NetSquared teaming up with Sun Microsystems to produce global Hack Days. First stop, San Paolo, Brazil on October 1, 2008. Next up, China! Register: Collaborate for Change.
Hello again from Swaziland. I wanted to clarify a bit about my previous posts....I am the founder of YouthAssets, and organization dedicated to connecting orphans, particularly those of child-headed households to the information and resources that they need. We are exploring the use of mobile phones to provide access to support systems and information that is valuable to them.
I just attended a 3-day conference with southern African leaders working to support orphans and vulnerable children - the conference was to develop sustainable strategies to help with the orphan crisis here. Although no mention was made specifically of ICT tools used currently, the delegates defined a GREAT need for collaboration, information sharing, data collection, and instant communication.
Jennifer Sly is the Founder of YouthAssets, a Featured Project at the NetSquared Conference.
Well, I made it Swaziland. After a short ride on a SMALL place - they take ALL of your luggage, purses, and bags because there is no room for anything in your seat! It was a quick ride - only 40 minutes - and I was sitting to a very nice gentleman who was travelling to Swaziland for the first time from Senegal. He was attending a trade conference at the same location as my OSISA conference so maybe I will see him again.
YouthAssets will develop a web-based knowledge management tool that utilizes the latest mapping technologies and collaboration tools to enable youth and their supporters to share critical information about and for HIV/AIDS orphans in Southern Africa.
Current technical components of YouthAssets are: (1) Collaborative website that will include user profiles and shared spaces (Drupal or other) (2) Collaborative database that will integrate existing data as well create an interface to add new data on youth in Africa and resources available (SQL server or Oracle, ESRI, etc.) (3) Maps of aggregated data into visual format (Google Earth or other) (4) Use of software to be used on mobile devices