AsiaDHRRA Online

TechTuesday shares this newsbit from IICD about an African NGO using open source mobile apps to monitor healthcare access in Ghana.
SEND will develop an Open Source monitoring tool in cooperation with software developers to be used on handheld mobile devices to collect and share data. Due to the poor communication infrastructure, this will enable SEND [...]

Here’s an oldie but goodie bag ‘o tips for TechTuesday from MobileActive.org about the effective use of mobile phones in issue campaigns.
Speed is often critical in an advocacy campaign and mobile phones allow the rapid dissemination of messages to a network of supporters with specific calls for action. In the developing world, where internet access [...]

TechTuesday presents this interesting study from Eldis about the mobile phone’s impact in Nigeria’s small businessmen.
Can mobile telephony improve commercial supply-chains in developing countries? Informational challenges – absence, uncertainty, asymmetry – shape the working of markets and commerce in many developing countries. This paper is a case study of the impact of mobile telephony on [...]

Here’s a TechTuesday golden nugget from MobileActive that’s especially useful to at-risk development workers. Do read through this to get a fuller understanding of how your cellphone can be used to track and gather information about you…
Mobiles can be useful tools for collecting, planning, coordinating and recording activities of NGO staff and activists. But did [...]

TechTuesday showcases this very interesting SMS application from the inventive guys over at Development Seed. Apparently, with this software, all you need is a USB drive, a computer with internet, and a GSM modem or cell phone…. and “you can have a gateway up and running that is totally decentralized and pushing information up to [...]

TechTuesday presents this newsbit from Open Acadaemy for Philippine Agriculture about their latest project to pilot test for effectiveness in terms of usefulness, appropriateness and clarity to farmers the use of videconferencing to “communicate or convey rice S&T information to OPAPA CyberCom farmers.
continue reading about how videoconferencing is helping philippine farmers communicate with agri experts…

TechTuesday relates this interesting story about how mobile phones play a huge part in disseminating info about crop diseases in Uganda.
Read the full article here…

For TechTusday, here’s a rather serious and insightful reading especially if your work focuses on market intermediation. Lots of ideas to bounce around.
Abstract
This paper emphasizes the role of knowledge management and communication in value chains from the perspective of resource-poor producers in Latin America. Based on value chain literature, social network theories and concepts of [...]

TechTuesday showcases an interesting Indian website – DigitalGreen- that seeks to disseminate targeted agricultural information to small and marginal farmers in India through digital video. The Digital Green system sustains relevancy in a community by developing a framework for participatory learning. The system includes a digital video database, which is produced by farmers and experts.

TechTuesday gifts you with this toolbox from the TacticalCollective via Eldis containing tips, techniques and advice on using new technologies for advocacy.
How can Web 2.0 new interactive internet tools and multimedia be used for advocacy and international development?
The toolkit provides information and advice on developing your communication and advocacy strategy and using the following types of multimedia:

Audio looks [...]

TechTuesday bring this fascinating account of how african farmers in Mali are using information and communication technologies (ICTs) to better their lives.
The bus to Sikasso was waiting in front of the hotel, already loaded with four translators and their technician with his equipment, two ladies introduced to me as ‘hostesses,’ Mady, the cheerful local co-organiser [...]

Here’s avery interesting find for TechTuesday. This is a toolkit produced by the Tactical Tech, “an international NGO helping human rights advocates use information, communications and digital technologies to maximise the impact of their advocacy work”.
Mobiles in-a-box from the Tactical Technology Collective is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides and case studies designed to [...]

TechTuesday presents this interesting news article about how small farmers in South Africa are using cellphone to better manage their irrigation system.
Small scale sugar cane farmers in South Africa have managed to potentially reduce their direct irrigation costs by US$300 per hectare thanks to the use of a high cellphone technology system that is providing [...]

TechTuesday presents this online tutorials to spice up your film-making skills. MobileJamFest has four online tutorials on mobile filmmaking which walk viewers through the process of planning, shooting, and editing a video.
Click here to view the tutorials.

Heres’s an interesting reading for TechTuesday from the DevelopmentGateway about how ICT are becoming essential tools in providing agricultural extensions services.
This paper reports on the 6th Consultative Expert Meeting of the ACP-EU Centre for Agricultural and Rural Cooperation Observatory (CTA) on ICTs. The summary report provides an outline of the main issues, developments and trends [...]