Text symrabies to 4321
“Check this out”, Deepak, Nepal’s Head of the Markets and Livelihoods Programme called over to me. When I came over, he had his phone in his hand, texting ‘pai symrabies’ to 4321. Immediately he got a text back: ‘Aggressive, drooling, choking sound, sensitive to noise and movements, lack of appetite and excessive sleeping. SMS “treatrabies” to 4321 for treatment options’.
Of course we texted ‘treatrabies’, and we got this message back: ‘Isolate animal. Do not touch or come in contact with Saliva. Call vet or para vet. SMS “vet” and your location number. E.g. “vet1” if you are in Dullu’.
The next text had a couple of names, addresses and phone numbers.
This text messaging service is part of a new project in Nepal called Access to Information (A2I). You can see that it’s new because Deepak’s demonstration is not completely ready. Shortly the service will have its own dedicated number and once that’s set up, you won’t have to put ‘pai’ in front of your requests. That just stands for ‘Practical Action Information’ and is required because 4321 is Focus One’s number. Focus One is the company behind text message horoscopes and dating compatibility tests in Nepal. Who better to partner with to deliver a virtual encyclopedia of information for agriculture, livestock-rearing, and foraging of non-timber forest products to the poor!?
Each text costs 3 Nepali Rupees, that’s about 2 pence. Of that, 2 rupees go to NTC, the national mobile network. Half a rupee goes to Focus One, and half a rupee comes back to Practical Action. The reason for that half rupee coming back to us is that we hope the demand for the service will grow enough to pay for a permanent person to keep the system up to date. So this model is built for sustainability.
And it’s built for scale. The service works anywhere in the country.
Practical Action Nepal is drawing on its network of experts in agriculture in the government and private sector to feed the system with up-to-date information about market prices, disease outbreaks, local weather forecasts and much more.
A lot of this information is already out there, publicly available, but the problem is that poor people out in the hills and mountains, who could really make use of it, can’t get hold of it. Like everything Practical Action does, the need came before the idea. Practical Action Nepal has drawn on a wealth of analysis conducted with the participation of poor farmers to find out what their biggest problems are. Lack of basic information is one of the biggest issues.
All well and good, but what happens if you don’t have a phone. Good question. Although Nepal’s phone ownership has been growing nearly exponentially in the last few years, it’s still fairly low compared to other countries, including those in Africa. Furthermore the distribution of phones is heavily weighted towards the urban population, and in rural areas towards those in the service sector. That’s why for A2I, this mobile text messaging service and its sister Voice Messaging (VM) service are not intended to reach the last mile.
(The last mile is part of Practical Action’s development-speak. It means that last distance (spatial, economic, social…) between those doing ok in difficult situations, and those that aren’t. Reaching those that aren’t – that last mile – is what Practical Action is all about.)
A2I’s text messaging and VM services are designed for local animal health workers, agricultural service providers and community forest chairpersons to access useful information. In many places these are the only people reaching the last mile and providing them with advice. A2I’s services are designed to help them provide the last mile with much, much better, up-to-date, advice.
No Comments » | Add your commentWhy is Kenya an Innovation Hub?
Knowledge and resources…is the answer being given at the Global Forum on Innovation. At the i-hub in Nairobi people were given mobile phones and created amongst other things m-farm. A sisal rope machine was developed in East Africa by a local person who is now been given some capacity building to develop his innovation to scale.
Is this an example of technology justice? This raises the issue of who might drive technology justice. Is there a role for intermediary organisations? The i-hub and m:lab in Kenya are places where innovation happens…where people can be exposed to non-traditional environments that positively encourages new things.
No Comments » | Add your commentGlobal Innovation and the Poor
The World Bank Group is this week hosting the fourth global forum on innovation in Helsinki. It is attended by over 600 people from 90 countries. The discussion at the donor meeting was around the successes and challenges of using ICT to facilitate innovation. The climate innovation centres were recounted as a key to promoting local innovation. Practical Action in Kenya has participated in workshops with the first climate innovation centre in Nairobi.
