Stories

Stories/Use Cases/Projects/Papers

Introduction

This section gathers information about successful stories (or failures) about deployment of ICT in Developing Countries in general, and more specifically using mobile phones. those stories and use cases are essential to understand what are the most useful (type of) applications and content for rural communities and under-privileged populations. There is also a dedicated section for papers and articles providing information or view about MW4D.

Note to the contributors: cite your source, provide a date and short information about the content

Structure

This section section is structured around 3 themes:

• Mobile content and usage: this section has also 3 topics: real projects on the use of mobile phone in development, ethnographic studies, and general/academic article on the use of mobile in development.
• Technology: this section contains information about the different technologies existing to deploy content and application on mobile
• Capacity building: this section describe the different initiatives around developing expertise on mobile technologies in developing countries

Resources

Mobile content and usage

Projects/Stories

• Mobile4Dev projects map from the Ethnos Project

M-agriculture

• The impact of mobiles on agricultural productivity
  Vodafone Report - Jan 2009
• E-Tic
  Initiative for agriculture in the regions bordering the Sahara
• Colombian coffee growers using IVR
  2007
• Android in the Bush
  G. Borriello
  Feb 2009
• List of references provided by Fara (Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa)
  March 2009
• The Digital Provide: Information (technology), Market, Performance, and Welfare in the south Indian Fisheries Sector
  A paper describing the impact of the use of a mobile based service for fishermen in Kerala
  August 2007
• Livelihood Changes Enabled by Mobile Phones-the case of Tanzanian fishermen
  A story about the impact of mobile phones for tanzanian fishermen
  2007
• Market Intelligence: How Mobiles are Helping Farmers and Fishermen
  A video presenting diverse use case in Kenya and India
  2008
• Trade at Hand
  An ITC project which objective is to make innovative use of mobile phones to empower exporters from developing economies. It started by delivering international fruit and vegetable market quotes by SMS. Other business applications are being built, such as a Marketplace for Liberian farmers and marketers.
• Mistowa
  MISTOWA was an USAID-initiated project to increase regional agricultural trade and food security by improving and linking the regional efforts to generate, disseminate (including by SMS), and make commercial use of market information.
• KACE
  The Kenya Agricultural Commodity Exchange (KACE) provides crop growers with up-to-date commodity information - farmers can access daily fruit and vegetable prices from a dozen markets through SMS.
• Grameen phone Application Lab
• e-agriculture forum on Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas Novembe 4 2008
• Inventory of Innovative Farmer Advisory Services using ICTs
  Forum for Agricultural Research in Africa
  December 2008
• List of Mobile Market Place Projects in Developing Regions
  2008
• Replacing PCs with Mobile Phones in a Rural Sugarcane Cooperative
  Veeraraghavan, R.; Yasodhar, N.; Toyama, K.
  2009
• Digital Green
  successful adaption of “P2P” video content to agricultural extension/training in India
  MSR India
  2009
• Mobile use and agricultural markets: new study from Uganda
  This post from J. donner research blog includes hos specific comments on how a recent study by Muto both expands and bounds our understanding from the Jensen Kerala fish case
  January 2009
• [http://knol.google.com/k/jorge-luis-alonso-g/empleo-efectivo-de-mensajes-de-texto/dtpu6rmsvefd/1?domain=knol.google.com&locale=en# Empleo efectivo de mensajes de texto (SMS) para mejorar la comercialización de productos agrícolas de pequeños productores) - in spanish
  Jorge Luis Alonso G.
  July 2009

M-commerce/banking

• CellBazaar
  Buy, sell exchange over the mobile phones, as well as information on agriculture prices.
• Mobile banking and economic development: linking adoption, impact, and use
  This paper is mostly a review, highlighting research priorities for M-banking
  Donner, Jonathan, and Tellez, Camilo A.
  2008
• m-Powering India:Mobile Communications for Inclusive Growth
  The report also details some successful and low cost mobile projects in rural India which have positively impacted its communities in both social and economic ways.
  2008
• Mobile Banking –Financial Services for the Unbanked?
  Book on mobile banking and money transfer services in Sub-Saharan Africa
  SPIDER - November 2008
• The innovative use of mobile applications in the Philippines – lessons for Africa
  a SIDA report examining the usage and impact of mobile phones in the Philippines
  September 2007
• Mobile Phone Banking and Low-Income Customers: Evidence from South Africa
  UN Foundation report about the potential of m-banking for the BOP
  2006
• Mobile Phones and Financial Services in Developing Countries: A Review of Concepts, Methods, Issues, Evidence and Future Research Directions
  R.Duncombe and R. Boateng
  2009
• CellBazaar
  User-generated market information in Bangladesh for advertising classifieds and linking buyers and sellers. It's creator designed it while in the MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) Media Lab.

