August 2011
1 post
Don't shoot the (BlackBerry) Messenger....
The causes of the riots which tore apart the UK’s inner cities this week are unclear, yet a technological scapegoat is emerging which I couldn’t let pass by without comment.
My research interest is in the potential role of mobile technologies in overcoming social and digital exclusion in young people not in education, employment or training (or ‘NEET’) and this seemed like...
July 2011
1 post
POLYMEDIA →
Loving this:
“In recent times, and for many people around the world this means the last year or two, (although we recognise for many other people this is still not yet the case) have finally reached a state where there exists a genuine proliferation of possibilities when it comes to communication between separated persons. Furthermore once the costs of the equipment and payment plan is...
June 2011
2 posts
Some great mobile internet data from
Global mobile data traffic grew 2.6-fold in 2010, nearly tripling for the third year in a row. The 2010 mobile data traffic growth rate was higher than anticipated. Last year’s forecast projected that the growth rate would be 149 percent. This year’s estimate is that global mobile data traffic grew 159 percent in 2010. Last year’s mobile data traffic was three times the...
13% of online adults use Twitter, and half of... →
Non-white internet users continue to have higher rates of Twitter use than their white counterparts; indeed, the Twitter adoption gap between African-Americans and whites has increased over the past six months. In November 2010, there was an eight percentage point difference in Twitter use between African-American and white internet users (13% for blacks vs. 5% for whites). By May 2011, that...
May 2011
1 post
Simplifying touchscreen interfaces →
Interesting UI experiment from some great local (Brighton) developers. Really excited to have a play with it and test it out on some potential audiences; my two year old son and my 76 year old mum!
February 2011
1 post
1 tag
an example of troubling, positivistic, and... →
Reminding myself about reflexivity.
March 2010
2 posts
1 tag
“Make them eat chips”: the digital divide and Big...
“It has seemed to me for a while that much of what passes for academic writing on ICTs is really high-class, generic advertising for “Big Tech”; its main purpose being to sustain stock-market enthusiasm, discipline the skeptics and generally keep the show on the road[1]. What I hadn’t appreciated till reading Wilhelm is how the technoptimist orthodoxy, plus “digital divide” logic, are...
# Jailbrake is a competition to find and support...
Each year around a hundred thousand 15-17 year olds get caught up in the criminal justice system. Once they come into contact with this system, many are likely to re-offend; to remain part of it and to go on to become part of the adult criminal justice system.
Simple web and mobile tools are great at connecting people in new ways and on their own terms. They can empower people to take more ...
June 2009
1 post
1 tag
“Designing mobile user interfaces grows ever more interesting. Device and network...”
– Main Page - Design For Mobile wiki, resources for designing and building mobile apps and sites
May 2009
3 posts
“# SMS is the technology that is the most easily accessible to NGOs, grassroots...”
– Workshop Executive Summary
This document presents the output of the W3C Workshop on the Role of Mobile Technologies in Fostering Social and Economic Development,
“As I have pointed out before, Kenyans spend more than 50% of their disposable...”
– Mobiles in Africa - We Need The Eggs at Many Possibilities
Great post on the obscene profits made by mobile operators in Africa
“Alone in a room in his home in Bonn, Germany, Friedhelm Hillebrand sat at his...”
– Why text messages are limited to 160 characters | Technology | Los Angeles Times
Loving the Germanic ‘This is perfectly sufficient’
April 2009
2 posts
“What is Cell Alert? Cell Alert is an information tracking and delivery tool...”
– What is Cell Alert? | Cell Alert™
“Here’s a challenge to build a movement to stop sexual violence against...”
– AfricaFiles | D R Congo: Cell phones, conflict minerals, and the worst sexual violence in the world
March 2009
3 posts
“The future is not mobile or laptops. It’s an unpredictable mash-up of phones,...”
– Mobiles versus Laptops at Many Possibilities
“DAVID, a Masai herdsman from Kisumu in Kenya, answers a call on his cellphone....”
– Cellphones tap wisdom of the crowds - 11 February 2009 - New Scientist
“LG, Sony Ericsson and Samsung mobile phones have been fingered as some of the...”
– Nokia owners handset simpletons shocker
February 2009
4 posts
“What is GarbageScout? The streets are full of interesting and potentially useful...”
– GarbageScout.com - Found treasure map - a recycler’s dream, a cheapskate’s best friend, and a dumpster diver’s companion
This is an ingenious freecycle variation… which would work really well in Brighton.
