Dale Zak

On Dharma

2012-02-03T15:10:00.000-06:00

A passage on dharma from Robin Sharma's book The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari.

"From Dharma springs inner harmony and lasting satisfaction. Dharma is based upon the ancient principle that says every one of us had a heroic mission while we walk on this Earth. We have all been granted a unique set of gifts and talents that will readily allow us to realize this lifework. The key is to discover them, and in doing so, discover the main objective of your life."

The secret of success is constancy of purpose. The happiness you are searching for comes through reflecting on the worthy aims you are dedicated to achieving and then taking action daily to advance them."

The Future Of Mobile

2012-02-01T21:16:00.002-06:00

This past week I had the pleasure of speaking with the lovely Alicja Peszkowska from NetSquared, sharing my thoughts on problem-driven innovation and the future of mobile. This is a cross-post from that article on the NetSquared blog.

This last blog in the Net2 2012 Look Ahead blog series focuses on the mobile world, and how it is revolutionizing the way we think about social change. I talked it through with Dale Zak, a mobile software developer passionate about helping people in need.

Over the past three years, Dale has contributed to Ushahidi's crowdsourced crisis mapping platform (to learn more about Ushahidi in the context of Net2 watch this net2allstar video), helped The Extraordinaries build their micro-volunteer system, as well as developed open source plugins for FrontlineSMS. He also coordinated several social good initiatives including organizing Mobile Tech 4 Social Change conference in Halifax, formed Apps4Good to bring together software developers to build apps for charity, established Repurposed Labs to re-purpose used computers into public internet terminals for low income communities, and deployed I Vote Because map to spark a pro-democracy movement why voting is important in Canada. This past December Dale travelled to Lusaka to teach Zambia’s first mobile development workshop at the BongoHive.

Dale’s interests and experience intersect with these of NetSquared on many levels -- the technology one, the social change one, as well as the international reach one. Dale has lived and traveled to different countries; he understands the diversity of social problems, and has worked his way through global projects.

Read this short interview with Dale to learn more about how mobiles can change the world, and what they will be changing in the technology world in 2012. I also strongly encourage you to check out Dale’s blog, especially the articles on Building Technology vs. Solving Problems and Harnessing The Power Of Mobile, as well as the blog post from the iHub Nairobi in which he shares his thoughts on mobile design.

Q: What would be your favourite mobile “apps for good” examples?

To understand the true power of mobile, one must appreciate the full spectrum of device capabilities. Even low-end devices with basic SMS, MMS and USSD can be a powerful platform for collaboration. On the high-end side, smartphones with accelerators, touch screens, NFC, GPS capabilities can be an incredibly powerful suite of tools. My favorite mobile apps are the ones that combine these individual device features in an unique way to help solve a problem.

One of my favorites is Safety Siren, an iPhone and Blackberry app developed by YWCA Canada that turns your smartphone into an emergency SOS system. Shaking the device or touching the safety button activates a loud siren which automatically shares your location with an emergency contact. The brilliance behind the app comes by combining the touch-screen, accelerometer, audio, GPS and internet capabilities into an emergency SOS system helping protect the user in an unsafe situation.

M-Farm is another one of my favorites, SMS-based solution that helps empower farmers with accurate market information. The tool utilizes SMS as a platform allowing any SMS-capable phone to obtain accurate market prices. For example, a farmer in Kenya can simply send a text message ‘price tomatoes nairobi' to 3535 and receive the suggested market price. M-Farm is a great example of using an appropriate technology and that even the low-end devices can be a powerful tool for collaboration.

Another one of my favorites is Good Guide, a mobile app that helps empower consumers to buy safe, healthy, and green products. The app utilizes the devices camera as a barcode scanner to provide ratings and personal recommendations for over 120,000 products. Good Guide is a great example of mobile being used a decision making tool, providing valuable information on the demand.

Q: You have worked in many places and environments -- how would you say that social innovation in North American and Europe differ from the one developed Africa?

Last summer I spent four months living in Nairobi and working from the iHub. While there, I noticed a sharp contrast to North America where developers are ‘building technology’ rather than ‘solving problems’. At home, companies are focusing on creating another social network, building another photo sharing app or developing another groupon clone, none of which are solving real problems. In Nairobi, most developers were trying to solve local problems, and in the process finding creative ways to make money. A good example was Pivot25, a mobile development competition in Nairobi where every startup at the event pitched an innovation solution that was aiming at solving a local problem.

There was a great article in The Next Web on The Problem With Silicon Valley Is Itself which really highlighted this issue, “one of the reasons for lack of innovation in the Valley is that entrepreneurs are not exposed to enough real-world problems.” Innovation happens at the intersection of disciplines by identifying a real problem, defining a practical solution, finding an appropriate technology and targeting a local market. Software by itself isn’t very interesting, but applying that technology is where real innovation happens.

A good example is here in Saskatchewan where we have an agriculture based economy, one of the best agriculture colleges in the country and a strong tech community. My question is, why isn’t Saskatchewan a world leader in agriculture software? I believe, one of the reasons is that developers are not having a conversation with farmers about the challenges they are facing. We are missing a huge opportunity because we are focusing on building technology without asking what problem we are trying to solve.

Q: What do you think will 2012 bring into the mobile driven world of social efforts?

We are going to continue to see explosion in mobile driven by the ‘perfect storm’ of connectivity, availability, speed, power, features, and price. The processing power and capabilities of devices and network coverage and data transfer speeds to these devices is continuing to increase, while the overall cost of handsets is decreasing.

A good example is Huawei's IDEOS Android phone which sells for 8000KSH (~$80USD), saw massive adoption in Kenya this year. The upcoming release of the Datawind’s $35 tablet and OLPC $100 XO-3 will lead to an explosion of tablet devices for the bottom of the pyramid. The trend of faster devices in the hands of more people with increased connectivity will also drive demand for more mobile apps. This creates new opportunities for developers to build innovative tools for this emerging market. We will also see more initiatives like Orange providing Wikipedia free in the Middle East and Africa. The smartphone and mobile apps will begin to challenge SMS as the appropriate technology for the bottom of the pyramid, many already predicting the decline of SMS as a result.

Q: What are the challenges that mobiles will have to face in order to solve even more social problems?

Accessibility is one challenge often overlooked, how can we develop solutions that are accessible to all groups of society?

In December I had an opportunity to meet with Hendrik Knoche, a professor from EPFL in Lausanne specializing in accessible mobile interface design. Hendrik is developing a mobile application for illiterate farmers in India and also helped create EasySMS which empowers illiterate people to read, compose and send text messages through text-to-speech. The question he posed to me was, how do you design a mobile app for a person who can not read? Our conversation really challenged my notions on mobile design, and exposed a lot of misconceptions on design strategy.

Multilingual is another aspect of accessibly often overlooked. So many mobile applications are English-only, making them useless for non-English speakers. Translating apps to other languages as well as local dialects will need to become the norm, rather than the exception. As mobile expands into more aspects of our lives, it is important that we strive to ensure the tools we develop are accessible to all, especially vulnerable populations whom can often benefit the most.

Thanks again to Alicja Peszkowska for the interview, I appreciate the opportunity to share my thoughts on all things mobile.

Looking Back At 2011

2012-01-05T22:12:00.000-06:00

Well 2011 turned out to be a remarkable year, here is a recap of some of the things that kept me busy over the past twelve months.

In January, the Ushahidi iOS app was officially released, glad to have both the iPhone and iPad versions available for the crisis mapping community. I also travelled to Toronto in January for wedding, where I visited my friends Lisa and Geraldine from the MaRS Discovery District presenting an idea for a story telling platform.

In February, I was interviewed by the Star Phoenix sharing my thoughts on why Saskatoon needs to adopt an 'open-data' strategy. Although the article did start a conversation on the value of open data, we are yet to see the city fully embrace the technology.

In March, I deployed an Ushahidi map to help monitor the spring floods in Saskatchewan. The prairies experienced the worst flooding in years, and the map aimed to help aggregate reports from both citizens and the media. The flood map also drummed up a bit of press including a Star Phoenix article, blog post by crisis mapper Heather Leson, a Canadian Geographic article and a blog post by journalist Marc Ellison.

Also in March as part of the Saskatoon Sustainability Series, Flavio Ishii and I showed a video presentation of Jan Gehl's talk on 'Creating Tomorrow's Liveable Cities, Urban Planning In A Cold Climate' at the Two Twenty. Jan Gehl talks are always thought provoking, so it was good to share this online lecture in hopes to help make Saskatoon a more people friendly city.

In April, I travelled to Madrid to speak at Internet and 21st Century Revolutions conference on Ushahidi's role in the Arab spring revolutions. The Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS, wrote a great article capturing some of the discussion from the conference. It was a real honour to speak alongside Raed Jarrar, Sami Ben Gharbia of Global Voices, Matisse Bustos Hawkes of Witness.org, Randeere Bilal of Al Jazeera and Leila Nachawati of AERCO.

Leading up the Canadian election, I deployed another Ushahidi map but this time with the goal to inspire a pro-democracy conversation why voting is important. It was exciting to see voices from across the country as they were added to the I Vote Because map.

Also in April I organized an event at Centro on local people that are using their talents in a unique way to help others. I was joined by Jeff Nachtigall, Gregg Cochlan, Daren McLean and Krystian Olszanski each sharing their insights on dharma.

In early May with help from Flavio and Krystian, we deployed the first Repurposed Labs in Saskatoon, one at White Buffalo Youth Lodge and another at Core Neighborhood Youth Coop. The goal of Repurposed Labs is to be a bridge between companies upgrading their computer systems, and organizations that could utilize those computers to provide free internet access for members of their community.