Such linkages to local groups is essential to a sustainable approach without which we often have seen a failure of appropriate technology to reach poor people. Indeed one of the key challenges of innovating with ICTs is to ensure that we don’t increase poverty by creating yet another technology elite. So it is vital to have inclusive dialogues and to capture the innate innovative capability of local people to solve their own problems.
No Comments » | Add your commentSocial Media Club (If you get it, share it)
On visiting iHub Nairobi’s Innovation Hub there were many reasons to be impressed. Not only was the office layout, clean, open and free of the uncreative structures of the modern office environment but there was also a definite and unpremeditated energy of enterprise, entrepreneurship and development.
Positioned on a raised seating and stage area of the office (where shoes were definitely not welcome attire) sat one of my favourite pub games – the unrivalled table football. What caught my eye though was not the game and table itself but a sticker reading the slogan;
‘Social Media Club, if you get it, share it.
In terms of my visit to Kenya and the work of Practical Answers as the knowledge sharing function of Practical Action this phrase is so, so relevant. We as Practical Action do get why, how and when ‘technology’ is an appropriate function of development. In fact it is exactly what we have been doing for over 40 years.
The Social Media Club referred to on the sticker takes you to socialmediaclub.org and locally to Nairobi, socialmediaclub.org/chapter/nairobi
‘Social Media Club Nairobi, where innovators from Kenya will meet for monthly events to share, engage and collaborate with the community on the issues of social media and technology.’
Questions we may want to ask at this stage are,
Who is driving Innovation in International Development?
What place could iHub play in creating change through Innovation?
Why is this connected to development in Kenya?
Where should we start to innovate?
When can we achieve results?
&
Ultimately…
How can Digital Innovation aid the cause of Practical Action?
These questions need to be amplified within the development agenda, particularly within Kenya and East Africa.
The rise of the mobile phone over the last 5 years and the need to be connected to both mobile, internet and social networks 24hrs a day is clearly a priority for a large % of Kenyans in 2011.
I am not going to begin to answer how, when or in what shape digital ‘Innovation’ will play it’s part in the development of East Africa and indeed International Development Globally, but it is fundamentally clear and simple to see that we need many more iHub’s in the world to begin to start on solving the major world issues that we have today.
In consortium with the World Wide Web Foundation, please check out iHub and indeed m:lab and support the work that they are doing in encouraging the rise of Innovation, Investment and creativity within Kenya and East Africa.
iHub – www.ihub.co.ke
m:lab – www.mlab.co.ke
1 Comment » | Add your commentNo technology silver bullets for the rural economy
A conference held in Berlin last week heard from a variety of experts on the use of ICT for development. It was disappointing that much of the time was spent discussing technology-led projects. Towards the end of the conference the panel – see the photo – were agreed that a focus on information needs and business models are the way forward.
In other words, the D in ICT4D needs more emphasis so that we are clear about how and why information can lead to positive impact. At the same time recognition of unintended impacts from technology should be captured to provide evidence for what works and what does not work. More can be found in the IFAD blog.
No Comments » | Add your commentWho needs a $35 laptop?
When rumours of a $100 laptop circulated back in 2005 great excitement was generated. Yet if we now measure success against the targets that were set, the endevour has fallen short in a number of key respects. When Nicolas Negroponte revealed the idea in January 2005 he estimated that 150 million would be shipped by 2007. By the end of 2009 Kraemer et al (2009) reported that only a few hundred thousand had been shipped at a cost of $199 each.
Previous commentaries by Practical Action have documented a number of more serious shortfalls in the concept of the one laptop per child. In brief these are:
- Top down technology development that has largely ignored inputs from local people.
- Hardware led with the promise of software later. This is problematic in the area of education where usage will be dependant on good material being available and on teachers having the skills to embrace the new technology.
- The business model is not sustainable. A large amount of resources are being allocated to fund devices with limited lifetimes (say 5 years) with no funds for replacement.
