Lessons from One Laptop Per Child

During our last class Professor Bugg-Levine mentioned an article from Business Week about the OLPC and the lessons you could draw from it. You can find it in all its glory in this link.
Enjoy the reading!

Mobile Health applications (mHealth)

I know that some of you are interested in mobile technology applications for development generally and medical-related applications ("m-health') specifically. The below is a link to a web lecture next week being given by Brooke Partridge, the CEO of a leading emerging markets technology consultancy. The event is free if you sign up on the link below. Please let me know if you attend the lecture as I would be interested to have you share the highlights with the class the following Monday.

--Prof. Bugg-Levine


mHealth in the Developing World: A Landscape Analysis
Speaker: Brooke Partridge , CEO, Vital Wave Consulting
Date: Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Time: 9:00 - 10:00 AM Pacific Time

Format: This interactive session will be held via teleconference with materials and dial-in details delivered to registered attendees prior to the event.

To register: Click here or send your name, title, company, and phone number to events@vitalwaveconsulting.com. This a free event and open to the public but RSVP is requested.

Health and development organizations are beginning to see mobile technologies as a particularly critical part of healthcare solutions. mHealth (the delivery of healthcare through mobile devices) is not just an adjunct to other Information and Communication Technology- (ICT) enabled services, but a technology whose unique characteristics make it one of the driving forces in transforming health services. The content of this session is based on research conducted by Vital Wave Consulting for the United Nations and Vodafone Foundations Technology Partnership and provides essential data and analysis of the current mHealth landscape. In this session you will learn about:

• mHealth's scope and implementation across developing regions.
• Health needs to which mHealth can be applied.
• mHealth applications that promise the best or broadest impact on heath care initiatives.
• Critical success factors for making mHealth more widely available through sustainable implementations.

This presentation will provide professionals from across sectors and industries with a holistic view of current and potential opportunities in mHealth. The data, insights and recommendations will help prepare value chain participants to create sustainable solutions to address critical health needs.

Session 7 Questions

For those of you interested in the discussion on the impact of mobile phone roll-out on development generally and m-health applications specifically, the following reports are a good place to start further research….

Prof. Bugg-Levine

Governments and the Development Community Warming to Private Sector

Nearly everyone in the development community (and a growing list of business executives) is familiar with the “MDGs.” The term is short-hand for the UN’s Millennium Development Goals – a list of eight ambitious objectives that, if achieved, would provide better education, healthcare, nutrition, gender equality, and communications technology to a far greater percentage of the world’s poor. Lately, Ericsson’s President and CEO Carl-Henric Svanberg has been quite vocal about his company’s support for the MDGs. Ericsson has joined the UN’s eHealth initiative and is raising awareness of the role of telecommunications in achieving the goals at the Volvo Ocean Race.

When the MDGs were conceived eight years ago, there were only 738 million mobile subscribers, which represented approximately 12% of the global population (assuming one subscription per person). Today, over 3.5 billion people – half the world’s population – own mobile phones, and the GSMA estimates that mobile networks will cover 85% of the world’s population by 2010 – five years before the MDGs are supposed to be achieved. Ericsson’s Svanberg points out that the Millennium Development Goals are now being re-thought in terms of how mobile technology (and technology in general) can contribute toward their achievement. In fact, nascent sub-industries like mServices – the delivery of critical services like healthcare and banking through mobile phones – have gained valuable support from governments and influential development organizations. Many of these organizations have learned important lessons and refined their roles and expectations for private-sector partners. In a recent investigation for the UN and Vodafone Foundations, Vital Wave Consulting identified six strategic recommendations for effective mHealth implementations. Many of these recommendations have an implicit requirement for private sector involvement.

Governments and development organizations manage entire ecosystems that serve the basic needs of millions of people. Despite resistance to (or mistrust of) the profit motive by many in the development community and emerging-market governments, a growing number of organizations are seeking ways to bring the private sector into achieving the MDGs. There is a residual assumption that private companies are still best involved as donors and philanthropists. However, the smart business manager will identify and seek out new opportunities presented by those who want to work with private-sector partners to (profitably) create efficiencies, improve communications, and provide better access to information and services.

Questions for Session 6

Sesssion 5 Questionnaire