In the middle of May, my wife and I packed our bags and made a brave journey to Nairobi, where we lived for the following four months. Embracing André Gide quotes, that 'man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore', it took courage to step outside our comfort zone. Our time in Nairobi was important on both a personal and work level, grateful for the opportunity to live in a different country as well as spend time at the iHub Nairobi.

In June, I was honored to be invited to Lithuania for TechCamp Vilnius on behalf of the State Department, to explore ways mobile technologies can be used to improve government transparency and spark civic engagement. Also in June, April and I ran a half marathon in Lewa Wilderness Conversancy; it was a beautiful run through the game park with elephants, gazelles, zebras and monkeys on route.

In July I spoke at Mobile Monday at the iHub Nairobi sharing some of my thoughts on mobile design principles. Taking some time to unplug, in July we also did a weekend trip with Ryan Delk and Henry Addo to hike Mount Longonot in Kenya.

In August, I had the opportunity to spend a day with the mappers in Mathare, an inspiring group of individuals doing everything in their power to help improve their community. I still keep the photo of Mathare group pinned above my computer, to remind me that even those dealt a bad set of cards, have the ability to overcome great challenges and in the process inspire others. While in Nairobi, I also got to speak with the students at NairoBits sharing my thoughts on dharma and using your talents to help others. The conversation really became interesting when I asked what each of their special talents were. It was inspiring to hear their thoughts, and to discuss how those talents could be combined in a unique way to help others. That afternoon at NairoBits was definitely one of my highlights from the year.

Also in August while my friend Dan was visiting, we travelled to the Bwindi Impenetrable National Park in Uganda to see the mountain gorillas. I'll never forget watching the intense lightning storm from our cabin high above the dense forest, truly majestic. During Dan's stay we also hiked Mount Kenya and did a rafting trip down the Nile River, two amazing life experiences. Later in August I travelled to Cameroon for field research on the Android app I've been developing for GVFI.

On the way back home from Kenya, we stopped in Greece for a week to help Inherity to deploy an Ushahidi map for preserving important cultural heritage. I'm always keen to find alternative uses of mapping so was glad to help white-label the iOS app for this deployment.

Later in September, I attended a life changing leadership workshop with Gregg Cochlan. Gregg has been an influential person in my life ever since meeting him at TEDxSaskatoon. Throughout the weekend Gregg re-enforced the ideas of stepping outside ones comfort zone, building efficacy through past successes and the importance of goal setting. Set the goal, and the way will invent itself.

In October, I was one of fifteen digital innovators invited to Geneva to pitch at the ITU's Open Innovation Challenge. I shared the idea of QRForms and although I didn't win the competition, it still was an amazing experience. Following the ITU conference, I stayed another week in Geneva where I started a short contract with UNOCHA helping design a system to improve communication of humanitarian workers during times of crisis.

In November, I spoke at Saskatoon BarCamp sharing my thoughts on Building Technology vs Solving Problems. It became so clear from my time in Kenya, that in North America we are too focussed on technology without ever asking what problem we are trying to solve. My talk was meant as a wake-up call, that if we don't start focussing on solving real problems, that we'll risk falling behind in innovation. Later in November I travelled to New York as well as returned to Geneva for more meetings with UNOCHA, airports were starting to feel like my second home.

To wrap up the year, I spent the first three weeks of December in Lusaka where I taught Zambia's first mobile app development workshop. My time at the BongoHive was a remarkable experience, truly inspired by their passion to learn and their desire to share their knowledge with others. As the Bemba proverb 'amano yafuma mwilibwe yaya muchulu' says, 'learning happens in both the learner as the teacher; teachers can learn from learners.'

So that was 2011, but even more important than the events was the conversations along the way. It was my time with the mappers in Mathare, speaking with the students at NairoBits, working with the developers at BongoHive that changed my view of the world, as well as my place in it. It was my pivotal conversations with Ryan Delk, Justin Arenstein, Kaushal Jhalla, Jay Bhalla, Erik Hersman, Gregg Cochlan, Lukonga Lindunda, Evangelos Kyriakidis, Jordon Cooper and Hendrik Knoche that really stood out as highlights from the year.

For the first time in my career, I'm beginning to realize the importance of using appropriate technology to solve real problems, the power each of us have to make a difference and the potential of inspiring others in the process.

2011 was a remarkable year, but I have a feeling it was only preparation for what lies ahead in 2012. As Alan Kay said, "the best way to predict the future, is to invent it."

To the BongoHive crew

2011-12-19T01:18:00.001-06:00

To the BongoHive crew,

It truly was a honor having the opportunity to spend the last two weeks with you. As the Bemba proverb 'amano yafuma mwilibwe yaya muchulu' says, 'learning happens in both the learner as the teacher; teachers can learn from learners.' I have learned just as much from you, as I'm sure I've shared with you.

I wish we had more time together, although the goal of the workshop wasn't to provide you with everything you needed but rather get you excited why mobile is important and how apps can be used to solve real problems. As we discussed, there are only three things that are needed for making truly great apps: knowledge, creativity and ambition, and all three of those can easily be acquired.

I believe, you not only have the opportunity to use your skills to solve local problems, but that it is also your duty to do so. Identify a real local problem, devise a practical solution, find an appropriate technology, target a local market and finally think global. If you follow this order, your apps will not only solve local problems, but will also likely help solve problems elsewhere. If you are solving a real problem, you'll find a way to make money in the process.

And remember, 'thinking outside the box isn't always enough, sometimes you have to throw the box away.'

To the girls, don't ever let someone tell you that you can't be a great programmer, because some of the best programmers I know are girls. I encourage you to rally together and support one another. Imagine yourself a few years from now looking back and saying, 'I use to think I couldn't make a difference, and now look at me, look at what I've accomplished.' Don't be afraid to pave your own the way, because your actions have the power to inspire other girls of what is possible.

For me, the most remarkable thing from the past two weeks was witnessing your desire to learn and your eagerness to share what you've learned with each other. You don't have to be an expert in everything, but if you share openly with one another, together you will be. If you continue to embrace this idea, there will be nothing that will stand in your way.

I truly feel fortunate for our time together, and look forward to hearing about all the world class mobile apps the BongoHive crew will create. Huge thank you to Lukonga, Bart and VVOB for making all this possible.

As Margaret Mead said, "never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has."

Driving Change

2011-11-29T14:17:00.000-06:00

I've come to realize there are two kinds of people: those who wait for things to happen, and those who make things happen.

When I met Lukonga Lindunda this summer in Nairobi, I soon realized he fit into that second group of people who were driving change. Lukonga came to Nairobi from Lusaka to experience Kenya's mobile revolution first hand and to understand the secret of the iHub which was at the very heart of it. Wanting to spark a mobile revolution in Zambia, he shared his plans to open a similar co-working space in Lusaka called the BongoHive.

Following the Pivot25 event, we discussed our views on mobile technology having the ability to empower disadvantaged groups and lift communities out of poverty. Sharing such a similar mindset, I was excited when he suggested I come to Lusaka to teach a mobile development class, although my first thoughts were the idea would never get any traction.

So I was somewhat surprised when later in the fall Lukonga messaged me saying he had secured funding for my trip and already opened the BongoHive. And now here I am a short while later preparing for my flight for Lusaka, amazing all this was driven by one man with a passion to make a difference.

The mobile development workshop will be more than just me delivering content. I'm treating the workshop as a real mobile project, where together we'll identify a problem and develop a solution to solve it.

Taking a barefoot college approach, I hope to share mobile design principles for the small screen. And here's the really interesting part; we'll be building a mobile application which delivers education lessons in which the students will co-create the content, aka building mobile app that will teach others how to build mobile apps. And if successful, the app could be re-used to deliver other lessons on maternal health or agricultural practices.

Although I assume there will be some bumps along the way, I'm excited for this opportunity, let's see what we can create :)

Living A Life Of Purpose

2011-11-28T15:52:00.001-06:00

Great TED Talk by Rick Warren on Living A Life Of Purpose which shares a lot of similarities to my own view on dharma.

"What do you have that you've been given?

Talent, background, education, freedom, networks, opportunities, wealth, ideas, creativity.

What are you doing with what you've been given?

That to me this is the primary question about life, that is what being purpose driven is all about.

So my advice to you is, look at what's in your hand, your identity, your influence, your income.

And say 'it's not about me, it's about making the world a better place."

Building Technology vs Solving Problems

2011-11-06T14:14:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I gave a talk at Saskatoon Barcamp on Building Technology vs Solving Problems. I started my presentation by asking, who here is building technology? Who here is solving problems? Those are two very different questions, and definitely not synonymous.

I believe innovation occurs following four basic steps:

Identify Real Problem - real challenge that a group is facing
Define Practical Solution - simple way to fill that need
Find Appropriate Technology - appropriate technology based on users needs
Leads To Profit - since you are filling a real need you will find ways to profit

In practise, what order do you think most companies follow?

No Real Problem - most companies haven't asked what problem they are solving
No Practical Solution - you can't have a solution unless you have a problem
Build New Technology - building technology without knowing what they are trying to solve
Struggle To Profit - invent a market and try to find users that don't exist

If you are providing a practical solution to a real problem, users will come to you and be eager to pay. Instead most companies are focussed on building another social network, creating another photo sharing app, making another groupon clone but none of those are solving a problem.

Innovation happens at the intersect of disciplines. Software by itself isn't very interesting, but applying that technology is where real innovation happens.

Unfortunately, most software companies are not intersecting with other disciplines, and instead building software for an elusive consumer market. And as a result of not having a clearly defined problem, most of these companies are lacking in innovation and struggling to generate revenue.