• Mobile Movement is a network that connects people from all over the world with a social mandate: to help bridge the gap between rich and poor with microfinancing, business partnerships and information exchanges. It is working with 15 youth groups from the slums and low-income neighborhoods of Nairobi.
  October 2010

M-education

• Mobile Learning: South Africa Examples
  S. Vosloo - June 2009
• From Toy to Tool: Cell Phones in Learning
  A conversation about integrating student cell phones into classroom curricula
  2009
• What do we know about using mobile phones in education?
  M. Truncano
  April 2009
• What do we know about using mobile phones in education? part 2
  M. Truncano
  May 2009
• Mobile Learning in Developing Nations
  S. Motlik
  June 2008
• Mobile Learning: Transforming the Delivery of Education and Training
  M. Ally
  March 2009
• Mobile and Immersive Learning for Literacy in Emerging Economies
• Education for All
  A teaser from India-based mobile phone company Idea cellular about the potential of mobile phones in Education
  June 2008
• Handbook of Emerging Technologies for Learning
  George Siemens,Peter Tittenberger
  March 2009
• ICT Bites
  ICT-based In-Service Teacher Education for Secondary School Teachers in Tanzania
• m-e-learning blog
  Lots of interesting info of m-learning in tanzania
  2009
• m-learning Africa
  This site is about the news, projects and research related to mobile learning on the continent — by Africans, for Africans. It covers mlearning as well as mobile usage and adoption, especially by youth
• ImfundoYami / ImfundoYethu: Mobile learning for mathematics
• Dr Math – A mobile tutoring platform for Africa?
  June 2009
• Using cellphones to learn and save lives
  June 2009
• Mobiles in Education on Mobiles (Loop)
  Jan Chipchase
  April 2009
• Using Mobile Technologies to Promote Children’s Learning
  C. Shuler
  January 2009
• “Digital Life Skills” for the young and mobile “Digital Citizens”
  A. Botha, M. Ford Meraka Institute
  2008

M-health

• mHealth: A Developing Country Perspective
  Saroj Mishra, Indra Pratap Singh
  2008
• A doctor in your pocket
  GSMA Development Fund Report
  2009
• FrontlineSMS:Medic
• Mhealth for Development by Vodafone Foundation and UN Foundation
  February 2009
• Using TV+SMS to Tackle HIV/AIDS in the DRC
• Mobiles in Malawi for health
• Remote diagnosis using Mobile
  Berkeley TIER Project
• Mhealth for Development
  A UN Foudation/Vodafone Foundation report of the use of mobile phone in health and development
  October 2008
• mHealth in the Global South - Landscape Analysis
  A report about mHealth by Vodafone Foundation, UN Foundation
  2008
• Wireless Technology for Social Change:Trends in NGO Mobile Use
  UN Foundation report including case studies
  April 2008
• Compendium of ICT Applications on Electronic Government - Volume 1: Mobile Applications on Health and Learning
  a UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Report focusing on the use of mobile technology in the areas of health and learning
  2007
• Scientists Hack Cellphone to Analyze Blood, Detect Disease, Help Developing Nations
  Wired December 2008
• mHealth for Development
  The Opportunity of Mobile Technology for Healthcare in the Developing World
  This is an interesting report, not because I contributed to it but that it is the first of its kind around
• e-IMCI: Improving Pediatric Health Care in Low-Income Countries
  B.DeRenzi & all
  2008

