- change - Mailing Lists

Kuang Chen on Quality Data Collection on Mobile Phones
by Yaw Anokwa 13 Jul '10

13 Jul '10

Kuang Chen (http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~kuangc/) is a PhD student at Berkeley. After finishing his Bachelor's at UW-CSE, he has been focusing on data management systems that help low-resource organizations and people in the developing world. He works on improving local practices in data collection and quality and his USHER (paper,slides) system is a great example of the practical tools he builds. Kuang explains in the video below that “Data quality is a critical problem in modern databases. Data entry forms present the first and arguably best opportunity for detecting and mitigating errors, but there has been little research into automatic methods for improving data quality at entry time. In this paper, we propose USHER, an end-to-end system for form design, entry, and data quality assurance. Using previous form submissions, USHER learns a probabilistic model over the questions of the form. USHER then applies this model at every step of the data entry process to improve data quality. Before entry, it induces a form layout that captures the most important data values of a form instance as quickly as possible. During entry, it dynamically adapts the form to the values being entered, and enables real-time feedback to guide the data enterer toward their intended values. After entry, it re-asks questions that it deems likely to have been entered incorrectly. We evaluate all three components of USHER using two real-world data sets. Our results demonstrate that each component has the potential to improve data quality considerably, at a reduced cost when compared to current practice.” Video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdl5ECWtHcU Paper: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~kuangc/publications/icde10-usher.pdf Slides: http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/~kuangc/publications/icde10-usher.slides.pdf

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neal lesh post on local tech capacity
by Yaw Anokwa 11 Jul '10

11 Jul '10

neal lesh (former uw-cse grad and public health guru) has written an insightful post on local tech capacity. it's worthwhile read. http://www.open-mobile.org/news/beware-foreign-expert

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Social Enterprise Development Manager for Grameen in Indonesia
by Yaw Anokwa 10 Jul '10

10 Jul '10

Grameen Foundation is looking for a software technologist to manage R&D at their Social Enterprise Incubator. Current projects are heavily weighted to mobile apps and the services that back them. An employee at Grameen describes the perfect candidate as "That person would be part software project manager, product manager, architect, and business person. Yes, I know, that's a lot to ask of one person. :-) We know we might not get everything perfect in one person, but this is what we're trying to get." Details at http://id.jobsdb.com/ID/EN/Search/JobAdSingleDetail?jobsIdList=200003000049…

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GHDonline panel July 19-30
by neal lesh 09 Jul '10

09 Jul '10

GHDonline.org is pleased to host its second Health IT Expert Panel from July 19-30 on: Local Software Development for Global eHealth. Join the Health IT online community in discussing in-country coding and the development of local eHealth capacity. With panelists: Jacob Mtalitinya, ITIDO, Tanzania. William Aviles Monterrey, Sustainable Sciences Institute, Nicaragua. Lim Chanmann, InSTEDD iLab, Cambodia. Ali Habib, Interactive Research and Development, Pakistan. and moderators Ahmed Mohammed Maawy, DataDyne and Melissa Louden, University of Cape Town. The discussion will occur over posts to the Health IT community from July 19th to July 30th, which you can access via email or through the web. To participate join free at www.ghdonline.org/accounts/signup/ and set your notifications to "per post" to join the conversation by email. Spanish and French translations will be available on the discussion page. For help, please email healthitpanel(a)ghdonline.org About GHDonline.org: Launched by the Global Health Delivery Project in July 2008, GHDonline.org is a web-based collaboration platform where more than 3100 professionals from 1100+ organizations across 130 countries share proven practices, connect with colleagues, and find resources they need to improve health outcomes in resource-limited settings. Members exchange practical tools and advice in one or several public communities each guided by a team of experts and focused on a specific issue in health care delivery.

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Jonathan Donner on Mobile Livelihood Services
by Yaw Anokwa 09 Jul '10

09 Jul '10

Jonathan Donner (http://jonathandonner.com/) is a researcher in the Technology for Emerging Markets Group at Microsoft Research India in Bangalore. He’s been living in Cape Town and doing work on the impact of mobiles on micro and small enterprises. His insightful talk at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3r5OTR64d1k describes a collection of initiatives delivering support via mobile phones to small enterprises, small farms, and the self-employed. Using a review of 26 examples of such services currently operational in Africa, the analysis identifies five functions of mobile livelihood services: Mediated Agricultural Extension, Market Information, Virtual Marketplaces, Financial Services, and Direct Livelihood Support. It discusses the current reliance of such systems on the SMS channel, and considers their role in supporting vs. transforming existing market structures. Relevant papers can be found at http://research.microsoft.com/en-us/people/jdonner/. http://change.washington.edu/2010/07/jonathan-donner-on-mobile-livelihood-s…

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Chief Platform Architect for UN's Global Pulse
by Yaw Anokwa 08 Jul '10

08 Jul '10

a few of us in change bel ---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: <omc-community%2Bnoreply(a)googlegroups.com> Dear OMC Community, We've just posted a job description for a Chief Platform Architect. This position would be for the engineering lead on the Global Pulse team in the Executive Office of the UN Secretary-General. Our Architect would be responsible for defining a reference architecture capable of bringing together the leading tools for mobile data collection, analysis, and visualization to create a global network for agile decision making. If you know of anyone who would be interested in a leadership role helping to drive this high-visibility, fast moving initiative, please pass this vacancy announcement to them. A description of the post is available here: http://www.unglobalpulse.org/chief-platform-architect. Thanks and Regards, Robert Kirkpatrick OMC Chair kirkpatrick(a)open-mobile.org Director Global Pulse Executive Office of the Secretary-General United Nations, New York NY http://unglobalpulse.org kirkpatr...@un.org