Back in July The Next Web had a fantastic article on The Problem With Silicon Valley Is Itself that highlighted this problem.

"One of the reasons for lack of innovation in the Valley is that entrepreneurs are not exposed to enough real-world problems." - TNW

"Not putting their brains to good use by solving real-world problems. Instead they’re building technology to solve trivial issues." - TNW

"Many entrepreneurs are in it for the wrong reasons, they should be more focussed on doing something big and good for the world and figuring where the money comes after that." - TNW

I spent four months this summer living in Nairobi and working from the iHub. Africa is experiencing a mobile revolution, Kenya is leading the charge in east Africa, Nairobi is at the center and the iHub at the very heart, so I was excited to experience it first hand.

It began clear that one of the main driving forces behind this mobile innovation was developers using appropriate technologies to solve real problems. At Pivot25 a mobile development competition in Nairobi, every single startup in commerce, entertainment, business, agriculture and health that pitched was trying to solve a real problem. One good example was EasyParking by Kenya Methodist University Students.

Works with car park operators to assist city motorists in locating the nearest parking slot, view remaining slots, book a slot, and pay the parking fee. Product is intended to reduce the inconveniences motorists go through to locate free parking slots in Nairobi City.

Although EasyParking didn't win Pivot25, it still highlights a practical solution to a real problem.

Identify Real Problem - difficult to find parking downtown
Define Practical Solution - give motorists easy way to reserve parking on route
Find Appropriate Technology - request and receive confirmation via mobile
Leads To Profit - drivers save time and willing to pay for a guaranteed spot

Do you think this idea could work in other cities? You bet, and that's why venture capitalists at the event were interested on investing in the idea because its a solution to a global problem. This raises an interesting point, practical solutions often scale because they can solve the same problem elsewhere.

So my questions is, why isn’t Saskatchewan developing world class agriculture software?Saskatchewan's economy is based on agriculture, we have the top agriculture college in the country, and a strong computer science department. So why aren't we world leaders in ag-software?

The reason I believe is that software developers are not having conversations with farmers, haven't identified the problems they are facing in the province. If we had a shared conversation, I believe there is huge potential to become a world leader.

Here's one agriculture example that tries to solve a real problem with an appropriate technology.

Identify Real Problem - costly and timely to take sick animal to the vet
Define Practical Solution - allow ranchers to communicate with a network of veterinarians to get answers to their questions saving trip to the clinic
Find Appropriate Technology - rancher sends SMS with question which is forwarded to a network of veterinarians, available vets reply back with their answer
Leads To Profit - you can charge rancher per SMS giving part back to the veterinarian for there answer

It's a simple idea, but eliminating one trip to the vet clinic would save approx $50 in gas plus $100 for the visit.And saving the life of one calf would save the rancher around $750. If you paid veterinarians per answer, they could make money in their off hours. This saves the rancher money and time, makes vet's money on the side and you profit. It's a win, win, win. Also, if this solution works locally, there is a good chance it will work outside the province.

The three key ideas for innovation:

Revolutionary idea, is just practical solution to a real problem
Innovation happens at the intersect of disciplines
Identify real problem, define practical solution, find appropriate technology, and it leads to profit

Thoughts? Comments? I'd love to hear them :)

Think Different

2011-10-05T19:48:00.000-06:00

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Here's to the crazy ones.
The misfits. The rebels. The troublemakers.
The round pegs in the square holes.
The ones who see things differently.
They're not fond of rules.
And they have no respect for the status quo.
You can quote them, disagree with them, glorify or vilify them.
About the only thing you can't do is ignore them.
Because they change things.
They push the human race forward.
And while some may see them as the crazy ones,
we see genius.
Because the people who are crazy enough
to think they can change the world...
are the ones who do.

NairoBits

2011-08-26T09:35:00.001-06:00

This afternoon I had the fortunate opportunity to speak with the students at NairoBits sharing my thoughts on dharma and using your talents to help others. NairoBits is a youth based organization in Nairobi aiming to counter the digital divide. It provides ICT and multimedia classes to help improve the lives of less privileged youth from the non-formal settlement.

I was happy to share some of my favorite motivational quotes and inspirational stories, but the conversation became really interesting when I asked what each of their special talents were. It was inspiring to hear their thoughts, and to discuss how those talents could be combined in a unique way to help others.

I was also completely humbled when they began sharing their own stories how they are already helping to improve their community.One student established an organization that turns used tires into sandals, giving some of the proceeds back to their community. Another student teaches free hair and markup classes to young girls which can help them earn an income. Another educates young girls on pregnancy prevention, and helps keep them in school by providing sanitary napkins.

I couldn't help but think about Margaret Mead's quote, "never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has."

Here is a group of youth individuals that have come from some of the poorest communities in the city, but are using their opportunity to improve themselves, and in the process to help others. I went to NairoBits as a teacher, but left very much as a student.

Opportunities

2011-08-24T08:47:00.001-06:00

The other night, I shared my views with a friend on dharma and importance of applying one's talents in a way that helps others. My friend replied with, "that's great but, many people often don't have the freedom to choose, and haven't been given the same opportunities as others." I've thought a lot about that statement since that conversation, goes to show that our view of the world is constantly evolving, how a single conversation can change our perspective.

There is a lot of truth in that statement, everyone is dealt a different set of cards, but it's how we play with the hand you've been given that determines your outcome. A number of individuals come to mind, that have provided me with inspiration by overcoming great challenges.

Terry Fox, a teenager who was dealt a bad set of cards, didn't deserve to get cancer. Yet, in the spirit of the Japanese proverb, "fall down seven times, stand up eight", Terry used his illness as an opportunity to educate and inspire others that a cure for cancer is possible. No one told him what he was suppose to do, yet his courage to run a marathon a day, until his illness eventually consumed him, now inspires others around the world. The annual Terry Fox Run continues to raise money globally for important cancer research which will one day fulfill Terry's dream for a cure.

Helen Keller was also dealt a bad set of cards, becoming both deft and blind at 19 months of age, yet she overcame these great difficulties learning to communicate and eventually going on to teach and inspire others. Her quote, "when one door closes, another opens; but often we look so long at the closed door that we do not see the one which has been opened for us." often provides me with the strength to look at the bright side and try to find the positive even in bad situations.

Recently, I had the fortunate opportunity to spend some time with the Mathare Valley group in Nairobi, that are using mapping and storytelling to help improve their community. Here is a group of people, born into one of the poorest slums in the city, yet are striving to find ways to improve the situation of others. The video Poar Owee (River Talk), produced by young inspiring film producer Jeff Mohammad recently premiered and won first prize at the Slum Film Festival. The movie shared the important message that polluting the river, will only result in making you, your family, and your neighbors sick. The day following my visit, one of the mappers was attacked in his home by gang members who were upset with the group highlighting the injustice happening in their community. Yet, this group of young individuals continue to tell the story of their neighborhood in hopes it will help make it a better place for everyone.

Jeff Mohhammad's first film, One Goal, One Hope about a man who lost his leg to polio but continues to pursue his dream of playing football, captures this important message; that even those dealt a bad set of cards, have the ability to overcome great challenges and in the process inspire others.

To Young Canadians

2011-08-22T13:38:00.001-06:00

Today we lost a great man, a great politician, and a great Canadian.

Jack Layton passed away after a long battle with cancer on August 22nd, 2011.

But before he left us, he wrote one final note for all Canadians.

The part of his note that really struck me, was his powerful message for all young Canadians:

"To young Canadians: All my life I have worked to make things better. Hope and optimism have defined my political career, and I continue to be hopeful and optimistic about Canada.

Young people have been a great source of inspiration for me. I have met and talked with so many of you about your dreams, your frustrations, and your ideas for change. More and more, you are engaging in politics because you want to change things for the better. Many of you have placed your trust in our party.

As my time in political life draws to a close I want to share with you my belief in your power to change this country and this world. There are great challenges before you, from the overwhelming nature of climate change to the unfairness of an economy that excludes so many from our collective wealth, and the changes necessary to build a more inclusive and generous Canada.

I believe in you. Your energy, your vision, your passion for justice are exactly what this country needs today. You need to be at the heart of our economy, our political life, and our plans for the present and the future." - Jack Layton

We will remember a great man dedicated to making our country, and the world a better place.

Seeing The World New

2011-08-15T17:48:00.001-06:00

One thing I know for certain; the more I travel, and the more places I visit, the more I understand where I came from, and the more I learn to appreciate home.

Back in 2000, I boarded my first airplane, making the epic journey from the Canadian prairies to the distance lands of New Zealand and Australia, where I backpacked for two and a half months with my two lovely sisters, Tammy and Tracey.

Being the first time truly away from home, everything was new. I was continually amazed at the different road signs, to the accents, to the products on store shelves, to the native wildlife. While in Australia, I remember the feeling when I saw my first kangaroo, roaming wild in the outback. I thought, "wow, I'm really here!".

We returned back to Canada a few days shy of Christmas, and I remember clearly one particular morning sitting at my parent's kitchen table. With a coffee in hand, I gazed across the farm yard that was covered in a white blanket of snow. The landscape was still asleep with the crisp morning air, and quietly a herd of deer, gracefully walked across the yard, each step poking a hole in the white landscape.

My first reaction, was to call the dog to chase them away. But then I thought, "someone from Australia sitting at this table, would be in complete awe at this moment, to see a herd of wild deer roaming across the yard." It was that moment that I briefly realized, the power of seeing the world new.

