Archive for 2010
Rose Shuman to address the Africa Gathering in London
Tuesday, June 29th, 2010
Rose Shuman, founder of Open Mind and Question Box Project will be speaking at an exciting Africa Gathering in London themed “World leading technologies changing Africa” on July 3rd, 2010.
Africa Gathering brings technophiles, thinkers, entrepreneurs, innovators and everybody else together to talk about positive change in sustainable development, technology, social networking, health, education and good governance in Africa. More info…
Rose Shuman is a featured speaker at the Guardian’s ACTIVATE 2010
Thursday, June 17th, 2010
In a video interview with the Guardian, Rose Shuman talks about the pace of Internet spread in the developing world ahead of the ACTIVATE 2010 summit.She is a speaker at the summit.
The Guardian’s Activate Summit is a unique and powerful gathering of global visionaries at the Guardian’s headquarters in London.Its a packed day of ideas and inspiration, providing insight into how the web and the myriad technologies that weave it all together are reshaping our world.
Question Box in Deutsche Welle
Tuesday, May 25th, 2010
Question Box gets written about in Deutsche Welle.
Excerpt:
“Maher founder Sister Lucy Kurien, 54, said Question Box was useful for students who need help with homework and want to find out about exam results. Although that information has been available online, students couldn’t access it – until now.
‘It has been very difficult for them, unless they get (the information) from the newspaper or the radio,” she said. “And we have a simple television program, but we don’t have a television cable connection. It has been very difficult.’ ” Read full article
Open Mind is Now a 501(c)3 – Help us celebrate with a donation!
Thursday, May 6th, 2010Hello supporters and friends of Open Mind – Question Box! We are pleased to announce that Open Mind has recently received 501c3 Status from the IRS – It’s official! That means that all donations from US residents are now fully tax-deductible under the law.
To celebrate, we are starting our first-ever fundraising push! Open Mind is raising $30,000 in order to build a Question Box Total Toolkit that will enable any organization to build and run their own local language telephone hotline. Can you help? Please Donate Now!
Question Box featured on Deutsche Welle Radio
Thursday, May 6th, 2010
Deutsche Welle DW radio QB – It’s in English!
DW reporter Michael Atkin was present at a Question Box inauguration at Maher home for women and children. Hear his firsthand reporting of what he saw and experienced live, and how Question Box became accidentally involved in a competition between two local political parties when each claimed Question Box was their initiative!
Question Box in CNN Money.com
Tuesday, April 20th, 2010
Question Box was recently mentioned in CNN Money.com.
Excerpt:
” ‘Question Box takes a pragmatic approach to how people in the developing world deal with technology,” says Erik Hersman, author of the popular tech and innovation blogs WhiteAfrican.com and Afrigadget.com, and cofounder of crisis-mapping nonprofit Ushahidi. “If I need an answer to a question, it’s much easier to use my voice and have people doing the technical stuff on the backend. A lot of the success around Question Box is to do with it being more analog than digital.’ ” Read full article
Question Box Highlighted in iRevolution blog
Sunday, April 11th, 2010
Patrick Meier, Director of Crisis Mapping and Strategic Partnerships at Ushahidi, presents a strong case for why Question Box should be on the frontlines of vulnerability alert systems worldwide. Excerpt:
“I’m in Bellagio on Lake Como this week for a Blue Sky Thinkers Workshop on the UN’s new Global Impact and Vulnerability Alert System (GIVAS)….(I think) the global alert system should directly empower vulnerable communities to prevent or mitigate the impact of crises on their own livelihoods. In other words, GIVAS should be a self-help system for vulnerable communities. The development and maintenance of this system should be the responsibility of the UN and governments.
So here’s an idea (still under development): why not use the QuestionBox technology and approach to create “call in” centers for information on tactics for resilience.” Read full post now at iRevolution
Uganda Program Schematic
Friday, April 2nd, 2010A beautiful schematic laying out how Question Box’s hotline in Uganda, in collaboration with Grameen Foundation, worked. Thanks to Farida Paramita for graphic assistance. 
Question Box featured in PBS & NDN blogs
Tuesday, March 30th, 2010We have just discovered two wonderful blog posts written about Question Box last Fall. Both posts highlight that voice remains the primary communication method of choice in the developing world. Question Box works from that reality, delivering information to people the way they want it, in their language.
Sam duPont of the Global Mobile Technology Initiative at NDN writes, “This kind of innovation is what’s needed now (in the mobile space)– with such a new technology, we’ll only get anywhere by trying everything, and seeing what really works for the end users.” Read post
Prabhas Pokharel, a Knight News Challenge Winner, writes in IdeaLab, “(Question Box) leverages the voice capabilities of mobile phones to deliver important information in interesting ways.” Read post
