IFAP Information Society Observatory

Title: Out of thin air. The behind-the-scenes logistics of Kenya’s mobile-money miracle
Source: www.economist.com
Publisher: The Economist
Date (published): 10/06/2010
Date (accessed): 14/06/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
It is like magic. By clicking a few keys on a mobile phone, money can be zapped from one part of Kenya to another in seconds. For urban migrants sending money home to their villages, and for people used to queuing at banks for hours to pay bills or school fees, the M-PESA money-transfer service, operated by Safaricom, Kenya’s largest mobile operator, is a godsend. No wonder it is used by 9.5m people, or 23% of the population, and transfers the equivalent of 11% of Kenya’s GDP each year; or that it has inspired more than 60 similar schemes across the world.

But despite the apparently frictionless transfer of money through the air, making a money-transfer system work smoothly requires a great deal of backstage effort. Jake Kendall and Ignacio Mas of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and Frederik Eijkman of PEP Intermedius, a financial-services firm, explain how it all works in a paper presented in late Ma

Title: ‘Clean, Green and Mobile; Making Technology Work for the Poor’
Source: www.infodev.org
Publisher: The World Bank
Date (published): 11/06/2010
Date (accessed): 13/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
infoDev held its Annual Symposium this week, on 9 June, 2010 in Washington DC. An invited audience of stakeholders from leading experts and practitioners in information and innovation for development, donor agencies, partner organizations, foundations, and World Bank and IFC colleagues attended the event themed ‘Clean, Green and Mobile; Making Technology Work for the Poor’.

Title: World e-Parliament Report 2010
Pages: 264 pp.
ISBN: 978-92-1-123187-8, 978-92-9142-448-1
Source: www.ictparliament.org
Publisher: United Nations,
Date (published): 10/06/2010
Date (accessed): 13/06/2010
Type of information: report
Language: English, French
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The United Nations and the Inter-Parliamentary Union just released the World e-Parliament Report 2010. The Report, prepared by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament, intends to help legislatures to harness the potential benefits of ICT for their work and establish key goals and priorities for exploiting this valuable resource. While providing evidence of the complexities of e-parliament, the Report suggests ways to overcome some of the obstacles to the effective use of technology in parliamentary settings.

The findings presented in the World e-Parliament Report 2010 are based on the results of the Global Survey of ICT in Parliaments conducted by the Global Centre for ICT in Parliament between July and November 2009, to which 134 parliamentary assemblies responded.
The rapid growth of information and communication technologies (ICT) is changing not only the economic, social and political landscape around the world, but also the environment within which parliaments operate and it affects how they are perceived by the citizenry. In both developed and developing countries, parliaments are exploring ways to use technology to strengthen democracy and encourage political participation.
In 2008, the first edition of the World e-Parliament Report established a baseline of how parliaments were using ICT to help them fulfil their responsibilities and to connect to their constituencies. The World e-Parliament Report 2010 builds on that groundbreaking work and evaluates the progress accomplished by parliaments during the intervening two years in their efforts to use modern technologies to strengthen their institutional role. The 2010 Report further provides a methodology that can serve as a tool for parliaments to improve their performance in key areas of e-Parliament.

Foreword and Acknowledgments
Executive summary
Contents
Introduction (784 kb)
Chapter 1 - The Continuing Impact of ICT on the World of Parliaments
Chapter 2 - Communication between Parliaments and Citizens
Chapter 3 - Becoming an Open Parliament: Evolving Standards for Transparency and Accessibility
Chapter 4 - Envisioning, Planning, and Managing for e-Parliament
Chapter 5 - Systems and Standards for Parliamentary Documents
Chapter 6 - Library and Research Services
Chapter 7 - Responsive and Robust Technical Infrastructures
Chapter 8 - The State of e-Parliament in 2010
Chapter 9 - Cooperation and Collaboration
Chapter 10 - The e-Parliament Framework 2010 - 2020
Major Findings, Recommendations, and Conclusions
Bibliography
Boxes and figures
Annexes

