mWASH: Mobile Phone Applications for the Water, Sanitation, and Hygiene Sector
In the past decade, water and sanitation practitioners have begun deploying mobile phones as tools to improve water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) services. In...
Africans Should be Developing for Smartphones, Not USSD or Feature Phones
Recently, TechCrunch made the bold prediction that in five years’ time, most sub-Saharan Africans will have smartphones. At first I thought this just more mobile...
Twhii: a great Twitter client for Java phones
Twhii is a new Twitter client for Java phones. Mr Mobility says:
For a Java app, Twhii is impressive. It gives advanced Twitter users all the flexibility that...
Linux vs. Microsoft is the most useless debate in ICT4D
At an ICT4Edu conference in Kyrgyzstan, I was treated to a yelling match between technologists and educators on the brilliance or foolishness of installing Linux-based...
Teaching algorithms through kente cloth: a case for Culturally-Situated Educational Software
For the past year, I have been participating in research on how software, cultural design, and creative production can be used to teach kids mathematics. There’s...
A Simple Email Address Can Be a Major ICT4D Barrier
When did you get your first email account? Can you remember? Or was it just too long ago? I think my first email address was in college in 1992, but it could’ve...
A Ugandan mHealth Moratorium Is a Good Thing
I am David McCann and when I first arrived in Uganda, I used to describe it as “the perfect storm” for aid in general, and M4D in particular. The country...
Agile Development In International Development – Learning From Software Development
A recent post from Eva Schiffer on “agile international development” prompted me to share more widely some reflections I have been brooding on for quite...
Beyond Earthquakes: Leveraging GIS and Volunteered Geographic Information to Build Haitian Schools
In the aftermath of the January 2010 earthquake, Haitian citizens and the use of technology, particularly mobile and GIS technologies and social media, proved...
14 Lucrative ICT Skills for African Software Developers and Designers in 2012
In the American and European technology space there’s a growing problem. There’s so much funding available for early stage startups that everyone and their...