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Making sense of all the noise – testing Freedom Fone v1.5pre

Friday 02/19/2010  11:59  |  by Brenda Burrell

I've spent time recently testing the pre-release version 1.5 of Freedom Fone in Zimbabwe. Lots of little bugs have presented themselves but for the most part this version has been a revelation. The closest tech support has been Alberto in freezing Stockholm and Giovanni somewhere in Italy. I am sweating it out in Harare, Zimbabwe.

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Free Kiswahili synthetic voice for Freedom Fone a possibility

Friday 01/15/2010  05:47  |  by Brenda Burrell

Freedom Fone's ability to fulfill it's promise as a must have tool for bridging the digital divide has yet to be determined. Millions of poor people have access to mobile phones, but with tariffs as high as they are in countries like Zimbabwe, experimentation in this field is still costly. And of course, for our project these are early days.

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Molo and Kubatana's partnership helps put information in the hands of Zimbabweans

Thursday 01/14/2010  06:26  |  by Brenda Burrell

Kubatana, a Zimbabwean non-profit organisation committed to democratising access to information, was awarded a Knight News Challenge grant in May 2008 for its Freedom Fone software development project. The Freedom Fone project aspires to help civic organisations extend their information in an audio format to mobile phone users.

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How does FreeSWITCH compare to Asterisk?

Tuesday 12/29/2009  05:26  |  by Brenda Burrell

Open source telephony platform, Asterisk, has been used for years as an inexpensive alternative to proprietry PBXs, democratising this previously closed service industry. Why then did Freedom Fone choose to use FreeSWITCH as its telephony component instead of Asterisk? Our Project Architect, Alberto Escudero Pascual, will answer that question in the new year, but until then clues lie in this comment from Telecom Monthly:

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Mobile vs. Radio vs. TV vs. the Web

Monday 12/21/2009  09:18  |  by Webmaster

I recently found a very interesting article by Kevin Randall from Fast Company "The Boob-Tube, Not YouTube, Is Transforming the World". This is a good opportunity to clarify a bit where the Web Foundation stands in that discussion. In few words, the article is about the power and impact of the Web on Social and Economic development, and how it relates to other medias, TV, mobile, radio..

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Mobile Phone Penetration: Google Motion Chart Data Visualisation

Sunday 11/29/2009  20:00  |  by Webmaster

Richard Heeks has entered the ITU data on mobile phone penetration for all countries from 1998-2008 into a Google Docs spreadsheet, and then added the Motion Chart visualiser. Makes for very interesting viewing. Read the article

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It's 7:05pm in Dar es Salaam

Tuesday 11/24/2009  09:00  |  by Bev Clark

Amanda and I have just returned from Dar es Salaam. We were on the road with Freedom Fone.

Last Tuesday, Nov 17 it was 9 degrees at 9am in orderly Johannesburg and 28 degrees with sweat inducing humidity at 7pm in chaotic Dar. After negotiating the jam-packed arrivals hall we smiled in relief when we discovered John holding up a torn piece of cardboard with Freedom Fone scribbled on it. We couldn't speak Swahili and he couldn't speak English but we made our greetings and jumped into his car for the ride of our life to a lodge off the Old Bagamoyo Road in Michokeni B.

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A fast track to SMS success

Sunday 11/22/2009  20:00  |  by Webmaster

A guide to getting SMS campaigns up-and-running in the shortest possible time and with the minimum of fuss. Read the article

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Why it Matters that Pierre Omidyar is Launching a News Startup

Wednesday 11/18/2009  20:00  |  by Webmaster

Peer News -- a project aimed at creating the kind of local journalism that brings accountability and value to a community. Read the article

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From compassion to action, from action to knowledge

Wednesday 11/18/2009  20:00  |  by Webmaster

So get pissed off and start a Facebook group. Launch a Twitter hashtag. Translate compassion into action. But realize that the most effective action probably involves aggregating and disseminating information, building knowledge and awareness that’s an asset even if it doesn’t lead directly to political change. Read the article by Ethan Zuckerman

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