March 2012 - change - Mailing Lists

Job: ICT4D Jobs at the Carter Center
by Yaw Anokwa 09 Mar '12

09 Mar '12

Tom does good work, and both jobs sound like a great opportunity. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Thomas Smyth <thomas.smyth(a)gatech.edu> Date: Fri, Mar 9, 2012 at 09:48 Subject: ICT4D Jobs at the Carter Center Colleagues, please consider these two ICT4D jobs at the Carter Center. 1. A shorter-term position consisting of a series of trips to the DRC, mostly involving training and building technical capacity with partner CSOs for Carter Center programs. Functional French skills are a requirement for this one. 2. A longer-term position based in Atlanta, basically a tech guru for the Democracy program, advising program staff on how to best use technology, as well as training and implementing. A fair amount of international travel included. The Carter Center is earnestly and energetically expanding its use of ICT throughout its programs and it's a great place to work. Feel free to contact me directly if you have questions about either job. To apply for the DRC job, email your CV and cover letter to the email address at the end of the attached job description ASAP. The Atlanta job has not yet been formally posted, but will be soon. You can contact me (thomas.smyth(a)gatech.edu) if you are seriously interested. Those who will be attending ICTD next week are welcome to talk to me in person about these positions as well. Please forward this message to individuals or distribution lists that you think would be interested. Thanks, Tom

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Kony 2012
by Yaw Anokwa 08 Mar '12

08 Mar '12

You may have heard about Kony 2012. It is a film and campaign by Invisible Children that aims to make "Joseph Kony (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Kony) famous, not to celebrate him, but to raise support for his arrest and set a precedent for international justice." The film is at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y4MnpzG5Sqc. While almost everyone agrees that Joseph Kony is a bad person, Invisible Children has been criticized for their approach. Grant Oyston lays out some of those arguments against Kony 2012 at http://visiblechildren.tumblr.com/post/18890947431/we-got-trouble. The follow on posts are also informative. The spread of the Kony meme, both for and against, has been possible only because of social media. In that sense, it's quite relevant to those of us interested in leveraging technology for change... Yaw

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Job: Mobile Health Fellowship for Public Health Institute
by Yaw Anokwa 08 Mar '12

08 Mar '12

Organization The Public Health Institute (PHI), Oakland, California Position Mobile Health Fellowship to Advance Health System Transformation in the Global South Period 12 Months (Start Date September 1, 2012) Description PHI has an opportunity for its Center for Innovation and Technology in Public Health (CITPH) to work with Atlas Service Corps to host a Fellow from one of the following countries, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Ghana, or Rwanda, to work at PHI for a period of twelve months on mHealth and eHealth program activities. Candidates should have a background in one or more of the following areas in eHealth and mHealth: policy research, technical development, and program management. The Fellow will assist PHI staff with the research and writing of position papers on mobile health, including literature reviews of studies that have been conducted on the design, implementation, and evaluation of mobile technology in health, as well as on potential opportunities and recommended actions to use mobile technologies to strengthen national health system capacity in addressing various components of health. In preparation for the Fellow's return to his/her home country, the successful candidate will also have the opportunity to work on a project of professional interest that will address the role of technology-enabled innovations in promoting health system transformation, identify potential grant funding opportunities, and develop grant proposals for the implementation of the project. Candidates will be asked to submit an abstract outlining their project as part of the application process. The Fellow's duties require that the individual be proficient at web searching and Microsoft Office applications, performing literature searches, interviewing experts, creating research deliverables, and managing multiple tasks and deadlines associated with projects. S/he will be health and science literate, able to draw conclusions from a broad array of material, possess excellent analytical and writing skills, and be comfortable working both in a team and independently. The Fellowship is supported in part through a generous grant from Rockefeller Foundation. For more information on and to apply for the Fellowship, candidates should refer to Atlas Service Corps (www.atlascorps.org) The closing date for applications is April 15 2012. The Public Health Institute For more than four decades, PHI has promoted research, leadership and partnerships to build capacity for strong public health policy, systems, and practices. PHI is also a recognized leader in leadership development across a range of public health and global health issues, having managed transformational leadership programs for public health professionals and advocates from early in their careers to the most senior levels. CITPH leads PHI’s efforts to advance the design and planning, implementation and evaluation of mHealth and eHealth programs, and to disseminate research findings broadly for use in public policy and health practices. Hosting Atlas Corps fellows at CITPH is a natural fit that will allow us to advance learning about mHealth and eHealth needs and opportunities in the global South, as well as to leverage PHI’s strengths in developing and supporting global South leaders. Atlas Service Corps Atlas Corps is a non-profit organization that develops leaders, strengthens organizations and promotes innovation through an overseas fellowship of skilled non-profit professionals. Atlas Corps engages leaders in 12- to 18-month direct service fellowships at organizations to learn best practices, build organizational capacity, and return home to create a network of global change makers. Atlas Corps fellows return to their countries to work in the nonprofit sector, sharing new skills, best practices, experiences and resources.