“Text to catch the next bus home Catching the bus is about to get even easier. A...”
– Brighton & Hove City Council - text the bus
This is my dream story - combining genuinely useful SMS functionality, buses… and Brighton!
“Part of the reason is that many people are still trying to figure this out....”
– ‘Social Mobile’ Applications: The Missing Book - Business Center - PC World
“Of course, we can’t forget that in practice the primary form of coordination was...”
– How to Organize an Insurrection
January 2009
5 posts
“When we talk about trouble with the economy, we’ve been overlooking an...”
– Joe Edelman’s Thoughts
How mobile phones can replace a broken economy
“After a five month ban text messaging has been turned back on in Kashmir....”
– 160Characters Association - SMS restored in Kashmir after ban
“RapidSMS is a collaborative effort of UNICEF and partners in the Open Mobile...”
– Rapid SMS - Frontline SMS and Ushahidi
“The days may be getting gradually longer, but for those who suffer depression...”
– BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | How texting could help the seasonally depressed
“To help you save energy and do your bit for the environment, a group of mobile...”
– Nokia - Charger Energy Rating
Unplug your chargers people!
December 2008
6 posts
1 tag
“At its bluntest, such research suggests mobiles are doing more economic harm...”
– Mobiles for Impoverishment? « ICTs for Development
“Technology and law are increasingly used to undermine processes of abundance...”
– Roberto Verzola on Undermining vs. Developing Abundance - P2P Foundation
1 tag
“Henrietta Nittby and her, supervisor Professor Leif Salford, believe that the...”
– Mobile Phones Affect Memory In Laboratory Animals, Swedish Study Finds
goddamit. maybe thats why my brain went leaky a few years back…
“A British doctor volunteering in DR Congo used text message instructions from a...”
– BBC NEWS | Health | Surgeon saves boy’s life by text
“The speed of growth of mobile penetration in India, China, Africa, South America...”
– Musings of a mobile marketer: There is no future of mobile
140 characters can be more than enough for...
“I have been told that these 140 characters can be more than enough for effective communication” Tony Benn!
November 2008
2 posts
“. French texters have devised “ght2v1,” which means “J’ai acheté du vin.” In...”
– Thumbspeak: Books: The New Yorker
“These resources were not being stolen to for use in Africa. They were seized so...”
– Johann Hari: How we fuel Africa’s bloodiest war - Johann Hari, Commentators - The Independent
October 2008
3 posts
“British American Tobacco South Africa has, in defiance of the country’s tobacco...”
– The blog of Jackie Tumwine: BAT marketing dunhill cigarettes via text messages in South Africa
“Sure, bankers can be greedy, money-hungry, overcompensated jerks. But...”
– Cry Baby Traders, Stock Market Crash, Traders, Bankers, Wall Street
“All of it was a dream. All that crap we bought, all the bottled water and...”
– Charlie Brooker on the end of the world as we know it | Comment is free | The Guardian
September 2008
1 post
“It’s not just the markets as such, though that make me grind my teeth;...”
– BBC NEWS | UK | Magazine | To market, to market
August 2008
2 posts
“Much mobile phone use (certainly in the DRC) is to solve problems that people...”
– Mobiles in the DRC: not a revolution, unfortunately
“A survey on the secret habits of French mobile phone users found that 14% French...”
– 160Characters Association
Please don’t call me from the toilet.
July 2008
4 posts
“The Telemegaphone is an open, non-anxious installation waiting to be put to use....”
– Telemegaphone
1 tag
“Texting is a fundamentally sneaky form of communication, which we should...”
– The joy of text | Review | guardian.co.uk Books
June 2008
9 posts
“Two independent legal opinions commissioned by the Southern Africa Litigation...”
– This is Zimbabwe » Blog Archive » Pull-out irrelevant: Delay nullified run-off (SALC, South Africa)
“Limited User Interaction: SMS applications are a perfect fit for simple...”
– W3C on the mobile web
“Robert from the Swedish Helsinki Committee earlier spoke about how the KGB (yes,...”
– ICT for Democracy > ICT for Democracy
“Google mobile search stores the most recent search term in a text file, and...”
– Will your mobile squeal to the police? | The Register
“UnitedForAfrica.co.za is for the collective good and is brought to you by a...”
– About Us - UnitedForAfrica.coza