Title: Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas: The Latin American perspective
Authors: Lisa M Cespedes and Franz J Martin
Source: i4d (Information For Development), January - March 2010
Publisher: Centre for Science, Development and Media Studies
Date (accessed): 02/06/2010
Type of information: article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Mobile phones offer individuals in rural populations the ability to access and interact with information services and databases.
Consider the numerous ways in which mobile telephony facilitates every day endeavours in addition to offering phone calls and text messaging. The technologies and applications vary from the developed areas to the developing regions, however, people in the most remote and marginalised places of the world are also benefiting greatly from the opportunities that the technology offers to improve their social and economic conditions.
There are 179 million people using mobile phones in Latin America; 82% of those users browse the Internet, 73% send text messages, and 55% are transferring data in different ways1. As a result of the expansion of mobile infrastructure and relatively affordable prices, the use of mobile telephony increasingly takes part of the everyday life of many rural families. As an example, in countries such as Peru, only 0.01% of rural households have access to the Internet while 36.5% have a mobile phone. In Chile, the penetration of mobile telephony is 94.7%.

Title: Mobile Phones and Economic Development in Africa
Authors: Jenny C. Aker and Isaac M. Mbiti
Pages: 45 pp.
Source: Working Paper 211
Publisher: Center for Global Development (www.cgdev.org)
Date (published): 01/06/2010
Date (accessed): 02/06/2010
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Jenny Aker Isaac Mbiti examine the growth of mobile phone technology over the past decade and consider its potential impacts upon quality of life in low-income countries, with a particular focus on sub-Saharan Africa. They first provide an overview of the patterns and determinants of mobile phone coverage in sub-Saharan Africa before describing the characteristics of primary and secondary mobile phone adopters on the continent. They then discuss the channels through which mobile phone technology can impact development outcomes, both as a positive externality of the communication sector and as part of mobile phone-based development projects, and analyze existing evidence. While current research suggests that mobile phone coverage and adoption have had positive impacts on agricultural and labor market efficiency and welfare in certain countries, empirical evidence is still somewhat limited. In addition, mobile phone technology cannot serve as the “silver bullet” for development in sub-Saharan Africa. Careful impact evaluations of mobile phone development projects are required to better understand their impacts upon economic and social outcomes, and mobile phone technology must work in partnership with other public good provision and investment.

Title: Explaining ERP Failure in Developing Countries: A Jordanian Case Study
Authors: Ala'a Hawari & Richard Heeks
Pages: 31 pp.
ISBN: 978-1-905469-13-0
Source: Development Informatics Working Paper Series, Paper No. 45
Publisher: Centre for Development Informatics, Institute for Development Policy and Management, School of Environment and Development (SED), University of Manchester
Date (published): 17/05/2010
Date (accessed): 02/06/2010
Type of information: research paper
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
Enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems are increasingly being adopted by organisations in developing countries. As in industrialised countries, this adoption seems beset by significant rates of failure, leading to a large waste of investment and other resources. This paper seeks to understand why ERP failure occurs.

In doing this, it moves beyond the factor lists that have so-far dominated analysis. Instead, it makes use of the "design—reality gap" model. This conceptual framework aims to be comprehensive but also contingent; sensitive to the specific conditions of any individual client organisation.

The design—reality gap model is applied to a case study of partial ERP failure in a Jordanian manufacturing firm. The model analyses the situation both before and during ERP implementation. It finds sizeable gaps between the assumptions and requirements built into the ERP system design, and the actual realities of the client organisation. It is these gaps – and the failure to close them during implementation – that underlie project failure.

The paper draws conclusions about good practice in ERP implementation relating to both risk identification and risk mitigation, and offers examples of both specific and generic actions that can be undertaken. But it also notes challenges existing in some developing country contexts that may continue to constrain the effective use of enterprise resource planning systems.

