Somalia
Posted by MelissaUlbricht on Jan 03, 2012
In the Horn of Africa, Somalia makes headlines but often only because of drought, famine, crisis, and insecurity. Al Jazeera recently launched Somalia Speaks to help amplify stories from people and their everyday lives in the region - all via SMS.
Somalia Speaks is a collaboration between Souktel, a Palestinian-based organization providing SMS messaging services, Ushahidi, Al Jazeera, Crowdflower, and the African Diaspora Institute. Al Jazeera's Soud Hyder said in an interview with us, “We wanted to find out the perspective of normal Somali citizens to tell us how the crisis has affected them and the Somali diaspora.”
The goal of Somalia Speaks is to aggregate often-unheard voices as well as from the Somalia diaspora by asking via text message: How has the Somalia conflict affected your life? Responses are translated into English and plotted on an online map. Since the launch, approximately 3000 SMS messages have been received. Here is just one example:
I was born in the city of Wanlaweyn, and some of the people there are destroying things. I am poor now.
For Al Jazeera, Somalia Speaks is also a chance to pilot and test innovative mobile approaches to citizen media and news gathering. Visit the Mobile Media Toolkit to read the entire case study and learn more.
| Using SMS for Stories from Somalia: New on the Mobile Media Toolkit! data sheet 1598 Views |
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Somalia
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Posted by MelissaUlbricht on Sep 02, 2011
Somalia is suffering through its worst drought in 60 years, and people are fleeing the famine and conflict. A large number of Somalians already live in diasporas across Africa, Europe, and North America. A new service from Voice of America’s Somalia Service and AudioNow makes it easier for Somalians in the United Kingdom to listen to coverage of the drought and other audio news updates, via a basic mobile phone.
“You have a well-educated, motivated, and mobile population that is willing to dial up and listen to radio broadcasts on their mobile phones,” said Steven Ferri, Web Managing Editor of VOA in Africa.
Posted by AnneryanHeatwole on Sep 02, 2009
Souktel data sheet 3555 Views
Organization that developed the Tool:
Problem or Need:
In many developing countries, labor markets are in chaos--not because there’s a lack of job opportunities, but because there are no good information networks to help job-seekers and employers find each other: Web access is low, public/private resources are few, and infrastructure is poor. As a result, many skilled workers get trapped in cycles of joblessness and hardship. However, a huge number of people in developing countries have basic cell phone access, even in rural areas. Recognizing this reality, Souktel has created a simple, phone-based JobMatch service--a software application that reduces unemployment and poverty by helping ordinary job-seekers get key job information on their phones.
Brief Description:
Our solution is simple: from any phone, job-seekers create SMS "mini-CVs" that include basic data on their skills, location, etc. These are then sent by mobile to our central database--which hundreds of employers search daily, via web or phone. From their side, employers create similar “mini job ads” and post them on the same database—so that job-seekers can search these jobs from their own phones. The database also matches job-seekers/employers who have similar profiles, sending them SMS alerts with each other’s data.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a server
Key Features :
- SMS-based querying of information databases
- SMS-based user profile creation
- SMS-based matching of similar user profiles
Main Services:
Bulk SMS
Voting, Data Collection, Surveys, and Polling
Mobile Social Network/Peer-to-peer
Information Resources/Information Databases
Platforms:
Linux/UNIX
Windows Mobile
All phones -- SMS
Program/Code Language:
.NET Compact Framework
PHP
Other
Organizations Using the Tool:
Employers - Middle East:
- Ernst and Young
- Red Cross/Red Crescent
- CARE International
- Deloitte
- YMCA of East Jerusalem
- Education Development Center, Inc.
Institutional/Funding Partners - Middle East
- US Agency for International Development
- World Bank - Quality Improvement Fund for Higher Education
- King Abdullah Fund for Development
- Birzeit University (Palestine)
- Najah University (Palestine)
- Arab-American University of Jenin (Palestine)
- Al-Quds Abu Dis University (Palestine)
Number of Current End Users:
Number of current beneficiaries:
Languages supported:
Arabic, Kurdish, English, French, Somali, Spanish
Handsets/devices supported:
Is the Tool's Code Available?:
Is an API available to interface with your tool?:
Posted by fredericknoronha on Aug 27, 2008
A new study from the University of Manchester argues that conflict is benefitial to mobile infrastructure investments. These investments have long thought to be dependent on 'pillars' like security and stability, finance and infrastructure, workers and labour markets, and the regulatory framework and tax. "Overarching all of these, the view is that good, stable governance forms the crucial basis for investment," write Agnieszka Konkel and Richard Heeks from the University of Manchester in the UK.
