The TED Phone
At TED Global in Oxford, UK this week TED and Nokia announced a partnership to bring TED talks to Africa and other developing parts of the world using the technologies that scale best, the mobile phone. Using the soon to be released Nokia N8, TED plans to ship phones pre-loaded with TED talks (curated by … Read more
On Love and Hate for 160 characters
Is the growing skepticism on SMS warranted? One of the most rewarding aspects of running this company has been our International Fellows Program which invites developers from all over the world to Uganda to work alongside our staff as peers. The following post was written by one of our recent Fellows, Oliver Christopher Kaigwa Haas … Read more
The Best Smart Phones for Global Development
The growing needs for workers heading into the field are becoming far more high-tech than in years past. This is partly because of the new technologies and infrastructure available, and partly because of the need to record a greater number of details at once. That said, I decided to do a quick comparison of some … Read more
Paul Ssengooba: Mobile Reach and Rural Connectivity
Paul Ssengooba of the Grameen Foundation discusses the reach of mobile devices in rural settings. Recorded on November 23, 2009 at TEDxKampala.
Stephane Boyera on the Evolution of the Mobile Web
Stephane Boyera of the World Wide Web Foundation discusses the next 20 years of the internet and how the mobile web is poised to dramatically enable billions of people. Recorded on November 23, 2009 at TEDxKampala.
Roscoe Nsumbuga: Banking the Unbanked Using Biometrics
Roscoe Nsumbuga of Mapswitch on using biometric identification cards used as part of a money transfer service that is enabling millions of Ugandans to access low-cost banking services via their mobile phones. Recorded on November 23, 2009 at TEDxKampala.
This Ain't a Phone, It's An Arms Race
It goes without saying that mobile is exciting business these days across Africa. Chris Andrews writes…. If you want a picture of explosive growth in mobile communications, look to Africa. A report from The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has found that between 2003 and 2008, mobile subscriptions surged from 54 million … Read more
Google Trader Extends Service to Web Users
Earlier this year Google introduced a suite of SMS services that brought things like search and electronic market places to the mobile devices so common to East Africa. Last week, in addition to their massive Geospatial technology conference, Google announced that they were launching a web platform for one of those products…Google Trader. Essentially, Google … Read more
The Grid Launches in Nigeria
The Grid is a geographically aware social network launched in South Africa that allows you to share photos, videos, and information with friends based on where you are. Over the weekend, Vincent Maher announced last week’s launch in Nigeria and a pending launch in Tanzania.
Mobile Money Comes to Ghana
Four months after MTN’s Mobile Money launched in Ghana, it has 20,000 users and 1,200 merchants. Uptake has been slow, but as Bruno Akpaka states here in an interview with Paul Leishman,Programme Manager at Mobile Money for the Unbanked (GSMA), MTN has high hopes for the product.