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Fwd: [Health IT] Health 2.0 Developer Challenge Sponsored by HHS
by Thomas A. Odeny 08 Jul '10

08 Jul '10

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: GHDonline (Sarah Arnquist) <tech(a)ghdonline.org> Date: Thu, Jul 8, 2010 at 9:03 PM Subject: [Health IT] Health 2.0 Developer Challenge Sponsored by HHS To: Thomas Odeny <taodeny(a)gmail.com> Sarah Arnquist added a new discussion to the Health IT community. Title: Health 2.0 Developer Challenge Sponsored by HHS Discussion contents: "Health2Challenge.org Today is the formal kick-off of the Health 2.0 Developer Challenge. The challenge was first announced by Federal CTO Aneesh Chopra on June 2nd at the Community Health Data Initiative (CHDI) meeting, and it's partly a continuation of the great work done within CHDI, and partly an expansion of the cod-a-thon/developer camp effort to the whole Health 2.0 community. The challenge is supported by HHS. It’s being run by the Health 2.0 Conference, with partners O’Reilly, Internet2, Sunlight Labs, Healthtap & the Health 2.0 Accelerator. Anyone can submit a challenge or join a team to solve a challenge. But the goal is to get the health care and developer communities working on building new innovative applications in rapid-fire time. The Challenge has two parts: online and offline. The online challenge process has officially begins today—there are four challenges up already and we have several others in the queue, but we’re looking for more! Four challenges are officially open for competition! * Whyville challenges game developers to build tools for their arcade to help kids understand and apply health data. The kids will vote on the winner! * Move your apps; a challenge to develop an app for the Android platform that helps users burn calories, brought to you by Snaptic & Hopelab. * Practice Fusion's Real Time Patient-Driven Data Challenge invites developers to build applications that connect to the Practice Fusion EMR platform. * The Szollosi Healthcare Innovation Program wants to see whether a lightweight EMR can be built with blog and wiki software. * And……Your challenge here!! Here’s the link to the challenges page Teams will be working on challenges over the course of the summer. Selected winners from the challenges will be showcased at the Fall Health 2.0 Conference, and we’ll be building an online community of challengers and teams in the coming weeks. Want to meet other developers and code in real time? That’s the offline/real-life part. Through a series of formal and informal “code-a-thons”, multi-disciplinary teams will work on specific solutions within priority areas identified in advance. The teams will compete in a stimulating environment to build real applications. And yes, there’ll be prizes (and food to keep you going)! Health 2.0 will host a series of physical events leading up to the final Challenge during the Health 2.0 Annual Conference (October 6-9, 2010) the culminating event of Health Innovation Week, October 3-10, in San Francisco CA. The first mini code-a-thon will be announced soon. Who can take part? * Anyone (or any organization) who wants to issue a challenge about a health related problem * Anyone who has data they want to contribute (or wants to see what data is available already) * Anyone who wants to work on a challenge (whether they are already part of a team or want to join one) * Anyone who wants to sponsor the Health 2.0 Challenge effort with prizes or funding Come to Health2Challenge.org to learn more, sign up and participate! SUPPORTED BY HHS PARTNERS accelerator oreilly sunlight zinternet2 healthtap" -- View this post online: < http://www.ghdonline.org/tech/discussion/health-20-developer-challenge-spon… > Unsubscribe or change your email notification settings: <http://www.ghdonline.org/users/thomas-odeny/edit/> Contact the GHDonline team: <http://www.ghdonline.org/contact/> You can reply to this discussion by responding directly to this e-mail; it will be shared with all community members and posted as is. Files cannot be added via email attachment and must be uploaded directly to GHDonline. -- Dr Thomas A. Odeny, International AIDS Research and Training Program Scholar, University of Washington, Seattle WA

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Fwd: IIIT Delhi Tenure Track Faculty Positions
by Yaw Anokwa 07 Jul '10

07 Jul '10

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "Kentaro Toyama" <kentaro_toyama(a)hotmail.com> Subject: [TIER] IIIT Delhi Tenure Track Faculty Positions Cc: 'Pankaj Jalote' <jalote(a)iiitd.ac.in> Prof. Pankaj Jalote, Director of the International Institute for Information Technology in Delhi is looking for faculty hires at what is mostly a CS school, but not strictly limited to CS. He's doing a fantastic job building IIIT-Delhi into a quality institution, and he's a strong computer scientist in his own right (in software engineering). He's also excited about ICTD. If you think spending a couple of years (or more) in India might be interesting, this would be one way. Kentaro

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MSR Summer School on Computing for Socio-Economic Development
by Yaw Anokwa 01 Jul '10

01 Jul '10

roman rohrer has written up a nice review of the summer school on computing for socio-economic development by microsoft research india at http://ict4d.at/2010/06/29/msr-summer-school-on-computing-for-socio-economi…. the folks from the technology for emerging markets group will be posting slides from the talks and i'll send those out when i get them.

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Advertising new position for D-tree
by Brian DeRenzi 30 Jun '10

30 Jun '10

>From our friends at D-Tree... Hi friends and colleagues, We are currently advertising for a new position in the Boston office of D-tree, seeking to hire a Finance and Administration Officer to assist on grants management, fundraising, communications and other duties. Please forward to any networks or candidates you may know. Thanks, Molly -- Director of Administration and Finance D-tree International

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