Reading Notes

From Wiki4dev

White Man's Burden by William Easterly

Mobilizing Social Change

• intro
  • 86% of ngo employees use mobile tech mt in their work. asia and africa dominate
  • mostly text/voice, 39% photo/video, 27 MMS, 16% for data gathering/inventory, 10% mapping
  • cost maps with better use
  • Benefits: 95% time savings; 91% quick mobilization, 74% audiences difficult to reach
  • more ppl have a cell phone than don't p8 / UNCTAD "most ubiquitous communication device in human history"
  • innovation and scaling: most orgs are being creative, large potential to scale, partnerships are key p8, more sharing of best prctices/tech needed to reduce innovtion silos, back end systems important
  • Social impact: mt has greater opps than trad ICTs with access, rapid penetration,growing networks. most projects are at proof of concept stage, lacking m&e/impact assessment.
  • Challenges; costsare high esp. w/r/t scaling; finding commerical apps and win-wins key
  • Lessons: need for clear and realistic goals, on the ground needs, appropriate tech, incentives, training, benefits, not tech-focused, need govt regulatory support for innovation p10
• Health
  • HIV/Aids and epidemic monitoring/prevention
  • information forremote health workers => improved treatment/best practice sharing/usage
  • data gathering speeds epid. prevention
  • use of cellphones/sms, gprs, java, and pda/smartphones
  • AED PDA system incentivizes usage withgossip and news distribution, two diff cases; one ground up via ngo one top-down via moh
  • datadyne's FLOSS mobile data aggregation tool creates a mini survey for the pda tool
  • US case study of using SMS to connect to teen audiences for sex ed; phones are small and can e used privately to access info anonymously (?)
• Humanitarian Assistance
  • early warning infoand 2way decentralized comm for relief workers
  • rapid post-disaster info
  • notification of food aid
  • Emergency response comm stationwith sat & mobile phones; laptops and portable devices (peru case study)
  • TSF/TWB uses an inmarsat bgan for connectivity; or vsat for long-term; videoconf for field staff; sustainability is key challenge; funds are disaaster-related not long-term investments
  • Oxfam using short code to gather users/campaign members
• Environment conservation

Social Media and Youth

• Millenials: outnumbering boomers; less connected to physical communities, change by doing not voting
• Social citizens; interested in creating their own work/media/entertinment
  • less rebelious but more connected
  • Folk culture
  • Direct invlvement and service; increase in volunteering among teens
• "GI-net is al about giving up control" need for nw approaches by nonprofits; network weaver
  • Branding and CSR (youth brands to invest in YSA?)
• Impact assessment difficult
• bubble culture prob; local network; low info diversity
• Focus on indiv campaigns not big orgs; org place is to provide inst. memory; lead issues; focus efforts; but need to change engagement
  • NSB Blog?

• links
  • oneworld, sangonet, shareideas, new tactics in human rights
  • AED-Satellite pda health tool; pda toolkit; datadyne.org
  • Telecoms without borders (Mga regional office)