Mobile Entrepreneurship Initiative @ Over the Air conference

Review of the new Vodafone/Accenture report on Mobile for Agriculture

Oct 28, 2011 at 11:49 am • Stéphane Boyera • 6 Comments

I just finished reading “Connected Agriculture”; a new report on ICT, mobile and agriculture by Vodafone and Accenture (with support from Oxfam). I found this report very interesting. The aim of this blog post is to share my views and comments, and see if there are other opinions in the community.

As part of our work on Web for Agriculture initiative, and our related projects (W4RA, VBAT, VOICES), I’ve read numerous reports on ICT for agriculture, or ICT for the base of the pyramid (see e.g. my last post on ICT for the BoP). I’m typically skeptical on the need for yet another study. However, this is one of the best, most easy to read, overviews of the potential of ICT/Mobile in agriculture. It is pretty rare to see such studies with a holistic approach centered on farmers, their needs, and elements that could improve their lives. It would have been helpful to add another chapter on how to scale up, in a sustainable manner, the services reviewed in the report so that they are directly usable by the majority of people at the base of the pyramid. This is where the current work of the Web Foundation shows promise, as discussed below.

Rosemary Leith Leads Discussions on Internet Security at the World Economic Forum Global Summit

Oct 13, 2011 at 7:21 pm • Steve Bratt • Leave a Comment

On plenary panel at the World Economic Forum Summit, Abu Dhabi, October 2011

Rosemary Leith, founding Director of the Web Foundation, led discussions on Internet security and its role in global governance at the World Economic Forum Summit on the Global Agenda, held in Abu Dhabi earlier this week. The Summit brought together more than 800 influential thought leaders to address the most pressing global challenges. Not surprisingly, the economy and governance were at the top of the list.

Ms. Leith chairs the Forum’s Global Agenda Council on the Future of Internet Security. In Abu Dhabi, the Council focused its attention on security and privacy challenges that pose threats to our world; a world increasingly dependent upon the Internet and Web. Specific topics on the table included how to manage Internet security among global stakeholders, as well as cybercrime and control of personal data.

Mobile Entrepreneurship Initiative @ Over the Air conference

Oct 10, 2011 at 4:22 am • Franco Papeschi • Leave a Comment

Last week I spent one day at Over the Air, checking some of the most interesting evolutions in the mobile world. For those of you who don’t know what Over the Air is:

“a unique tech-agnostic event for and by the developer community, featuring technical workshops where attendees can roll up their sleeves and tinker with new platforms, operating systems, APIs & SDKs; and tutorial sessions that feature real business cases, new insights and a healthy dollop of inspiration. Attendees are invited to stay overnight so that they can work on ideas, apps and hacks on the fly – to be entered into the various hack-athon competition categories and demo’ed on the second day. It’s a great vibe of bean bags, gadgets, knowledge sharing, hacking & lots of good geekery”

News

Review of the new Vodafone/Accenture report on Mobile for Agriculture

Rosemary Leith Leads Discussions on Internet Security at the World Economic Forum Global Summit

Mobile Entrepreneurship Initiative @ Over the Air conference