M-Government

• Nokia Expanding Horizon Q3 2008: How mobile public services can transform lives
  September 2008
• m-Powering India:Mobile Communications for Inclusive Growth
  The report also details some successful and low cost mobile projects in rural India which have positively impacted its communities in both social and economic ways.
  2008
• Compendium of ICT Applications on Electronic Government - Volume 1: Mobile Applications on Health and Learning
  a UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs Report focusing on the use of mobile technology in the areas of health and learning
  2007
• The Use of ICTs in Transparency Projects

Crisis Management

• A brief History of Crisis Mapping
  Patrick Meier
  March 2009
• Threat and Risk Mapping Analysis in Sudan
  2009
• Ushahidi
  a collaborative project to develop a platform for gathering crowdsources crisis information. Currently deployed in Kenya, South Africa, and DRC.
• InSTEDD
  organization focused on developing disaster response tools, including data synchronization via SMS.
• RapidSMS
  Open-source mobile communications platform originally developed by UNICEF for coordinating emergency operations with mobile phones.
• Ajedi-Ka/Projet Enfants Soldats
  Several reports, including 'Using Cellular Technology to Monitor Rights Violations and Improve Child Protection in Eastern DRC'
• Emergency response information systems: emerging trends and technologies
  Communications of the ACM
  March 2007
• ICT4Peace Foundation Inventory

Conservation

• Wireless Technology for Social Change:Trends in NGO Mobile Use
  UN Foundation report including case studies
  April 2008
• Cyber Tracker
  CyberTracker’s innovative and flexible software combines the indigenous knowledge of Africa’s traditional trackers with state-of-the-art computer and satellite technology to give highly detailed observations of natural systems. The CyberTracker software runs on smart phones and handheld computers.
  2008
• Mobile Communications to Revolutionize African Weather Monitoring

Humanitarian Assistance

• Wireless Technology for Social Change:Trends in NGO Mobile Use
  UN Foundation report including case studies
  April 2008

Misc

• Mobile Literacy
  Mobile Literacy is a research and design project that looks at how mobile can work more effectively in emerging markets
  May 2009
• Big Brother and Empowered Sisters: The Role of New Communication Technologies in Democratic Processes
  October 2008
• A Mobile Voice: The Use of Mobile Phones in Citizen Media
  Dynamics of the role of mobile phones in enhancing access to and creating information and citizen-produced media
  MobileActive.org - November 2008

Databases of projects from multiple domains

• kiwanja.net mobile applications database
  Another initiative organized bykiwanja.net keeping track of existing projects involving mobile phones in Developing Countries
  August 2008-Still maintained
• MobileActive directory
  a database of project maintained by MobileActive.org Community
  August 2008-Still maintained
• MobileActive Wiki
  another place where numerous applications are referenced
  SEptember 2008-Still maintained

Ethnographic or similar Studies

• Mobile Phone Use in West Africa: Gambian Statistics
  Fatim Badjie, Centre for Development Informatics, University of Manchester, UK, 2009/2010
• Generation Mobile: Online and Digital Media Usage on Mobile Phones among Low-Income Urban Youth in South Africa
  Tino Kreutzer, UCT, February 2009 - Complete report
  • Condensed Article
• Mobile Telephony access and Usage in Africa
  Chabossou, A.; Stork, C.; Stork, M.; Zahonogo, P - The Southern African Journal of Information and Communication
  April 2009
• The Impact of Mobile Telephony on Developing Country Micro-Enterprise:A Nigerian Case Study
  A. Jagun, R. Heeks,J. Whalley
  Fall 2008
• Livelihoods and the mobile phone in rural Uganda
  a report commissioned by Grameen regarding mobile phone practices and need in rural Uganda
  2008
• Rural Communities and Communication needs(Uganda) Grameen Foundation AppLab
  May 2008
• Shared Phone Practices: Exploratory Field Research from Uganda and Beyond
  introduces the results of a Nokia study of Shared Phone Use, drawing on research in Uganda, Indonesia, Nepal, India, China and Mongolia. Introduces the concepts of Sente, Step Messaging, Pooling et al..
  2006
• Africans and Their Mobiles, Part 1: Numbers and Usage Patterns
  October 2008
• Africans and Their Mobiles, Part 2: Using Mobile Phones For Social Good
  October 2008