As Henry Miller once said, "one's destination is never a place, but a new way of seeing things", and the more I travel, the more I understand the truth in that statement.

Davie's Story, The Power Of A Loan

2011-08-10T13:54:00.008-06:00

The other day while returning home from Nairobi airport, my taxi driver Davie told me a remarkable and truly touching story.

Davie who is now 24, lost both his parents to HIV when he was 15, leaving him and his 7 year old brother in care of his elderly grandmother. Unable to provide for both of them, and with little opportunity to make money in his village, he came to Nairobi where he lived on the streets. For several years, he survived day by day finding his next meal often by digging through the trash.

He tried his best to find odd jobs like washing cars for 100ksh, and eventually by the time he was 19, he got a job as a gardener that paid him 3000ksh/month, which is around a dollar a day. Around that time, his grandmother passed away, so his younger brother left the village and came to live with him in Nairobi. With the money he made as a gardener, they rented a tin roofed shack with mud walls in the slums of Kibera for around 1500ksh/month.

Seeing an opportunity to make a living as a taxi driver, he saved his money so he could afford to get his drivers license. An American named Chris that was visiting Nairobi, hired Davie to drive his rented car during his stay in Kenya. Upon leaving Nairobi, Chris helped Davie get a loan from the bank so he could purchase his own car. Now with his own vehicle, Davie is able to make enough money per month to make the loan payments, and by January he will have paid off the loan.

Davie, although he did well in school finishing his primary education, after his parents died he was unable to continue on to secondary because he couldn't afford the 20,000ksh per school term. Knowing the importance of education, he is using the money from driving taxi to pay for his younger brothers education, because he wants him to have more opportunities than he had himself. They recently moved from the slums of Kibera into a smaller place with tin roof and walls by Junction paying around 3000ksh/month.

Davie's story might have gone a lot differently, if it were not for the kindness of one stranger, who gave him an opportunity with a loan. Seeing the impact it has made on Davie's life has made me a real believer in the power of a loan. Are you ready to make a micro-loan that can change a life?

Visit kiva.org to make a loan that can help empower an entrepreneur.

Visit vittana.org to make a loan that will help send a student to school.

Mobile Design Principles

2011-07-18T14:37:00.005-06:00

Tonight at the iHub Nairobi's Mobile Monday I gave a talk on Mobile Design Principles, sharing some thoughts on designing for small screens.

As more developers migrate from web to designing mobile apps, it's important to remember these basic mobile design principles, which can be applied regardless of your target platform.

Simple - keeping it simple is key to good mobile design

single task - each screen should focus on doing one task really well
less is more - reducing features often provides a better overall user experience
uncluttered - clean, large, well spaced, readable
easy to use - should be intuitive the first time

Familiar - application should instantly be familiar to your users

native platform - familiar with the target device (shouldn't feel like a BlackBerry app squished onto an Android screen)
other apps - similar user experience to other apps on their device
design standards - reuse basic ui elements (if you are building your own custom date picker when a native one already exists, you need to ask yourself why)

Consistent - should be a consistent user experience throughout application

element layout - similar location of controls, buttons or menu items like Done or Cancel
color, fonts, whitespace - consistent color, fonts and whitespace also important

Fast - performance critical on devices with limited processing power

quick launch - opening the app should be quick
responsive - actions inside the app should feel snappy
cancellable - long running tasks should allow user to cancel them or elegantly timeout

Feedback - providing meaningful user feedback a must

loading indicator - tasks that take longer than a second should display a loading indicator
show progress - long running tasks should ideally show the percentage of progress
highlight selected - changing the background color of current item is subtle but useful feedback
scroll to current - auto scrolling to the currently selected item can also enhance user experience

Efficient - strive to making input as easy as possible

minimize input - the more ways you can reduce typing the better
auto complete - provide suggestions as user types
easily searchable - filtering long lists for easier selection
remember last - intelligently remember last input for each field (example name vs city)
pre-populate - populating fields with available information like date and location, while still giving user option to change if needed

Scale - resizing elements to utilize the screen space

utilize full screen - docking controls to screen edges can help ensure controls stretch gracefully
fit to orientation - re-arranging elements to utilize portrait or landscape
easy to click - large easy to click controls makes it easier to select and input data
reduce scrolling - scrollbars are often painful on mobile devices, so providing alternatives like pagination worth investigating
expand for more - limit how much is displayed while giving the option to expand to view more

Offline - should function when internet is not available or connection limited

work offline - if your app requires a constant internet connection, why didn't you just make a mobile web page?
load in background - intelligently pulling of data in the background can provide seamless user experience allowing them to do other tasks in the meantime
download now - ability to download data now can utilize wifi hotspots making the app useful in dead zones
upload later - being able to add content in a disconnected state, and then upload when internet becomes available

Context - remembering where user left off

remember state - the app should re-open at the previous state
auto save on exit - automatically saving content
user preferences - allowing user to customize the app and it remembering their settings

Design - balancing appearance and functionality

look & feel vs functionality - can you make it look nice but also be useable?

Fun - finally, make it fun

useful - does it solve a problem?
addictive - do you use it yourself?

This talk focussed on designing effective user interfaces to utilize real estate on small screens. For more information about using the full potential of mobile devices, check my previous blog post on Harnessing The Power Of Mobile.

Harnessing The Power Of Mobile

2011-07-03T04:24:00.025-06:00

Mobile devices are revolutionizing our world allowing us to connect, communicate and collaborate in ways not previously possible. The always on, always with us, always connected device in your pocket could be argued as one of the most powerful tools ever created, but the reality is that we are only beginning to understand and apply it's full potential.

The mobile revolution is being driven by the perfect storm between connectivity, availability, processing power and functionality. There are now more places on earth with cell coverage than without, and this availability is only increasing. While access is improving, so is the rate at which data is being transferred; it's more and more common to find 3G access in remote rural areas. The number of mobile subscribers is also dramatically increasing largely due to drop in the price of handsets; for every one desktop computer in Sub Saharan Africa, there are now fourteen mobile phones. At the same time as the price is decreasing, the processing power of devices is growing exponentially, greatly increasing their capabilities.

While faster devices with increased access in the hands of more users is important, the real power of mobile lies in it's applications and the ability to combine the individual device capabilities in a unique way. Mobile is more than a communication tool but also a powerful data gathering device, an aid to help in decision making, means to notify users of important events and a platform for collaboration.

To understand the true potential of mobile, you must view the full spectrum of features available on these devices. Even the most basic devices still have phone, SMS, MMS and USSD capabilities making it a powerful platform for gathering and sharing data. Devices with a camera allow users to capture photos or video, as well as to view that media. Internet-enabled devices allows access to online content as well as sending and receiving of email. GPS-enabled devices allow users to detect their current location, track their route, even detect which direction they are facing. Smartphone devices with touch screens greatly improve user interaction while accelerators can detect the device orientation we well as the users motion. Bluetooth, NFC, IrDa and WiFi enables communication with other nearby devices.

Now each of these features individually are not that interesting, for example a digital camera can also take photos and capture video. However a digital camera is not internet-enabled, can not detect the current location and does not have access to the users address book. So compared to a digital camera, a mobile app utilizing the other device features can also geo-tag the photo with the current latitude and longitude, auto-detect faces and match with friends from their address book, detect the current direction the user is facing, instantly shares that media with friends via the internet, building an online map of user collected photos and videos stitching together an accurate timeline of important events. Sounds pretty amazing? Well the Color app for the iPhone already does exactly this, but its only possible because it combines several of the device capabilities in a unique way.

Street Bump is another very innovative idea that utilizes the smartphone’s accelerometer and GPS capabilities to detect when a driver hits a pothole and automatically sends that information to city officials. The system works because it takes advantage of location-aware and internet-enabled devices that are already present in the pockets of commuters. Viewing every driver as a potential data collection point is allowing the city of Boston to crowdsource their pothole map, a task that previously would have required expensive network sensors.

Mobile Crop Disease Surveillance app being developed by the Makerere University Students in Uganda is a highly automated smartphone-based survey system for detecting crop disease. The system uses low-end camera-enabled phones to diagnose viral damage by sharing that information online. Although these low-end devices do not have GPS-capabilities, registering a farmer's mobile number with the location of their land can automatically map incoming MMS, building a real time map of crop disease in the region. It's a great example that even low-end devices can be an important tool in data gathering.

Safety Siren is an ingenious iPhone app developed by YWCA Canada that activates a loud siren upon pressing the safety button or shaking the device which automatically shares your location. The brilliance behind the app comes by combining the touch-screen and accelerometer, along with the GPS capabilities and internet access sending an urgent SOS email or making an emergency phone call to a friend or family member when the user is in an unsafe situation.

M-Farm is SMS-based solution aiming to empower buyers and sellers with accurate market information. The tool utilizes SMS as a platform allowing any SMS-capable phone to obtain accurate market prices. For example in Kenya sending the text message 'price tomatoes nairobi' to 3535 will return the suggested market price. It's a great example that even the low-end devices can be a powerful communication tool.

Good Guide mobile app is a shopping tool helping empower consumers to buy safe, healthy, green products by providing ratings and personal recommendations for over 115,000 products by utilizing the devices camera as a barcode scanner. Good Guide is a great example of mobile being used a decision making tool, providing valuable information on the spot.

Trapster is a mobile application that allows anyone to submit the location of speed traps or enforcement cameras and notifies users of nearby hazards. The solution utilizes the devices GPS capability and internet access to become a community based high-tech early warning system.

WordLens is a revolutionary idea that utilizes the built-in video camera to detect text on signs, and then automatically translate and replace that text to your desired language. While most other translation tools require the user to type in the text they would like translated, WordLens utilizes the built-in camera and OCR technology to simplify the process making translation drop dead simple. WordLens truly works like magic, but it's only the very beginning of whats possible.