So how does a $35 laptop announced this week in India address these issues? The lower cost is certainly good news. The device will be running open source software…further good news. Importantly for the update of the device in developing countries the battery will be rechargable via solar power. The touch screen technology will also help in making the device more intuitive. Does it have a voice interface, allowing local languages, I wonder?
However, there remains some concern about the availability of software, local language materials, and skilled teachers. But let’s be clear…the initiative comes from India…so there is credit due for the development of a technology to fulfil local needs. It is also at a price point that compares with a mobile phone…and we know how quicly mobile phones have been adopted by poor people.
1 Comment » | Add your commentAn “iPod” for the poor
This morning I read that Apple have sold 1 million iPad devices in the first month of sales. Let us remember that these devices have no new functionality that existing devices don’t have. My question is “how long does it typically take for a “new” device to reach the poor?” Well, one example of that is the Lifeline radio that was launched in 2003 and has now reached a market of 215,000. The second article I read this morning was about the launch by Lifeline of a new device called a Lifeplayer or an “”iPod” for Development”. The radio has evident benefits for the poor, opening up new knowledge that improves lives. How long will it take for the new “iPod” for the poor to reach the first million people?
Voice communications via radio has long been acknowledged as a media that reaches grassroots groups. Until recently, however, it has been relatively expensive to start-up and has various regulatory issues to overcome. ICTs, in the form of podcasting offer a low-cost way of broadcasting audio to defined groups of people. Following on from the success with podcasting in Peru (2005) Practical Action took on a new challenge in Zimbabwe (2008). Working to improve the livelihoods of people in a remote rural area in the northern region of Zimbabwe, where there is no electricity, no radio signal or mobile phone coverage, we have improved knowledge sharing in the local Shona language.
This work has been undertaken using standard off the shelf mp3 players and ancillary loudspeakers following a trial of a “second voice” device incorporating solar charging facilities. Unfortunately this latter device proved to be deficient in its re-charging capabilities. Nontheless it helped us to establish the worth of recording “local content in local voices” (Grimshaw and Gudza 2010).
The need for a device such as the Lifeplayer has been established. A key question now is about how these devices can be deployed to those most in need. What kind of business model will best bring them into use? Or will the Lifeplayer turn out a bit like the iPad? A device with lots of functionality but nothing that is particularly unique. Sometimes complexity of functionality becomes a disadvantage. Sometimes, in very remote rural areas with no electricity and no mobile coverage all that is needed is a simple mp3 player; or to put it in the language of the developed world: an iPod with recording facilities. The iPad appears driven by the market demand rather than the human need.
No Comments » | Add your commentWhen is a new technology an “intermediate technology”?
Often when I talk about new technologies in the same sentance as international development…and then reveal that I work for Practical Action…I can see the “disconnect” in someone’s eyes. After all Schumacher wrote about the need for “intermediate technology”. In the sound bites of today’s world that must be somewhere between high tech and low tech…right? Well no actually.
Let’s think of a practical example, perhaps the most ubiquitous new technology of them all, the mobile phone. Over half the world now has a mobile phone. Sure there are differences: the latest iPhone or Droid that can update your blog on the move and find the nearest coffee shop is a world away from a phone with only voice or text connectivity. Yet these phones have important characteristics in common. The most relevant being that they can enable local innovation – a key success characteristic outlined by Schumacher for an intermediate technology.
But don’t just read my views (as a Practical Action insider), see John Mulrow’s recent article on think mobile, act local; and Ken Banks blog at Kiwanja net.
One of the best models of innovative local uses of mobile phones is FrontlineSMS. This is a free text messaging service used by many NGO’s and others throughout the developing world.
Reference: Mulrow, J. (2010) “Think Mobile, Act Local”, World Watch, May/June 2010, pp22-27
No Comments » | Add your commentWould you prefer a mobile phone or a toilet?
