Once more I would like to introduce some papers that I found interesting and insightful during writing my thesis.
Mobile banking and economic development: Linking adoption, impact, and use - by Jonathan Donner, Microsoft Research India and Camilo Andres Tellez, London School of Economics and Political Science. It was published this December in the Asian Journal of Communication.
In the following a short summary of the paper:
The paper is about research of the usage of m-banking and m-payment systems which are used by people without access to traditional banks. Specifically, small enterprises in urban India are observed.
Across the developing world, there are probably more people with mobile phones than with bank accounts. In countries like The Phillipines or Kenya services which provide banking services via mobile phone are very popular.
In the developing world, m-banking/m-payment applications are appreciated by the customers as well as the companies. Customers are happy that they get an affordable possibility to transfer money without handling cash, mobile phone companies see it as an easy service to offer and strengthen the bond to the customer, banks have identified it as a convenient method of “branchless banking”.
Most systems offer three services:
Store value in an account via a handset
Convert cash in and out of the stored value account
Transfer value between accounts
To date there is only few research on adoption and usage of m-banking/m-payment systems, especially the contextual factors have not been studied so far.
Three examples for important contextual factors:
Conceptualizing Electronic Money:
interface to handle account services has to be easy and understandable
“invisible money” has to be represented in an appropriate way
Existing Payment Mechanisms
existing mechanisms and their functioning have to be kept in mind
The Social Embeddedness of Economic Transactions
differences to whom the money is given
woman empowerment through greater indepence?
When m-banking/m-payment is studied, there are doubtlessly many parallels to other ICTs. Considering it generally as an ICT4D, there are three cross-cutting themes which characterize the social structures underlying the usage of technology:
Bi-directionality of influence between communication technologies and the social structures in which they exist
Amplification and altering of existing social structures
Introduction of trust in the technology, in people, in own skills, …
Picture taken by Turkairo and uploaded on FlickR
Own study in urban India:
Despite the IT boom in India, most enterprises are still traditional, small and informal - without bank accounts. This study explores, how m-banking/m-payment systems might be used there. Business owners from Bangalore were interviewed for that purpose.
Three types of approaches were identified:
Relational businesses:
no need for complex ICTs
desire for mobile phone, but problems with affodability
Locational businesses:
special relations to people in their business network
Formal enterprises:
bigger companies
active users of ICTs
Usage of ICTs has different motivations:
Getting new customers
Keeping better in contact with present customers
issues with trust and user capabilities
19 of 20 enterprises will for now stick to the face to face model for credits
Cost-savings are an important reason for using ICTs nowadys
More research concerning the conventions of using ICTs would be useful
This could explain the current usage of some services
the impact of providing the “unbanked” with a bank account have to be studies more closely
Conclusion:
The emergence of m-banking/m-payment has implications for the whole social and economic sphere
the borders between domestic/productive and social/transactional spheres are blurred
both, social and economic spheres should be considered in further research
“the true measure of that importance [of m-banking/m-payment] will require multiple studies using multiple methodologies and multiple theoretical perspectives before our questions about adoption and impact will be answered [from the article]“
Eben Conley works as business analyst at cell life, an organization that develops web and mobile solutions for the HIV sector in Africa. In this interview he talks about his work at cell life and explains how creating mobile applications for collecting data from patients and organizations helps them to make concise decisions for creating mobile solutions.
This is the 7th interview from our MobileActive08 video podcast series, shot at the conference in Johannesburg (organized by MobileActive and sangonet).
Again I would like to introduce some papers that I found interesting and insightful during writing my thesis.
This time I will introduce the paper “Transforming Recent Gains In The Digital Divide Into Digital Opportunities: Africa And The Boom In Mobile Phone Subscription” from 2006. Based on recent developments it sums up the potential impact of the mobile phone on African society and economy. It was written by Peter A. Kwaku Kyem and Peter Kweku LeMaire (Central Connecticut State University, USA) for an issue of the online available journal “The Electronic Journal of Information Systems in Developing Countries” (EJISDC).
In the following a short summary of the paper:
In the past years mobile phone subscriptions, fixed lines and internet access have increased in Africa quicker than in any other region on earth. The questions are now if this technological boost can be used for socioeconomic improvements and if, without accompanying measures, it is enough to raise the living standard.
Digital divide:
“The gap results from socio-economic differences in the world that in turn affect their access to digital information. The digital divide thus reflects existing economic divisions in the world.“- from Dzidonu, C.K. (2001) - The Socio-Economic Development Implications of the Digital Divide within the context of African Countries
The digital divide was until 2004 decreased and the access to ICTs in developing countries is now catching up with the western world. A substantial task is now, not to focus just on the physical presence of the ICTs, but to have a clear vision of their use.
The mobile phone is unique in Africa, as it serves as the main communication device now and can take many hurdles, which conventional ICTs did not. Therefore it is the main ICT nowadays available (= becoming ubiquitous) and has a high economic potential.
