FrontlineSMS

See the following -

Kicking Conflict Into Touch: How Sport And Technology Unite Community And Conservation In Kenya

Njenga Kahiro | National Geographic | August 15, 2013

Football has long been recognised as a unifying sport, with the ability to bring sides together in some of the most trying of circumstances. In this installment of Digital Diversity, Njenga Kahiro shares his very personal experience of how a combination of football and text messaging have successfully brought together warring communities to promote conservation in Kenya. Read More »

Long May the SMS Reign

Toby Shapshak | Times Live | June 11, 2012

THE greatest communication mechanism in the world is arguably still SMS - the short message service sent over cellphones.

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Low tech adaptations for a community communications System

Helena Puig Larrauri | FrontlineSMS | November 23, 2012

FrontlineSMS was recently featured on the ‘Lets Them Talk‘ blog. In the post, Helena Puig Larrauri (@helenapuigl) highlights how the SUDIA community are using technology to bridge the information gap for communities living along the Blue Nile in Sudan. They are using FrontlineSMS to disseminate information about livelihoods and sustainability directly to communities. Read More »

Making the Most of the Possibilities: Design to Engage and Inspire

Amy O’Donnell | FrontlineSMS | August 2, 2012

I’m going to be honest: when I first joined FrontlineSMS I had no idea how much goes into the design of software. Every screen, every button and every function has principled thought behind it.  In 2011, we worked alongside Gabriel White, a User Experience Designer from Small Surfaces, to help translate FrontlineSMS users’ needs into the new design of Version 2. Read More »

MfarmerSMS Service Links Farmers To Better Markets In Nakaseke- Uganda

Peter Balaba | FrontlineSMS | March 14, 2013

The MFarmer SMS service [...] helps farmers in rural areas to connect with better markets. It encourages two-way feedback with farmers, buyers and agro-processors, and other service providers. The project is designed to help farmers access agricultural market price information and weather information through their mobile phones. Read More »

Mobile Learning: How Smartphones Help Illiterate Farmers In Rural India

Hendrik Knoche | National Geographic | June 5, 2013

Small farmers are some of the most important people in the world – as Hendrik Knoche explains in today’s ‘Digital Diversity’, they provide over half of the world’s food supply. Helping such farmers improve their methods through innovative and efficient agriculture has long been an aim of development projects [...]. Read More »

Mobile Phones to Be Used to Collect Health Data in Ethiopia

Meron Tekleberhan | Ethiopian Business News | October 20, 2011

Mobile Phones will be used to help health professionals collect data, have it analyzed and receive feedback in a show case project to be launched next week in Ethiopia. The project is led by Technology for Change International and is expected to cost approximately 370,000 US dollars. Read More »

My 2013 At Frontline; From Desktop To Cloud, Scrum To Kanban, BA To CTO, UK To NBO.

Alex Pitkin | FrontlineCloud | February 10, 2014

Hello, I’m Alex, and I am the Chief Technical Officer (CTO) here at Social Impact Lab. I work with our developers here in Nairobi, and remotely with our team in Washington, DC. Together, we make FrontlineSMS, FrontlineCloud, and other awesome SIMLab apps. Read More »

Open Source Resources for major Disaster & Emergency Management Situations

As everyone knows by now, the superstorm known as 'Hurricane Sandy' has caused considerable devastation across the East Coast of the United States and all the way up to the Great Lakes region. The effects of the storm will continue to be felt for days and weeks as major portions of the East Coast are without electricity and flooding is expected to continue for days. Under these circumstances, it seemed appropriate to put together a listing of open source applications that have been successfully used in emergencies and disaster recovery all over the world. In times of man-made crises or natural disasters, there is a range of organizations, websites, open source tools, mobile apps, and more that might be of use to first responders and citizens in general. Check out some of the following resources...

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Problem Solving at FrontlineSMS

Sean Martin McDonald | FrontlineSMS | January 16, 2013

As anyone who knows me will tell you, I’m a bit obsessed with words. Not just words themselves, but how we use them, what that shows us about how we think, and what it means when their definitions creep. [...] Either way, it’s gotten me thinking about something. We have to change the way we talk about solving problems. Read More »

Rapid Prototyping And Tech Stewards: Reflections On Recent Field Work

Gordon Gow | FrontlineCloud | October 1, 2013

Having made some excellent contacts during our recent meetings and workshops in Sri Lanka, the project team now needs to consider how those will translate into pilot projects using low cost ICTs. Read More »

Reach For Your Pocket: Nicaraguans Turn To Their Phones For Reproductive Health

Chloe Lew | National Geographic | June 19, 2013

Access to the Internet is something often taken for granted in the Western world. For many of us it’s a handy way to share our thoughts and lives over social media [...]. For many people in the developing world the Internet promises much more, if only they had access to it. Read More »

Seeing the Social Impact of Mobile Technology: Experiences of a FrontlineSMS Volunteer

Staff | FrontlineSMS | February 1, 2012

FrontlineSMS relies on the support of our growing band of dedicated volunteers and interns, who provide heroic amounts of support to help us keep things running successfully. We have a page on our website dedicated to these ‘FrontlineSMS Heroes‘ in order to acknowledge all the great work they do. Read More »

Sexual Exploitation Outreach With Text Messaging: Introducing Project Backpage

Laura Walker Hudson | FrontlineCloud | January 29, 2014

The University of Alberta, MARS lab and the Centre to End All Sexual Exploitation (CEASE) have been using FrontlineSMS in a ground-breaking pilot to assess the impact of using SMS to engage women who are trafficked and exploited in Edmonton, Canada. They have very kindly collaborated with us on an in-depth case study [...]. Read More »

SMS System Reduces Disease Spread

Thabani Dube | The Zimbabwean | February 20, 2013

The Weekly Diseases Surveillance Programme designed to minimise the spread of disease outbreaks has improved since the adoption of a new system. The programme is now using the Frontline SMS Disease Surveillance System, that makes use of mobile telephony to send information through short messages. Read More »