A daily reading of the blogosphere this week has provided a feast of new year predictions, wish lists and tips for 2009 that reveal some really interesting online and tech innovations that could have a great impact on the non-profit and development arenas in the year ahead.
The big story of course has been the ongoing conflict in Gaza; but this too has seen quick-thinking people adapt new technologies for communication and data-building to track the conflict and help build information for use by humanitarian relief agencies.
Mainstream news channel Al Jazeera English are utilising a platform first developed during the post-election violence in Kenya in early 2008 to track events in Gaza. Ushahidi – meaning “testimony” in Swahili – uses “crowd-sourced” information to map crisis situations. It allows anyone to submit information via sms, email, or through the web (Al Jazeera is utilising a Twitter feed). OpenStreetMap (OSM) –aimed at creating a free, editable map of the world – diverted their energies to a special Gaza project early in the week. They are looking for people familiar with street names and landmarks to enhance the limited existing map. Reuters Alertnet has a list of other mapping initiatives.
Elsewhere, the BBC reported on a growing E-library project providing ICT literacy and awareness to schoolchildren in Nepal, allowing pupils to “conquer their fear of computers”. The initiative uses the open-source Linux Terminal Server Project (LTSP), which allows many people to simultaneously use the same central computer on a Linux operating system and hopes to reach children in all 75 provinces of the country.
One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) started the year by announcing big staff cuts and a “refocused mission” (via Ethan Zuckerman) that nevertheless prompted a healthy discussion on where this initiative should move next.
A pre-Christmas story in Wired, “The cellphone that could change the world” on how mobile phone telephony could be used in disease detection points to what could be a big theme of 2009 – health and web technology – picked up on in ReadWriteWeb’s new year predictions.
But perhaps the clearest call to action is Antony Mayfield’s (via socialreporter):
“Here’s a New Year’s Resolution for you that might do some real good: teach someone at work or in your family how to use social media tools. Actually New Year’s Resolution is too weak a way to frame this. It’s a call to arms. A plea to your humanity.
Feeling revolutionary itch but not sure how to start scratching with a mortgage/student debts/rent to pay? This is how.
Why? Because our future’s at stake…”
