[Web4lib] Mobenzi > Mobile-Phone-Based Empowerment

[gerrymck]

Mobenzi is a software service that empowers people to earn money by
completing simple tasks on their mobile phones.

The Concept

Mobenzi is a software service that empowers people to be rewarded for
completing simple tasks on their mobile phones. These tasks involve certain
types of problems that are difficult for a computer to solve without
assistance from a real person – even someone without expert knowledge of the
problem.

We are seeking to uncover new applications for these ‘human intelligence
tasks’ and build the systems to process them, so that we can create novel
technology solutions and help thousands of poor people earn additional
income.

History

Clyral is a software development company based just outside of Durban in
South Africa. In 2006 we created Mobile Researcher to allow organisations to
capture data in remote locations using standard mobile phones. We designed
the software as a platform because we had many other application ideas that
involved the completion of mobile forms.

Pilot Project

In 2009 we partnered with the Business Trust, through their Shared Growth
Challenge Fund to extend the Mobile Researcher platform to cater for the
completion of human intelligence tasks and to pilot the service with low
income people in South Africa’s urban poverty nodes.

Links To Source / How Mobenzi Works / News Coverage / Etc. Available At

[ http://tinyurl.com/yeogj25 ]

And/Or

[
http://mobile-libraries.blogspot.com/2010/01/mobenzi-mobile-phone-based-empowerment.html]

/Gerry

Gerry McKiernan
Associate Professor
Science and Technology Librarian
Iowa State University Library
Ames IA 50011

Follow Me On Twitter > http://twitter.com/GMcKBlogs

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