Category: Blog

Jordan and I are happily ensconced at the Partnership for Peace office here in Kisumu, Kenya preparing to facilitate a course with local leaders on the use of FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi.  This is exciting, especially as Kenya is preparing for another round of elections soon and will be using a new voting system in this round of elections.

We received a warm welcome from our hosts here in Kisumu, and are excited to get the training program underway.  When we first met the group we’re working with, the enthusiasm for seeing the software at work came through very clearly.  We had a nice coffee break with the office staff, discussed Kenyan and American politics, and learned a bit more about the context of the upcoming elections and how the new constitution is shaping political life.

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Freedom Fone, a service that is essentially an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) recently launched in conjunction with Frontline: SMS.  It’s basically an open source software platform that takes text messaging and partners it with automated voice menus as a way to share information; it is relatively cheap and can be used by most mobile phone subscribers, of which 60% of the world is (according the United Nations).

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Two weeks ago I participated in a “Technology and Peacebuilding” course taught by TechChange, at the School for Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR), George Mason University. As a graduate student I am always looking for practical, hands on courses to contribute to my skill set. The course provided background on a variety of tech tools used in conflict or disaster settings; we also used some of these tools in class through simulations. The simulations gave me an introduction to using the tools, in a fun and innovative way, while reminding me to proceed with caution when using technology, especially in conflict or disaster settings. One tool we learned about and applied was Frontline SMS, and through our simulations I experienced being on both the sending and receiving ends of this tool. Frontline SMS allows for two way communication between an organization, which has the Frontline SMS program on their computer, and individual cell phone users who give their phone number to the organization. With this tool, an organization can send and receive text messages to and from a large number of individuals. (more…)

(Cross-posted from Aaron’s Blog)

I’ve been a member of Gamespot – a website dedicated to news and discussion on videogames – since 2003. My rank on it is Super Bagman (Level 23), which I gather isn’t particularly high, since the site suggests you can go up to at least Level 71. I also have a list of achievements for having done mundane things, such as registering for the site, voting for the game of the year, and being a “New Game Ninja,” whatever that means.

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Have ideas for new models in higher education that use technology and social entrepreneurship? Interested in what universities will look like 10, 20 and 50 years in the future? Join TechChange and AshokaU on Friday July 22 from 1-2pm EST for a live Twitter chat on the impact of technology and social entrepreneurship on higher education.

Topic: How will technological innovation and social entrepreneurship transform higher education?

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With the end of the JCU Crisis Mapping class in sight, discussions have turned to the future of this emerging field and practice.  Two classes were dedicated to the potential for gaming with a purpose and leveraging the cognitive surplus of a world that plays three billion hours of online games a week.  The topic was mentioned earlier in the class but was reignited with a TED Talk by Jane McGonigal entitled Gaming Can Make a Better World.  As the talk and class discussed the potential of this idea, we also played some games ourselves.
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Over the weekend TechChange had the opportunity to teach a two-day course on Technology and Peacebuilding at the School of Conflict Analysis and Resolution (S-CAR) at George Mason University. This was a first for S-CAR students and we were excited to see what the graduate students would bring to the discussions, case studies and group work. The TechChange team learned just as much from the students as they learned form us.

The course consisted of two full day sessions of hands on simulations, group discussions and a variety of presentations from the TechChange team. The goal of the course was to examine the growing power of technology for peacebuilding in the 21st Century and to provide hands on experience with these new tools.  During the weekend, the team was able to introduce the students to a variety of topics including the One Laptop Per Child Project, SMS & Radio Technology, Crowdsourcing, Ushahidi, FrontlineSMS and of course, Twitter. (more…)

The revolutions sweeping the Middle East and North Africa have captured the collective attention of the world, and with good reason: the images of millions mobilized in Cairo, the thousands protesting under threat of gunfire in Syria and Bahrain, and the successful ousting of long-entrenched despots are mesmerizing and inspiring.  The stories unfolding in the Middle East on personal and popular scales appeal to basic senses of justice and dignity. Who isn’t rooting for the underdog?

Faster than Ben Ali on an outbound airplane, though, was the media’s attempt to insert a buzzword to take credit. Thus the Arab Spring and the Jasmine Revolution became part of the vast empire of Facebook and the Twitterverse. Bouaziz lit himself on fire and sacrificed his life, but it seems social networking was the real catalyst for the awakening.

Websites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube undoubtedly made their contribution—in heavily censored Syria, the grainy videos of protests being posted online provide some of the only images of the struggle there.  Using a medium of communication familiar in the Western world may intrigue Americans and Europeans into paying attention to what is going on.  But anyone who envisions millions of Egyptians marking themselves as “attending” the January 25 event simply isn’t crunching the numbers.

In the countries experiencing political upheaval ( like Egypt, Syria, and Tunisia) internet penetration rates are topping out at around 35%.  Even Egypt, home of the most televised and tweeted revolution, can only boast about a quarter of its population having internet access, and only about 9% of Egyptians self-report having a Facebook profile.

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I had the opportunity to attend a conference at USAID a fewweeks ago on the theme of Knowledge Management (KM) for Development (http://kdid.org/kmic). It was a great space to learn about the challenges that the development community is facing related to sharing, gathering, and analyzing data. Clearly, it’s critical to know what works (and doesn’t) when decisions to support programming are being made. But USAID admitted to having “limited tools and resources to explore how new knowledge is used and applied, and whether it leads to behavior change, increases organizational efficiency and ultimately improves lives.” Despite these hurdles, the conference reviewed importantlessons that are being learned and new innovations that are being applied (like mobile data collection being pioneered by the Help Channel in Burundi). And, there were several sessions on the data collected from Web platforms.

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Moved by images of buildings crumbling like sand castles and children wandering the streets crying for parents buried in the rubble, I donated $10 to the Yéle Haiti Earthquake Fund, excited that saving the world was as simple as texting — something I do daily without even thinking. Yéle reportedly collected more than $2 million from its SMS fundraising, which was lead by hip-hop producer and Yéle chairman Wyclef Jean. Then a report by Smoking Gun lifted Jean’s Superman cape. Turns out the organization had some serious financial mismanagement issues, including not  filing taxes and large payouts given to Jean and his associates. Jean defended Yéle’s credibility, but the damage was done. One year after the earthquake, millions of Haitians  are living in tents and dying in record numbers of curable diseases, even after donors around the world gave more than $14 billion.

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