Direct economic benefits:
microenterprises
outsourcing from developed countries is through ICTs possible
market information for rural and poor areas
organization and information - substitute for travels and person-to-person communication
improved banking services through M-banking
Socio-cultural impacts of mobile phones:
belonging to a communication network rahter than to a place
strengthen democracy (protests, elections)
status symbol
mixing of private and public life
increased sense of security
Other potential uses and impacts of mobile phones in Africa
improved health services
improved education
e-government
But overall, adoptions of the technology must come with improvements in other infrastructure areas, otherwise there will be no impact. Furthermore governments need to adapt appropriate ICT policies.
.
Although the paper doesn’t come up with the most surprising answers, it gives a good overview of the potentials of mobile phones in Africa. I think the main conclusions are still valid though a lot has happened in those two years since the paper was written. For the whole paper I may refer to EJISDC.
As I am basically finished writing my Master thesis (hopefully my supervisor thinks like that too), I would like to introduce some papers that I found interesting and insightful.
This first on is “Village Pay Phones and Poverty Reduction: Insights from a Grameen Bank Initiative in Bangladesh” and is actually a classic. It was written by Abdul Bayes (Professor of Economics, Jahangimagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh), Joachim von Braun (Director at the Center for Development Research, Bonn, Germany) and Rasheda Akhter (Researcher, Jahangirnagar University, Dhaka, Bangladesh) in 1999 for the Center for Development Research (ZEF) in Bonn.
I deals with the impact of the Village Pay Phone project of the Grameen Bank on the social and economic situation in the villages in Bangladesh where the project was implemented.
In the following a short summary of the paper:
The situation in Bangladesh 1999:
Village Pay Phone Lady - picture taken by Jeevs Sinclair
80% of the population live in rural areas
47% of the population live below the poverty line
Overall there is only few basic infrastructure
The telecom sector in Bangladesh:
0.26 fixed lines per 100 people
Calls are expensive
Only 20% of calls are completed successfully
There are many complaints
Mobile phone operators entered the market some years ago and leapfrogged the fixed-line subscriptions almost immediately. The reason for this was also the competition between seven operators.
Village Pay Phones:
Based on an idea of the Grameen Bank
Provide mobile phones to the rural poor
Four international partners built an NGO and acquired the license for GSM
VPPs were only given to women with certain attributes
Call fees and the overall procedure were fixed
Phone owners were usually found to be poorer but socially more conscient than the phone users. Most of the people that made phone calls were non-poor (three-quarters) and male (two-third). Problems were for a lot of users the low connection quality which resulted in a wish for lower rates
The effects of Village Pay Phones:
Economic effects:
The VPP owners gain a net profit of ~270 which accounts for about 1/5 to 1/4 of total income
The profit was mostly spent to installment payments, education and saving
The alternatives for VPPs would have involved transport costs
The consumer surplus is therefore quite high and for the poor it is higher than the not-poor
Farmers gain more money because they know about market prices
Supply of goods became smoother as the market can be better analysed with more information
Foreign exchange has been made more transparent
Livestock keepers are better informed of possible diseases and how to cure them
Poverty was reduced and people have more to eat
Dealing with disasters was made easier due to more communication
Socio-cultural effects:
Empowerment of women - more decisions are taken by women alone, mobility was raised
The owners of VPPs gain higher social status
Phone owners have more knowledge and confidence
.
So overall it can be said, that the whole project was a big success story and this guy has really earned his Nobel Prize. For the whole article I may refer to Google Scholar.
Although many high end projects have been launched in the field of ICT4D, most of the people still can be reached through established media such as radio, television or the basic mobile phone functions - SMS and voice calls. Therefore it doesn’t surprise me that some of the most successful projects in ICT4D (FrontlineSMS, Ushahidi, Tradenet, …) rely on these basic features (mostly SMS) for the front end.
An idea of mine which appeared in the course of writing my thesis was to provide updated information from the internet on a telephone number. Me and my colleagues David Hauer and Andreas Hornich wrote the prototype NoisR which uses the service Podlinez for this purpose. Right now, my colleagues work on expanding this prototype with some new features, I’m curious what will be the outcome.
Recently I’ve come across several other projects with a quite similar approach - to provide information from the internet in an audible representation accessible by phone. Or to just provide functionality of the internet for people without internet and computer.
One project was just recently launched by fellow blogger Drew Cogbill - Pigeon.
In his own words:
“Pigeon is a social network that you access through a phone call. Pigeon gives you one voice message that lasts one minute to tell your world what’s up. You can think of your Pigeon message as a voice status update, an audio micro-blog, or space for citizen journalism.”
He even uploaded a short video on youtube to demonstrate the functions and now invites everybody to try out the service. Several tools which work quite alike are listed in another blog post of his.
