Title: A Mobile Payment Trifecta in Kenya
Author: Erik Hersman
Source: WhiteAfrican (blog)
Date (published): 28/07/2010
Date (accessed): 03/08/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Kenya is quickly gaining a competitive advantage in the mobile payments space. Led by mobile operator giant Safaricom with their Mpesa product, the market locally sees huge value in mobile money transactions. Add to that a regulatory system that is relaxed enough for innovation to be encouraged, and you have a great space for interesting things to happen.

Title: Salim’s ICT4D advice part 1: consider both process and passion
Author: Linda Raftree
Source: Wait… What? (blog)
Date (published): 01/08/2010
Date (accessed): 03/08/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Plan’s Kwale District office in Kenya has been very successful in building innovative community-led programming that incorporates new ICTs. I had the opportunity to interview Salim Mvurya, the Area Manager, last week, and was really struck by his insights on how to effectively incorporate ICTs into community-led processes to reach development goals and improve on child rights, child protection and governance.

See also: Salim’s ICT4D advice part 2: innovate, but keep it real

Title: 89.1 FM: The Place for Development: Power shifts and participatory spaces in ICTD
Authors: Revi Sterling, Sophia Huyer
ISSN: 1712-4441
Source: The Journal of Community Informatics, Volume 5, Issue 3 (2010)
Date (published): 05/05/2010
Date (accessed): 23/07/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Kamba women in listening range of community radio station Radio Mang’elete have been able to hear themselves on the radio now for four years, providing market information, notification of social events, discussion forums and entertainment in the forms of radio vignettes and plays. These women are not broadcasters in the traditional sense – they provide their insights from their homes, social spaces and areas of work, using a technology system called Advancement through Interactive Radio, or AIR. While AIR was introduced into the target communities four years ago, it continues to enjoy success, as women suggest programming and offer content that enables them to speak out publically. Qualitative and quantitative data from ongoing analysis suggests that participants have experienced increased agency and positive self perception as well as recognition of their input from the larger community. Preliminary indicators demonstrate women are not only choosing to participate in this opportunity for public self-articulation, but are realizing how such articulation can contribute to their empowerment as both individuals and women – roles that have traditionally relegated women to “doubly” marginalized roles.

Title: Kenya’s agriculture minister opens Africa Agriculture Geospatial Week
Author: Nadia Manning-Thomas
Source: ICT-KM
Publisher: CGIAR
Date (published): 11/06/2010
Date (accessed): 15/06/2010
Type of information: blog post
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
Kenya’s agriculture minister opens Africa Agriculture Geospatial Week and calls for efforts to take geospatial information to the ‘last mile’

While addressing the 2nd Africa Agriculture Geospatial Week (AAGW) that opened this week at the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) campus in Nairobi; Kenya’s Minister for Agriculture, Hon Dr Sally Kosgei, challenged researchers and GIS practitioners to ‘discuss steps towards the development of delivery mechanisms for making geospatial information accessible to poor smallholders in the villages across Sub-Saharan Africa.

Title: The Innovative Use of Mobile Applications in East Africa
Author: Johan Hellström
Pages: 104 pp.
ISBN: 978-91-586-4129-7
Publisher: Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency, Sida
Date (published): 03/06/2010
Date (accessed): 15/06/2010
Type of information: report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
This report gives an overview of the current state of mobile phone use and services in East Africa. It outlines major trends and main obstacles for increased use as well as key opportunities and potential for scaling-up mobile applications. The report draws on secondary data and statistics as well as field work carried out in Kenya, Rwanda, Tanzania and Kenya during 2008 and 2009.
The report identifies relevant applications in an East African context for reaching and empowering the poor and contribute to social and economic development. The identified mobile applications, listed in Appendix 2, range from small pilots to scaled-up initiatives – from simple agricultural, market or health information services to fairly advanced financial and government transaction services.

Title: Bridges to Cash: the retail end of M-PESA : The challenge of maintaining liquidity for M-PESA Agent Networks
Authors: Frederik Eijkman, Jake Kendall, and Ignacio Mas
Pages: 20 pp.
Source: www.microfinancegateway.org
Date (published): 29/04/2010
Date (accessed): 14/06/2010
Type of information: research report
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
M-PESA (“M” for mobile and “PESA” for money in Swahili) is a mobile money service promoted by Safaricom, the leading mobile operator in Kenya. The service provides a method of electronic payment accessible through mobile phones. Once customers deposit cash in their M-PESA accounts, they store the value as “e-float” – a form of electronic value issued by Safaricom – until they are ready to use it for transfers, buying airtime, or bill payments.
“De-materializing” cash into e-float offers benefits in terms of safety (reduced risk of theft or loss), convenience (less bulk, easier to send money remotely, lower transport costs, can purchase airtime and pay bills from the phone), and privacy. The core value proposition to customers is that M-PESA allows them to send money quickly and cheaply to distant business associates, friends, or relatives, a common need in Kenya where many families have some members working in urban areas.2
By solving this customer need, M-PESA has generated a large and loyal customer base. M-PESA is used by over 40% of Kenyan adults3 and more than 95% of users report that M-PESA is faster, safer, cheaper, or more convenient than alternative services like those provided by banks, ATMs, the post office, or money transfer services offered through bus companies.4 A full 84% of users claim that losing the service of M-PESA would have a large, negative effect on their lives.
The ability to quickly and conveniently withdraw cash or deposit cash is critical to achieving the high level of value that M-PESA delivers to its users. To access their accounts, customers exchange cash for e- float at a network of M-PESA retail stores (often referred to as sub-agents or agent points). There are some 16,000 agent points in Kenya, putting one within reach of most Kenyans. In fact many locations have multiple M-PESA agent points within a few hundred meters of each other. Keeping these agent points stocked with cash and e-float so that they can meet customers’ needs for deposits and withdrawals is a major challenge, and the subject of this article.

