June 2008 - change - Mailing Lists

nuanced view of microcredit
by Yaw Anokwa 24 Jun '08

24 Jun '08

http://www.wilsoncenter.org/index.cfm?essay_id=361250&fuseaction=wq.essay is a good read for those interested in microfinance. it presents a more subtle view of how microcredit is working across the world. also check out http://vsla.net/ for a newer microfinance model that seems to work better in urban slums and more rural villages.

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IEEE Computer
by Richard Anderson 18 Jun '08

18 Jun '08

The june issue of IEEE computer is a special issue on ICTD. Articles by the usual suspects.

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Fwd: IT Infrastructure Project for Aga Khan Education Service
by Yaw Anokwa 17 Jun '08

17 Jun '08

if you are interested in educational management in low income countries, this is a great opportunity. aga khan education service runs over 300 schools (54k students) in pakistan, india, bangladesh, kenya, uganda, tanzania, and tajikistan. if you need more information, shoot an email to sheila. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Sheila Clitheroe Tieszen <sheila.clitheroetieszen(a)akest.org> Date: Mon, Jun 16, 2008 at 23:41 Subject: IT Infrastructure Project for Aga Khan Education Service Tanzania To: yanokwa(a)cs.washington.edu Dear Yaw, We did not meet when you visited AKES,T in Dar es Salaam earlier this year. You spoke to my colleagues Mahmud Shivji and Jackie Kavuma. I understand that your graduate student centre is keen to become in real IT projects. If that is the case, we have a project I believe might be of interest to you. We are doing some strategic planning for up-grading the IT infra-structure and expanding the range of applications we will use. We would value some serious in-put into the planning and operationalising of our thinking. The sort of things we are thinking of are: introducing an education information management system which will require an SQL server, which we do not currently have, this system also has an e-portal for parents, teachers and students; a thin client approach to resourcing the computer labs; and the future use of a VLE. Please let me know if you feel there would be any scope for you or your colleagues to make a project out of this need for assistance. I look forward to hearing from you. Kind regards, Sheila Clitheroe Tieszen Sheila E. Clitheroe Tieszen CEO Aga Khan Education Service, Tanzania P.O. Box 125 Urambo Street, off United Nations Road Dar es Salaam Tel: +255 22 2150406/700 Direct line: +255 22 2150703 Fax: +255 22 2150701 Mobile +255 (0) 753 029 344 email: sheila.clitheroetieszen(a)akest.org

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OLPC in business week
by Andrew Whitaker 13 Jun '08

13 Jun '08

In case you didn't see this: A damning article on OLPC in business week: http://www.businessweek.com/print/magazine/content/08_24/b4088048125608.htm

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program for NSDR 2008
by Ethan Katz-Bassett 12 Jun '08

12 Jun '08

This might interest some of you, and I don't think it's been posted to the list yet. The Workshop on Networked Systems for Developing Regions (NSDR) is co- located with SIGCOMM here in Seattle in August (NSDR is on the 18th). The program was posted a few days ago: http://www.dritte.org/nsdr08/program.html

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SMS Job application in Kenya
by Brian DeRenzi 12 Jun '08

12 Jun '08

Ethan Zuckerman pointed out a cool mobile application for job hunting on a mobile phone. Users sms the job they want and are alerted of job postings. The group, Mobile4Good, says that they connect over 250 jobseekers to employers every week. Very cool. Project: http://www.kazi560.co.ke/ See his post, which includes a cool video: http://www.ethanzuckerman.com/blog/2008/06/11/kazi560-jobsearching-via-mobi…

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ict4d projects from mit
by Yaw Anokwa 11 Jun '08

11 Jun '08

some interesting projects from mit. if you are interested in any of these, shoot an email to luis. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- - The Medi-SIM project (rendering XML-based forms and protocols like IMCI on low-end phones using SIM menus) - Several projects from our ICT4D class at MIT this past Spring, with results that are relevant to OpenROSA, including: - An XForms-based Mobile Data Collection system for Disaster Management (A project with CRS India) - Using NFC-enabled mobile phones for patient tracking (A project with IRD, Aamir Khan's group in Pakistan) - Cervical Cancer diagnosis with the help of cameraphones (A project with Dimagi for use in Zambia). You can see presentations on these (and other) projects at http://dc.media.mit.edu/ICT4D.html You can see more about Medi-SIM at http://medi-sim.mobi/ -- Luis F. G. Sarmenta, Ph.D. Research Scientist MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory 32 Vassar Street, 32-G842 Cambridge, MA 02139, USA

