Showing posts with label m-development. Show all posts
Showing posts with label m-development. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 1, 2012

Maximizing Mobile, a World Bank Report


Executive summary

This report analyzes the growth and evolution of applications for mobile phones, focusing on their use in agriculture, health and financial services, as well as their impact on employment and government. It also explores the consequences for development of the emerging “app economy”, summarizing current thinking and seeking to inform the debate on the use of mobile phones for development. It’s no longer about the phone itself, but about how it is used, and the content and applications that mobile phones open. Read More (PDF) »


Chapter 1: Overview

The report’s opening chapter provides an overview of the broad trends shaping and redefining our understanding of the word “mobile.” Developing countries are increasingly well placed to exploit the benefits of mobile communications, with levels of access rising around the world. The chapter explores how the bond between mobile operators and users is loosening, as computer and internet companies invade the mobile space. Read More (PDF) »


Chapter 2: Mobilizing the Agricultural Value Chain

Increasingly, specialized mobile services are providing localized information about price, weather and climate, pest control, cultivation practices, and agricultural extension services. Chapter 2 examines the emerging uses of mobile services in agriculture, as well as remote and satellite technologies that are assisting in food traceability, sensory detection, and status updates from the field. Read More (PDF) »


Chapter 3: MHealth

Chapter 3 examines some of the key principles and characteristics of mobile Health (mHealth), and how mobiles are helping transform and enhance the delivery of primary and secondary healthcare services. It reviews on-the-ground implementations of medical healthcare apps to draw key conclusions as to how mHealth can best be implemented to serve the needs of people, as well as identifying the major barriers to be overcome. Read More (PDF) »


Chapter 4: Mobile Money for Financial Inclusion

Chapter 4 looks at the use of mobile money as a general platform and critical infrastructure underpinning other economic sectors. It shows the benefits and potential impact of mobile money, especially for promoting financial inclusion. It provides an overview of the key factors driving the growth of mobile money services, the barriers and obstacles hindering their deployment, and emerging issues that the industry will face over the coming years. Read More (PDF) »


Chapter 5: Mobile Entrepreneurship And Employment

This chapter explores the enormous potential of mobiles for employment, not solely in terms of job creation, but also their ability to facilitate entrepreneurship – especially in populations otherwise disconnected from the economy, encourage development of transferable technical and business skills, match jobs with workers and create opportunities for microwork. Read More (PDF) »


Chapter 6: Making Government Mobile

Governments are beginning to embrace the potential for mobile technology to put public services literally into the pocket of each citizen, create interactive services, and promote accountable and transparent governance. Chapter 6 identifies a range of uses for mobile technology in government that supplement public services, expand their user base, and generate spinoff services. Read More (PDF) »


Chapter 7: Policies for Mobile Broadband

The final chapter distinguishes between supply-side policies (which seek to promote the expansion of wireless broadband networks) and demand-side policies (which seek to boost take-up of wireless broadband services) in the mobile broadband ecosystem. The chapter provides policy recommendations for expanding mobile broadband infrastructure that would address the key bottlenecks of both supply and demand sides of mobile broadband. Read More (PDF) »


Part II: Key Trends in The Development Of The Mobile Sector

Part II of the report brings together a range of mobile indicators for over 150 economies. It also reviews the main trends shaping the sector, while a new analytical tool is also introduced for tracking the progress of economies at different levels of economic development in widening access, improving supply and stimulating demand for mobile services. Read More (PDF) »

Full Report


Saturday, June 16, 2012

Digital Habitats - a book worth reading


Technology has changed what it means for communities to “be together.” Digital tools are now part of most communities’ habitats. This book develops a new literacy and language to describe the practice of stewarding technology for communities. Whether you want to ground your technology stewardship in theory and deepen your practice, whether you are a community leader or sponsor who wants to understand how communities and technology intersect, or whether you just want practical advice, this is the book for you.

Written by Etienne Wenger, Nancy White and John D. Smith, the book brings together conceptual thinking, case studies and offers a guide for understanding how technology can help a community do what it wants to do. It gives a glimpse into the future as community and technology continue to affect and influence each other.

Saturday, June 9, 2012

Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations


The World Wide Web Foundation has published Accelerating Development Using the Web: Empowering Poor and Marginalized Populations. Supported by the Rockefeller Foundation, the book is a compendium of articles by recognized experts describing the real and potential effects of the World Wide Web in all major aspects of economic and social development.

The book fills a gap in the current store of knowledge by taking a broad view, offering detailed commentary from fourteen experts who are deeply engaged in the field of ICTs for development, many with extensive experience in developing countries, and each able to emphasize the key questions, challenges, and successes unique to their field.

The research unites themes of technological innovation, international development, economic growth, gender equality, linguistic and cultural diversity and community action, with special attention paid to the circumstances surrounding the poor and vulnerable members of the Global Information Society.

Readers will be able to draw parallels across each field and see where similarities in the deployment of ICTs for development exist and where there are divergences.