Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Insights curated by Experientia, the UX research and design consultancy
Jeffrey Sachs, the director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and special adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General on the Millennium Development Goals, was interviewed on allAfrica on how mobile devices could potentially revolutionize how development assistance works. “It…
African peasants paint their mobile phone number over their front doors. Indian slum dwellers buy SIM cards to use on friends’ handsets. Chinese students spend three months’ allowance on a phone they can use to surf the web. Once almost…
On Vimeo you can find no less than 35 videos of the Picnic conference. They are great. My personal favourites (quite a few): Jim Stolze: The virtual happiness project “Virtual Happiness” is a research project that aims to provide insights…
A few weeks ago, W3C, the body in charge of global web standards directed by Tim Berners-Lee, organised a Workshop on the Future of Social Networking in Barcelona, with a high level goal of bringing together the world experts on…
A new blog series, New Media Practices in International Contexts, looks at the intersection of youth, new media and learning in a range of countries outside of North America and Western Europe. The authors, a group of people around Mimi…
Katrin Verclas of Mobile Active reports on the ongoing debate over the value of cheap and open laptops for users in developing countries as opposed to mobile phones continues, most recently with a post from Cory Doctorow in the Guardian…
A long feature article in the New York Times Magazine explores whether social networking can turn disaffected young Egyptians into a force for democratic change. “Freedom of speech and the right to assemble are limited in Egypt, which since 1981…
Just when everyone is writing on how mobile phones are bringing about huge changes in emerging markets, Cory Doctorow publishes a very nice and thought provoking article in the Guardian entitled “Laptops, not mobile phones, are the means to liberate…
Jonathan Donner of Microsoft Research India and Camilo Andres Tellez of the London School of Economics and Political Science have together written a paper on mobile banking and economic development that just got published in the December issue of the…
Last week, the World Bank’s CGAP hosted a roundtable and webinar on the important topic of how mobile phone banking can deliver a range of financial services to poor people and change lives for the better (see also this blog…
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has awarded UC Irvine a $1.7 million grant to create a new research institute focused on the growing use of mobile technology in providing banking and financial services to people in developing countries. The…
I am currently watching a live webcast from the World Bank in Washington on mobile banking in emerging markets. If you are near a computer, you might want to check in too (there is 2.3 hours to go at the…
The Tactical Technology Collective, an international NGO helping human rights advocates use information, communications and digital technologies to maximise the impact of their advocacy work, has just released “Mobiles in-a-Box“, a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides, and case studies…
If you are interested in bottom-up innovation within emerging markets using mobile phones, the recent MobileActive08 conference (more here) in Johannesburg, South Africa generated a wealth of materials. Below are some videos: Mobiles and news gathering at Al Jazeera Safdar…
We all live in a digital world, although it means different things to different people. In her inaugural public lecture as Adelaide’s Thinker in Residence, Intel’s Genevieve Bell will explore how digital technology is shaping our lives, our culture, and…
Ethan Zuckerman, a researcher on the impact of information technology in developing nations, reports on his blog on a recent panel discussion, organised by the Open Society Institute, on new media in authoritarian societies. The discussion started from the premise…
The Denmark-based Center for Sustainable Innovation (blog) is embarking on a new combined research and consultancy project about People Centred Innovation with Base of the Pyramid. The project, which is funded by the Danish Network for Research Based Userdriven Innovation…
A three part series of special reports on Radio France International explored the impact of mobile technology around the world. The transcripts are all online and – if you read French – it is highly recommended reading. The first programme…
Ken Banks argues in an article on PCWorld that mobile technology is showcasing African grassroots innovation at its finest. “Africans are not the passive recipients of technology many people seem to think they are. Indeed, some of the more exciting…
Last week, Nokia launched its Nokia Life Tools (backgrounder), a range of innovative agriculture information and education services designed especially for rural and small town communities in emerging markets. From the press release: “Nokia Life Tools helps overcome information constraints…