M4D Academic/General Articles

• The innovative use of Mobile Applications in East Africa
  Johan Hellström
  June 2010
• The ICT4D 2.0 Manifesto: Where Next for ICTs and International Development?
  Richard Heeks
  2009
• Mobile Services and ICT4D To the Network Economy - Bridging the Digital Divide, Ethiopia’s Case
  Naod Duga, Henok Getachew
  August 2009
• CAN MOBILE INTERNET HELP ALLEVIATE SOCIAL EXCLUSION IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES?
  Wallace Chigona, Darry Beukes, Junaid Vally, Maureen Tanner University of Cape Town
  2009
• Innovation for Africa
  Unicef report on use of Mobiles in the field
  Apr 2009
• for Development
  How mobile technologies can enhance Plan and partners work in Africa
  January 09
• Rapid Assessment of Cell Phones for Development
  Unicef
  May 2007
• Workshop Report, ICTs for Participatory Local Development
  December 2008
• Engineering Rural Development
  T.Parikh
  2009
• Beyond Subscriptions: Actual Ownership, Use and Non-Use of Mobiles in Developing Countries
  Richard Heeks
  March 2009
• ICT World Today Volume 2
  This volume of ICT World Today examines the role ICTs play in promoting environmental sustainability, including ways in which ICTs are being used to address climate change mitigation and adaptation
  December 2008
• The Promise of Ubiquity : Mobile as Media Platform in the Global South
  InterNews Report
  2008
• Assessment of M-Content Requirements in india and Uganda
  Ericsson and CTO - 2008
• Compendium on Impact Assessment of ICT-for-Development Projects
  by Richard Heeks & Alemayehu Molla - 2008
• Workshop on Innovative Mobile Technology & Services for Developing Countries - Executive Summary
  Makerere Univresity - Uganda- August 2008
• The digital war on poverty by Jeffrey Sachs
  The Guardian
  August 2008
• The GSMA Development Fund Top 20: Research on the Economic and Social Impact of Mobile Communications in Developing Countries
  a report from GSMA Development funds which includes an exhaustive list of references at the time of writings about the impact of mobile phones and applications on Social and Economic Development
  July 2008
• The Role of Mobile Phones in Sustainable Rural Poverty Reduction
  a World Bank Report examining the role of mobile telephones in sustainable poverty reduction among the rural poor.
  June 2008
• Mobile phones and development The future in new hands?
  ID21 Insight issue on mobile phones and development
  September 2007
• The Power of Mobile Phones to end poverty
  a TED talk by Iqbal Qadir
  july 2005
• Mobile for impoverishment An overview on studies about negative side effects of mobile and potential risk of impoverishment
  Richard Heeks - December 2008
• Rural communication: Is there still a need for telecentres now that there are mobile phones?
  APC - October 2008
• History of ICT4D
  Richard Heeks
  January 2009
• Research Approaches to Mobile Use in the Developing World: A Review of the Literature
  compiles 200 peer-reviewed articles on mobile use in the developing world
  Donner, Jonathan
  2008
• Reflections on MobileActive 2008 and the M4D Landscape
  Paper presented at the First International Conference on M4D, Karlstad, Sweden. Offers an assessment of commonalities and key differences across M4D projects in multiple areas (health, agriculture, education, etc)
  J. Donner, K. Verclas, K. Toyama
  December 2008
• Customer acquisition among small and informal businesses in urban India: Comparing face to face, interpersonal, and mediated channels
  for small enterprise, F2F remains most important
  J. Donner
  2007
• The Rules of Beeping: Exchanging Messages Via Intentional “Missed Calls” on Mobile Phones
  Explores the social origins and drivers of a behavior which is used to lower the cost of communication over the mobile network
  J.Donner
  2007
• The use of mobile phones by microentrepreneurs in Kigali, Rwanda: Changes to social and business networks
  Based on call-log data with over 200 small enterprises – shows that phone use is 1/3 business, 2/3 social but does help expand the size of business networks
  J. Donner
  2006
• ICTD – Is it a new species of development?
  Anita Gurumurthy, IT for Change
  Feb. 2009

Business Model

• Dwesa Village Connection Business Modelling Feasibility Analysis
  Ungana-Afrika
  Nov. 2008

