Rural Data Collection Boosted by Mobile Technology

Scientists have harnessed a free operating system to turn a mobile phone into a device for collecting data in the developing world. The Open Data Kit (ODK), developed by scientists at the University of Washington, United States, is a free set of tools that helps organisations collect information in areas with poor infrastructure.

It uses Android, an open-source mobile operating system launched two years ago by a number of companies including Google. "There are many organisations working on all kinds of projects to improve different aspects in developing regions. In order for these organisations to make decisions or determine the effects of their projects, they need to collect various kinds of information," study co-author Carl Hartung told SciDev.Net.

ODK enables users to collect a range of data including GPS locations and barcode scans. "The tools we've developed can help them collect a wide variety of data, create visualisations, and analyse it very quickly," Hartung said. "We've found a lot of organisations were building a lot of one-off tools that were very similar," he says, adding that they're trying to make theirs as compatible and flexible as possible.

One example where ODK has been successfully trialled is the Academic Model Providing Access to Healthcare (AMPATH), said Hartung, a partnership between Kenya's Moi University and Indiana University in the United States. The programme seeks to train Kenyan community health workers testing patients in rural areas for diseases. In field trials, health workers used the phones to scan patients' identity codes — rather than entering them manually — locate themselves within seconds using GPS, and upload the data automatically.

Following the success of the trial AMPATH will deploy 100 ODK phones by the end of this year, with an eventual goal of 300 phones. "This opens doors by allowing us to bring data collected in the field directly into our medical records system," said Burke Mamlin, assistant professor of medicine at the Indiana University School of Medicine.

"Now we have a phone, all the personal digital assistant capability, the ability to read barcodes, and the ability to capture images or video, all in one unit." The system is described in the October issue of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers' Computer magazine.

Source: SciDev.Net
Link: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/rural-data-collection-boosted-by-mobile-tech.html

Developing countries falling into 'broadband gap'

(Source: Scidev.Net)

[CAIRO] Limited access to broadband Internet is crippling the spread of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in the developing world and widening the already significant digital divide, a report has warned.

Bandwidth availability is low and the cost of broadband Internet is high in many developing countries, says 'Information Economy Report 2009', released last month by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD).

Prices can reach more than US$1,000 per month in countries such as Burkina Faso and Kazakhstan. Australia, a country with little more than 20 million residents, has more broadband users than the whole of the African continent.

This broadband gap deprives developing country businesses of economic development opportunities such as call centres and offshore offices.
"Broadband access is almost a must for companies with international branches," Ahmed Ali, a software engineer at computing giant IBM's Egypt branch, told SciDev.Net.

While major companies such as his use a satellite Internet connection, smaller companies that provide offshore services for businesses in other regions need a fast communication channel. "If broadband is not sufficient then it will be a problem for them and may hinder progress of their work," he says.

But the mobile phone market is booming in the developing world despite the economic crisis, the report found. Mobile phone penetration reached 100 per cent in countries such as Bahrain, South Africa and Qatar. Growth in mobile use increased more than eightfold in less than ten years.

Mobiles are becoming the preferred mode of communication over landlines and are increasingly fulfilling ICT needs. "We now see three and four mobile service providers opening up in these countries to fill demand. For many people, it is becoming an important tool for business as well as accessing the Internet," Ahmed Momtaz, a telecommunication engineer at Vodafone Egypt, told SciDev.Net.

The report suggests governments can work with Internet providers to narrow the broadband gap by promoting competition to bring down prices and the sharing of infrastructure to reduce costs by preventing duplicate efforts. Governments can also promote Internet centres to offer access to people in poorer regions. The UNCTAD report also calls for the expansion of underwater fibre optics network, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa.
(Source: SciDev.Net: www.scidev.net)

Biosafety back on the agenda in Pakistan

Source: Scidev.Net

[ISLAMABAD] Pakistan has relaunched its agency overseeing regulation of biotechnology research, arming it with more powers that include developing stricter biosafety laws.
The new task force, announced last month, replaces the previous Pakistan Biological Safety Association (PBSA) launched just a year ago by the country's Higher Education Commission’s (HEC) core group in life sciences.

The PBSA was backed by Atta-ur-Rahman, who stepped down as chairman of the HEC in October 2008, apparently dissatisfied with the new government's low funding for universities.
It is among the several institutes affected after Rahman's resignation. The HEC's core group on life sciences itself was closed down in 2008 and the PBSA was reduced to a volunteer society of professionals running only biosafety awareness campaigns, with no government funding.

The new task force consists of scientists drawn from the departments of science, environment, atomic energy and foreign affairs of 21 bioscience institutes. They will regulate bioscience research, monitor for bioterrorism and introduce biosafety in university bioscience syllabi.

One of the task force's immediate priorities is to introduce in Pakistan's parliament, within the next six months, a new law meting life imprisonment to researchers misusing bioscience research.

"We hope to get a biosafety law passed by the parliament very soon which will make biosafety not just voluntary but a legal obligation," PBSA convenor Anwar Nasim, who heads the new task force, told SciDev.Net.

"Apart from promoting productive research, the task-force will also monitor professionals engaged in performance of biological, biomedical, biotechnological and other life sciences research work to ensure that high-risk materials and data are not used for destructive proposes," Pakistan foreign ministry's director-general Irfan Yousaf, told SciDev.Net.

Shahana Kazmi, professor of microbiology and dean of the faculty of sciences at the University of Karachi, describes the development as "vital for avoiding directionless research in biotechnology".

"Making of laws is good but their implementation is best. We expect this body to ensure the implementation of biosafety laws and set national priorities in biotechnology research to avoid wastage of funds and efforts," Kazmi told SciDev.Net.
(Source: Scidev.Net: www.scidev.net)