As a brainstorming exercise, write down the following phrases each on their own index card: make phone call, receive phone call, send SMS, receive SMS, send MMS, receive MMS, take photo, view photo, capture video, play video, record audio, play audio, detect location, route tracking, compass direction, view map, detect date, device orientation, detect motion, touch screen, send email, receive email, internet access, detect environmental brightness, Bluetooth, NFC, IrDa, WiFi, USSD, scan barcode, generate barcode, enter data, store data, manipulate data.

Now look at the previous examples, which of the following features did each utilize? What innovative ideas can you think of by combining the various mobile features in a unique way?

Mama Oliech

2011-05-25T04:53:00.003-06:00

The other day we had a great fried tilapia and ugali lunch at Mama Oliech's, which is just a short walk from the iHub in Nairobi. The incredible food is only rivaled by the incredible story how the restaurant came to be.

Apparently for years Mama Oliech use to sell her fried tilapia fish from a tiny roadside stand along Ngong Road. Her son, Dennis that grew up playing football in the slums of Kibera, became a local hero when he took his football career to a professional level. Using his new found wealth Dennis helped his mom open the Mama Oliech restaurant so she could continue to share her passion of cooking for others.

Next time you are in Nairobi, I'd highly recommend you stop for some of Mama's delicious fried tilapia!

Discovering New Oceans

2011-05-16T14:57:00.001-06:00

André Gide once said, that 'man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore'. I've come to realize the truth in this statement; the best opportunities are often followed by taking a leap of faith into the unknown and having the courage to step outside one's comfort zone. Fear often prevents us from making that leap but if you can embrace the uncertainty, than good things surely lie ahead.

This is very much the case for our current travels. I write this post on route to Nairobi, where my wife and I will be living for the next four months. Having used what little money we had saved to pay for our flights and with no apartment in which we'll be living, we're definitely stepping outside our comfort zone. I was in Rwanda last February, however this will be the first time my wife has travelled to Africa. Many of our friends have asked us why Kenya, why Africa. The simple answer; it's the right place for us to be right now.

Africa is experiencing the world's fastest rate of cell phone adoption, with Kenya quickly becoming a hub for mobile innovation. Nairobi is a hotspot for mobile tech with the iHub (co-working space established by Erik Hersman the co-founder of Ushahidi) at the very heart of this mobile revolution. I'm incredibly excited to have the opportunity to be working from this space and be surrounded by these talented African developers.

While there, I'll be continuing to do the same work that I've been doing for Ushahidi and GVFI, but expecting good synergy from working at the iHub. April will also be hanging out at the co-working space but using her time to pursue some of her own personal interests. We brought along a large duffle of used shoes which we'll be donating on behalf of Brainsport to the Kip Keino running camp in Eldoret. During the summer we're hoping to travel to Cameroon to field test the mobile app I've been developing and also re-visit the Gitwe hospital in Rwanda. We're also both excited to just be living in Nairobi long enough for a local perspective; you don't really get a good feel for a city until you start doing your own laundry and buying groceries at the market.

As our plane descends towards Nairobi there is still a lot of unknowns, but I'm excited for what lies ahead.

Repurposed Labs, Giving A New Purpose To Old Computers

2011-05-14T11:05:00.043-06:00

Every year thousands of used computers are sent to salvage as companies and families keep pace with technological advances.

A study commissioned by Environment Canada estimated that 91,000 tonnes of IT and telecom equipment were recycled and disposed in 2010, with computers and monitors accounted for 70% of this total.

At the same time, nonprofit organizations are in desperate need of used computers particularly to provide internet access for at-risk or low income groups; whether to search for a job, reconnect with family in other cities or take education classes online.

That's why Repurposed Labs was born, an initiative to collect used computers so they can be repurposed to provide free internet access for members of the community.

Thanks to the generous donation of used laptops from MacPherson Leslie & Tyerman (MLT), there are now Repurposed Labs at White Buffalo Youth Lodge and Core Neighbourhood Youth Coop in Saskatoon.

These first two labs are just pilot projects, but come fall we plan to expand the initiative to deploy additional computer labs in the city, and hopefully with enough donations, in remote communities across the province.

For more information visit our website or become a fan on Facebook.

Role of Social Media, Crowdsourcing and Mobile in Disaster Response

2011-05-06T10:32:00.009-06:00

Fantastic conversation on C-SPAN discussing the role of social media, crowdsourcing and mobile in disaster response. Here is an excerpt from Craig Fugate, the administrator at Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) stressing the importance of government to adapt to using these new technologies and viewing the public as participants, not only recipients of information:

"When we talk about social media, we need to understand that it is another tool in our toolbox, but it is by no means the only way by which we need to communicate with the public, both in warning, alerting situations, as well as communicating with them.

But I think social media offers a new challenge to us. Previously we had the ability to communicate 'at the public', whether it is radio, tv, webpages, even billboards, etc. But our ability to communicate with the public to have two-way conversations, has always been limited. As we have seen with numerous disasters in recent years, we often have taken the approach in government at creating systems that people have to adapt to on how we communicate. We don't always adapt to how they are communicating.

And as we have begun to see people using these tools differently, in fact everything in which we call 'social media' was never designed with disasters in mind, but they became increasingly tools how people were communicating day to day, and sharing information with family and loved ones, that began providing a role in a disaster in ways for us in government, we didn't innovate this, we didn't create this, we didn't direct it, but we began observing it. And I think for us at Federal Emergency Management Agency, as well as my peers at state and local levels, and volunteer agencies that are involved in disaster response, we began to see a whole new group volunteers emerge, with skill sets on being able to apply this technology in realtime situations, without necessarily a direction from a central location, but rather a term that is often used of 'crowdsourcing'. People working on similar problems, sharing information, often times getting to better solutions.

Mr. Chairman, its caused me to realize, that social media, and particularly volunteers in groups that are involve with this, let me put it this way, we need to innovate faster than the speed of government, and they are doing it. So instead of trying to make systems fit us, make the public fit how we communicate, we at FEMA are trying to meet that need and figure out how to apply this. When someone says, Craig, whats the performance matrix, whats the measurement of success, how are you doing this; I would say, we are still experimenting, we are really still just trying to understand how these tools can be applied. Mr. Chairman, most of these times we come to these meetings and the first thing you do is turn off your cellphone, hide them out of sight, but I'm gonna bring my out, because here's what I want to communicate in the short time I have.

In most disasters, when you are displaced from your home, you no longer have access to your computer, you may not have wifi access, but in many disasters like being on the ground in Haiti, we had folks there within a day of the earthquake...the one thing that was working were mobile devices. And it is this that I think we at the Federal Government need to understand that we are moving more and more away from a web-based capacity to a mobile environment.

So one of the things we did at FEMA was to start moving our information into mobile formats. We have a mobile webpage, m.fema.gov, because when you are a disaster survivor you don't need pretty pictures, you don't need our or-chart, and you certainly don't need information on all of our programs. You need information that will be low bandwidth, that you can get it to a phone, and get things you need. We designed our registration so you can access it by your smartphone. But we are also learning that the public has tremedous information in disaster areas, that often times we have taken the approach that it was not official or not useable because it did not come from traditional forms of communication.

Mr Chairman, I would suggest we should look at these [devices] as data points, sensors. That individually may not provide us with the best information, but collectively are often the earliest and best reports of the severity of the impact and telling us stories faster than any assessment team or any ability to get into an area. We seen this is Haiti, we saw this in Japan, in Christchurch and even with the tornadoes across the south; pictures, stories, updates giving us information.

I think we need to take the approach at the Federal Government, that the public is a resource, not a liability and learn how to listen, but we also need to recognize we are in a mobile environment. And the Federal Government needs to develop the data to support our citizens in a way that they can use in a disaster, rather than making them fit into our traditional models." - Craig Fugate, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

Watch the full video at http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/DisasterC

Thoughts on the Canadian Election

2011-05-04T14:40:00.009-06:00

On Monday May 2nd 2011, Canada held it's forty first federal election, resulting in a Conservative majority, and for the first in Canadian history, the NDP as the official opposition. I'd like to share my personal thoughts on the results of the election including the low voter turnout, un-proportional representation and the resulting Harper majority.

Low Voter Turnout
I was rather appalled when I learned that the 2008 election had the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history, thus I launched the I Vote Because... map to create a conversation around why voting is important. My site wasn't the only one, others launched their own campaigns to encourage voting like Apathy Is Boring, the Great Canadian Blank Ballot Project and the Vote Mob movement which mobilized youth across the country.

As a result, this election did have a higher turnout that the previous, yet still only 61.4% voted. That means that six out of ten Canadians decided the fate for the rest of the country.

Why do we have such a low voter turnout in Canada? What can be done to engage a higher percentage of the public to vote?

Un-Proportional Representation
This election clearly demonstrated, that Canada's voting system does not work well with a multi-partied government. Due to vote splitting between the Liberal and NDP parties, the Conservatives secured a majority government of 167 seats with only 39.6% of the popular vote. Some would argue that this is the way it's always been done, but as others have pointed out, 'previously broken is still broken'.

I believe it's time to rethink our voting system, examining other proportional representation options like the alternative vote or perhaps the German voting system.

Would people be more inclined to vote, if they felt their voice was more fairly represented in Ottawa? Would we see an increased level of civic engagement because citizens felt more ownership in their government?

