Despite the best efforts of the development community, resource-dependent developing countries continue to be plagued by economic stagnation and political corruption.  The solution rests in the palm of our hand.  By utilizing the existing mobile phone infrastructure to establish a nation-wide m-banking system, these countries will be able to use digital direct transfers to solve the resource curse.

Direct transfers have limited corruption in extractive industries in developed countries, but many policy analysts believe that this approach is not a viable option in the developing world.  However, the m-banking movement is demonstrating that mobile technology can make financial systems possible even in the poorest settings.  Therefore, by using M-banking on a national scale to implement a digital direct transfer system, resource-dependent developing countries will be able to harness the benefits of the developed world’s solution to extractive industry and in so doing, promote good governance and guard against corruption.     

Though complex in implementation, this project is simple in design.  The establishment of a national m-banking system will be part of the negotiated resource contract.  Using national identity numbers, an individual bank account will be created for each registered citizen, and then a proportional share of the nation’s resource revenue will be electronically transferred into each one of these accounts on a regular and predictable basis with market prices and transfer amounts announced on the radio, newspaper and on an accompanying SMS.  These deposits, like those in M-banking, will be accessible with any cell phone and will be able to be easily transferred to another account or converted into cash at trading centers.

Policymakers in developing countries promote wide-coverage programs that fight poverty and fight social exclusion. They have to spend money, while doing it wisely to avoid inefficiencies and corruption, resorting to costly bureaucracies to monitor program execution. This project intends to use low-cost mobile technology to improve the efficiency of public programs through better monitoring and evaluation. The technology can also be used to reach the poor for services, such as microfinancing and microinsurance.
The nearly universal coverage in developing countries like Mexico, make cell phones an ideal communication tool. Economies of scale and the advance of technology make today’s cell phones as powerful as computer desktops we had only a few years ago. Inexpensive phones today have internet connectivity, photo, video and voice recording capabilities.
Our software is being used to supervise a public program that allows any citizen to open up a publicly-funded family day-care. Day cares have been created everywhere, from the urban neighborhoods of Mexico City to the indigenous villages of Chiapas. The Ministry of Social Development hired us to develop technology to apply a national satisfaction survey and supervise physical and safety conditions. The project hired 170 “supervisors” of varying skill and education and provided them with a $50 cell phone with the installed software (which is based on open-source and supervisors could download updates themselves) to conduct the study.
Survey results and pictures were delivered and monitored in real time. Researchers were able to relay any information about hazardous conditions, child abuse or neglect. Pictures were sent for full assessment.  The technology allowed for monitoring of the supervisors (i.e. knowing when a very short visit had been conducted). The project was a success: it provided an efficient way to gather information from remote areas whose public programs often go unsupervised and quality is not assured.

VillageSuite is a concept for a multi-user suite of applications focused on empowering people in developing countries whether urban or rural.  The applications focus on allowing users to utilize banking institutions, receive fairer prices for goods and crops, and increase literacy. 

 Applications include:

Mobile Banking- an application allowing users to utilize payments and transfer funds remotely since many Africans do not have access to bank institutions and are unaware of current mobile banking operations.

Market Prices - Ensures growers can get fair prices for their crops when many are unaware of current market prices by offering daily updated prices from local,  national, and regional markets.  

Store - A simple app utilizing (if available) a phone's camera  and simple interface for villagers to list items for sale from singular to bulk local or internationally. Included would be a payment system linked with the banking app to ensure villagers receive cash and has it protected.  Farmers could also use this app to inform buyers of harvests, overstock, and other sales items as well.

Reading - An application devoted to increasing literacy by teaching users how to read with audio and quick tests.

Math - Allows children to learn basic math concepts from adding and multiplication to more concept business related subjects.

Logistics - Bring drivers, pilots, and producers together with updated pickup, shipping, and delivery times as well as alerting each other of new orders and changed schedules to enhance efficiency and cut down  on cost.

The suite would have a multi-user interface to allow people to share the same device while not giving up privacy or security.  In case some users are illiterate, the icons will be user-friendly and clear of purpose as well as an audio byte in the native language the app's basic function when pressed.  This last feature can be turned off however would be the default. The software would be open-sourced so other developers could personalize and improve upon it as well as increase the availability via cost.

For too long, we have conducted development without good information about our “customers” – the people whose lives we want to improve through our money and effort. We believe this is because developing countries often lack good statistical information on which policy-makers, donors, and private companies can base sound decisions. To date, our knowledge has mostly been limited to expensive door-to-door surveying techniques or difficult phone interviews. The proliferation of mobile phones in developing countries opens the exciting possibility of surveys reaching far fewer people for far less money and providing income for the beneficiaries themselves.

In this system, text messages would be sent to mobile phone users with one or two question surveys, perhaps about health care, education, or even consumer preferences. To provide an incentive to reply, mobile phone credits or mobile banking payments will be issued in exchange for complete surveys. Backend analysis will be used to improve credibility of the results, a task which will be made easier by the large number of people reachable using this system.