View the presentation made by Dr David J. Grimshaw
Yesterday the Triple Helix Society at Cambridge University posed the intriguing question: “Would you prefer a mobile phone or a toilet?” The aparently simple question raised many important issues around the area of the use and role of technology in development. The question itself could be answered from many different perspectives, for example, empirically, gender based or in support of livelihoods.
Most of the evidence would suggest that people in developing countries would prefer a mobile phone, especially if you happened to ask a man rather than a woman. Whatever the “answer” to the question might be, the panel were united in the view that the preferences of people are at the heart of development. If you take the view that development is about freedom then choice is key to unlocking that freedom. But whose preferences are taken into account when development interventions are planned and implemented?
The debate after the short panel presentations was perhaps the most interesting part of the evening. Questions raised included the following: what is the role of technology in development?; what is the best way to introduce new technologies?; can open innovation models help “ownership” of technology development?; and are there some good examples of countries that have used a “technology route” to development?
2 Comments » | Add your commentSmart phones, smart maps, smart apps…challenge Africa
This week’s Economist includes a Special Report on Telecoms in Emerging Markets. Some interesting trends are highlighted but care is needed when interpreting figures on teledensity. Nevertheless, mobile data networks may well produce a more cost effective impact on poverty than investment in other forms of broadband Internet access.
According to the ITU (International Telecommunications Union) mobile teledensity reached over 100% in 2007 (some people have more than one SIM and/or phone) in Western Europe. In Ghana the density reached 98% in January 2009 and is forecast to get to 100% in Kenya and Tanzania by 2013. But most of the traffic generated by this increased access will be voice – and voice is the most important means of communications for the poor who are more likely to have lower literacy levels. A major challenge remains: to upgrade the voice networks to allow fast data. Plans are in hand in most countries in Africa to improve the mobile data networks. But the reality is likely to be that fast connectivity such as 3G networks will be restricted to the urban areas. The costs of handsets is also an issue with a basic mobile phone down to around $15 but a smartphone costing over $100. Network provider charges for Internet access to use applications such as Google Maps are also likely to be high. In real terms probably many times higher than they are in the developed world.
Yet, amidst this context there are three encouraging signs for optimism:
- There is a growing “open source” sector of the mobile phone market. The Android operating system runs on mobile phones from various manufacturers. The source code is open so that applications developers can write programs that are tailor made for specific functions, languages, cultures, and geographies. These apps can then be downloaded free of charge by users.
- Some of the new applications are very relevant for use in developing countries. For example, epidemiologists and ecologists often collect data in the field and, on returning to their laboratory, enter their data into a database for further analysis. The recent introduction of mobile phones that utilise the open source Android operating system, and which include (among other features) both GPS and Google Maps, provide new opportunities for developing mobile phone applications, which in conjunction with web applications, allow two-way communication between field workers and their project databases. Source: Aanensen DM, Huntley DM, Feil EJ, al-Own F, Spratt BG, 2009 EpiCollect: Linking Smartphones to Web Applications for Epidemiology, Ecology and Community Data Collection. PLoS ONE 4(9): e6968. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0006968
- Scientists are prepared to share their findings in open source journals such as the Public Library of Science (PLoS – see above). Thereby enabling scientists working in developing countries immediate access to good peer reviewed work.
The challenge is to upgrade the mobile phone networks to enable fast data traffic. Perhaps this is a candidate for applying advance market commitments that have been successful in the field of vaccines.
Smart phones, smart maps, and smart apps are all very well but they need to be enabled by smart markets.
1 Comment » | Add your commentCan't find what you're looking for?
Tell us who you are
Let us know which of the options below best describes you and we'll direct you to the most relevant content.
What we do
Practical Action uses technology to challenge poverty, working with poor women and men around the world.
Explore our work by Country
Explore our work by Technology
Practical Action,The Schumacher Centre,
Bourton on Dunsmore,
Rugby, CV23 9QZ, UK
Reg Charity No 247257
+44 (0)1926 634400 practicalaction@practicalaction.org.uk
© Practical Action