In December 2010, Kobina Graham discovered just how much was riding on the social media project he had been working on. At the launch of the Constitution Review Commission’s text campaign he was told ‘This is the first campaign of its type in Ghana. If it works, it will be a model to follow. If it fails it will be held up as the reason why we should never do social media campaigns in Ghana again.’ No pressure.

A month later, and with over 20,000 text submissions under his belt, Kobina is breathing a little easier.

Studies suggest that when Africans go online (predominantly with their mobile phones) they spend much of their time on social media platforms (Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and so on). Sending and reading e-mails, reading news and posting research queries have become less important activities for Africans.

In recent months Facebook — the major social media platform worldwide and currently the most visited website in most of Africa — has seen massive growth on the continent. The number of African Facebook users now stands at over 17 million, up from 10 million in 2009. More than 15 per cent of people online in Africa are currently using the platform, compared to 11 per cent in Asia. Two other social networking websites, Twitter and YouTube, rank among the most visited websites in most African countries. (more)

See also: Africa’s Facebook bright spots

Twitter’s deal with MTN Cameroon is already being seen a boon for cost-conscious startups. Among the biggest barriers for those building mobile information services is the prohibitive cost of SMS, currently priced at 50 francs (10 cents) for sending an out of network SMS. Even at bulk SMS gateway rates, these costs can quickly add up to the majority of a lean startup’s burn rate. Many enterprising techies have already begun exploring ways to use Twitter as a no-cost group SMS platform. Paul Graham would love this, since one of his three tenets of creating a startup is to spend as little money as possible. One early entrant in this space is Agro-Hub, an ActivSpaces social business that aims to quickly build a user base by delivering market data, news and sustainable farming tips at no cost. Until recently, the bulk of their costs have gone into paying for SMS. Agro-hub: “Twitter slashes outbound SMS expenditure by almost 75% giving a tremendous boost for the start-up to take off smoothly.”

Agro-Hub realizes that their target audience—smallholder farmers in Cameroon—aren’t willing to pay for an unproven SMS service, so their model is based on providing free updates. After farmers follow Agro-Hub:Informer on Twitter with their mobiles, Agro-Hub:Trader aims to earn revenue from nominal fees collected when goods are sold directly to the end consumer. Farmers benefit from economies of scale by organizing into cooperatives and bypassing exploitative middlemen, while consumers get local produce at reduced costs.

This model stands in contrast to Google’s innovative SMS offering that launched with fanfare to serve Uganda’s poor only to see usage plummet when mobile operators started charging a premium for the SMSs.

Around 60 per cent of all mobile phones being sold by MTN in its own-branded shops in South Africa are smartphones, according to MTN CEO Karel Pienaar, speaking at Informa Telecoms & Media’s AfricaCom event in Cape Town on Wednesday. MTN is also selling 3,000-5,000 mobile broadband-enabled laptops per month.

http://www.kencall.com/

The continent of Africa is looking to beef up its data-collecting and storing capabilities, as was announced this week at the annual conference of the The Committee on Data for Science and Technology (CODATA) in Cape Town. A preview of the World Data Centre on Biodiversity and Human Health in Africa–which is set to open next year–was on preview at the meeting.

Data on Africa is currently primarily dispersed in countries outside the continent, but “the new centre aims to collect all this data into a single, online, resource that could be useful for African policymakers,” SciDev.net reports.

Independent Software Vendors (ISVs) use clouds to deliver applications known as Software as a Service (SaaS), which are accessed through PCs and mobile phones… This paradigm integrates mobile, Internet and cloud technologies to deliver business applications for SMEs. It solves many ICT challenges for sub-Saharan SMEs. The SaaS vendor manages the business application and there is no need for huge up-front capital expenses, as it is provided with a monthly subscription (typically less than $10/ month/ user).

Based on these assumptions, the authors develop algorithms to detect earthquakes, predict their epicenter and infer opportunities for assistance. The results? Using call data to detect when in February 2008 the earthquake took place yields a highly accurate result. The same is true for predicting the epicenter. This means that call activity and cell phone towers can be used as a large-scale seismic system.

MXShare is a platform which when installed in the core of a mobile network enables people who cannot afford to buy a handset to have a fully functioning Cloud Phone which they access using other people’s shared phones.

http://www.movirtu.com/index-4c.html