Aug 2, 2010 // frog Executive Director of Global Insights Jan Chipchase gave a speech entitled “Scaling the Mobile Frontier” to members of the U.S. State Department about his research in the field of mobile money.

Chipchase raises several interesting issues in this talk which must be considered on a wider scale of mobile services, not only mobile banking:

// The 2 key motivations for individual handset ownership are convenience and privacy.
// We need to think about literacy vs. competency. What exactly is the required knowledge for a mobile user to complete a task (e.g. a phone call, a fincancial transaction, etc)?
// Illiterare mobile users display competency of use through rote learning. If a user is sufficiently motivated they can rote learn anything.
// Product ownership is not the same as product use.
// 'Corner-shop app stores' as an important touchpoint and channel of distribution.
// We need to consider user literacy vs. our literacy of users. What do we really know about the people we are designing for?

frog's work in mobile banking is part of their larger 'Mobile Mandate', a programme of projects that aim to amplify the positive social impact of mobile technologies through the transformative power of design.

Links

Full article at: http://designmind.frogdesign.com/blog/jan-chipchase-goes-to-washington.html

Frog's Mobile Mandate: http://mobilemandate.frogdesign.com/

Today I took a closer look at the presentations put together for the 6 mobile phone applications developed for Kenya by the d.school students this year. For me 2 of the solutions stood out:

PillCheck (Kifaa cha Tenbe): a mobile application to help people find information on the availability and pricing of malaria drugs quickly. I like this solution because it tackles an essential need, the PSS is worked out well and the idea is presented very effectively using the 'prezi' web tool:

M-MAJI: a system that allows people to identify clean water sources in their community. I also think the presentation effectively demonstrates the need for the service and how the PSS works, although as a traditional PDF it is a bit less dynamic than the above presentation:

Click here to download:

m-maji_slides.pdf (15.48 MB)

(download)

Click here to download:

m-maji_slides.pdf (15.48 MB)

Good work guys!!! Hope I can come up with an idea as good as these ones!

eLiteracy version 1.0 beta was developed to aid in teaching early literacy in communities around the world through mobile devices. With the belief that education is the key to empowering future generations, eLiteracy features fun educational games for both young and old allowing them to play and learn at the same time.

The application was developed by appCRAFT in South Africa and was a winner in the Life Improvement category of Nokia's Calling All Innovators competition in September 2010.

The application is free to download and is a work in progress.

Available at: http://store.ovi.com/content/51101

(download)

Click here to download:

eliteracy-qiHewgtsxDCqkaggdspD.zip (61 KB)

A group of d.school students recently returned from Kenya, where they spent 2 weeks working with Nokia Research Africa and the University of Nairobi to develop health-related mobile applications. The trip was the culmination of months of work in connection with a new class at the d.school, "Designing Liberation Technologies".

Starting in April, Stanford d.school students worked with computer science students at the University of Nairobi to identify the design needs of health care providers and low-income mobile phone users in Kenya. The students then developed prototypes of mobile applications to support delivery of health services in urban areas. In August, a group of students travelled to Nairobi to meet with NGO partners, test prototypes, and advance plans for the future.

Although relatively few Kenyans have heavy-duty, feature-rich smartphones like the iPhone, Kenyans make very sophisticated use of the technology available to them. For instance, it is not uncommon for Kenyans to own multiple SIM cards and swap them in and out of their phones as necessary to take advantage of favorable in-network and off-peak pricing structures.

By 2009, nearly 40% of the adult population in Kenya held an M-Pesa account, and the user base is still growing strong today. Originally intended to be a tool for making safe and secure payments, M-Pesa has gone on to do a lot more. By replacing cash, M-Pesa has solved a nagging security problem that chilled all kinds of financial activity in Kenya - including savings. Unsurprisingly, the overwhelming majority of Kenyans do not hold a brick-and-mortar bank account in their name, and M-Pesa is quickly taking the place of cash-stuffed mattresses. According to a recent study by several American economists, three quarters of M-Pesa users it to save money, and many M-Pesa users say it is the most important savings tool they have.

Building on the insights gained during their research, the 20 d.school students came up with the following applications:

mNote: an online archive for community health worker notes. This application empowers community health workers by preserving the flexibility and control they appreciate in their current paper notebooks, but adding digital knowledge management capabilities.

M-MAJI ("mobile water"): an electronic information system that allows people to use their mobile phones to identify clean water sources in their community. The application seeks to decrease the time and money spent searching for water, improve water quality, and foster vendor accountability by providing a mechanism for user feedback.

Babybank: a dedicated savings plan designed specifically for pregnant women in the slums of Nairobi. By leveraging a popular cell phone payment system, M-Pesa, the application aims to make savings easier, so that expecting mothers can afford the services that will keep themselves and their babies healthy.

Mazanick: an application to provide support and advice to pregnant women via SMS, with the aim of helping motivate them to attend prenatal appointments.

PillCheck (Kifaa cha Tenbe): a mobile application to help people in Kibera find information on the availability and pricing of malaria drugs quickly.

PatientMap: a system to make the waiting process in clinics more transparent, and to increase patient trust in the medical system.

More info at:

http://dschool.typepad.com/news/2010/10/mobile-africa.html

http://liberationtechnology.stanford.edu/news/dschool_class_sees_stanford_students_develop_ict_solutions_to_healthcare_challenges_in_kenya_20100709/

Apps4Africa is a contest launched in July 2010 to highlight the talent of local developers in Kenya, Uganda, Rwanda and Tanzania. Across the region, the number of IT graduates and tech entrepreneurs is exploding, providing new opportunities to foster social and economic growth. The challenge was to find innovative technological solutions to everyday problems, and the winners were as follows:

1st Place // iCow, a voice-based mobile application that helps farmers track the estrus stages of their cows, enabling farmers everywhere to better manage breeding periods as well as monitor cow nutrition leading up to the calving day.

2nd Place // Kleptocracy Fighters Inc. allows citizens to record and report real time information on government corruption. Reports can include: audio, video, text, and will be forwarded to legal and media partners to help publish cases of corruption.

3rd Place // Mamakiba is a patient-facing SMS savings calculator and prepayment tracking tool specifically designed to help low-income women save and prepay for their maternal health needs such as ante-natal care and clinical delivery.

Honorable Mention // Fogs Funeral Announcements, an application for generating death and funeral announcements via sms, as radio and newspaper are costly in the region. Fog will allow users to ensure this news reaches friends, family, former schoolmates and colleagues – an important Kenyan custom.

http://www.apps4africa.org/

http://www.ihub.co.ke/blog/2010/10/meet-the-lady-behind-the-icow-idea/

Village phones have become a profitable business for mobile service providers such as Kenya’s Safaricom, which is 40% owned by Vodafone Group. Safaricom is even promoting a village phone brand called Simu ya Jamii, which is Swahili for “community phone.” 

However, as more people in the area acquire their own phones, and village phone operators proliferate, it has become harder to live from that income alone. Most village phone operators also sell other products such as bread or soda, or cooked food. Other extra services include taking phone messages for regular customers and the provision of a kind of ad hoc banking service, in which customers send money to their families by transferring electronic airtime credit to the village phone entrepreneur, who then passes on the equivalent in cash minus a small commission then resells the airtime minutes to other callers.

Full article and image gallery from Business Week:

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/07/09/0913_africa/index_01.htm