Harper Majority
Throughout the first part of election campaign, I remained fairly quiet mostly observing the message from each party. However, in the week leading to the election I became worried of the potential for a Harper majority, and what that could mean for democracy in Canada. Just to be clear, I have nothing against the Conservative party, although my personal views tend to align more with NDP and support for social programs, but I also believe the Conservative's goal to build a strong economy is important.

What I do find troubling, is Harper's heavy-handed approach to controlling the government by silencing those that oppose him. What may seem like isolated incidents, upon taking a step back and examining them as a whole, can be rather alarming and as some have argued, an attack on democracy. Massive deregulation that jeopardizes the safety of Canadians, including firing researchers that warned of nuclear safety hazards and pesticides on foods. Four times Harper's tried to pass a mass scale internet surveillance law. During the G20 summit, imposed emergency law to arrest protestors without reason, (over 1100 arrested yet only 99 charges were laid, the largest mass arrest in Canadian history). Massive cuts and imposed limitations on scientists at Environment Canada crippling media coverage of climate change by 80%. Budget cuts to national broadcasting with rumored plans to launch a pro-Harper news network. Additional funding and expanding prisons across the country. Twice has shut down parliament simply to avoid a non-confidence vote. And finally removing a teen from a Conservative rally because she had posted a photo with an opposing leader on her Facebook page.

Regardless of your political view controlling the media, silencing opposition, cutting researchers, mass surveillance of the public, arresting those that speak out with an increased prison system should raise some serious alarm bells. The question I've been struggling with, is whether Harper supporters were aware of these facts prior to voting.

Note, this has all been accomplished with a minority government, what will the next four years bring with a Harper majority that doesn't need approval? How will Canada be reshaped under this new government?

Educate Girls, Change the World

2011-05-03T11:43:00.008-06:00

Great TED Talk by Tom Yellin on how educating girls can change the world.

Tom Yellin describes the ripple effect that happens to communities and entire countries by getting and keeping young girls in school.

"Educated girls...marry later, they have fewer children. They earn more money. They're far less vulnerable to sexual abuse and exploitation. They immunize their children and educate the next generation and that starts a ripple effect that transforms families, communities and entire countries....When you create conditions, to get girls to good schools, and keep them there through adolescents, extraordinary things happen."

During his talk Tom Yellin had an interesting quote about the power of story telling to provoke social change.

"Stories are a way to connect to people emotionally, stories well told can change the way people see the world. And that provokes action."

You can watch his TED Talk at http://youtu.be/WKfUIZo2xwg

Mobile Trends 2020 Africa

2011-04-28T14:52:00.002-06:00

Fantastic document co-curated by Erik Hersman, Ken Banks and Rudy De Waele highlighting the future of mobile in Africa, predicting trends in mhealth, mlearning, and mcommerce.

Mobile Trends 2020 Africa

http://www.slideshare.net/rudydw/mobile-trends-2020-africa

Choose your own adventure

2011-04-27T09:49:00.003-06:00

David duChemin wrote a brilliant blog post on choosing your own adventure, here's an excerpt from that article.

"Too many people don’t listen to their dreams at all. Or they listen but allow the dreams themselves to get drowned out by the desire to fill their homes with stuff or even just to play it safe, or – and this is more likely – they listen to their fears.

The culture we live in would rather watch great stories on movie screens than live them. Why? I think it’s fear of risk. The bigger the risk the greater the potential reward but also the greater the potential for 'Oh God, Oh God, we’re all going to die!' or something similar.

Fear is the loudest voice in many of our lives. Fear of rejection leads us to buy some crazy stuff, as well as keep our voice down when it should be loudly telling others 'I love you.' Fear of the unknown keeps us close to home. Fear of fear keeps us in therapy." - pixelatedimage.com

Thanks to Krystian Olszanski for sharing this article with me :)

Following Your Dharma

2011-04-17T09:28:00.034-06:00

On Friday I had the pleasure of speaking at the Six Minute Low Down at Centro Lounge. I was joined by Jeff Nachtigall, Gregg Cochlan, Daren McLean and Krystian Olszanski, we each shared our insights on dharma and using our talents to help others.

Every since I first read Deepak Chopra's book, The Seven Spiritual Laws of Success, I've been consumed by the idea of dharma, which means purpose of life. The Law of Dharma states, that everyone has unique talents, and it's your purpose in life to discover those talents, and use it to help others.

Two and a half years ago, I made a shift in my career, largely due to this idea of dharma. I'm a software developer by trade, so began to explore ways that technology can be used to help disadvantaged groups, improve civic engagement and promote social change.

During that time, I've had the incredible opportunity to both volunteer and work with organizations such as Ushahidi, FrontlineSMS, Extradordinaries, Medic Mobile, RTI International and Global Viral Forecasting Initiative. I've also coordinated a number of my own initiatives like Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Halifax, Apps4Good, Saskatoon Sustainability Series, Saskatchewan Flood Map, I Vote Because and Repurposed Labs. Along the way, I've had a number of insights, which I believe, are worth sharing.

Good Ideas Are Contagious

"Good actions give strength to ourselves and inspire good actions in others.” - Plato

One person can make a difference by creating something bigger than themselves, and allow others to share in that vision. I've continually been surprised by what seems like a crazy idea, has the potential to both inspire and engage others.

Just Build It

"The best way to predict the future is to invent it." - Alan Kay

Don't wait for others to lead, simply charge ahead and pave your own way. Do you see an injustice or a problem in your community? If so, then take action, find a way that you can make a difference. I was appalled when I learned that the last federal election in Canada had the lowest voter turnout in Canadian history. So, I created the I Vote Because... map, hoping to spark a conservation in Canada why voting is important, why every voice matters.

The Best Opportunities Are Often The Ones You Create Yourself

"Volunteer—not so you can build your resume, but so you can build yourself." - Anonymous

Don't wait for opportunities to come along, take action now to put yourself in a better situation. Have you ever met someone who just seems lucky? Well, as the Stoic philosopher Seneca once said, "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." I've often been surprised that my volunteer initiatives have somehow indirectly turned into interesting work. It wasn't how I planned it, but through volunteering I've proved my value and made valuable connections which led to unique opportunities down the road.

The Best Way To Teach Is By Example

"Be the change you wish to see in the world." - Gandhi

I'm passionate about the work I'm doing, because I believe it was what I was meant to do. For me, the biggest compliment, is knowing that something I did has inspired others to do great things. And as the quote goes, "activism is our rent for living on this planet".

Do What You Love And Still Get Paid

"Choose a job you love, and you will never have to work a day in your life." - Confucius

I believe it's possible to do what you love, and still get paid. It's not always easy, but if you had the choice between a high paying job you hate, or a lowering paying work which you love, which would you choose?

Don't Be Afraid Of Change, Embrace It

"Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore." - Andre Gide

Looking back at the last two years, the best opportunities often came following a leap of faith whether that meant quitting a job or moving to a different city.

So how do you know that you are on the right track? When is it time to make a make change? There are two questions that have helped me determine if I'm going in the right direction.

What Are You Most Proud Of?
Looking back at your career, what are the things you are most proud of? Although I've been working for over eight years now, it's the work I've done most recently that I'm the most proud of. Prior to changing direction in my career, I volunteered at a soup kitchen in Halifax. During that time I came to realize, that those three hours volunteering on Saturday afternoons, meant more to me, and gave me more purpose than the rest of my work week. This was an early sign that I needed a change.

If You Won The Lottery Today...
...what would you be doing tomorrow? If I won the lottery, I'm pretty sure I would be doing the same thing I am now. In fact, I probably would doing even more than I'm doing now, because I would have the resources to develop my own projects, as well as fund other people's ideas.

Finally, a quote from Woodrow Wilson which I believe captures the essence of dharma.

"You are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world. You impoverish yourself if you forget this errand." - Woodrow Wilson

It was a real honor to be joined by the four other speakers each doing inspiring work in Saskatoon. Jeff Nachtigall, an artist in residence at Sherbrooke Community Centre is doing visionary work using art and storytelling for healing. Gregg Cochlan, author of World Peace, Really! is using his writing to promote world peace, one reader at a time. Daren McLean, founder of Deezine.ca has used his talent for web design to empower community initiatives like Saskatoon Speaks and I Heart Bike Lanes. And Krystian Olszanski, a hobbyist photographer organized Saskatoon's first Help Portrait event to take portraits for less fortunate families. Each of these guys are perfect examples of dharma, each using their unique talents to help others.

Huge thanks to Jay Parmar and Depesh Parmar from Centro Lounge for hosting such an engaging event and inspiring conversation.

I Vote Because...

2011-04-13T09:48:00.001-06:00

While citizens in other countries are fighting for freedom of speech and the right to democracy, Canadians have become complacent and apathetic towards voting.

The voter turnout in the 2008 election was the lowest percentage of registered voters ever recorded for a national election in Canada.

That's why I created http://ivotebecause.ca, hoping to spark a conversation in Canada why voting matters, why every voice counts.

The idea is simple, just complete the sentence; I vote because...

Add your voice to the map by emailing ivotebecause@gmail.com, tweeting #ivoteca, posting on the Facebook page or via the web form.

Let's show the rest of the world, that Canadians not only enjoy their right to vote, but embrace it.

"Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has." – Margaret Mead

Mapping The Egypt Protests and Libya Crisis

2011-04-07T13:45:00.002-06:00

On Tuesday, I had the honour of speaking at the Internet and 21st Century Revolutions conference in Madrid on behalf of Ushahidi. The event, organized by AERCO (Spanish Association of Community Managers), discussed the role that internet and social media played in the North Africa and Middle East revolutions.

