News and Notes Roundup - August 24, 2015

Hello and welcome to another round of NDItech’s News and Notes Roundup!

#WorldHumanitarianDay / #whd2015

Last Wednesday, August 24, was World Humanitarian Day, and to mark the occasion, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs launched a campaign to #ShareHumanity. People were asked to “donate” their social media feeds by authorizing an app to post the story of someone facing a humanitarian crisis as well as aid workers, thereby giving a voice to the otherwise voiceless. The stories are still visible at worldhumanitarianday.org - check it out!

NDI at Work!

Check out Kate Cyr’s feature on mobile canvassing in campaigns featuring our very own Chris Doten! Kate explore how mobile technology is innovating the field with examples from NDI’s work in Nigeria and Tunisia.

Speaking of mobile data technology, check out Election Monitoring with Enketo highlighting NDItech’s application of Enketo to quickly analyze election data on a broad scale in both Nigeria and Tunisia.

Tech News:

• Pro-Government Twitter Bots Try to Hush Mexican Activists

• New Research: Iranian Internet Users May Care More About Access than Security

• Internet censorship bill for South Africa has been approved by cabinet

• The Next Level for Russia-China Cyberspace Cooperation?

• The young women who want to help shape the future of the tech industry: Summer camps such as one at Georgetown University in the US aim to encourage more teenage girls into computer coding careers

• Robots Will Steal Our Jobs, But They’ll Give Us New Ones

• Google ordered to remove links to ‘right to be forgotten’ removal stories

• The Lack Of Diversity In Tech Is A Cultural Issue

ICT4D:

• World Humanitarian Day: 3 challenges in the year ahead

• Twitter blocks access to political transparency organisation Politwoops: Group that archives deleted tweets from legislators has its access to social network shut off

• FLIP launches 'wiki' about mechanisms of protection for journalists in Colombia and Mexico

• UN agencies launch call centre to provide displaced communities across Iraq with information on humanitarian assistance

• Social media is transforming emergency communications, study says

• Big Data can make a big impact on social innovation: The CEO of Corporate360 talks about how data analysis and ‘impact sourcing’ can improve the lives of people in rural areas

• Cuban ICT statistics report for 2014

• When to use maps in data visualisation: a great big guide

Mobile News:

• This Indian Startup Gives Mobile User Megabytes of Data for Using Apps: With its new Gigato Platform, Mavin is trying to deliver free Internet to a mobile-first nation

• Yet another Android app security bug: This time 'everything is affected'

• Agent Network Accelerator Survey - India Country Report 2015 (Digital Finance Landscape)

• How Nairobi Is Earning Its Nickname as the Developing World's 'Silicon Savannah': Kenya's capital city is quickly becoming a technology epicenter. An agile mobile banking system is creating new market opportunities for digital entrepreneurs

• Defining Success for Mobile Education in Emerging Markets