects of technology projects but its affects across society.

References Ushahidi, Apps4Africa, Appfrica, Question Box, African top-level domains and nurturing future African talent.

The slides are below…

Why, despite wide-spread use of mobile tech for social change around the world, has the U.S. social sector been so slow to adopt mobile technologies? What do funders need to understand to support grantees' efforts to harness the power of the mobile phone? What strategies can help service organizations realize the potential of mobiles? Since phones are ubiquitous for most demographics but particularly so for young people and communities of color who use phones more intensively, this is becoming a critical question for the social sector in the US.

Funding Mobile Strategies for Social Impact: The Future is Now from ZeroDivide examines these questions, asking how to increase grantmaking for projects that utilize mobile technology to target groups working for social equity.

The U.S. Mobile Landscape

The paper notes that the vast majority of American adults, 86%, own mobile phones, and 50% of these phones are smartphones with access to the Internet. More than other groups, minorities, youths, individuals from lower income brackets, and those with no college experience rely on a mobile phone for Internet access. Yet, serious barriers to full Internet participation persist. These include phone capabilities, costs, network speeds, and accessibility of mobile phones over Internet access on a computer.

Ways in Which U.S. Organizations Use Mobile 

The report, authored by Amy Gahran and Jeff Perlstein, outlines some ways in which organizations are using the various mobile channels. For instance, it highlights the work of Txt2Wrk and Text4Baby that both utilize SMS or text messaging as a channel for outreach, or Mobile Voices that utlitizes the phones' multi-media capabilities for story telling. 

The report unfortunately also highlights projects that are no longer active and clearly were a failure, such as Witness' Hub (featured at a recent Failfaire that we hosted). There is also no discussion about the actual effectiveness of some of the projects described and some notable examples of projects that might actually have an impact are not even mentioned. (We are thinking here of  Do Something's SMS channel, for instance.)

This diminishes the credibility of the report, especially in a section that is entitled "Making an Impact." More careful vetting of the case studies and example mobile uses in the report would have been useful here to make the point that, in fact, there is very little being done today in the US with mobile tech that is really having any impact at all. 

Keys to Success For Mobile Programs With Underserved Communities

Based on interviews with practitioners, the the authors suggest that there need to be a number of key factors in place to help organizations best harness the potential of mobile phones for social impact.  They include many factors that we have written about time and time again. These factors are really no different from those that have been identified for any successful use of technology in social change projects:  

• Build powerful partnership; 
• Prioritize publicity and outreach; 
• Involve the target community;
• Foster strong ties with technologists; 
• Be realistic about the limitations of technology and access; and
• Always include training.

Many of these issues are not necessarily related to funding, however; a point the report leaves woefully unaddressed. It would be our contention that a lof of the lack of expertise with fast-changing tech such as mobile is, in fact, a symptom of fundamental structural and management weaknesses in the US nonprofit sector, and especially so amongst organizations explicity focused on social change issues and marginalized communities. 

Ways Funders Can Support Mobile Strategies By And For Underserved Communities

The report states that funding mobile phone-based programs as a way to reach underserved group is clearly needed. Yet, the philanthropic sector's investment in such solutions continues to be modest. What are the barriers to investment?

Based on a 2011 survey of foundations, there are considerable obstacles to funding mobile-oriented solutions: Funders lack expertise or even familiarity with technology, there is a lack of clarity on funding strategies to foster grantees' use of tech for social change, there is little dedicated funding for grantees' media/tech work, and not enough attention and funding for intermediaries to assist foundations/nonprofits with tech strategies.

What comes next? How can funders overcome these barriers and best support grantees and communities in seizing opportunities? The author notes:

"The sweet spot for funders working with underserved communities lies in increasing the value people can generate from the types of mobile devices and access they already have. For now and the next few years, this means ensuring accessibility —designing projects for feature phone users— and emphasizing the strengthening of community capacity, knowledge, and strategy development."

The report suggests that support can come in a number of forms, not just as funding. Some of the ideas presented include: 

• Foster learning
  • Support research on local mobile usage, ownership
  • Support nonprofits' learning
  • Promote funder education (i.e. professional development)
• Supporting Grantees
  
  • Conduct a mobile assessment of grantees, fund mobile elements for existing projects
  • Fund a cohort of existing grantees to experiment and generate mobile projects
  • Develop a Tech Talent Bank
  • Subsidize bulk text messaging
• Convening Key Stakeholders
  • Sponsor hackathons and "mobile challenges," encourage participatory design
  • Collaborate on matching funds
  • Convene potential partners from different sectors
• Expanding the Audience
  • Provide translation and localization support for existing mobile offerings

Playing Catch-Up

The social sector in the United States already lags far behind international deployments of mobile technology for social impact, in no small part dues to funders inability to work within a fast-changing and technically sophisticated environment.

Funding Mobile Strategies for Social Impact: The Future is Now serves as an introduction to the obstacles to funding mobile phone-based strategies in the United States. While the report lacks depth and nuance, as well as a substantive discussion of the lack of impact of even existing projects in the US, it does provide a primer to key issues.  

