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For application developers and social entrepreneurs to be able to collaborate and develop applications that address social change there needs to be a communication link that enables an agile development process.
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Linnet Taylor - DPhil Student E-mail: [email protected]
Mark Herringer – Countryman Media
www.countryman.co.za
How do we spark the relationship between
Social Entrepreneurs and Mobile Application developers?
>> Social entrepreneurs and social change
>> A case study from Ghana
>>Trends and social production
>>Open data and open platforms
>>A working example
What is a Social entrepreneur?
Infopreneurs
Photo: whiteafrican (flickr)
Social entrepreneurs and social change
For social change to take place technology needs to be appropriate and rooted in local knowledge. Sokari Ekine – SMS Uprising
Mobile use and resulting trends
300 millions mobile phone users in Africa
* mobile participation through citizens media
* unprecedented local innovation around mobile tools and activism
* a powerful tool for monitoring and transparency
* decentralised networking for coordination and mobilisation
Christian Kreutz – SMS Uprising
Ghana: a case study
The digital divide is not vertical (rich vs poor countries) but horizontal (regions /groups within countries)
Ghana’s horizontal inequality is reflected in its technological profile.
Most people are entrepreneurs, and most have mobile phones.
Diffusion of mobile innovations in poor areas is hampered by:- intermittent coverage- network-swapping- cost of handsets
Ghana: a case study
ata: L. Taylo
Social production
Industrial Information economy
The Emergence of the Networked Information Economy
An economy centred on information.
A decentralised communications environment
An increasing role for Social production.
Applications that harness network effects to get better the more people use them
Individual rationality drives adoption and contributes to network effects
Leverages network effects for collective benefit - crowdsource
Fast, iterative delivery - not mega-IT projects
Key characteristics of social software
Open data
•Enforce standards for developing reusable widgets/applications.
•Develop Service Oriented Architecture so that the applications/widgets can communicate with each other.
•Provide users with widgets/applications for visualizing feeds and mashups.
•Provide developers with tools for developing widgets.
•Builders can connect to problem owners through an available marketplace.
Open platform development guidelines
How to connect with GSM based users in Ghana?
Harness social production for
mobile application development
Data visualization
Social Mobiles Long Tail
..we need to think about low-end, simple, appropriate mobile technology solutions which are easy to obtain, affordable, require as little technical expertise as possible and are easy to copy and replicate. - Ken Banks - SMS uprising
Overview
>>Developers - keep applications simple
>>Platform developers - Include social processes in the open platform design
>>Publish open data
>>Represent data usage through visualizations
>>Enable mechanisms for people to share data creatively
Thank you
wiki.countryman.co.za
http://twitter.com/markherringer
Linnet Taylor - DPhil Student - E-mail: [email protected]
