Drew Cogbill | Thesis Blog

Project H Design is a charitable organization that supports, inspires, and delivers life-improving humanitarian product design solutions.

They’ve worked on the Hippo Rollers and the Lifestraw.  The group just finished constructing their first Learning Landscapes math playground at the Kutamba School for AIDS Orphans in Southern Uganda.  The playground uses simple and available materials (tires, wood, concrete) to create a sort of game board for teaching math skills.

(Thanks Carrie Mae!)

There’s a new voice of Pigeon - mine. This is definitely a temporary solution. I’m looking to record in better quality with some voice talent soon. Let me know if you have any problems or can’t understand anything.

WhiteAfrican on Mobile Development

1. The next generation of Africans are more mobile literate than you (or me), so when you develop something make sure you keep it open enough for them to evolve its use.
2. Develop for the common denominator - that is SMS services only. If you have the time, and see a need later, then go for the fancy Java apps.
3. Data services, like SMS are a good starting point, but don’t overlook the use and integration of voice. This is especially relevant in areas where local language dialects and literacy are an issue.
4. If you can, provide a basic service, and let the local users develop a plan for how to use it in their area.

MobileActive.org and Hunter College’s Integrated Media Arts Program are hosting Mobile Tech 4 Social Change - New York, a BarCamp, on Feburary 21.  I’ll be attending.  Anyone want to join?

I’ll be Pigeoning from Belize starting tomorrow for the next 3 weeks.

Happy New Year!

Hear you on Pigeon.

I’ll be presenting at the MFADT stadium review tomorrow at 6:30 in room  D1009 at 6 E16th St in New York City.

Pigeon was featured in PRI’s The World Technology Podcast #222, which was released yesterday.  Thanks much to Clark Boyd for the coverage.

You can download the mp3 directly, from the show notes blog, or on iTunes.

Go ahead and subscribe to the podcast while you’re at it!

There were some issues with Pigeon numbers and pins beginning with 0’s, which have now been resolved.

Pigeon can also now skip a message when 7 is dialed.  I’ve got something like 20 contacts now, and want to be able to skip through messages to play my favorite one for someone to hear or to find new messages.  This could be useful if you have 3 contacts as well.  Soon new messages should be cued to the top of the message pile.

A little under 50 people have signed up and been testing Pigeon so far.

I edited my original Pigeon video about 2 weeks ago but didn’t post it to the blog. The edited video (by happy accident) is just over 1 minute.  In a future edit, I’d like to emphasize the amount of information that I was able to fit into the video in just one minute (the same amount of time given for each Pigeon message).

Pigeon from drewcogbill on Vimeo.

Also available on YouTube.

Rob Katz describes NextBillion.net as this:

..a movement in which profit is not seen in a pejorative way. Profit is actually seen as a way we can drive positive economic development…

via AfriGadget