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Open Eyes, Open Source: Peek’s low-cost ophthalmoscope looks to gain traction, expertise through collaborations
Peek Retina, a low-cost ophthalmoscope adapter, will operate on a split pricing model. NGOs and health institutions operating in low-income countries will be able to purchase the adapter at a reduced price, while it will be sold at a higher price in high-resource settings.
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- Health Care, Social Enterprise, Technology
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Weekly Roundup – 12/6/14: Overcoming paywalls, increasing information accessibility in the pursuit of a healthier planet
There’s been a good bit of discussion recently about the accessibility of health care information; specifically, the timely sharing of research on such topics as Ebola.
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- Health Care, Technology, Telecommunications
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Israeli Innovation Meets Rwandan Entrepreneurship: High-tech for Western markets is still the main focus of Israeli startups, but that’s slowly changing
Israel has the second-highest concentration of start-up companies after Silicon Valley, but most of this entrepreneurial energy has been focused on Western markets. This is slowly changing, with projects like kLab in Rwanda, writes Caylee Talpert, deputy director of the Pears Innovation for International Development Program at Tel Aviv University.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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NexThought Monday – Creators, Not Just Consumers: Facebook and other global players are bringing transformative digital technology to the BoP – but will local economies benefit?
A budding tech industry can help transform emerging markets, says Chris Locke. But as global powerhouses like Facebook and Google focus on the BoP, will they build local jobs and economies, or act like digital extractive industries, mining personal data and using it to create value elsewhere?
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- Impact Assessment, Technology, Telecommunications
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NexThought Monday – Financial Inclusion and the Internet of Things: How Smart Machines Can Benefit the Poor
The Internet of Things refers to the use of technology to automate data transfer between objects via the Internet. It’s billed as a disruptive technology of the next decade, with applications that range from home automation to wearable fitness devices. But it also has great potential to benefit the poor, by enabling payment mechanisms that let the underbanked access basic products and services.
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- Energy, Technology, Telecommunications
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Failure to Launch: Why Mobile Money Hasn’t Taken off in Nigeria – And How the Sector Can Turn Things Around
In contrast to other African countries, Nigeria’s digital finance sector has yet to take off, with one survey finding that just 0.01 percent of Nigerians have a mobile money account. Critics suggest the lack of progress is due to banks rather than telecoms leading the charge. But research from the Helix Institute of Digital Finance suggests that other factors may be responsible - and points toward some solutions.
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- Education, Finance, Technology
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Rebuilding Haiti with Mobile Phones: How mobile data collection and management is facilitating relief efforts
Grameen Foundation originally designed TaroWorks to facilitate analysis of data gathered on mobile phones to help track poverty levels. But as Alex Counts describes it, it has evolved into a mobile-based field-force management tool used by a growing number of humanitarian groups and social enterprises - including an organization that’s using it to facilitate relief efforts in Haiti.
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- Technology, Telecommunications
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Weekly roundup 6-14-14: When conventional wisdom gets upended
When conventional wisdom gets upended, well, we’re all a little better off for it. Here are two examples from this week, both of which dispel myths that have a tendency to solidify into facts.
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- Education, Technology, Telecommunications