Those data can then be used by local, regional or national governments to improve service delivery, by donors and multilaterals for analysis and reporting and even by private companies interested in serving the bottom of the pyramid.

The data platform itself could also have the added benefit of spurring on the spread of cell phones and mobile banking to underserved populations. Instead of being a service they have to pay for, they can be paid to have access to these technologies and financial products.

We have conducted over one year of research to advance this concept and have determined that many of the tools already exist but have never been aligned in quite the right way. We are looking for seed capital and partners to help us launch this exciting venture.

Dana Worth and John Stephenson, the project directors, have extensive experience in both the private and public sectors. We both started our careers at private sector strategy consulting firms and now work at Dalberg Global Development Advisors, a firm that applies business approaches to the challenges of development. Through our involvement with healthcare and humanitarian response works, we have been struck by how little data district, province, national and international decision-makers have at their disposal, and consequently, how many critical decisions were made based on old numbers of just plain gut-feeling.

The only media currently reaching most remote mountain communities arrives via shortwave radios that offer no opportunity for community output. This media isolation is linked to a lack of political representation, transparency and accountability made worse by the fact that mountain people often do not speak the colonial languages of policymakers. Furthermore, illiteracy impedes communication even among regional communities. These barriers make political participation difficult at all levels of governance.

Given the strong traditions of oral knowledge transmission in mountain communities, video statements with translated subtitles and multilingual web capability are powerful and relevant tools in navigating the linguistic and geographic barriers these communities face to political representation on local, national and international levels. Videophones are practical, economic, and effective tools to record the content of these videos in remote areas. To these ends, Mountain Media will provide the training, equipment, and business strategies necessary to make videophone media production a self-sustaining tool in two indigenous communities in Peru: Pisac, a small town located in the Sacred Valley outside of Cusco; and the Communities of Q’eros, an extremely isolated mountain community in the high Andes.

To accomplish its goals in each community, Mountain Media will arrange tutorials between local film professionals and two members of each community to train them as community media experts. Once trained, the media experts will integrate weekly classes into the local school curriculum at local production studios powered with solar panels and connected via satellite Internet. Mountain Media will produce a clear protocol for replication in other mountain areas, hopefully one day leading to an exchange of self-expressed experiences and ideas among the global community of mountain peoples.

This project's aim is to provide refugees the possibility of giving information of their position through easy web mechanisms, using webforms in html, chtml, xhtml-mp and wml. This will cover all the used markups for accessing the mobile web. Also, in order to help the ones without the chance of browsing the mobile Internet, a SMS system might be useful to be developed.

But the core of this idea is to provide the relatives of those refugees ways of retrieving that position data in a easy way. This will mitigate their stress, because you suffer a lot when a relative is lost in the middle of a crisis. So because of this problem, this idea wants to provide efficient ways of at least knowing that they're alive and safe.

Also, I want to provide tools to coordinate and manage the donations given by the donors. That way, they will know that on a certain spot are needed certain type of things, so they might distribute goods according to the actual necessities.

Another interesting point of this idea is that this software will contribute to track and trace the path of the donations, so if it “vanish” at any point of the chain (or if there are delays in the delivery times), that place will be properly identified. The idea is that people knows that the donations are being traced, it will reduce robberies to precious material that refugees absolutely need.

And in order to do that track & trace in an efficient and easy way, mobiles will be employed. So beyond simple webforms that gave possibility to gather information, the possibilities of employing qr codes and datamatrix codes will be developed. In theory, this will be helpful, because only with a photo shot of a mobile, the data contained in those bidimensional codes will be inputed in a fast and easy way, which results in a more efficient time management. The only downsize of this idea is that only the most moder devices count with a camera, so this might be a problem if we do not provide other ways of inputing the information.

Opening communication in repressive societies is key to empowering today’s citizens to work together for a peaceful and sustainable tomorrow. Giving communities the ability to make decisions for themselves and helping to facilitate dialogue has staggering implications for human rights and for attaining benchmarks such as the Millennium Development Goals. Digital technology can help bridge linguistic, geographic and cultural divides that have traditionally seperated people, allowing them to coordinate work, share resources and ideas, and communicate with local, regional and global audiences.

Our project is the Virtual Community Center (VCC). VCC is an open-source social networking web platform designed for community-based organizations.  Similar in principle to traditional community centers, VCC is a place for groups to come together. As a secure, multi-lingual, open source platform, organizations can connect, communicate and share resources through computers and mobile phones. It features mapping, blogging, data exchange and links to other tech tools. The website will be developed, maintained and edited in collaboration with border-based local partners.

VCC is an electronic hub that also connects other interactive program modules including participatory education programs, etc. It will strengthen social bonds within and among communities, fostering networking and civic participation to improve lives.

VCC’s pilot works with In their homeland, it is illegal for people to assemble in groups of more than 5 at a time. As many as 3.5 million Burmese have been displaced from Burma, according to Refugees International. Those living as refugees in neighboring countries are unable to travel freely to meet and organize. VCC provides a place for communities to work together more efficiently and effectively for a better tomorrow.