Another service I have an eye on already a while, is Mosoko. It tries to provide functions similar to Craigslist, only by voice.
I really think these projects have potential, also keeping in mind the high rates of illiteracy in lesser developed countries which inhibit access to information represented in written form. Furthermore, as already mentioned, the access to mobile phones is increasingly given, whereas the access to computers and internet is not - I am wondering if there are also successful initiatives which combine the internet with radio, which is an even more popular ICT.
This is the second of the interviews we shot the MobileActive08 conference in Johannesburg last month (organized by MobileActive.org and sangonet). In this video Dr Kutoma Wakunuma from Sheffield Hallam University (UK) talks about the social and economic impacts of new technologies in developing countries. She is specifically interested in gender aspects and investigates how mobile phones and the Internet can empower women in countries like Zambia. In the interview she discusses results from a study that she conducted in Zambia four years ago, regarding differences of mobile phone use between men and women. Her conclusion is that there is a need for more research focusing on the downsides (like social conflicts) of new technologies in developing countries.
Nokia released a press release today, announcing that they will introduce affordable mobile phones by the end of November. This is part of Nokia’s ongoing effort to bridge the digital divide. Retail prices for the mobile phones will be starting at 25 EUR.
Nokia further announced the release of Internet services for the emerging market. The services will be available in 2009. They will cover applications and domains like e-mail, agriculture, and health. For example, Mail on Ovi allows users to create an e-mail account directly on the mobile phone. A trial of this service will start by the end of November.
It will be interesting to see the impact of the new devices and services on developing countries in the next months.
Today my colleagues Martin Konzett, Martin Tomitsch and Anders Bolin left to Southern Africa for their big film project on mobile phone usage in Africa.
First they will attend the conference MobileActive08, then travel through various southern African countries to gather material.
Subsequently, the material will be put online under a CC license, reviewed, and in the end the resulting film will be promoted by Anders and his UZI-magazine.
So I hope in the next 6 weeks we will get more or less frequent updates on their experiences and also some pictures.
the head of the UN’s agency for information and communication technologies predicting that there will be 4 billion mobile phone users - or more than half of the planet’s estimated 6.7 billion inhabitants - by the end of this year. [from here]
On SciDev, Katherina Nightingale writes an interesting entry about the applications of podcasts in less developed countries for purposes similar to radio. There is information about a Practical Action project in Peru allowing people to request information and receiving them via a podcast in a nearby telecentre, and several other potential applications for podcasts are presented.
So how is that connected?
Well, actually it’s easy. Podcasts record voice and with mobile phones it’s possible to listen to voice. Now why not combine this and put podcasts somewhere online, accessible with a telephone number? Easy said, easy done - Webby Award winning project Podlinez does just that with any desired podcast and an American number.
In my opinion this would be also a great thing to do with local numbers in less developed countries - to make these podcasts less expensive to call. The combination of podcasts and mobile phones has a low technological entry barrier - every mobile phone has this ability - and it doesn’t even require the user to be literate.
This would be an easy way to make information accessible. In a university course last year, two friends and me already created a mashup which transforms information into a podcast and then publishes it on an American number - NoisR.
Another approach is to create voice-based internet portals, like Mosoko which attempts to offer a voice-based marketplace for goods and services.
So overall this combination has great potentials I think.
A recent article covered two Indian-based companies that provide innovative services through mobile phone text messages. EnableM offers e-learning courses in the form of preparatory guides, sample tests, puzzles, and other tools for MBA, CA, Medical, Law, or Engineering courses. The idea is to provide affordable education that is independent of class rooms. It is also far cheaper than computers, considering that more and more people own a mobile phone: the current number of mobile phone users in the country is nearly 300 million and it is growing almost 10 million per month.
The second company is ZMQ Software Systems, which will launch a program later this year that is particularly aimed at women: it allows them to receive prenatal advice via text messages. This new service includes “weekly tips on what to eat, what vaccines to get, and when to get check-ups” [Snippet taken from here].
Both services show directions how the mobile phone can be used to provide health care and foster eduction in lesser developed areas, for people (especially women), who do not have access to those resources. While this idea seems to be both simple and promising there are still many challenges that remain to be solved. For instance, women have less often access to mobile phones than men.
In May 2008 the Women of Uganda Network organized a workshop entitled “ICTs: Is your wealth a click away?“. They invited people to contribute to a set of questions. Answers posted on the website revealed important issues from users’ perspectives:
It’s still a theory because the common woman has no access to ICTs.
It’s a theory and only reliable for a few urban literates.
ICTs would be more helpful if more content was available in local languages. [Snippet taken from here]
It will be interesting to see how the service for pregnant women in India will perform once it is available and what can be learnt for similar services for LDCs.
[Thanks to Martin for pointing me to the article on livemint.com]
RSS feed
Once more I would like to introduce some papers that I found interesting and insightful during writing my thesis.
