SMS
See the following -
FrontlineSMS:Credit Takes on Kisumu
A few weeks ago, the FrontlineSMS:Credit team and FrontlineSMS M&E Intern Juliana embarked on a trip to Kisumu to meet FrontlineSMS users and potential PaymentView users. Read More »
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FrontlineSMS:Learn Now Available (in Beta)!
The FrontlineSMS:Learn team is excited to announce that our new software is now out in beta and available for download! Read More »
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Google’s Boss Eric Schmidt Projects Kenya As Africa’s Tech Leader
After a week’s visit to sub-Saharan Africa that included meetings in Lagos and Nairobi, Executive Chairman and former CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt has labelled Nairobi as the ‘maybe’ silicon valley of Africa. Read More »
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Grant Awarded To iCow
Before I started working here, I never thought I’d be quite so clued up about the gestation cycle of a cow. Thanks to iCow – Kenya’s innovative SMS platform for all things bovine – the Indigo team have become well acquainted with the highs and lows of cow pregnancy. Read More »
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Grant Awarded To Project Lungisa – Cape Town SA
We are delighted to announce that we have awarded a grant of £12,000 to Cell Life towards project Lungisa. Lungisa – which means “fix it” in isiXhosa – will provide a platform to enable Cape Town citizens to send text based, audio and video reports outlining challenges in service delivery. Read More »
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How Crisis Mapping Saved Lives in Haiti
The National Geographic Society has a long history of crisis mapping disasters. But what happened in Haiti on January 12, 2010 would forever change the very concept of a crisis map. Read More »
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How Praekelt.org and Open Source Provide Critical Services to Enable Social Change
In Eastern and Southern Africa, women are still dying unnecessarily during the basic, natural act of giving life. According to Unicef, “In 2010, close to 58,000 women lost their lives during pregnancy and childbirth, accounting for more than one fifth of all such deaths in the world.” Gustav Praekelt, founder of the South African design and development firm Praekelt.com, was deeply affected by the high maternal mortality rate in his country and realized in 2007 that open source software and mobile phones could help provide critical information and services to combat poverty and maternal mortality rates -- among other social issues -- across the continent and potentially around the world.
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How Radio Can Be A Conversation (Not A Lecture) And A Jukebox (Not A Playlist)
Airtime is an awesome piece of software [which] lets radio stations take control of programming via the web. [...] To mark World Radio Day 2013, FrontlineSMS:Radio‘s Amy O’Donnell wrote a post for Sourcefabric’s blog on how this scheduling tool can be complemented by channels including SMS to help to make radio interactive. Read More »
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How Social Media Could Raise British Gas's Sustainability Drive to Another Level
Once in a while you come across a company initiative that makes you think: "Here's a firm that's putting sustainability into action." That was my reaction (and that of many others) this week when British Gas announced a new incentive to help the most vulnerable members of society cut their energy bills through free loft and cavity wall insulation.
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I Spot Fair Trade
Survivors Connect’s mission is to develop and extend innovative ICTs to help anti-trafficking efforts, and our link to the fair-trade movement was quite simple. SC partnered with the Fair Trade Resource Network in effort to make it easier for consumers to make wiser, helpful choices that do not promote slavery. Welcome – “I spot fair trade” a web-based map that allows individuals to identify where Fair Trade goods are bought and sold through out the United States and Canada!..
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Improving Beijing’s Urban Transportation with Crowdsourced Mapping
In February 2011, Ushahidi’s Patrick Meier launched a novel project with the World Bank in Beijing. The aim of the project was to see how the Ushahidi platform could be used by the municipal authorities in the city to address traffic and urban transport problems in the city.
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Joseph Kony 2012: It's Fine to 'Stop Kony' and the LRA. But Learn to Respect Africans.
Of course Joseph Kony should be captured. But this approach is flawed. The video shows only a Western audience, without any reference to African partners or leaders. They are disempowering and undermining the role of Africans. They failed to recognize the role of individuals like Betty Bigombe, a long-time Ugandan activist, or seek partnerships with African organizations for the launch, such as Ushahidi or Africans Act for Africa.
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Kathryn Cave (Kenya) Interview: Laura Walker Hudson CEO, Foundation At FrontlineSMS – The Power Of Text
The Text message is the most basic form of technological communication, possible on even the oldest mobile phone. This makes it open to virtually anyone, anywhere in the world. FrontlineSMS is the Open Source software which enables users to turn any laptop into a hub for sending, receiving and managing SMS over a mobile network. Read More »
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Kenya's Startup Boom
But step inside, and it feels as if you've been transported to a Silicon Valley startup. Dozens of twentysomethings toil away on laptops; a few blow off steam at a foosball table; Pete's coffee bar (not to be confused with Peet's of the United States) doles out cappuccinos, milk shakes, and slabs of banana bread. This is a business incubator called iHub, the fruit of a homegrown information technology culture that had its coming-of-age moment in December 2007.
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Long May the SMS Reign
THE greatest communication mechanism in the world is arguably still SMS - the short message service sent over cellphones.
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