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FW: ACM TechNews; Wednesday, June 11, 2008
by Tom Anderson 11 Jun '08

11 Jun '08

Old news to many of you, but in case not. ----------- * ACM Honors Randy Wang and Digital Study Hall Team for Using Community-Generated Video to Improve Education in India ACM Honors Randy Wang and Digital Study Hall Team for Using Community-Generated Video to Improve Education in India AScribe Newswire (06/10/08) Randy Wang and the Digital Study Hall (DSH) team have won ACM's Eugene L. Lawler Award for Humanitarian Contributions within Computer Science and Informatics. Wang and Urvashi Sahni of the Study Hall Foundation founded DSH in 2005, and the project has developed a user-generated video-sharing system that local teachers in South Asia use to improve learning in their classrooms. The cost-effective digital technology allows schools and non-governmental organizations to make videos of the best teachers and to share them with teachers in underserved areas. Wang, currently with Microsoft Research India, describes DSH as "a bit like YouTube meets Netflix in a rural schoolhouse with a dirt floor." DSH currently has 30 pilot schools in five cities in India and Bangladesh. ACM will honor Wang and the DSH team at its annual ACM Awards Banquet on June 21 in San Francisco. Click Here to View Full Article <http://newswire.ascribe.org/cgi-bin/behold.pl?ascribeid=20080610.074304&tim e=08%2016%20PDT&year=2008&public=0> to the top

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Fwd: [EWB-UW] Laptop(s) needed for Bolivia Trip
by Brian DeRenzi 10 Jun '08

10 Jun '08

In case anyone has spare laptops sitting around... Begin forwarded message: > From: Jennifer Reiners <jreiners(a)u.washington.edu> > Date: June 10, 2008 4:33:57 PM PDT > To: ewb-uw(a)u.washington.edu > Subject: [EWB-UW] Laptop(s) needed for Bolivia Trip > > Hi all. I hope many of you are enjoying a much needed break or at > least are getting close to it. > > For our upcoming trip to Bolivia in a couple of weeks, we are > looking to find one or two laptop computers that we can take down > with us and leave for the community. Preferrably we'd like to get > them donated, but we may be able to pay up to $250 each for them if > that was our only option. Only catch is that they need to be new > enough models to be converted into Spanish. > > If you have any leads for getting them donated (in a short time, we > need them by June 26) or if you know someone or someplace that would > be willing to sell a laptop or two for cheap, please email me (jreiners(a)u.washington.edu > ) or David (dallosto(a)u.washington.edu) > > Any information you might have would be helpful. > > Thanks, > Jen > > > ---------- Forwarded message ---------- > Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2008 06:52:10 -0700 > From: Donee Alexander <doneealexander(a)gmail.com> > To: Jennifer Reiners <jreiners(a)u.washington.edu>, > David Dall'Osto <dallosto(a)u.washington.edu> > Subject: laptop > > hi guys, > > i also need one of you to obtain at least one laptop (or possibly 2) > that is > new enough that we can convert it to Spanish. we are taking them to > the > teacher. we would love to get these free, but if we have to pay > that is ok > too. i don't think we want to pay over about $250 though. the > first place > i would look is UW surplus. also, you might want to email out the > EWB-UW > listserv (the big one) and the EC listserv. i think craig's list > would be a > great place to look too. lastly, robyn has said she might know how > microsoft can get us computers, so you might want to check this > avenue out > too. > > at any rate, we want at least one and as many as we can get our > hands on, > but 2 would be great. > > thanks, > > donee > > p.s. please email me back and let me know who is taking charge of > this. > this is a priority b/c we promised them we would bring at least one > computer. > _______________________________________________ > EWB-UW mailing list > EWB-UW(a)u.washington.edu > https://mailman1.u.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/ewb-uw

