David Pogue reviews some wonderful medical apps for the iPhone, including some useful tools for the blind and deaf, in
this New York Times piece. Another testament to the power of innovation when people are given a platform on which to create. And as platforms continue to open up (via Android, etc.) no doubt we will see more and better still.
Also in the mobile health category,…
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Added by Paul Lamb on November 8, 2009 at 8:30am —
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In the on again off again popularity of discussions around the Digital Divide, the New York Times chose "on again" with its
coverage of the issue during this week's "Breakthrough Learning in the Digital Age" event at Google. Apparently a couple of the event's speakers approached the issue of urgency of gap filling quite differently. O one argued for an all out effort to…
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Added by Paul Lamb on November 1, 2009 at 12:00pm —
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Another big week in broadband news. The Finns have apparently
staked a claim to be the first country to make broadband access a national right. (Note: apparently Australia and a few others beg to differ). Many nations are gunning to win the broadband beauty contest, and in countries like the U.S. money is being dumped into broadband expansion because of a…
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Added by Paul Lamb on October 18, 2009 at 12:00pm —
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some really cool stuff
here including a Braille cell phone, and color sensing tablet.
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Added by Paul Lamb on September 28, 2009 at 5:27pm —
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Here's a rough summary of presentations from last weeks forum on Information & Communication Technologies for Development (ICT4D) held at Harvard University, The ever articulate and brilliant Ethan Zuckerman
recaps a variety of presentations on design considerations, power dynamics, and gender, etc. in ICT, on the Global Voices blog.
Speaking of ICT, and also on Global V…
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Added by Paul Lamb on September 28, 2009 at 5:00pm —
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Here's a great couple of listings of people on Twitter who are involved with ICT4D (Information & Communication Technologies for Development) work from all over the world.
There is also a great
Google map that someone put together which gives a geographical representation of where ICT4…
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Added by Paul Lamb on September 1, 2009 at 9:37am —
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Great
article in today's San Francisco Chronicle about an innovator (who happens to be blind) using a self-designed wireless video system to sail, ski, shoot and participate in all kinds of sports usually the purview of the sighted. Apparently the system is made up of a wireless camera attached to a hat that transmits an image through Skype to a land-based sighted person who provides direc…
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Added by Paul Lamb on August 29, 2009 at 9:30am —
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A
recent study has found that the 55 and over crowd in the UK are increasingly Internet Active, with 90% now feeling comfortable surfing the net. Most use it for email, but an increasing number are also making purchases online. Not surprisingly the usage numbers decline significantly when looking at the 65 and older crowd.
Of course training is o…
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Added by Paul Lamb on August 24, 2009 at 9:00am —
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There has been a lot of
buzz in the media recently about schools moving from physical to digital textbooks. States like California are actively exploring this option, in part to save money and in part to transition learning into a 21st century context. The other advantage to digital textbooks is that they can be revised an…
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Added by Paul Lamb on August 17, 2009 at 9:25am —
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It’s a bad couple of weeks for Internet addicts. It was
reported that a Chinese youth died at an Internet addiction rehab camp (yes, there is such a thing) in China two Sunday's ago. Apparently he was beaten by an instructor using rather brutal methods to help fifteen year old Deng Senshan get over an online fixation. According to the statistically reliable National People's Congress, ten percent of China's Inter…
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Added by Paul Lamb on August 16, 2009 at 4:08pm —
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In Chris Anderson's new book
"Free: The Future of A Radical Price" (which not surprisingly you can read for free on
Scribd), he makes an argument for continuing the trend of free information products and services online.
An interesting parallel trend, and one on which I have been…
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Added by Paul Lamb on July 19, 2009 at 11:13am —
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For those interested in social change learning, there is a whole movement of developers and activists working in this arena. Much of the most innovative work can be found at
Gamesforchange.org.
The Games for Change (or G4C) folks also host an annual festival, where the latest and greatest games - targeting human rights, the environment, politics, etc. are featured. G4C even has a…
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Added by Paul Lamb on July 19, 2009 at 10:38am —
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Some great new Apps are appearing on the iPhone that help people live healthier and more productive lives. Finally we are seeing beyond the thousands upon thousands of junk Apps, to make the iPhone a really useful device for people facing challenging health issues, etc.
Take for example the ability to measure your blood sugar using an
App that connects with a simple device con…
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Added by Paul Lamb on July 8, 2009 at 9:47pm —
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According to
TeleGeograpy, only 2% of Africans have home broadband, and half of 127 countries they tracked have less than a 20% penetration rate. Only 10 countries out of 127, mostly small developed places like Hong Kong, Singapore, Denmark, and South Korea have 80% or higher penetration. In North America over 68% of households have high speed access.
…
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Added by Paul Lamb on July 7, 2009 at 1:00am —
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I recently came across
Building 43, a new crowdsourcing site that purports to help small business folks learn how to leverage Web 2.0. It's a great watering hole for the technically inclined (and able) but once again presumes a certain level of literacy and technical expertise.
I know a number of new entrepreneurs from low income communities that could benefit tremendously from this type of assistance. And even learning to use tools like…
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Added by Paul Lamb on June 29, 2009 at 8:30am —
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As an avid promoter of technology for social change, and as an active participant in a community of faith, I have often wondered why the two worlds remain so segregated? Particularly when faith-based communities (meaning the full range of formal and informal religious communities) are am…
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Added by Paul Lamb on June 24, 2009 at 1:00pm —
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Here's a piece I wrote for ComputerWorld, on how social media is moving from our computer screens to the streets via handheld devices.
"Social media is literally on the move. While useful for anonymous and asynchronous communications, computer-based social media is rapidly becoming old school. In comparison, mobile social media is personal and dynamic -- and more closely tied to how peopl…
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Added by Paul Lamb on June 22, 2009 at 11:59am —
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I got some interesting feedback from an OpEd I wrote for the San Jose Mercury News called
"Mobile Technology, not broadband, is the way to connect America." From my mobile addict friends I got a lot of verbal hi-5s and no small number of text messages. From others, with a more nuanced or balanced view of mobile, I got some great pushback. Some, for example, pointed out that pricing for mobile (if you include phone and data plans) is st…
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Added by Paul Lamb on June 15, 2009 at 4:30pm —
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I attended a really interesting "Investing in Mobile" session at this week's
Netsquared Conference in San Jose, California.
Here are some of the things I learned:
1) How much does it cost to develop an application for the iPhone? The cost can range from $10,000 to $100,000 depending on the type of App.
2) Should you start in mobile by developing a mobile website (.mobi) or begin…
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Added by Paul Lamb on May 29, 2009 at 6:30pm —
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Some of the best models of municipal broadband and digital inclusion were featured at last week's
Intelligent Community Awards in New York City. It is pretty clear why Stockholm won...
"During a national fiscal crisis in the early Nineties, the City of Stockholm decided to pursue an unusual model in telecommunications. The city-owned company Stokab started in 1994 to…
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Added by Paul Lamb on May 18, 2009 at 10:11am —
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