MobileActive08
Session: Mobile Web: How can we collaborate
Note by Allison Hewlitt:
Name of the session: Mobile Web - How to collaborate?
Session initiator/facilitator: Toni Eliasz
Names of participants:
Jenny Charlton - Hearties for Good SA.
Francis Aywa - Pact Kenya
Tiwonge Manda - University ofMalawi
Fraw Theunus - government Communication + Info (SA)
Luke Hutchinson - Nokia
Michael Gurstein
Ugo Vallauri - ICT4D Collective
Thato Foko - Meraka Institute
Dean limulozi - ZAA-ICT/SATNET
Natasha Primo - APC
Irma F. saligumba - Molane Development Frontier Inc (Philippines)
Carole St Laurent - ICT4D consultant
Mohamed Amra
Tafadzwa Mudambanuki (USA)
Markine Bramkoy - NGO Connect Africa
Lee Davies - Nelson Mandela Foundation (SA)
Key Discussion Points:
<— Ideas for collaboration & issues that would need to be addressed>
- more resources and information to be able to plan and design relevant projects
- how you can easily interface the mobile and web (and keep costs low)
+ hardware interfaces
- mobile education: more ideas and assistance (how to integrate the mobile usage and web-services)
- low-end devices: how to extend the current service reach
- government service delivery (scalability options/models)
- 2-way government interface: how to encourage government offices to listen and create forums, allow the 'citizen voice' and citizen content, local level transactions
- citizen-to-citizen collaboration amongst themselves
- cost & availability are key issues (advocacy campaigns required)
- how to avoid financial disasters when scaling up projects
- community to develop a model that encourages community wireless, number of gprs + wifi, policies to give right a certain amount of data (affordably) -> right to access information
- IGF: "Right to the internet"
+ who'smandate it is? (government, companies, USAL)
- spectrum licences (how can non-commercial institutions have access, provide parallel services)
+ either voice or data
- how to bring wireless + mobilecommunities together (merging of these two concepts)?
- standardization (open source movement)
< issues highlighted from the white paper at http://www.w3.org/2006/12/digital_divide/ajc — >
- cost of data access
- availability of high-capacity networks and high-end handsets
- lack of content for BoP markets
- lack of services for BoP markets
- usability issues
- lack of technical capacity
- illiteracy
- language
Discussion related to these issues included:
- how to lower the cost of voice by using VOIP?
+ often issues with either the regulator, or the mobile operator
- better search engines (either by receiving more relevant links or using low bandwidth solutions)
- usability: size of screens
+ how to link the phone to a TV?
+ use of the low cost screens (similar to OLPC)
< — way forward — >
Onlin facilitation via MobileActive list and Mobile Web wiki.
Even finding a one common project would be a success.
Mobile competition at www.netsquared.org/usaid/ could be used as the first milestone.
Session initiator/facilitator: Toni Eliasz
Names of participants:
Jenny Charlton - Hearties for Good SA.
Francis Aywa - Pact Kenya
Tiwonge Manda - University ofMalawi
Fraw Theunus - government Communication + Info (SA)
Luke Hutchinson - Nokia
Michael Gurstein
Ugo Vallauri - ICT4D Collective
Thato Foko - Meraka Institute
Dean limulozi - ZAA-ICT/SATNET
Natasha Primo - APC
Irma F. saligumba - Molane Development Frontier Inc (Philippines)
Carole St Laurent - ICT4D consultant
Mohamed Amra
Tafadzwa Mudambanuki (USA)
Markine Bramkoy - NGO Connect Africa
Lee Davies - Nelson Mandela Foundation (SA)
Key Discussion Points:
<— Ideas for collaboration & issues that would need to be addressed
- more resources and information to be able to plan and design relevant projects
- how you can easily interface the mobile and web (and keep costs low)
+ hardware interfaces
- mobile education: more ideas and assistance (how to integrate the mobile usage and web-services)
- low-end devices: how to extend the current service reach
- government service delivery (scalability options/models)
- 2-way government interface: how to encourage government offices to listen and create forums, allow the 'citizen voice' and citizen content, local level transactions
- citizen-to-citizen collaboration amongst themselves
- cost & availability are key issues (advocacy campaigns required)
- how to avoid financial disasters when scaling up projects
- community to develop a model that encourages community wireless, number of gprs + wifi, policies to give right a certain amount of data (affordably) -> right to access information
- IGF: "Right to the internet"
+ who'smandate it is? (government, companies, USAL)
- spectrum licences (how can non-commercial institutions have access, provide parallel services)
+ either voice or data
- how to bring wireless + mobilecommunities together (merging of these two concepts)?
- standardization (open source movement)
<
- cost of data access
- availability of high-capacity networks and high-end handsets
- lack of content for BoP markets
- lack of services for BoP markets
- usability issues
- lack of technical capacity
- illiteracy
- language
Discussion related to these issues included:
- how to lower the cost of voice by using VOIP?
+ often issues with either the regulator, or the mobile operator
- better search engines (either by receiving more relevant links or using low bandwidth solutions)
- usability: size of screens
+ how to link the phone to a TV?
+ use of the low cost screens (similar to OLPC)
< — way forward — >
Onlin facilitation via MobileActive list and Mobile Web wiki.
Even finding a one common project would be a success.
Mobile competition at www.netsquared.org/usaid/ could be used as the first milestone.
