Microblogging, Mobiles and Emergencies
Location
About You
Location
Project Street Address
Project City
Kampala
Project Province/State
Project Postal/Zip Code
Project Country
Uganda
Your idea
Will you launch your idea as a business or non-profit?
Non-Profit
Web site (url)
Name Your Project
Microblogging, Mobiles and Emergencies
Describe Your Idea
Innovation
What is your idea? What makes it innovative? Why is it important?
Location matters. Many in the West use microblogging services and mobile social networks. In Africa, we see a mobile phone base that is waiting for a more robust social network connecting just those users. This is about even bigger ideas and the greater impact in Africa of a real social mobile network that can connect people using only mobile phones and do it as needed.
The main use of mobile social networks and microblogging is to update people’s status, and be updated by their friends and people they find interesting. That’s the main use, and it will remain so. The truth is, you and I don’t really care to hear what any random stranger is doing, even if they are nearby. However, we do care what is happening on a very hyper-local level in the case of emergency or “big event”.
It’s somewhat like the “pothole theory”: you wouldn’t normally care about the pothole on a street, unless it’s yours. It helps explain why we care about certain things.
If you use Twitter and have an iPhone, you might be aware of Twinkle - it’s an application that enriches your Twitter experience. In Twinkle, you can set your location and then a certain radius from which to receive twitter updates, even if they’re from perfect strangers. This is the beginning of where location, social networks and microblogging start to coalesce.
However, we don’t want to just get updates from random strangers in our locale. We want to only receive the ones that are “important to us". We want to be notified when there is an emergency, major traffic jam or something else pertinent to us individually.
What if we created a way that a greater federated system of microblogging applications and mobile social networks could also use location as an alert point?
The ability to anonymously send in reports to a system like Ushahidi running in any country, and those who are part of this greater, extended and federated network would be updated - even if that person was unknown and anonymous.
Impact
What will be the impact of your idea?
Someone once said that 'blogging is the most African thing you can do.' If that's the case then microblogging is the hyper-African experience. What this Anecdote is referring to is that African communities are very much disjointed and asynchronous. Sure there are villages, with close-knit communities, but for the most part the story of Africa is one of constant movement among it's people and constant interaction with people from various parts of the world.
Like the United States in it's infancy, there's a certain randomness to the continent, you truly never know who you'll meet. This experience sounds very much like the web application Twitter. The idea is to adapt the successful model of Twitter, so that it works in the context of Africa.
First and foremost this idea stands to change the way communication happens on a very large scale in mobile-only connected environments. It serves as a tool that can be used in non-disaster times, but it truly comes into use and greatness when in a crisis. It pivots off the increased need for information and alerts when things aren’t going well, and has a viral effect well beyond the scope of normal business-related products.
Perhaps most importantly, this type of connected network can speed recovery and save lives when a disaster strikes.
The real strength is in using simple mobile and web protocols to ensure the lowest barrier to entry for those who only have the very basic mobile phones.
This Entry is about (Issues)
People: We are looking for ideas from people who can make them happen.
We are proposing a joint project between Ushahidi’s team and community and Appfrica.org and their team in Uganda.
About Ushahidi:
Ushahidi has four full-time team members – all of which are co-founders who were originally involved in the first roll-out in Kenya. We have an extended development and design community, mostly based in Africa, who helped us get to where we are and who will be involved in the creation of this new tool. Ushahidi’s team has proven that we can take on projects like this and put them into action, and in a timely manner. Not only can we ideate and strategize a major application and it’s field use, but we can build it.
About Appfrica:
Appfrica is primarily an incubation program for East African software developers. The goal is to offer mentoring, training, and facilities to our students and opportunities where there would otherwise be none. Things like working closely with developers in the field or finding venture capital to launch a start-up...these types of opportunities encourage innovation and ambition. It's no wonder then that since they largely don't exist in East Africa these kids go abroad to find work or stop trying. Our goal is to create an environment that encourages and supports entrepreneurs working in the private sector. Appfrica currently consists of one full time employee with five part time developers from Makerere University.
Sustainability
How much will it cost to launch your idea?
Ushahidi has already raised funds for part of 2009. This project is one of the top two on our list to complete in the first 6 months of the year. However, we do not have the necessary funding to do the whole project without additional assistance.
Part of sustaining any model is local ownership. This means that someone in the community has to have a vested interest in seeing it succeed, usually so that they can profit. One potential business model is to work with local Mobile carriers to build the costs of sending SMS into their normal pricing. Another method is to only charge a premium for bulk usage (large organizations, NGOs and corporations). In this model the 'few' (heavy users) subsidize the 'many' (everyone else).
It is important to have one of these two models in addition to others like supplementation through advertising and commissioned customization of the software. The idea being that in order to be successful in Africa, you have to be agile...you have to be able to adapt your model to work in many different scenarios and markets.
Costs:
• Web Hosting
• Dev time (appfrica) - 2 months
• Dev time (Ushahidi) - 2 months
• Travel costs
• Communications costs (sms)
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 | dkobia said: John is a Twitter user in Kampala, Uganda. Anne has setup a local Laconica server with 5000 users in the greater Kampala area. Eddie is ... about this Competition Entry. - 1113 days ago read more > |
| ehersman said: We're really trying to understand how location penetrates mobile social networks and microblogging networks. This becomes especially ... about this Competition Entry. - 1113 days ago read more > |
Comments
We're really trying to understand how location penetrates mobile social networks and microblogging networks. This becomes especially interesting when you deal with an area that has very loose and undefined digital social network settings, like Uganda. Jon Gosier and his team in Uganda already have created inroads into this with the local tech community, and we're really excited to see what happens when we grow that into the greater Kampala and Uganda sphere.
We're seeing the rise (and need) for this type of system when we look at Mumbai, Greece and other hot-flash emergencies.
This is yet another area where we can test and build in Africa, knowing that if it works in Africa, it will work anywhere.
John is a Twitter user in Kampala, Uganda. Anne has setup a local Laconica server with 5000 users in the greater Kampala area. Eddie is not part of any of these networks, just an average guy with a mobile phone. Ushahidi is running in Uganda.
Users from the Laconica group can setup an “alert” for a specific radius from their location using Ushahidi, linked to their Laconica account.
An earthquake happens and Twitter and the Laconica server are ablaze with dialogue about what is happening.
John, our Twitter user is updating Twitter, but it has no local implications due to not being able to be used in Uganda (except via web). Local mobile users aren’t receiving his updates, and he isn’t receiving theirs. This is the limitation of the current popular technology.
Eddie (our normal guy), sends an alert into the Ushahidi number, along with hundreds of other Ugandans who are not part of Laconica or Twitter. Anne, and the other Laconica users are receiving alerts (web and mobile) from within their set alert radius automatically, from completely anonymous people. Alerts on where people are trapped, who is missing, who is found, where not to go, and where help is needed most...