Technology Salon

Electrical power is key for an ICT deployment – and many other basic services as well. Yet it is often the main barrier to deployment because often it simply doesn’t exist in rural and underserved areas, or “off-grid” locations. If electrical systems do exist, they can be expensive, intermittent, and unreliable. In short, there is…

At the How Peer-to-Peer University is Hacking Higher Education Technology Salon in San Francisco, Philipp Schmidt discussed his Peer 2 Peer University initiative, an innovative approach to further the reach and impact of higher education.

Unlike our usual Technology Salons, which are not recorded, the ICT4D, Innovation, and Millennium Development Goals Salon at the UN Week Digital Media Lounge was taped by Mashable for your viewing pleasure.

As part of this month’s Educational Technology Debate on mEducation initiatives, the Technology Salon will be looking at ways to apply mobile phones in education, and scale them across organizations with an mEducation Alliance.

The UN Week Digital Media Lounge will be highlighting new approaches that are tackling Millennium Development Goal challenges. Innovative information and communication technologies are one way to accelerate progress toward meeting the MDGs. But what are the big new ideas? Who is pushing the innovation envelope? And how are humanitarian agencies using these ICT tools…

Imagine imputing an object into a rigid four-year, $100,000+ process, hoping that when it finally leaves this system its a useful tool. That’s the current university system, where higher education resembled the Waterfall software development process. Now contrast it with short bursts of learning using educational materials openly available online, with constant feedback on progress…

There has been a great deal of media attention on the ‘One Laptop Per Child’ (OLPC) project since the announcement of a “$100 laptop” over five years ago. Most of this attention focuses on its potential to address the educational challenges in developing countries. Much less is known about what is actually happening on-the-ground with…

While everyone is amazed at the quick proliferation of mobile phones in the developing world, here’s a startling statistic which should check our unbridled enthusiasm for m-everything: 73% of women in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia do not have a mobile phone. Across all developing countries, adult women are 21% less likely to have a…

Over 300 million women are being left out of the benefits of mobile phone ownership as it becomes the most ubiquitous technology in the developing world, which has major implications given women’s role in social and economic development. Furthermore, the potential value of cell phone ownership increases as mobile services (mServices) including health, finance, and…

Short Message Service (SMS) text messages, which started as a way for Nokia engineers to test mobile phone network operations, has grown into a killer app – for everyone. At the SMS4Dev Technology Salon in San Francisco, we looked at three ways to apply SMS to pressing development projects.

Are you a Technology Salon subscriber on the West Coast that’s feeling left out of our two SMS4D Salons in Washington DC? Don’t! We’re bringing all the great SMS text messaging fun to San Francisco with SMS4Dev-SF on June 17th.

Now that your interest was piqued with last month’s SMS for Development Technology Salon, get ready for SMS4D-2: the Cloudy Salon.

Text messaging is a quick and targeted way to reach beneficiaries in the developing world. But you already know that. Yet have you seen an SMS router close-up? Experimented with proven solutions that you can use in your existing programs? Or brainstormed on how SMS could add sizzle to your next proposal?

On April 15th, we had a lively discussion on public-private partnerships with Robert Schneider, Senior Alliance Advisor, in the Office of Development Partnerships, Private Sector Alliances Division at USAID. Rob is the ICT partnerships lead for ODP/PSA, or as many may recognize better, the Global Development Alliances (GDA) office.

Global Development Alliances (GDA’s) are USAID’s innovative public-private alliance model to mobilize business and civil society to stimulate economic growth. Yet GDA’s and Private Sector Alliances (PSA’s) can be confusing and intimidating, especially when a proposal deadline is approaching too quickly. Successful alliances take commitment, so invest a morning of your time learning how to…

In the immediate aftermath of the Haitian earthquake, several Bay area organizations deployed life-saving ICTs to speed disaster response in Port-au-Prince and the greater humanitarian efforts across Haiti. At the next San Francisco Technology Salon, we’ll hear from InSTEDD and Inveneo on how they deployed their respective technical ecosystems, its impact, and their transition possibilities…

In what has become an annual tradition, we’re honored to have Terry Kramer, now Regional President – Vodafone Americas, return to the Technology Salon and update us on Vodafone’s continued efforts to bring mobile technology to the developing world.