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Job: Frogtek is Hiring a UI designer
by Yaw Anokwa 08 Mar '12

08 Mar '12

Yael is a former UW student and is really awesome to work with. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Yael Schwartzman <yaelsf(a)gmail.com> Frogtek's current designer is going part-time on us and we are looking for a full time UI designer to join our team in Mexico. Please distribute this!! The job is available immediately. Re-location to Mexico City is necessary (but Mexico is awesome so I am sure you can help me find some candidates ;) ) Thanks! ----- FROGTEK IS HIRING A LEAD UI DESIGNER We are a social enterprise based in Mexico, Spain and Colombia. Our goal is to empower and strengthen micro-entrepeneurs in emerging markets through the development of mobile business tools. We are seeking a full-time UI designer to join our team in Mexico. The ideal candidate has vast experience in the areas of usability, graphic design, mobile & web design and speaks fluent Spanish. Since we are a small start-up the candidate has to be willing to do a bit of everything and should enjoy constant researching and learning, being self-motivated and working without direct supervision. Our designers spend a large amount of their time in the field doing usability studies, talking to and understanding our dear shopkeepers (our users). If you work for Frogtek that means that you have an itch to make the world a better place and provide micro-entrepeneurs in emerging markets with the necessary education and tools to grow and provide a better life for their families. Required Skills: Excellent graphic design skills Excellent user centered UI design skills (Mobile UI design is a plus) Excellent communication skills Fluent Spanish Speaker Self-managed Required Tools: Photoshop Illustrator Flash Ccs/html Rapid Prototyping tools (such as Balsamiq Mockups) More information about our organization and our product here: www.frogtek.org www.tiendatekweb.com The position is available immediately. You will need to re-locate to Mexico City. Please send your resume and cover letter to yael(a)frogtek.org Thank you!!

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The machine to aspire to: The computer in rural south India
by Yaw Anokwa 07 Mar '12

07 Mar '12

"The machine to aspire to: The computer in rural south India" is a nice article in First Monday by Joyojeet Pal. I've put the abstract below and you can find it at http://www.firstmonday.org/htbin/cgiwrap/bin/ojs/index.php/fm/article/view/… Abstract: This study examined the perception of technology from the frame of aspiration in rural India. We argue here that the idea of technology as a critical part of modernity has been deeply tied to India’s discourse of development, and that this was in turn a portrayal of technology in a range of outlets in the public sphere. In villages of rural south India, we found an environment of great expectations from technology to reduce poverty and open urban opportunities, including from those who had never used a computer before. Specifically in schools, where this research was conducted, we found that computers played a much larger role than just as a delivery mechanism for digital educational material since they represented an aspirational artifact to children and parents alike. With historically low performance records at public schools, the computer frequently has been seen as a device offering a cure to systemic educational problems. Children, in part imbibing a discourse of technology from their own parents and media, have seen the computer as a critical part of their schooling experience. The device, and its mastery, then became an affirmation of pecking order among children themselves, and influenced the way that they interacted with fellow students. Joyojeet has been doing some deep thinking in this space for some time. If you like this article, it'd be a good idea to also check out "My Child Will Be Respected": Parental Perspectives on Computers in Rural India at http://tier.cs.berkeley.edu/docs/Parent-final.pdf. Joyojeet is on this list and I know he'd love to hear what you all think...

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Poster Session - tomorrow! Wed March 7, 4-5pm CSE Attrium
by Ruth Anderson 06 Mar '12

06 Mar '12

Poster session Designing Technologies for Low Resource Environments A collaboration among CSE and HCDE, leading up to a CSE capstone course that also integrates HCDE students is presenting posters tomorrow based on initial project work. Projects focus on the health domain, and include communities local and global. Come learn about these projects and talk to the student designers. We're also looking for additional CSE or HCDE students who may be interested in enrolling in the course in the spring. 4-5 pm Wednesday, March 7 (tomorrow) in the CSE attrium Projects include: Digitizing Job Aids for Front-line Medical Workers Digital Public Health Videos for South Seattle Using Smartphones to Create National Vaccine Registries Game-based Interface for Public Health Modeling SMS-based Encouragement Systems for Community Health Workers ODK integration with Health Information Systems http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/courses/cse490d/12sp/ Come check it out tomorrow! Beth Kolko, Richard Anderson, Ruth Anderson

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Fwd: Improving Clinical Decision Support in Low-Income Regions
by Yaw Anokwa 06 Mar '12

