Jul 31, 2013 | Social Impact, Technology
In July 2013 the Indian telegram service was ended. As surprising as it is to hear that telegrams have survived at all into the 21st century, in India, they were deeply woven into society. For 163 years Indians have used telegrams to announce births, deaths, and job...
Jul 24, 2013 | IVR (interactive Voice Response), SMS, Surveys, Technology
We have previously discussed the benefits of using SMS technology in mobile campaigns. Today we’re going to argue the case for voice broadcasting technology being incorporated in these campaigns. What is voice broadcasting? Voice broadcasting applications take...
Jul 17, 2013 | Social Impact, Technology
Three female entrepreneurs in 2010 got together to develop a mobile solution that would provide market price transparency for Kenyan farmers. Jamilla Abass co-founded M-Farm – an m-Agriculture program – with Susan Oguya and Linda Kwamnoka. The exploitation...
Jul 3, 2013 | Businesses, Humanitarian Agencies, Social Impact, Technology
Many of the articles on our blog focus on mHealth and mWomen interventions. Yet, such a large segment of the population in developing countries are smallholder or subsistence farmers (for example 65 percent in sub-Saharan Africa). This, along with the statistic that...
Jun 26, 2013 | Market Research, Social Impact, Surveys, Technology
I first became aware of the systemic problem of accessibility for those with visual impairments during a job supporting a visually impaired student. Many battles were fought with lecturers and publishers over obtaining electronic copies of texts and lecture slides so...
Jun 20, 2013 | Businesses, Humanitarian Agencies, Social Impact, Technology
Only a few rigorous evaluations of mobile phone-based behavior change initiatives have been completed. But they all suggest a similar conclusion: initiatives fail unless there is a meaningful intermediation process. That is, merely providing beneficiaries access to...
