Mobile internet in emerging markets (The Economist)

The next billion geeks
How the mobile internet will transform the BRICI countries
Sep 2nd 2010 DADRI, UTTAR PRADESH

BUYING a mobile phone was the wisest $20 Ranvir Singh ever spent. Mr Singh, a farmer in the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh, used to make appointments in person, in advance, to deliver fresh buffalo milk to his 40-odd neighbours. Now his customers just call when they want some. Mr Singh’s income has risen by 25%, to 7,000 rupees ($149) a month. And he hears rumours of an even more bountiful technology. He has heard that “something on mobile phones” can tell him the current market price of his wheat. Mr Singh does not know that that “something” is the internet, because, like most Indians, he has never seen or used it. But the phone in his calloused hand hints at how hundreds of millions of people in emerging markets—perhaps even billions—will one day log on.

Read more at The Economist…

Mobile phones and development in Latin America

Presentation given by Mireia Fernandez Ardevol to the ICT4D Postgraduate Network, UPC Barcelona, 9 September 2010.

Summary by Ismael Peña-López:

Project to analyze mobile telephone usage in Latin America. Diffussion or mobile penetration, though not as high as higher-income countries, it does have a certain level of penetration that sometimes almost reaches 100% (higher-income countries reach up to 120%). Penetration is though unevenly distributed.

Research question: does mobile communication affects (impacts on) socio-economic development in Latin America? That was a new question in the region of Latin America, and it was relevant and ambitious, and wide, as a whole research network of several people and institutions worked together to answer the research question.

The levels of analysis: macro (economics, econometrics, context), meso-organizational (institutions, markets) and micro. It was very important too to maintain a multidisciplinary focus to gather all the shades of meaning of such a complex topic.

continued here…

2nd International Conference on M4D, Mobile Technology for Development

** via IAMCR mailing list **

The 2nd International Conference on M4D
M4D2010
Mobile Communication Technology for Development
Kampala, Uganda 10 – 11 Nov 2010

http://m4d.humanit.org/

3rd Call for Papers

Welcome to M4D2010!

HumanIT (Karlstad University, Sweden) in cooperation with Makerere University (Kampala, Uganda) invite you to the 2nd International Conference on M4D – Mobile Communication Technology for Development, following the inaugural conference in Karlstad, Sweden in 2008 (http://m4d.humanit.org/) and M4D workshop in East Africa 2008 (http://m4d.kcl.co.ug/).

M4D2010 aims to provide a forum for researchers, practitioners and all those with interests in the use of Mobile Communication Technology for Development. Confirmed keynote speakers so far are Richard Duncombe (University of Manchester), Ken Banks (founder of kiwanja.net and creator of FrontlineSMS) and Thomas Tufte (Roskilde University, Ørecomm, MEDIeA).

M4D2010 will combine two days of plenary sessions, peer-reviewed paper sessions, workshops, panel sessions, discussion forums, and demos. The conference will take place at Protea Hotel in Kampala
(http://www.proteahotels.com/protea-hotel-kampala.html ).

In conjunction with M4D2010, MobileMonday Kampala (MoMoKla, http://www.momokla.ug) will organise a special evening Monday, November 8th. MoMoKla is the Ugandan chapter of MobileMonday, which is a global network of mobile industry professionals and start-ups with chapters in over 100 cities around the world. M4D2010 participants will get a chance to network with and learn from professionals in Uganda’s telecommunication, academia, media and ICT sectors.

M4D2010 will include a workshop organised by SPIDER (www.spidercenter.org/):
“A mobile in every hand- exploring mobile technology’s potential in increasing transparency”. SPIDER’s workshop will through a panel of experts explore the potentials of mobile technology in increasing transparency, as well as curbing corruption. The workshop will present innovative cases and invite the audience to participate in outlining concrete ways to use mobile technology in increasing transparency in general and the development sector in particular.

Accepted papers will be published in the conference proceedings. We are currently negotiating with The Journal of Information Technology for Development (ITD) to publish best papers from the conference.