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Fwd: [Cse590f] REMINDER: CSE477 Demos/Posters (today 12:30-3:30)
by Yaw Anokwa 09 Jun '08

09 Jun '08

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Gaetano Borriello <gaetano(a)cs.washington.edu> Date: Mon, Jun 9, 2008 at 08:46 Subject: [Cse590f] REMINDER: CSE477 Demos/Posters (today 12:30-3:30) To: faculty - Mailing List <faculty(a)cs.washington.edu>, cse590f - Mailing List <cse590f(a)cs.washington.edu>, cs-grads - Mailing List <cs-grads(a)cs.washington.edu>, cs-ugrads - Mailing List <cs-ugrads(a)cs.washington.edu>, cs-staff - Mailing List <cs-staff(a)cs.washington.edu> Our "Technology for Low-Income Regions" will have a poster session with live demos in the Commons (colloquium-style refreshments will be served) from 12:30 to 3:30 today. Please join us to see how far the projects have come along and provide feedback and encouragement to the students. Feel free to forward this to others who you feel may be interested. I'm appending a short summary of the projects below. Thanks, Gaetano · Empowering Artists Empower Artists has teamed up with SIFE, a Heritage University group, to allow artisans in remote regions to sell their art to the world. We will offer a field kit that universities can use to record information on local art and create product listings on our e-commerce website. This site will provide artists with access to a wider range of customers and a chance for increased compensation. By focusing on artists' personal stories, we hope to foster a relationship between artist and customer that will lend insight and meaning to each piece of art. Hélène Martin, Dana Wen, Katie Neuser, Alex Loddengaard, Jim George, Max Aller · *bus (Starbus) *bus is a project that aims to provide reliable transportation in Kyrgyzstan by providing riders with reliable bus route data. Currently, riders in Kyrgyzstan have no idea when their buses will arrive and may have to wait for long periods of time. With the *bus system, buses in Kyrgyzstan will have a GPS module installed that relays location information over SMS to a central server. Riders can then use SMS to query where their buses are and when they are expected to arrive at a certain location. Martin Hecko, Caitlin Lustig, Naasir Ramji, Jordan Walke · OLPC Presenter The OLPC Presenter is an extension of the Classroom Presenter tool that will enable students and teachers to collaboratively present information using XO laptops in a classroom setting. Teachers use Classroom Presenter to create or load a slide deck on the XO as part of a collaborative lesson plan. The slides are distributed to each student's XO. Each student can make notes and changes to the slides by adding digital ink. Students can then submit their changes to the teacher, and the teacher can present submissions to the class for discussion. Will Burnside, Mathias Klous, Brian Mayton, Kristofer Plunkett · CommCare CommCare is a project to aid community Health Workers (CHWs), who are the first--and often only--medical professionals that people see in rural areas of low-income countries. People living in extreme poverty often delay seeking care until it is too late for them to be helped. CHWs make house hold visits to provide very basic care. However, for CHWs to provide effective care, they must keep track of a great deal of information, from patient records to remembering follow up visits. CommCare is software that we are developing to run on mobile phones to aid CHWs with planning and performing their job. Laura Pina, Erik Turnquist · AIR+ The purpose of this project is to promote gender equality in developing countries by enhacing women's ability to have their voices heard on the air. Through AIR (Advanced Interactive Radio – conceived by Revi Sterling at the University of Colorado), women can record their voices in a sound clip and potentially have the message broadcast when it reaches the local radio station. AIR+ seeks to extend the current implementation by allowing women to create "virtual radio stations" on various topics and thereby avoid issues of censorship. Remington Furman, Fabian Kidarsa, Kristin Lee, Zachary, Wachtveitl, Brian Wolfe · MySMS MySMS is a development framework to allow cellphones to easily interface with a remote database via SMS messages. Because SMS is a ubiquitous protocol, it is our hope that MySMS will serve as a catalyst for the creation of connected applications in developing regions. MySMS could serve as the underlying structure for applications in areas such as precision farming, health care, commerce, and microfinance. Brad Campbell, Ruibo Li, Anthony Poon, David St.Hilaire _______________________________________________ Cse590f mailing list Cse590f(a)cs.washington.edu https://mailman.cs.washington.edu/mailman/listinfo/cse590f

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