Nigel Waller dropped the surprising statistic that worldwide there are one billion people who use cell phones – but don’t own one; instead they share, borrow or rent them. The Cloud Phone was intended to serve this market. At first Waller tried to create a cell phone that could be manufactured for just $5 so that everyone could afford one, but he couldn’t pull it off.Instead Waller went with a $25 phone, but designed it so that a village of users could share it while still maintaining individual phone numbers accounts on a single phone. Activation cost? Just 10 to 20 cents per person.
The Cloud Phone is a service that allows people to have their own identity, and to log in and log out of other people's mobile phones, just like you can log in and out of your e-mail account using someone else's PC. In this way users can have their own personal mobile number for private communication, at half the cost of a SIM card and without the hassle of carrying a SIM card around.
When a user logs in with their own number and pin code they will be greeted with a menu. For example it says, "Hello, John. Your balance is $1. You have two missed calls. You've got one SMS message."
The Cloud Phone was developed by Movirtu and Frog Design, after they met at the PopTech conference last year, and the development process included a field study with 12 residents of the Kibera slum in Nairobi, Kenya.
The World Bank is sponsoring an Apps for Development competition which challenges the public to create innovative software applications that move users closer to solving some of the world's most pressing problems.
Focusing on one of the various Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), submissions can be for any widely available software platform. The MDGs articulate specific targets to be reached by 2015 related to poverty and hunger, universal education, child health and other crucial dimensions. The potential datasets have been made available in the World Bank Data Catalog.Submissions to the Competition will be accepted until January 10, 2011. Interested participants and developers must include a link to the application, a video of the application, a text-based description of the application, and at least one still photograph of the working application in order to be considered. More info: http://appsfordevelopment.challengepost.com/Online ideas brainstorm: http://wbapps.ideascale.com/
25 Oct 2010 // Tavneet Suri of MIT and Billy Jack of Georgetown have resurveyed ~2,000 Kenyan households about their perceptions and use of the M-PESA phone-based money transfer service. The first survey took place in the fall of 2008; this one took place in fall 2009. The results are just out:
// M-PESA is rapidly propagating down market to poorer, less educated, more rural customers. In the 10-month period between the two survey rounds, the percentage of households using M-PESA increased from 43% to 70%. During this period, the percentage of M-PESA users who were unbanked increased from 25% to 50%, while the percentage of rural users increased from 29% to 41%.// Agents are working better, and liquidity issues are sorting themselves out. A much larger percentage of users in Round 2 trust their agent (95%) than did users in Round 1 (65%), even while the number of agents quadrupled during the 10-month period from 4,000 to 16,000. // Awareness is almost 100% - The percentage of households who don’t know about M-PESA fell from 18% in Round 1 to 3% in Round 2.// Increased use for saving - The percentage of users who use M-PESA for saving increased from 75% in Round 1 to 81% in Round 2.
8 Sept 2010 // A new Mobile Application Laboratory (mLab) will be launched in Nairobi this year in a 2-year program that aims to create 8-10 new mobile apps. It will be hosted by the *iHub, Nairobi’s Innovation Hub which is an enabler and catalyst within the technology community. The *iHub consortium comprises eMobilis, the University of Nairobi's School of Computing and Informatics and the Web Foundation. As well as the lab in Nairobi, there will be a second mLab created in South Africa.
The mLabs will be focal points run and used by Africans working to increase the competitiveness of innovative enterprises working in mobile content and applications. In each lab local companies, technologists and experts can collaborate to develop locally relevant applications that meet user demands.
Each lab will be a platform for building the technical skills, business nous and personal relationships needed to build scalable mobile solutions into thriving businesses that address social needs. As well as providing state of the art equipment, the labs will offer technical training and workshops and connect developers and entrepreneurs with potential investors, academic experts, and even public sector leaders.
The mLabs are expected to be fully operational by the end of 2010. Future mobile applications labs are planned for Eastern Europe and Asia.
The labs are part of the wider €12.9 million program 'Creating Sustainable Businesses in the Knowledge Economy' ran by infoDev, Nokia and the Finland Ministry of Foreign Affairs, which aims to encourage innovation and competitiveness among SMEs in the information and communication technologies and agribusiness sectors in particular.
In August 2010 Sony Ericsson opened an application submission site to all comers. Apps for the Java, Symbian and Android platforms are welcome and will be sold over the PlayNow arena.
Sony Ericsson seems to be aiming particularly at smaller developers, or at developers in emerging markets. It claims there are no charges to submitting apps, and there are no annual fees for the service. Not only that, but 70% of the revenue from sales will go to the developer. The company specifically mentions India as a place where mobile app production is exploding, and is courting companies, bedroom developers and large companies to submit apps.
23 Sept 2010 // The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) in South Africa has intensified its Dr Math tutoring service on the popular mobile phone platform Mxit after a nationwide teachers' strike has left students unprepared for final exams.
Students can download study materials from MXit as well as exchange messages with tutors.
"MXit is cheap and efficient," said Laurie Butgereit, who is overseeing the tutoring effort. More than 1,000 MXit messages can be sent for one rand, about 15 U.S. cents.
A three-week strike by teachers and other civil servants ended Sept. 6. Since then, students have protested across the country, complaining they had not had enough time to prepare for exams. Last week, a police officer fired on one group of protesting students, killing a 17-year-old girl.
Over 100 volunteers from around the country have registered to help out from Sundays to Thursdays, with the service being available from 2pm until 10pm. Dr. Math is currently helping 12,000 learners on MXit, and the organisers are hoping to expand the service by recruiting more volunteer tutors.
To access the program, users have to log on to MXit using a mobile phone with internet access or a computer and find the Dr. Math option under "MXit Cares."
OpenIDEO recently launched the following challenge in collaboration with the Grey Matters Capital Foundation:
"How might we increase the availability of affordable learning tools & services for students in the developing world?"
Of the 10 winners chosen, one was a learning system based on the mobile phone - The Mobile Learner.
The Mobile Learner makes it easy for students & teachers to create, share, & interact with educational content like books, tutorials, flashcards, & quizzes. The Mobile Learner consists of a re-purposed mobile phone loaded with a free educational software bundle. Content sharing occurs through an online repository (accessible through the cellular network & the Internet), or directly between phones (through memory cards or Bluetooth).
Hardware donations, free software and subsidised/alternative data transfer methods keep costs low. Furthermore, Mobile Learners could be shared/lent out by the school to spread out the costs over multiple students. Compared to computers, mobile phones have a low cost & high penetration in India & other developing countries. Compared to textbooks, phones have the potential for more dynamic interactivity & personalised continuously updated content over time.
Our Mobile Generation (OMG) is a project initiated by ENVIU to stimulate more sustainability around mobile phones. The objective of OMG is to inspire mobile phone users to come up with sustainable solutions or ideas that will lead to a more sustainable telecom industry and lifestyle. Our Mobile Generation concentrates on 5 challenges:
// Open Source Smart Phone: A sustainable and affordable smart phone. For the people, by the people! // 3d Printing: And Local Production Models Wouldn’t it be great if you could produce a new phone from your own home? // Sustainable Business Models: Let’s develop new ways of doing business that contribute to more sustainability! // Apps4Sustainability: Inspiring new apps that contribute to a more sustainable lifestyle. // Add-On Technology: How can we make new combinations between existing technology and your mobile phone to create sustainable impact?
The deadline for the idea generation phase is 31st December 2010, followed by the concept development phase which runs until 31st March 2011. Finally there is a prototyping phase with a deadline of 30th June 2011.
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:
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.
