Yet another open mobile body launches

Stuart Corner
Wednesday, 27 May 2009 08:41

IT Industry - Strategy

According to OMC there are almost 280 million subscribers in Africa alone and by 2010, one in three Africans will own a mobile phone. "Mobile phones are recognised as instruments of change in finance, agriculture, media and development work," it says. "Mobile technology can easily provide data on food prices to farmers, patient information to remote medical clinics, and help track supplies and logistics."

OMC says it has already brought together a number of mobile technology tools for collaboration and sharing. These include:

- CommCare, a mobile-phone based application that allows community health workers to provide better, more efficient care and improve coordination of community health programs;
- Mobilisr, an open source enterprise class mobile messaging platform for NGOs around the world;
- Mesh4X, a platform for seamless cross-organisational information sharing between mobile devices, databases, desktop applications, and websites;
- RapidSMS, an open source platform allowing for any mobile phone to use SMS to collect data, used in Malawi, Ethiopia and Nigeria to collect information and provide rapid feedback to field workers;
- GeoChat, a flexible open source group communications tool that enables mobile field communications and situational awareness during emergencies;
- Ushahidi, a web-based platform that any person or organisation can use to set up their own way to collect and visualise information.

•    Nokia's Life Tools a resounding success
Nokia last year in India trialled 'Life Tools' a series of mobile applications aimed at users in developing economies and claimed resounding success. The pilot programme was launched in December 2008, with services in Agriculture, Learn English, General Knowledge and the rather dubious category of 'Astrology'.

Nokia reported "Users of the Agriculture Service described that they were better informed about market rates for their produce. Farmers found that getting prices daily on their mobile phones reduced their dependency on agents for basic information. Now with greater awareness on market conditions, there was newfound confidence in their negotiations with the agents. There was also resounding appreciation for the time and money saved from not having to make multiple trips to the market place to get the latest rates.

"Benefitting from the Agriculture service also related to having advanced information about weather, news and crop advisory services like information about probable diseases, weather based disruptions and tips for more successful harvests. Farmers could plan labour, sowing, harvesting and selling better, and with more predictable results than they were able to before they started using Life Tools."

Jawahar Kanjilal, global head of emerging markets services at Nokia, said at the time. "The success of the Nokia Life Tools pilot can be attributed to the fact that it honed in on consumers' specific pain points, and addressed several unmet needs in the areas that were crucial to them in their daily lives."