Personal Crowdsourcing

The Betavine Social Exchange project was launched over a year ago …see the project approval post from 28th March 2009.  The project has met with great enthusiasm when I have presented it in public and also when I speak to people face to face.  I have made a few good contacts via phone which then get followed up with face to face meetings.

The Social Exchange website was launched in October 2009 and saw a flurry of activity around the launch events.  I have also seen activity around follow on events and calls.  The online activity has mainly been stimulated by these face to face, personal relationships.

Is crowdsourcing personal?

I know there are many examples of online crowdsourcing sites that perhaps do not have off-line activities …but one thing that I have leant on Betavine is the need to create relationships.  We have run a number of off-line events e.g. Betavine Beers, Betavine parties and participated in lots of event e.g. Over the Air, WWW Annual Conference … developers days.   It is these off-line meetings that create the relationships that last and bring focus and dedication to the crowdsourcing cause.

The recent Cape Town Dev Day in March was a great success in terms of bringing focus on the Social Exchange challenges but now the task is to maintain that momentum.

Cape Town Dev Day - meeting developers

A combination of off-line activities coupled with an online presence seems to be the best approach.  The other key thing I learnt in Cape Town is the importance of linking up with community “leaders” on the ground – thanks to Marlon Parker and Rlabs for their support.

Mobile Social Entrepreneurs

Where are you?

I am keen to find examples of social entrepreneurs that use mobile technology – they could be called “mobile social entrepreneurs” .. but where are they?

I am not talking about social entrepreneurs who use a mobile phone to make things happen or use a mobile broadband dongle to run a business.  I am talking about social entrepreneurs who create businesses that are socially beneficial and based on mobile technology.

Mobile Social Entreprenuers and BSX

The example that I often hear quoted is the fisherman who accesses fish prices in different local ports via a mobile phone service, in order to set his course back from a fishing trip and maximise his income.  I guess the person who set up and is running this “fish price service” is a mobile social entrepreneur.  This story and others are featured on the EPROM website page – Why Africa?

There are many example where mobile technology is being used for social change – see mobileactive.org but it is harder to find examples of where mobile technology is the basis for social entrepreneurship.  Any examples, please let me know.

Crossing the Digital Divide

I recently read a great blog post by Tomi Ahonen on the “The Digital Divide in Numbers”  – great post, getting the numbers sorted really does bring the whole issue to life.

Tomi clearly points out the disparity between the technology adoption in industrialised countries and that in developing countries.  However, there is a silver lining .. the mobile phone.

The figures presented are staggering and really put into context why mobile technology is supporting so much social change in developing countries.  It is the only technology widely available and in peoples hands.

One of the issues that the digital divide raises for the Betavine Team is how to access and promote the work we are doing with the Betavine Social Exchange.  The BSX is a website that is attempting to reach and support local communities in the developing world with their ICT related challenges by bringing them together with mobile developers and local entrepreneurs.  This presents a challenge in terms of the penetration of PCs and internet access.  However, we are targetting local NGOs as community partners on the understanding that they do have PCs and internet access.

We are currently considering the feedback we have got in terms of low bandwidth support and mobile support.  With limited resources we have to focus on those things that will really help to get the concept working.

One key aspect to the BSX is being able to support local entrepreneurs in creating mobile related businesses … the statistics clearly point out that there is a massive opportunity for mobile based services in developing countries.

Meet Online, Deliver Offline

A colleague pointed me to this BBC article today on Global ‘caring’ portal to launch and this one First Ever Global Portal for Social Change Set For Launch …. sorry guys but I do think there were other websites in this space before you … including Betavine Social Exchange … well maybe these other sites focussed a little more and are not on quite the same scale.

I think this is a great initiative, people can give their time to projects running on other continents without leaving the comfort of their own homes.   It is a   “a place where people can meet, congregate and participate..to change the world online”.

I will be very interested to see how this works – may learn a few lessons for the Social Exchange.  With the Social Exchange we talk about it being an online meeting place or a “matchmaking” website .. however, when it comes to delivering real services on the ground you need to go offline.

We noticed that Kiva used local representatives to help with the delivery of the micro-loans to the right people and we have introduced the concept of “Support Partner” in Betavine Social Exchange.  Support Partners are organisations with some local presence that can help to deploy a mobile solution in the local market.

Can the world be changed online?

Impact and Reconstruction

I had the privilege of spending a day at the Impact Direct Ministries in Athone, Cape Town on Monday of this week.

I spoke with the Director of IDM, Roger Peterson about the work they are doing with local people in need and in particular the success they have had helping to get people off drugs.  One of the keys to getting people off drugs has been to give them something new to focus on i.e. RLabs.  RLabs was set up by Marlon Parker, who I first met in February 2009 at the launch of Living Labs in Southern Africa, LLiSA.

Marlon has pioneered the use of mobile and web technology for social change in Athlone, Cape Town, South Africa.  The “Reconstructed Labs” or “RLabs” are truely a great example of a “living lab”.  The technology is applied to real life issues related to drugs, AIDS and general traininng of the local community in social media and mobile technology.  See details of these projects on the RLabs website here.  Marlon gave me an overview of the project:

I also spoke with a few of the team who have been helped off drugs and are now key members of the RLabs team.

Mobile technology can be used for social change and this particular project is inspiring!  I am hoping to work with RLabs Team going forward so that the Betavine Social Exchange project can benefit from all they have learnt in this space.