Author Archive
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Congratulations! Ghana was just deemed to be the 2nd most lawful country in Africa (behind Botswana) by the World Justice Project. While this is a laudable achievement, just how much technology was involved? Did we need Ghana Open Data? Or can Ghanaians enjoy good governance without technology solutions getting in the way? Please RSVP now…
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Access to mobile phones has exploded across the globe. The availability of smart phones and the mobile web is also increasing rapidly. This opens up exciting opportunities to reach the “base of the pyramid” with products and services that could improve the well-being of millions of people living on less than $2 per day. At…
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We all know the military and surveillance applications of drones, and we can dream of Amazon Prime Air, but how can unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) be used to improve peoples’ lives? What innovations with remotely piloted aircraft will accelerate social and economic development? Could we deliver medicines or vital packages via drone? What about finding…
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Myanmar will be going online fast in the next 2 years. Right now it has the same mobile phone usage as North Korea, Eritrea, and Cuba – less than 10% – yet with Teleno, Ooredoo, and Myanmar Post and Telecommunication set to race each other to get all Burmese a mobile phone, expect the country…
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Could future Community Health Workers use drones to bring needed supplies to the point of care? What about Bitcoin vouchers to incentivize behavior or subsidize care? Or digital health records to track all of their community members’ health over time? At the recent Nairobi Technology Salon exploring “How are Community Health Workers using ICT?“, we…
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May 21st Toronto Salon – RSVP Now We have all seen the pretty pictures of children playing with fancy new gadgets, and while the photos are uplifting, do they really signify progress? Does the introduction of new technology, specifically information and communication technologies like mobile phones, computers, and the Internet really accelerate the social and…
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Siobhan Green, the founder of Sonjara attended the Technology Salon exploring “How Can USAID Development Partners Implement IATI?” and was inspired to define 8 steps to publish Open Data to prepare for the day when we all will need to be compliant with the International Aid Transparency Initiative standards. Here is her list:
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In the next few years, another 2 billion people will be coming online; transforming the Internet from what once was an elite network of the world’s privileged to a democratizer of information and power. This wave of new users will mainly enter the Internet via mobile phones on social networks.
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At the first Technology Salon in London, we had a very thoughtful discussion on the implications of gender in using mobile technologies to stimulate social and economic development.
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The very first Tech Salon to take place in London on Wednesday 20 March occurred just three days after the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) announced that connecting women to ICTs would become a focal point of the post-2015 development agenda.
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Recently Priya Jaisinghani, Teressa Trusty, and I brought together a few folks to have an informal Technology Salon around the pertinent question of how can the development community get technology to scale?
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It was not long ago that electrical power was the largest barrier to using ICTs in rural areas. Back when desktop computers had big CRT screens, each computer needed 150-200 watts of power. Just turning on a computer required a costly generator and an inverter.
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At a recent Technology Salon on “How Can We Make Data Useful for Development,” one of the participants put forth an interesting question to the group: Could computers make better international development decisions than humans?
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The model citizen participation process has citizens holding their governments accountable to deliver quality public services in a transparent and responsive manner. At the recent Technology Salon on How Can ICT’s Support Citizen Engagement with Governments? around 30 thought leaders debated the best ways to empower citizens and governments to define what a government should…
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Technology hubs, innovation spaces, hacker centers, incubators, telecenters, libraries, co-working offices, etc., there are many names to call the places where like-minded people come together to focus on a challenge. We do this because we believe in them as a model for facilitating collaboration, yet at the January Technology Salon in DC, we asked Do…
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Let us be honest with ourselves. Most of the shiny, flashy new technology is not designed for the developing world we care about. Technology is designed for the rich Hardware designers in rich countries are turning out super light laptops and tablets of glass to impress their rich peers. Software developers are creating apps for…
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We all know that broadband connectivity is an accelerant for social and economic development. And we know that in the developing world, women are the key investors in family health and education. So shouldn’t we be working towards a world where every African woman can have access to broadband Internet?
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Recently, ICANN, the organization that controls the highest levels of the Internet naming system, made it possible for groups to apply for new TLDs – new names to the right of the dot – that would join the likes of .com .org .edu. Along with the many commercial entrants were a number of applications that…
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At a recent Technology Salon, we were discussing the countries that have the best environment for ICT innovation that will accelerate economic and social development. Quickly we listed the following four countries:
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If we are serious about ICT as an accelerant for social and economic development, and we know that a) women are the key to investments in family health and education, and b) broadband connectivity is a major ICT catalyst for both, then we should be working towards a world where every African woman can have…