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: Connect to the bottom of the pyramid. South Asian and African countries share notes on mobile services for socio-economic development

Author: M. Somasekhar
Source: The Hindu Business Line
Date (published): 10/05/2010
Date (accessed): 10/05/2010
Type of information: aricle
Language: English
On-line access: yes (HTML)
Abstract:
How much time do you think it takes a poor person in one of the least developed places in any South Asian country to reach a telephone — either fixed or mobile?

The answer is about five minutes. This facilitates chat and basic communication for people who fall under the category of bottom of the pyramid (BoP). At the other end of the spectrum are people who have access to broadband services, high-speed Internet connectivity and e-commerce on their mobile phone.

This is a typical scenario in many South Asian and African countries where telecom and the Internet promise to usher in dramatic changes in the quality of life of the people. The challenge is to come up with suitable applications to harness this power to help the poor people.

So, in addition to talking, can such technology help them transfer money, pay utility bills, get information on health/ farming, or book tickets and so on?

via http://lirneasia.net/

Title: Digital Library Adoption and the Technology Acceptance Model: A Cross-Country Analysis
Authors: Jade Miller, Otto Khera
Pages: 19 pp.
ISSN: 1681-4835
Source: The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries, (2010) 40, 6
Publisher: www.ejisdc.org
Date (published): 06/02/2010
Date (accessed): 03/05/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
In this article, we examine, through the framework of the Technology Acceptance Model (TAM), some of the features that inform user acceptance of a digital library system implementation at agricultural universities in two developing countries: Kenya and Peru. This is a study not only examining factors contributing to adoption of this offline digital library, but also a cross-site comparison, meant to examine the functionality in the developing world of a theoretical model developed in and based on conditions in the developed world. As we unravel predictors of technological acceptance of a digital library implementation in the developing world, we simultaneously investigate a broader question: not just questions regarding improved research in the developing world, but on it as well.
We analyze data from both sites on overall measures of perceived ease of use and perceived usefulness (two constructs of the TAM), and on individual measures making up the overall measures. We found the TAM to work well in describing factors that affect usage of digital libraries in developing countries, with perceived usefulness as the main predictor of intent to use this system (The Essential Electronic Agricultural Library, or TEEAL), and with relevance as the major constituent driver of perceived usefulness. Overall, we also found particular predictors of perceived usefulness and perceived ease of use that are consistent across cultures (relevance, trust, and ease of access), while other constructs (social norm, domain knowledge, visibility, and self-efficacy) demonstrated predictive power in only one setting. While post-hoc analyses gave several clues as to drivers of these differences, this study cannot definitively address what causes differences in predictive power between sites. What is clear, however, is that application of the TAM to IT implementation in developing countries must be guided more by the specificities of local circumstances than by the performance of the TAM in highly-developed countries.

Title: Open Access and Open knowledge production processes: Lessons from CODESRIA
Author: Francis B. Nyamnjoh
Pages: 6 pp.
ISSN: 2077-7205
e-ISSN: 2077-7213
Source: The African Journal of Information and Communication, Issue No 10 (2009/2010)
Publisher: Learning Information Networking and Knowledge (LINK) Centre, Graduate School of Public and Development Management, University of the Witwatersrand
Date (published): 25/02/2010
Date (accessed): 28/04/2010
Type of information: peer-reviewed article
Language: English
On-line access: yes (pdf)
Abstract:
It is common in discussions of open access to limit the issue to publications and dissemination. This conflates accessibility with recognition and representation, and supposes that competing and conflicting knowledge systems and ideas would be equally available and affordable if room were created for multiple channels of accessibility. Such enthusiasm and euphoria, while understandable, do not adequately account for the prevalent power relations that structure knowledge production into interconnecting hierarchies at local and global levels.
CODESRIA has some lessons to draw on from its experience of the past 37 years – lessons about the need to privilege and prioritise recognition and representation of the perspectives, epistemologies, and contextual and methodological diversity that inform knowledge production globally and locally; and lessons about the need to widen our understanding and discussion of ‘open access’ to go beyond just enabling access to knowledge and research results through a multiplicity of dissemination possibilities. It is important to discuss opening access up to different races, places, spaces, cultures, classes, generations, disciplines and fields of study.
This review presents CODESRIA, and its ever-evolving publications and dissemination policy, as a possible model to inform and inspire institutions interested in a comprehensive idea of open access in an interconnected world of local and global hierarchies, where producing and consuming difference is part and parcel of everyday life.