gmeltdown

As the pivot25 competition progresses,  I have been getting curious over the nature of applications coming up in the category for mHealth. I thought to myself that perhaps an analysis of locally existing albeit underutilised mHealth applications will help to manage my curiosity. Useful perspective For some reason a lot of my last 8 years was spent working on information systems to improve community based health services. It is a shame that I did not get myself interested enough in SMS based data collection platforms for health service delivery  until recently. Earlier in the year, while reading through @mberg 's blog post I was even surprised by a prediction to see a lot less discussion about the differences in particular platforms ( CommCare , ChildCount+ , FrontlineSMS:Medic , Mwana , MoTeCH ). I could be excused for my apparently slow uptake of these tools because the Kenyan Health IT scene to which I vainly contributed has over the years been mark-timing. The apparent...

My last article in this blog was posted in December 2010. That makes almost 5 months since I made a serious post.  It was by no means intentionally staying away from writing for this long. It was rather more of  'the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak'. To kick start blogging again I shall lazily try to recap the noteworthy developments I have observed in my small technology world during the first three months of 2011. Mobile Monday with Pesapal - January 17 That was an inspiring moment especially listening to Agosta Liko of PesaPal . It was impressive to see a local technology startup begin to penetrate the corporate market place - with schools and banks. I still have not heard much from them regarding one of my wish list items though. They should think more through the possibilities for Kenyans paying monthly rent using PesaPal - their great payment information service. Liko's powerpoint presentation can be downloaded here . OpenMRS meetup  - January 24 Desp...

Two week old context On the Saturday of December 4th 2010, I fought my way out of bed to make it on time for Mindspeak with Robert (Bob) William Collymore. Bob has been Safaricom’s Chief Executive Officer from October 2010 and many Kenyans were curious to hear ‘anything’ from him at the increasingly popular event.  Mindspeak is an event organized monthly on Saturday mornings by Mr. Aly Khan Satchu  (Chief Executive Officer of Rich.co.ke). The venue for the event is  usually at the Nu Metro cinema, Westgate Mall in Nairobi’s Westlands area. The MindSpeak happened only two months after another insightful event I wrote about on ‘ Reflections with Michael Joseph of Safaricom’ at the iHub Nairobi. A number of bloggers including James Murua , Tovuti Sanifu and UjenziBora have chronicled their observations at the MindSpeak event with Bob Collymore. A lot of the attendants were also tweeting the event live and their live feed was captured by afrinnovator using CoveritLive....

Emerging battle fronts for Safaricom, Orange, Yu  and Airtel Kenya It has been correctly observed that for the Kenyan Mobile Network Operator (MNO) the voice market is only a cash cow in a wide array of business ventures and revenue streams.  Last week I wrote about the epic battle between Safaricom and Airtel in the voice and Short Message Service (SMS) market. I shall call these engagements battles as they appear to be quite a number along a couple of frontiers that our MNOs will need to fight it out over time. This is all in the bigger, long term war among the operators for favor with Kenyan consumers. In this post, I shall share some quick, simple thoughts on the various market frontiers The mobile money frontier Safaricom’s M-PESA service in Kenya has in the past two years become a globally acclaimed success . It has revolutionised lives in Kenya. The country has also become an attractive market for products building on innovations around mobile money. All the othe...

Misplaced Application of Old Wisdom An old swahili saying goes like '' Wapingapo fahali wawili, ziumiazo ni nyasi '. It means 'When two bulls fight, it is the grass that suffers'. When applied to competition in Kenya’s mobile network operator industry, it would mean that where two heavy weight players battle it out, it is the consumers that suffer. I do not intend to despise the wisdom of our long gone ancestors but once in a while I am convinced we need to test some of the old wisdom for relevance in our dynamic times. In the current age of information, globalization and civil liberties some of our old sayings might have acquired a 'diminished relevance' status. When two large companies fight it is most likely for the attention of the consumer and the swahili saying may not apply to the situation. The initial battle front In October 2010, Airtel took on the mobile network market by storm, drastically lowering calling rates to Kes 3 (USD .038) regarless of...