Ushahidi, the open source mapping platform which was used in the disaster response of Haiti earthquake, Australian floods and the Japan tsunami, also played an important role in the Egyptian protests and Libya crisis as a communication tool for the affected groups, as well as a means for those outside the region to bare witness.

The Egyptian maps called U-shahid which means 'you witness' in Arabic, were deployed by Development and Institutionalization Support Center (DISC) in Cairo. The maps were used to monitor the events during the election and #Jan25 revolution as well as the constitutional amendments on March 19th.

A few interesting points about the U-shahid maps. One, DISC was well aware that the site could be taken down by the government and their involvement put them in risk of arrest. Two, the site was fully translated into Arabic to allow the widest participation from the people of Egypt. Three, the map leveraged social media sites like Facebook and Twitter allowing for easy sharing of incident reports. Also interesting, wall posts to the Facebook group were directly converted into incident reports via the email notifications sent from Facebook. Four, the homepage automatically displayed Flickr photos and YouTube videos of the events based on their tags, making the site a valuable source for information, photos and videos of the activity on the ground. Five, email and SMS alerts helped keep people informed of incoming reports based on categories like Violence Against Protesters or for a specific location like Tahir Square. Six, when the internet was take down in Egypt, the maps also went offline since the servers were hosted in Cairo. Another #jan25 map was created on the cloud based Crowdmap platform to receive reports while the U-Shahid maps were down, although the number of reports were greatly reduced due to the lack of internet access. Finally, since DISC was already familiar with deploying the election map in November, they were able to quickly spin up another map during the revolution and constitutional amendments.

On March 2nd, the United Nations Office for Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) requested the Stand-By Task Force (SBTF) be activated to help map the Libya conflict. The initial map was password protected to ensure safety of reporters, but later made publicly accessible. It's important to note that the SBTF is not an official arm of Ushahidi, but a separate initiative to leverage the power of volunteer crisis mappers. The group now has 220+ dedicated volunteers in over 30 countries that can be activated on short notice to provide support for humanitarian groups during times of crisis.

The Libya Crisis Map was very different than other mapping efforts. One, they didn't need to train volunteers like in Haiti, the Stand-By Task Force was simply mobilized. Two, a number of customizable features like the Big Map were simply enabled via the Ushahidi Plugin. Three, Haiti response was an actual Ushahidi team effort, but this was United Nations initiative that called upon the Stand-By Task Force. Four, the map is a testament to applying the lessons learned form Haiti and seeing the SBTF in action. It is also great example of a large organization like UN OCHA leveraging the power of Ushahidi along with an effective data flow process.

It's important to note, that the maps were not used during the revolutions in Tunisa, because there was not a local group able to deploy the software and coordinate the effort. Ushahidi is an incredibly powerful platform, however the technology is only part of the effort and a successful deployment requires a lot outreach, monitoring and an effective process. As George Chamales, a coordinator with the SBTF says, "a map is only as useful as the process and people to make it happen."

In the case of Egypt, DISC did a remarkable job taking advantage of localizing and customizing the platform as well as embracing the power of social networks. One of the members of DISC had interesting insight prior to the election regarding the role that social media was having for political conversation;"The use of social media and Facebook in particular is increasingly enabling the youth to engage in a political scene that normally opts for the physical elimination of the opposition. Blogs and Facebook groups are clearly taking the place made empty by the lack of a real political debate in Egypt, and are more increasingly emerging as an alternative political scene where a discussion on democracy and human rights is still possible."

Anand Giridharadas, a journalist at the New York Times also had a great quote about the value of using technology to bare witness;"They say that history is written by the victors. But now, before the victors win, there is a fresh chance to scream out, with a text message that will not vanish. What we would know about what passed between Turks and Armenians, between Germans and Jews - and indeed would it have happened at all - if each of them had had a chance to declare and be heard saying: 'I was here, and this is what happened to me?'"

Technology is a great enabler for communication, collaboration and coordination, allowing groups to mobilize and share information. It can also empower disadvantaged groups helping give citizens a voice, whether thats those affected by the Japan tsunami or protestors in Egypt. It shouldn't however overshadow the importance of real human networks. As Patrick Meier and Clay Shirky have both expressed, ensuring that citizens have a means to organize, is as important as ensuring citizens have access to information. As a global community, we need to be concerned with censorship on the internet, or the ability for governments to block its capabilities. The internet is incredibly powerful, but how useful is it when governments can simply shut it down? Mobile devices can quickly mobilize a group, but how useful does it become when cell networks can be taken down? We must all strive to ensure that others have a voice. As Wael Ghonim, the Google employee who helped organize the #Jan25 revolution said, "the power of the people, is much stronger than the people in power."

The Spanish newspaper EL PAÍS, wrote a great article capturing some of the discussion from the conference.

Had they been any riots in North Africa and the Middle East without the Internet? That question can be heard in any debate that puts the focus on events since December in the region. From time to listen, some will think that the most important is the Net, however, this process is also the result of years of labor organizations in defending human rights and freedom of expression. Internet is just a tool. A tool, yes, that is changing the paradigm of information, because people do not always need an intermediary, such as large media-to know what happens: you can now also turn to social networks and sites like Ushahidi or Witness.

These are some of the ideas that motivate the debate online and social revolutions of the century, organized AERCO (Spanish Association of Community Managers) and is held this afternoon at La Casa Lit by Caja Madrid. The lectures will be followed on Twitter, the hashtag (item) #isocialrev. "People who work with social networks, we find troubling the role that becomes the tool itself, which comes to overshadow the role of the person behind," said Leila Nachawati, international representative of AERCO and one of the speakers. "You hear about concepts such as Facebook revolution, in my opinion, obscure the political analysis of conflict and what has led us to this point," he adds.

Another saying 'but' to the praise of the network is the Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar, who admits he has helped people from social networks to mobilize, but governments have used to repress, that is, a space that can reach the suppression of an oppressive regime. In his view, the Internet has been instrumental in the riots, as evidenced by the demonstrations in Iraq, whose Internet penetration is less than 2% of the population, and in Egypt, where the government cut Internet service, but the revolution continued and even more people hit the streets, proving that there are other tools that are making possible the protests.

Recovering the voice of the bloggers

"Maybe the Arab revolution would not have been possible without the Internet, but that does not mean that the Net is the most important thing," says the Tunisian Sami Ben Gharbia, director of Global Voices Advocacy. "In any case, every revolution, every change, you need a way to expand your message" she continues, and in this case has been the Internet. Ben Gharbia knows what he means, as the organization which works is an international network of bloggers who translate and defend the blogs and citizen media worldwide.

Either way, the impetus to these social movements can not be attributed solely to Twitter and Facebook. Two of the experts participating in the sessions of the House Flaming represent alternatives to mainstream social networks such as Witness and Ushaidi. Matisse Bustos, head of communications at the first page says that Witness (Witness) is an international organization that defends human rights and seeks to document, through videos, if they are violated. Your challenge is to protect the identity of the activists to ensure their safety and try to get as many people as possible see the videos to prove whether this is real information.

For its part, Ushahidi is a tool for creating interactive maps useful in situations of crisis or danger from the information submitted by citizens through various channels such as email, Twitter or mobile messages. Dale Zak, who has participated in developing this technology, says it is an open source project used to develop citizen journalism has played a role, for example, the recent earthquake in Japan and the subsequent nuclear crisis.

With this momentum, the corporate media are also changing their perception of today and increasingly using citizen journalism and the sources providing the people themselves. An example is Al Jazeera, whose coverage of the riots, in which he participated Randeere Bilal, a speaker at the conference, has inspired other means for seeking evidence through social networks where journalists can not reach. But here too there are reservations. "Most of the mass media have great interest and often prefer to support governments rather than citizens," says US-Iraqi blogger Raed Jarrar. "Therefore, we must create alternatives to big media groups."

Many thanks to AERCO for organizing the conference. This was an important conversation to have, and it was a real honour to speak alongside Raed Jarrar, Sami Ben Gharbia of Global Voices, Matisse Bustos Hawkes of Witness.org, Randeere Bilal of Al Jazeera and Leila Nachawati of AERCO.

SKFloods Helps Citizens Report Flooding In Saskatchewan

2011-04-05T05:02:00.000-06:00

Today The Star Phoenix and The Leader Post ran an article on the Saskatchewan Flood map initiative I'm organizing in Saskatchewan, along side Laura Madison whose coordinating a similar efforts in Manitoba.

A local software developer hopes to turn a trickle of data into a deluge of spring flood information for a new online project that aims to better prepare Saskatchewan for a crisis.

Dale Zak has created skfloods.ca, an online Saskatchewan flood map that encourages anyone with an Internet connection to contribute real-time news about floods, flood preparations, road closures and other information that might help people in a crisis.

"People affected by a crisis know the most about a particular situation they find themselves in," Zak said. "I think it is a powerful way to allow citizens to share stories and information."

The first of its kind in Canada, the project could make Saskatchewan a leader in interactive mapping, Zak said.

Powered by citizen contributors, Zak's map solicits reports from people on the ground. People can submit a report by email, Twitter or through Android and iPhone apps.

Information can focus on emergency services, sandbagging efforts, evacuations, electrical outages and anything else floodrelated.

The data is displayed through icons on a map of Saskatchewan to help people quickly find information pertinent to their area.

Citizen reports are verified by volunteer administrators to ensure accuracy, an im-portant approach for a project that targets turbulent situations in which false information can harm relief efforts, Zak said.

Zak created the map using software developed by Ushahidi, a Kenya-based nongovernmental organization that develops open-source software.

Ushahidi, Swahili for "testimony," started by mapping violent clashes following the disputed 2007 Kenyan presidential election.