06 Mar '12

Hey all, I'm going to be defending this Thursday at 9am in CSE 303. The talk will focus on some of the results from an ongoing deployment of ODK Clinic. If the abstract below looks interesting, please come. Yaw ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Yaw Anokwa Final Examination "Improving Clinical Decision Support in Low-Income Regions" Thursday, March 8, 2012 9:00 a.m. Allen Center, CSE 303 Advisors: Gaetano Borriello and Tapan Parikh (UC-Berkeley) ABSTRACT-- The combination of lightly-trained doctors, under-resourced hospitals, and complex treatment protocols can sometimes result in sub-standard care for HIV patients in low-income regions. While previous work has shown that printed patient summaries with reminders improve the quality of care, reliable access to such decision support is limited. Moreover, even when summaries are available, there are no efficient mechanisms for doctors to correct serious errors in patient data. Supervisors of these systems also face challenges like depending on unreliable manual processes to monitor usage across geographically dispersed clinics. In this talk, I will describe ODK Clinic, a mobile phone application that makes patient summaries with reminders more available despite unreliable connectivity, enables doctors to correct mistakes in a patient's record at the point of care, and empowers supervisors with detailed usage data. Informed by the results of a 90 day deployment with over 10,000 patient encounters, I present evidence of how ODK Clinic has improved clinical decision support at one of the largest HIV treatment programs in Sub-Saharan Africa. http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/grad/exams.html

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Job: Dimagi is Hiring Engineers
by Yaw Anokwa 06 Mar '12

06 Mar '12

This sounds like a fantastic opportunity. The team at Dimagi is pretty awesome. ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Dimagi is looking for exceptional software developers to join our ranks. We are a small and growing social enterprise based in Boston but our systems are deployed primarily in rural Africa and Asia. We offer a fun and stimulating environment, a chance to see the world, and to make a difference in places that need it most. At Dimagi, you can do right by coding well. We work on a broad range of issues, including strengthening community health programs, electronic medical records, care coordination, and remote data collection. We have projects in over 20 countries including Zambia, Tanzania, Uganda, South Africa, Ethiopia, India, Bangladesh, Senegal, Mexico, Nigeria, Nicaragua, Kenya, Afghanistan and the United States. We are seeking a full-time programmer to join our core team in Boston and lead or support development on multiple projects. The ideal candidate prefers small organizations to large ones, multi-tasking to single-project assignments, significant international travel, and a highly social atmosphere. Our developers share a passion for rapid prototyping, new technologies, making things work in challenging environments, and seeings the impact of our work first-hand. We view our culture as one of our greatest assets, and culture fit is as important to us as technical expertise. We are highly collaborative with partner organizations, strong advocates for open source, and believers in building local software capacity in the countries where we work through our "Coded in Country" initiative. Depending on the specific skill set and preference, the candidate would focus on one of more of the following projects: - Core developer on an open source J2ME and Android mobile health application for community health workers - Core developer on a Python/Django/CouchDB based web application to help manage community health programs - Core developer on our SMS platforms to support patient outreach or supply-chain logistics - Core developer on our care coordination platform to support cervical cancer screening and home based cancer care programs Required Skills: - Excellent programming skills - Excellent technical documentation - Excellent communication skills - Excellent problem solving and debugging skills to troubleshoot complex deployments - Self-managed Representative Technlogies (not requirements for application, though please highlight any relevant skills): - Python and Django - Java/Android/J2ME - Javascript/jQuery - HTML5/CSS - CouchDB Love your work. At Dimagi, you will have tremendous freedom to pursue your own interests and grow your skill set as well as make a real impact across the world. Our developers have traveled to over 20 countries in the last 5 years. The position is available immediately. Please send your resume and cover letter to jobs(a)dimagi.com.

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Health Informatics for Nigerian hospitals
by Kunle Oguneye 06 Mar '12

06 Mar '12

Hello, I'm looking for a Health Informatics Consultant that can work on a pilot program for three States in Nigeria. The intent is to help them transition from paper records to a hybrid system of paper and electronic records. A system to generate unique numeric identifiers will have to be deployed, followed by a system for printing bar codes on to existing forms, and then scanning them into a database in the Cloud. Of major importance is training of the hospital medical records personnel in improved cataloging systems for the existing paper records. Please contact me if you are interested. Kunle Oguneye 515-771-6775 (cell) Kunle(a)mamaAfricana.com 425-818-8850 The best children's book in the world!!!!!!!! www.sikulu.com

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Job: World Bank President
by Yaw Anokwa 05 Mar '12

05 Mar '12

http://www.worldbankpresident.org is a good site to track media coverage, insider gossip, official reactions and civil society activity on the selection of the next World Bank president. Some applicant essays... Jeff Sachs: http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/how-i-would-lead-the-world-bank/2012… Bill Easterly: http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2012/03/05/how_i_would_not_lead_the_w… ICT4D Jester: http://ict4djester.org/blog/?p=362

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