Almir Surui once hunted with a bow and arrow. He now uses technology in bid to save pristine land.He can still handle a bow. But Chief Almir Narayamoga Surui says his weapon of choice is technology: Android phones to monitor illegal logging, hand-held Global Positioning System devices to map territory and Google Earth Outreach to show the world what a well-managed forest looks like.
Ubuntu is shooting for 200 million users by 2015, and with the announcement of the Ubuntu Phone and that they’re building the national operating system for China, there may be a lot of traction to be had.Reading their material and watching Richard Collins, Ubuntu Mobile product manager at Canonical talk about what the phone will do, you can’t help but think that there’s something bigger here. Mobile phones these days are computers. Apple’s iPhone 5 has the same amount of processing power – and not just specs, but real benchmark performance – as the first generation Macbook Air. Ubuntu’s promise to make their OS available through a phone could be the melding of the two worlds that tablets have yet to be – the one device with the portability and power-consumption properties of a phone and the productivity of a desktop. Maybe.
An app called iCow is an example of how mobile phone technology is transforming lives in Africa.For generations, breeding cows in the rural highlands of Kenya has hinged on knowledge and experience passed down from parents to children. But Mercy Wanjiku is unlike most farmers. Her most powerful tool is her cellphone, and a text messaging service called iCow.
A case study for our World Development text bookThe number of people with access to mobile phones in developing countries surprises many in the developed world. According to the IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Association of India) there were 120 million people logging on to the internet each week in India at the start of 2012. That is nearly twice the total population of the UK - but it still represents only a small proportion (8.2%) of the 1.2 billion Indian population. The majority of internet users are male (83%) urban dwellers and only 24 million people living in rural areas have access to the internet. The Indian government has often stated its belief that increased internet access would bring huge educational and commercial benefits to the country and been involved in projects that attempted to provide cheap computers to poorer sections of the population.
Rory Cellan-Jones checks out a new kind of robot that developers say will help teachers educate from a distance.On show at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this year was a simple type of robot designed to allow teachers to educate from long-distance, harnessing wireless technology.
A showcase of IICD's mobile projects in economic development, education and health in Africa and Latin America and some of the lessons learned.Mobile phone usage is exploding in developing countries. Africa alone had more than 500 million mobile telephone subscribers in 2011. Mobile learning or ‘m-learning’ services therefore play a growing role in IICD’s education, health and economic development programmes. This publication shows some examples of the projects with a mobile component that IICD supports.