Technology

• Betavine Social Exchange
  The Betavine Social Exchange is aimed at creating mobile solution to solve social problems in a way that helps them to be sustainable i.e. there should be a clear deployment path for the solution that can be funded in the long term.
• Mobiles in-a-box
  Mobiles in-a-box from the Tactical Technology Collective is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides and case studies designed to help advocacy and activist organisations use mobile technology in their work.
• A Mobile Voice: The Use of Mobile Phones in Citizen Media
  Dynamics of the role of mobile phones in enhancing access to and creating information and citizen-produced media. trends in the use of mobile telephony with a focus on software and platforms that make content creation and broadcasting easier.
  MobileActive.org - November 2008

SMS

• MobileHacking.org
  "Wiki for people interested in developing computer and mobile phone applications that involve various telephony interfaces such as voice dialing, IVR, and SMS functionality."
  Nov. 2008-Still maintained

Voice

• An Audio Wiki for Publishing User-Generated Content in the Developing World
  P. Kotkar, Indian Inst. of Technology, W.Thies and S. Amarasinghe, MIT
  2008
• Speech Technology for Information Access: a South African Case Study
  Barnard, Davel, Van Huysteen - CSIR
  2010
• Initial fieldwork for LWAZI: A telephone-based spoken dialog system for rural South Africa
  Tebogo Gumede, Madelaine Plauché - CSIR
  2009
• Gaon Ki Awaaz - rural vocal news bulletin
• Speech vs. Touch-tone: Telephony Interfaces for Information Access by Low Literate Users
  Sherwani & All, ICTD2009
• DESIGNING INTERACTIVE VOICE RESPONSE (IVR) INTERFACES: LOCALISATION FOR LOW LITERACY USERS
  Sharma & All, 2009
• Avaaj Otalo — A Field Study of an Interactive Voice Forum for Small Farmers in Rural India
  PAtel & All, to be published in CHI2010
• using Speech for input and output to deliver ict content ot illiterate people
• Grameen Application Lab Bringing the World Wide Web to the Village: High-End Device Trial
• Voikiosk a vocal platform for voice-based services
• Summary of VoiKiosk and FAQ December 2008
• slides of the presentation made to the MW4D November 2008
• an article from New Scientist October 2008
• Speech Recognition for Illiterate Access to Information and Technology
  May 2006
• OpenPhone project piloted in Botswana CSIR - 2008
• A Comparative Study of Speech and Dialed Input Voice Interfaces in Rural India
  N.Patel & All
  2009

Mobile Web

• Bringing the World Wide Web to the Village: High-End Device Trial
• Mobile Web Use Surges In Africa According To Opera's Latest State Of The Mobile Web Report
  Mobile Africa
  22 October 2008
• The Meek shall inherit the Web
  The Economist
  September 2008
• Mobile Active 2008-The Mobile Web Wiki

Misc

Usability/HCI

• Doing HCI Differently in the Developing World
  A talk by Gary Marsden from University of Cape Town
  May 2007
• HCI4D
  www.hci4d.org (Human Computer Interaction For Development) is intended to provide a platform for exchange of information, ideas, opinions and experiences, for those in research, practice and education in the world of Information and Communication Technology for Development (ICT4D).
• The Tyranny of Participation in Information Systems: Learning from Development Projects
  Richard Heeks
  1999

Architecture

• Designing an Architecture for Delivering Mobile Information Services to the Rural Developing World
  PhD Thesis by Tapan S. Parikh
  2007

Review of existing tools

• Mobileactive.org mobile tools review

Capacity Building

• EPROM
  An MIT project based in Kenya focusing on offering Mobile Phone Programming curriculum.
  August 2008-Still running
• List of projects issued from EPROM
• mobility
  A collaborative project which brings together some of the leading academics, technicians, educators and practitioners in the IT and mobile fields with the common goal of developing an exciting and empowering range of tools and resources to unlock the power of mobile applications development for users in the developing world.
• MIT AITI Group
  Africa Information Technology Initiative

Misc

• Laptops, not mobile phones, are the means to liberate the developing world
  The Guardian, Cory Doctorow, January 2009
• Answer by the White African
• Answer by Steve Song