Africa Technology and Investment Digest 5
| posted by Jon GosSubscribe to Appfrica by Email
On Social Media and Utility
Yesterday I sat in on a discussion that lead to a NGO called WaterForPeople adopting Twitter as a tool for reporting progress on projects in Uganda. The whole discussion was about how the technology behind micro-messaging services like Twitter, Jaiku and Laconi.ca, could be used as communications tool in developing countries where people may not have computers, but they often have sms capable cell phones. Thus, using micro-messaging services as a low-cost way to a) log important discussions and b) broadcast important news eventually became apparent to them.
Using Mobile Phones to Irrigate Crops
Advances in Computational Linguistics
Microfinance: Kiva Responds to Fraud
In an unfortunate turn of events, one of Kiva’s microfinance loan partners has been reprimanded for taking excessive and fraudulent loans.
Story Sokwanele Broke Makes CNN
The stories about ‘land redistribution’ and the torture of farmers being forced to give up their land to native Zimbabweans has been brewing for a long time at Sokwanele.com (caution: the graphic imagery here is not for all) but it finally caught international attention this week when big media outlet CNN picked it up.
Bloggers in the Developing World Rejoice, Wordpress Adds Support for Gears
