Taking the train to Chicago is pretty cool. You have plenty of legroom, you can spend all of your time hanging out in the lounge car, and you get to eat dinner with strangers. In general, it has a nice old-school feel to it, with freedon to roam about and nobody rifling through your bags or asking you to remove you shoes. Of course, it takes as long, or longer, than driving so if you’re in a hurry it’s not a great choice. I could also see myself getting pretty sick of it after a few days, but the folks in the lower level of the lounge were making the best of it on my trip home, complete with guitars and singing.
I’ve recently become rather fixated on SMS services and applications in emerging markets. Here are some ways that SMS is being used:
Getting Information
There are a few companies providing standard commercial endeavoers with SMS customer surveys and customer service questionnaires. These seem to be more available in South Africa, but I’ve seen websites for similar services in India and Nigeria. On the right is an example from Surveys per SMS of South Africa. Populi.net’s Mobile Researcher uses SMS technology to provide field workers a tool to execute surveys and collect data without paper.
Providing Information
Several organizations are using SMS to provide information to cell-phone users. Most notably, Google is getting into the game with the Uganda launch of their AppLab mobile applications, co-developed with the Grameen Foundation. Users can get health advice, locate the nearest clinic, agricultural tips- even find a buyer for their agricultural commodity. Smaller startups are also getting in the game. For example, Nigerian web portal eNowNow has begun providing traffic information (obtained by sending out people with bikes and cell phones to key traffice areas) in Lagos, Nigeria using a Google maps mashup.
Open-Source Platforms
There are even free, open-source SMS data platforms being launched with the world of international development in mind. RapidSMS was used by six graduate students at Columbia School to create RapidSMS Child Malnutrition Surveillance, a system for health practitioners to share child treatment and nutrition information. The project recently won first place in the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge. Other RapidSMS projects include food management during famine in Ethiopia and monitoring bednet distribution in Nigeria. Ushahidi is another open-source SMS platform (and a runner-up in the USAID Development 2.0 Challenge), has more of a focus on empowering cell-phone users to share information, including Vote Report India, a citizen-led election monitoring campaign, and Unsung Peace Heroes, where anyone can nominate fellow citizens who provided help during the Kenyan election violence.
InSTEDD is a platform specifically for disaster and disease relief. SMS is particularly suited to disaster relief as SMS capability often remains available long after the phone systems are down. The core application is GeoChat, which uses SMS technology to share information and locations. To support these efforts are other applications for combining information from various systems (such as survivor databases) and analyzing large streams of information, including twitter feeds.
I have recently embarked on a fair amount of camping in the first national park, Yosemite, and at Itasca State Park, head of the Mississippi River.
Yosemite was huge and totally developed. There was a shuttle bus every 15 minutes to take you everywhere, including the deli, the pizza restaurant, the visitor center, the gift shop, the hotel, or the campgrounds. So we sort of accidentally decided to hike up 2700 feet over 3.4 miles to the Upper Yosemite Falls. It was grueling and awesome. The best part (other than reaching the top) was r
unning into a bear on the way. There was a sign in the campground saying “There have been 6 incidents involving bears in this camground this week.” THIS WEEK! The threat of bears in our campground did not stop us from having a cooking extravaganza every non-raining night.
Itasca was much more chill. Unlike national parks, state parks tend to be rather dead when you go early in the season on a weekday. We were basically the on people staying in the park, which was great because we just used another empty cabin’s fire ring when it turned out our cabin didn’t have one. It also turned out that our cabin didn’t have internet access as promised, so the only work I got done was reading and hiking, but I can’t really complain about that. We did manage to stand over the Mississippi River, a tradition at Itasca.
Recently a phenomenon has hit Minneapolis- 20 slides, 20 seconds per slide (that’s 6 minutes and 40 seconds total).
To be fair, Solutions Twin Cities has been doing this since its debut in May of 2007. The presentation format is exactly what it says. You are allowed 20 slides, each of which are shown for 20 seconds only- and you don’t control the slides, so they keep moving whether you’re on pace or not.
Last Friday night’s arrival of Pecha Kucha is the first time Minneapolis has taken part in this international trend. Largely led by the design community in Tokyo, Pecha Kucha provides a great excuse for the creative community to share ideas. Last Friday, people waited outside in a line down the block to hear and see plots for screenplays, University Avenue photographs, and the Parisian bike-share program. You can find Pecha Kuchas all over the globe, like in Denver, LA, Omaha, Oaxaca, Mauritius, Buenos Aires, and Melbourne- and that’s just this week.
And as if that weren’t enough, Ignite comes to Minneapolis April 22nd at Solera. Ignite appears to be a bit broader in definition (although shorter, allowing only 15 seconds per slide), and can include pretty much anything as far as I can tell. I think their tagline “Enlighten us, but make it quick” sums it up well. Their website shows sample Ignite videos “How to be a good news commenter” and “How to buy a car”. If that doesn’t get you curious, perhaps free beer will get you there.
In the past week, I’ve had the pleasure of hearing two great and inspirational speakers. First, I went to the Center for Spirituality & Healing sponsored event at the University of Minnesota featuring Van Jones. Van is known for his crusading to use the new green economy to raise this nation’s poor citizens. However, in the talk he gave last Thursday, he talked less about installing solar panels and more about integration- of green movements and community development efforts and of personal development and societal advancement. He’s an engaging speaker and I highly recommend you go hear him if you get a chance. On a local note, he stated that Minnesota is one of just a handful of states poised to really demonstrate that green jobs can help communities.
A day later I attended the Nobel Peace Prize Forum at St. Olaf College in 
Northfield, MN. While there were many interesting speakers and topics, the crowd favorite was clearly John Francis, also known as the Planetwalker. Inspired by seeing an oil spill in San Francisco, Mr. Francis gave up motorized transportation for 22 years and walked all over this country and many others, playing the banjo as he went. He also gave up speaking during 17 years of that time. Along the way he got a Phd and became an expert on oil spills. His message was very personal, but he stressed that if you are on the right path there are forces out there that will help you along.
Both of these gentlemen have books available if you want to learn more:
