ICT4D and Enterprise Development

From IT

Revision as of 23:03, 13 January 2012 by Clampetskc (Talk | contribs)

(diff) ← Older revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)

Is Kenya’s largest business directory. It uses mobile apps and crowdsourcing to gather businesses for listing in their directory. It is built for business that don’t have enough money for traditional advertising means, so they can promote their business through this service (16). Services includes : • SMS, WAP & Web tools (now J2Me, iPhone) • Businesses can self list • Geo-coding All business locations • Map view of business • Business toolkit: 1. Add customers & suppliers 2. Send bulk messages (400 free SMS monthly) (but with anti-spam controls) 3. Send mobile business card 4. Add details (e.g. Menus, Special Offers) • Website, google optimised (white hat only)

Fig 1.6 Map of Nairobi, Kenya – Mocality Business Directory Map View The service is free. Customers of Mocality only have to pay their SMS and data charges. In the future additional pay services will be made available. Mocality first began aquiring customers manually by physically visiting each store to add them to the new directory. The blue represents businesses added in this manner. Later in they created a crowdsourcing option allowing individuals to upload their’s or a known business to the Mocality directory. Individuals are then paid according to verification, picture and the quality of the picture submitted. (17) The case of Mocality is a self propagating service that promotes businesses, individuals and the greater community using ICT. This business is a great success not because of the mobile phone technology used but primarily because the needs of the people of Nairobi were known and specifically addressed. Businesses needed a way to reach potential customers and customers needed a convienient resource to find shops and restaurants. Mobile phone technology is something most Africans subscribe too and is growing at a rate of 20% each year (19).

M-Pesa

Kenya and its thriving mobile community continues to the lead Africa in development of the mobile banking industry(20). Here the mobile phone is revolutionizing cash flow for individuals and business through innovations provided by M-Pesa, a joint venture between Vodacom and Safaricom, and other mobile service carriers. M-Pesa allows mobile phone users to use cash through SMS, make payments, make transfers and administrate their bank accounts. Physical money is becoming less and less important as the ease, security and reliability of mobile banking flourishes in Kenya. “Over 50% of the adult population use the service to send money to far-flung relatives, to pay for shopping, utility bills, or even a night on the tiles and taxi ride home”(20).

This innovation has helped to bring businesses in Kenya, from individuals to SME’s , into a more fast paced and efficient society. M-Pesa was originally developed by the UK government as a micro financing loan program; but the infrastructure took heed and individuals began to use it to exchange money with each other. Farmers can now get prices for goods and then receive payments instantly and simply through their phones, while business owners no longer need to travel to make payments and maintain their spending through their mobiles. (20)

Seacom

Seacom is a private organization that has brought high-speed internet to Africa via underwater fiber optic cables. They receive there connectivity feed from Europe and have built a network that extends from Western Africa, down to the South, and back up along the East African coast and now is connected to the Middle East and India. The strategy for Seacom is give all African’s high speed internet access through strategic investments in innovative social initiatives for high speed broadband(11). Schools and research facilities are the primary investment groups where Seacom has lowered the overall cost of high-speed broadband and increased its delivery speed. Seacom sees itself as a key player in creating the East African “Knowledge Society” of educated and empowered people. Seacom is a “pan-african ICT enabler” which by bringing internet access to areas previously without are allowing for development of future ICT4D.

Previously unavailable, Africa now has: • High speed web surfing • Video searching (e.g. Youtube) • Online education • Video conferencing • Cloud computing, gaming • Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) • Disaster recovery and backups • Intra Africa communications (enterprise/government/education) • Reduction in costs of communications (11)

Samasource

Samasource is an ICT4D solution to help educated impoverished people, with a specific aim at women, to find employment. Leila Chirayath Janah is founder of this company and the creator of an ideal she calls "microwork"(3). Microwork is a "new way to fight poverty by enabling capable, marginalized people to complete digital tasks in some of the world's poorest places”(2). The idea is that US Tech companies give projects to Samasource, they then divide the project into microwork that can be distributed to individuals across the globe. Once individual work is completed it is compiled by Samasource, verified for accuracy, and returned completed to the US business. When asked if this type of program takes jobs away from Americans Janah’s response was "`Most of the work we do would otherwise go to large, for-profit outsourcing firms in big cities in India and China,’ she says. These companies do not recruit marginalized women and youth, and do not guarantee living wages to their workers”(4).

In exchange, Samasource requires that partners adhere to an ethical code of conduct. They must reinvest at least 40 percent of revenues in training, salaries, and community programs. They must hire workers who were earning less than $3 a day. (Once employed, they generally earn $5 a day, and often more.) To date, the company has distributed $1.2 million in salaries. Seventy percent of its workers are the primary breadwinners in their households and support at least two other people.

Conclusion

In the next ten years the unemployment rate for the poorest 1 billion people will reach a staggering 70% (1). Jobs and work opportunities are available now but are not usually reachable by the poorest of the poor. Technology can bring these jobs to the poor and unemployed using the internet. ICT4D projects, some shown in this paper, demonstrate that improvement can be made and change for the better can be achieved.

Employment raises economic conditions for the better. The worst human conditions such as crime, hunger and violence are caused by poor economic conditions and we must use every tool necessary to bring workers closer to the available jobs.

ICT4D and its many facets are making progress in resolving these world issues. Failures do continue but each step is a learning step. New businesses ideas have sprung up from ICT4D roots like Samasource and M-Pesa that are enabling marginalized persons to take control of their finances, their homes and their desire to work. New ventures such as these will continue to develop thanks to open source software and improvements in education. The work of organizations like infodev, researchers like Dr. Cliff Rogers and the evolution of technology as seen with Ushahidi give us hope that we will one day have the right formula to resolve global poverty.

References

External Links

http://http://samasource.org/

ICT4D and Enterprise Development

From IT

Contents

Mocality

M-Pesa

Seacom

Samasource

Conclusion

References

External Links

Views

Personal tools

Navigation

Search

Toolbox