We applaud some of the creative ways suggested in which funders can address their lack of innovation in this field (even if we believe that hackathons are overrated to produce shippable product).  

But nonprofits and funders alike are playing catch-up with technology, and they better get on it. 

Follow the link here to view ZeroDivide's list of resources to help funders and grantees seize the capabilities of mobile phone technology.

(Image by JR_Paris on Flickr)

144119309_644080ece9.jpg

Fostering the growth of the VC4Africa community is central to the daily work that Ben and I do. In our travels and interactions with entrepreneurs in all corners of the continent, we’re also acutely aware of the need for early stage venture finance. Increasingly, new funds, niche firms and angels are testing the waters of investing in African tech. Despite this, many African markets remain underserved. The challenges are well understood: high costs of due diligence, lack of viable exits and so on.

We’ve kept Sanaga Ventures in standby mode over the last year while we refined our strategy. Ben and I are focused on markets and sectors we know well, and will offer not only seed finance but a package that includes the knowledge, network, mentorship and non-financial resources needed to give startups their best shot at success. Our end goal is to work closely with these founders to create an attractive opportunity for the investment community.

To start things off, we’re pleased to announce a Startup Challenge for Cameroon; a country and tech community that’s very close to us:

The competition offers a cash prize of USD $5,000 for the most innovative web, mobile or hardware-based business venture in Cameroon. As an additional benefit, the winning venture is eligible to be incubated at ActivSpaces, Cameroon’s leading technology hub, and receive ongoing support, oversight, services and mentoring. An awards ceremony will be held in Cameroon at the close of the challenge with the top three startups, participants, judges, invited guests, a video crew and local press. Entries will be accepted from May 7th – July 6th, 2012.

We’re very fortunate to have several of the top figures in Cameroon’s tech sector participating on the judging panel. Entry criteria, eligibility, success measures and all the details are available in the press release:

http://sanagaventures.com/2012/05/07/announcing-the-2012-cameroon-startup-challenge/

Pivot East

East Africa’s mobile startup pitching competition is just a month away. We announced the top 50 a few weeks ago, and now the 25 Finalists are named as well. Don’t miss this event, June 5 & 6th at the Ole Sereni hotel in Nairobi.

Google Releases “Insights Africa”

This truly deserves a blog post of its own… Google spent a lot of money and time gathering information from over 13,000 people across 6 African countries (Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Uganda) to determine why, and how, people use the internet. This data is all openly available, with an outstanding visualization tool to see what the information really means, and compare it, at InsightsAfrica.com. My chart below is just one example, showing how people access the internet across these 6 countries:

Donors prioritized “industrial policy” in Asia, but “social sectors” in Africa. Why?

Kariobangi writes a compelling blog post on the difference between the aid that was prioritized for Asia versus that for Africa.

TeleRivet: An Android SMS gateway

Similar what Ushahidi offers at SMSsync, TeleRivet is a tool that allows you to use your Android phone as an SMS gateway. It’s more robust, offers an API, and makes it easy for people to get started on SMS and USSD apps. Mbwana Alliy writes up a blog post on why this is important, and the business prospects involved in utilizing this type of service.

WEF: The Global Information Technology Report 2012

The World Economic Forum’s annual report on IT has some good information on emerging markets. You can read it online here. Here’s the video:

ForgetMeNot and the rise of Africa’s Smart(er) Phones

BizCommunity has a good article on ForgetMeNot’s Message Optimizer service’s growth on the continent. This service delivers internet content to users who can only access that information via SMS. Here’s how it works:

“First, a mobile phone subscriber sends an SMS to a given short code. The message is received in the mobile company’s message centre, which then forwards to ForgetMeNot Africa’s internet servers. The servers process, route and deliver the message to the subscriber, who can then respond.”

Kenya study, impact of venture capital on small and medium sized enterprise

VC4Africa reviews a report on VC’s in Kenya. This isn’t just tech, but it is interesting and surfaces some great information. [PDF Download]

“The minimum profit before use of venture capital was Ksh 34, 866. Upon use of venture capital, the minimum profit increased to Ksh 600, 000. This shows an increase in minimum profit of 94%. The maximum profit respondents reported before use of venture capital was Ksh 38, 567,951 which increased to Ksh 62, 864,152 an increase of 63%. The average profit also increased by 69% (from Ksh 7,204,653 to Ksh 12, 202,775)”

Mpesa, a 5 Year Infographic

Just how big has Mpesa become? Take a look [PDF version].

Jason Njoku, Funding and Nigerian Movies Online

In Nigeria, Jason Njoku is at it again, raising $8m from Tiger Global Management, a US-based PE and hedge fund. Here’s an interview with him on Forbes. Iroko Partners is the world’s largest digital distributor of Nigerian movies and African music. The firm is YouTube’s biggest partner in Africa, boasting over 152 million views in 2011.