Educator's guide to student questions for this paper

Title: Data.gov: Selling the Government and Democratization of Information
Author: Alix Vance
Source: Scholarly Kitchen
Publisher: Society for Scholarly Publishing
Date (published): 25/05/2010
Date (accessed): 02/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Last Friday marked the one-year anniversary of the Obama Administration’s Open Government Initiative (OGI). The occasion was honored with a cupcake and candle on the landing page of the newly re-designed Data.gov site and a widely disseminated announcement from the White House... Data.gov includes more than 250,000 datasets, up from 47 made available at launch. The impact of the OGI is not confined to the United States. At present, six nations outside the U.S. are also developing open repositories of government data...
The message from the Obama Administration is that the OGI signals a sea change for government information that will:
- Spawn a global movement to democratize access
- Enable global linking of data
- Foster innovation and transparency via the creation of “community developed” applications
...
Professionals will find or create the means to build utilities from these emerging global repositories of government data that will:
- Enable comparisons of data that has historically been unavailable, siloed, and non-standardized
- Deliver tools that surface previously hidden relationships between data points and suggest relational meanings
- Aid users develop new hypotheses and research entry points
Whether this translates to empowerment of the general public — or strictly adds to the use of charts and graphs in presentations and articles by researchers and in the media, which pass by the general citizenry — is an open question.
...
Pending questions:

Will the technology community remain fiercely committed to using open data to serve the public good?
Will commercial interests predominate?
Will the level of commitment and interest in the objectives of a global data program continue without institutional incentives?
Does the Administration have its own plans for making this type of information digestible for the general public?

Title: Cutting Through the Hype: Why Citizen Reporting Isn't Election Monitoring
Authors: Katrin Verclas, Anne-Ryan Heatwole
Source: MobileActive.org
Date (published): 31/05/2010
Date (accessed): 01/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Recently, we’ve been seeing a lot of hype about citizen reporting with mobile phones during elections. It is often conflated with the term “election monitoring,” but this does a disservice to both citizen reporting and election monitoring, a discipline and field that has been around for some 20 years. These two approaches have markedly different goals, target audiences, and processes. We think it is time for readers to definititively understand what election monitoring is in contrast to citizen reporting, and what the role of mobile phone and mapping platforms are in regard to these two very different forms of engagement during elections. We aim to clearly differentiate between them once and for all.

We also urge the adoption of differing terms - citizen reporting during an election versus systematic election monitoring. Mobile phones, SMS, and mapping platforms play a role in both citizen reporting and election monitoring, of course.

We believe that more clearly distinguishing between citizen reporting during an election and the discipline of systematic election monitoring will better serve organizations that are considering using mobile technology for either of these engagement processes.

via http://twitter.com/AudienceScapes and http://twitter.com/mobileactive

Title: e-Brain Forum of Zambia : The National ICT4D Network in Zambia
Authors: Grace Zozi, Lee Muzala, Martine Koopman, Theresa Stanton
Pages: 8 pp.
Source: IICD Learning Brief
Publisher: International Institute for Communication and Development
Date (published): 19/05/2010
Date (accessed): 01/06/2010
Type of information:
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
The ICT for Development (ICT4D) national networks focus on the role of Information and Communication Technology in accelerating development in various sectors (education, health, rural livelihood and governance) in a country. This Thematic Learning Brief describes the lessons learned by the e-Brain Forum of Zambia, the IICD supported National ICT4D Network in Zambia It is intended for practitioners in the field who would like to learn from the experiences of this network as well as organisations that would like to implement a similar network.

Title: Mobile Internet in South Africa 2010: Study and Framework
Source: Afrinnovator
Date (published): 27/05/2010
Date (accessed): 28/05/2010
Type of information:
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
...
The study has some revealing highlights:
Mobile Internet in SA appears to be driven more by specific apps (MXit, Facebook) rather than browsing from the mobile
A majority of mobile phone users have internet capable devices and apps (such as email clients) but are not using them either due to cost concerns or ignorance...

via http://twitter.com/ictlogist