One of the greatest problems which is faced during the successful implementation of the Development Schemes is lack of proper awareness about them amongst the target beneficiaries and if they need it would cost them a lot of time and money just to get the information. Our project aims to change the scenario of widespread ignorance about these Schemes by means of a centralized information system. The project aims to bridge this gap and spread awareness so that there is a wider reach of the development programmes and the poor may be able to avail all its benefits. This information dissemination to the public as per the project proposal would involve establishment of around 35 Call Centers across the country having a Toll Free number.

So the idea is to give free of cost information to them and also spread awareness at the same time. This idea would work both on the push and pull theory. The Push theory involves spreading of awareness of Existence of various Schemes via SMS (mobile advertising) to the mobile customers on a regular basis. As per the Pull theory the Call Centre executives of each State specific Call Centre would be trained to cater to the needs of the callers  by providing them any information related to the Schemes which is applicable in that area/region.

The project would involve establishing one call center operating in each State/UT enabling smooth and clear transition of information about the Centre/State/Local government run Schemes in the various sectors such as education, employment, welfare, health, and infrastructure, in their respective regional languages to the Callers. The data comprising all the schemes and their benefits will be collected and stored in one location (Centralized Server) and will be distributed to the various Call Centers (decentralized) operating in different states as and when required by a Caller.

We envisage that the project would be having the following impacts in the long term:

v     Creating knowledge is bliss scenario and hence an increased number of beneficiaries claiming the benefit of the schemes and thus a better life for them in the long term.

v     Also it would help in establishing transparency into the implementation system as ignorance about the schemes and their features is one of the greatest corruption enablers.  It can help in positive modification of the schemes as per the actual needs of the poor.

VOTE is a mobile enabling the needs of blind and 'deaf and dumb' too. Developing a voice-activated mobile which would convert their speech into messages that may be read by other users including 'deaf and dumb' enables mobile usage to everyone. This voice activated message would convert the person’s voice (predominantly blind) into text messages which may be sent through a click.
WHO is benefited?
This project mainly aims at the needs of blind and 'deaf and dumb'. This can be used in any mobile and can be developed as software in all these devices. A unique system of  "message into voice " enabling the 'deaf and dumb' to communicate with the blind thereby developing a complete system for both .
WHO is working?
 The squad consists of 3 students working on the project VOTE.
WHAT is done?
BLIND to DEAF AND DUMB
The blind speaks out the message he wants to communicate. This is now translated into text message that can be read by the ‘deaf and dumb’ .This is done using a voice-activated system.
DEAF AND DUMB to BLIND
The ‘deaf and dumb’ messages as a normal person do on a mobile. This message is converted to a voice using a software app that the blind can hear. Here we have an added advantage where the ‘deaf and dumb’ not only communicates with the blind but even with the normal human.
This facilitates the ‘deaf and dumb’ to communicate with any person in the world and vice-versa. Here the normal person can even communicate by just conversing rather than typing out the message.
WHEN and WHERE?
Our mission began in September 2008 with the apex of the objective, providing a communiqué for the blind, 'deaf and dumb'.

Our goal is to have almost all of the work done by early 2009 in our workplace.
WHY is it needed?
 Almost 98% in the world use mobiles. To cater the needs of the remaining 2%  predominantly consisting of ‘deaf and dumb’, blind ,this venture has been undertaken Using this platform, we would like to add some more rich enhancements thus making mobile technology wide-reaching
Impact: VOTE will have a great impact on the society of non-mobile users and will urge them to have mobiles too. It breaks the barriers of communication gap developed between the people.

TD proposes a participatory and collaborative understanding of governance practices based on active citizenship to inform the development of a digital networked platform for public discourse in the context of RTI, NREGA and PDS in rural Karnataka. The Right to Information Act (RTI) ensures the realization of the fundamental human right to information in India. The National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) provides employment guarantee to secure household livelihoods in rural India. The Public Distribution System (PDS) is a food access mechanism to ensure food security for the alleviation of poverty. The value of the proposed platform for actors in Indian governance is to enable a fair share of challenges for Citizens, Consumers, Regulators, Executive/Bureaucracy, Legislators/Politicians, and Judiciary.

The current vision of the technical intervention is an Internet enabled Wiki with support for mobile phones and multimedia. Mobile phones and multimedia have been arrived at while considering the textually and digitally non-literate factions of the population for whom access to information counts the most and who have also contributed to the increasing adoption of the mobile phone as a tool for communication. Multimedia support enables the attachment of still images, audio and video files to Wiki pages by the mobile phone or a web browser. This could be used by a government official or interested party to store a still image of public works in progress; it could be used by an illiterate Panchayat member to record the receipt of funds by filing a voice report; it could be used by a local journalist to record a public statement made by a government official. The Wiki itself is to be bi-lingual and users will be able to author pages in both English and Kannada.