Since then, Ushahidi's free software has been used during the Libyan conflict, the Australian floods and to aid recovery and rescue efforts following earthquakes in Haiti and Japan.

In Haiti, citizens used text messages to update the map with information about aid services, security threats and injured or trapped residents, said Zak, a Ushahidi volunteer for 2 1 /2 years.

"There was literally no government communications system, so they used Ushahidi," Zak said. "Rescuers were pulling people from the rubble based on Ushahidi information."

In Saskatchewan, the provincial government has already established a flood information website at saskflood.ca, but Zak said the website offers no mobility access or a way to contribute data.

"We're no longer just consumers of information, we're contributors and creators," he said.

Zak has approached government officials about helping with his interactive map, but so far he hasn't had much luck. He said his map could use the province's realtime information about a flooding crisis to improve its services.

Using open-source software means anyone can take the skeleton of the map and change it to suit the needs of a particular situation. If new groups find better ways to use the maps, changes can be incorporated for future projects.

"It's an evolving, organic process where people use it, improve and then feed it back to everyone else," Zak said.

The software could be used in Saskatchewan for other crisis events, such as forest fires.

Now that the flood website is in operation, the hard work is done, Zak said. The map will remain year after year and all it needs is for people to feed it snippets of information.

"There's a lot of potential here for giving people a voice," he said.

Canadian mappers prepare for spring floods

2011-03-20T14:51:00.005-06:00

The fantastic Heather Leson, a fellow crisis mapper wrote a great blog post about the Saskatchewan and Manitoba flood maps that myself and Laura Madison are coordinating.

Ushahidi Mappers in Canada!

Be still my prairie girl heart. Laura Madison and Dale Zak spent the winter preparing for the spring floods in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. Extensive flooding is expected in both the Red River Valley and North/South Saskatchewan River regions. This is the first time that Ushahidi has been used to prepare and to report the floods in Canada. In fact, both maps are the first time that full scale Ushahidi maps have been prepared as part of the citizen reporting and digital volunteer response in Canada. There are Canadian university classes learning Ushahidi and CrisisCamp Toronto conducted an Ushahid beta test in February 2011. Laura is very active in the Ushahidi and Stand-by Task Force communities. Dale is active in the Ushahidi team. Each of us has mapped events around the world. And, we are delighted to see mapping come home.
How to help

Ushahidi is an open source project. There are three types of help required: Mappers, Developers, and Digital Volunteers. Maps are community-driven crowdsourcing. In the coming weeks, the needs will change daily or hourly. This is the beauty and curse of volunteer digital response. Both leaders have been in contact with official responders. However, at this time, their efforts are for citizen response and collaboration.

MBFloods and SKFloods maps allow for reports to be filed by webform, Ushahidi app, iphone, android, or email. Maps allow for various layers of useful open data to be added. People will be able to add news reports, pictures and videos. Maps evolve depending on the community use. So the needs will change over time. The work they have done is fantastic. Bring on the crowd! People are needed to file reports, coordinate mapping teams for about 2 weeks. Laura and Dale will be coordinating this adventure via Skype. I am sure that the great mapping communities may lend a hand. If you are an individual volunteer or are part of a volunteer technical community, please consider contacting:

Contact Dale for Saskatchewan: skfloods AT gmail DOT com
Contact Laura for Manitoba: flood DOT mbfloods DOT ca
Participate in the joint Skype channel: Add Laura (organization9) to get started.
Types of help required:

Preparedness

Laura has added layers for the Manitoba RCMP and Manitoba First Nations. She would like to add more layers. Mappers most welcome to churn out KML/KMZ files. She also needs some PHP help and Ushahidi expertise.

Volunteer Recruitment and Training

Both maps will need digital volunteer teams to support the mapping. The types of content you will be adding is geo-location, media monitoring (mainstream, twitter, facebook), and handling the various streams of online reports (webform, apps and email.)

About Ushahidi

To learn more about Ushahidi, see recently released Ushahidi Manual, created by the lovely crisismapper Anahi Ayala Iacucci. It outlines how to get started with Ushahidi and implement a successful deployment. Maps need a process, this Ushahidi Practical Considerations is also very helpful.

Feel free to contact me as well (heather at textontechs dot com) if you want more information or want to be connected to Dale or Laura.

Heather L.

You can learn more about Heather's crisis mapping work with CrisisCommons, CrisisMappers and Stand-by Task Force on her blog textontechs.com.

SSKTN Interview on Welcome To The Internet

2011-03-11T08:13:00.002-06:00

I had the pleasure of doing a podcast interview with Chris Enns from SSKTN.com, about how I got started in the social good space, Mobile Tech 4 Social Change, Apps4Good hackathons, Ushahidi crisis mapping, open data in Saskatoon, medical records in Rwanda and my upcoming travels to Kenya.

You can subscribe to the Welcome To The Internet podcast in iTunes, visit the podcast page or listen to the episode directly.

Saskatoon Needs Open Data

2011-02-17T21:39:00.019-06:00

David Hutton wrote a great article in this week's Star Phoenix on why Saskatoon needs to adopt an 'open-data' approach. I had the pleasure of giving my feedback why open data is not only important, but also makes sense from an economic perspective.

University of Saskatchewan instructor Chad Jones knows first-hand the power of freeing information locked away in government cabinets and databases.

For a class project, a student in Jones's iPhone programming class set out to create a mobile application that would tell you when your bus is coming using Saskatoon's transit scheduling data.

It took days of tedious conversion to get the information in a useful format -and even then the student was only able to map a single route.

In the same class, another student used data that was readily available from Calgary and was able to write a bare-bones app that covered the entire city.

The first students' ordeal would have been avoided if Saskatoon had an "open-data" policy similar to one a growing number of North American cities are adopting, Jones says.

"There are a lot of creative individuals who want to do this kind of thing and right now it's very hard," Jones said. "By not making the data available in a format that's honestly usable, it's delaying possible innovation."

Such a policy would make certain sets of city data available in a format that makes it possible for computer programmers or the public to use them, without copyright restrictions or other controls on its use.

Dozens of Canadian cities already share on open data websites information ranging from crime statistics to transit and traffic information to the locations of public parks, artwork or washrooms, homeless shelters and sewer manholes.

Edmonton, Ottawa, Toronto and Vancouver -known as Canada's G4 of open data -are working on creating common standards for their terms of use and data catalogues and most of their city councils have entrenched a commitment to open data by passing resolutions.

Advocates say open data policies can spawn useful websites and mobile applications -anything from automatic garbage-day email reminders, bus-tracking information and maps that show the location, ice quality, and hours of outdoor hockey rinks.

"I see great opportunity," said Eric Neufeld, the head of the U of S computer science department. "There's a lot of potential for community building."

In Saskatoon, almost all of the city's key information, including council and committee agendas and annual budgets, for instance, are only available as large PDFs -the Internet equivalent of a brick.

City officials are reviewing their outdated website and getting video of council meetings streaming live online before delving into open data, said Mike Jordan, the city's intergovernmental affairs manager.

The city would need to examine the scope of information it can legally provide given privacy and security restrictions, he said, but would "try to be as open as possible respecting privacy legislation.

"Some of these technology things move a little quicker if you have critical mass," Jordan said. "We are incrementally catching up with larger centres. There's a trickle-down effect that starts where there's a population mass and we're starting to see we need to get in the game, too."

Opening up information can also increase government transparency and engage the public. In Toronto, campaign finance filings and council voting and attendance records are a click away.

By releasing data in easy-to-use formats, developers will create sites or applications that are packaged and customized in ways city hall never would have considered, said Dale Zak, a local software developer.

The 30-year-old Zak has become somewhat of a social media leader in Saskatoon, organizing a hackathon for local programmers to write as many apps as possible over a weekend with proceeds going to charity.

It's one thing for data to be public or available via access to information, but it also needs to be usable, he said.

There's also an economic argument. With easy access to the city's large data sets, developers could make money selling smartphone applications, he said.

Many cities have held competitions with prizes of up to $50,000 for the developer who comes up with the best application.

"The idea of a competition would be really successful," Zak said.

"Throw out $50 or $5,000 . . . you're going to get multiple value returned on that investment.

"Cities are getting the work for free . . . you open up the data and anyone can build on top of it."

An App For That

Mobile applications that have been spawned by datasets made available by governments:

Rinkside Ottawa: Ottawa-based app for smartphones finds the closest outdoor rink and the quality of the ice.

Where's my Streetcar? Toronto iPhone app that quickly tells users when the next few streetcars will arrive at their stop.

Transit To Go: Halifax iPhone app gives users all the next buses arriving at their stop.

VanTrash: Using the City of Vancouver's garbage collection data, users can download collection calendars and get email alerts to remind them about pickup.

Stumble Safely: Washington D.C. app correlates crime, liquor licence and traffic data and calculates the safest way to walk home when drunk.

Fly on Time: Popular U.S. app and website shows how often a flight arrives on time using data from federal government.

Young Leaders, The Future Of Saskatoon

2011-02-11T14:36:00.017-06:00

It's an exciting time to be living in Saskatoon; strong economy, booming population and an ongoing discussion about the future of our city. But I think the really exciting part is the exceptional group of young leaders that are striving to help make Saskatoon a better place for everyone. Since maybe of these young individuals often work behind the scenes, I believe there is value in highlighting their success stories.

If you want to know what Saskatoon will be like in five or ten years, ask these young change makers, because they are the ones shaping the future of our city.

Curtis Olson of Shift Development is a young developer interested in revitalizing older communities like Caswell Hill and Riversdale. His Shift Home got national recognition as a modern, green and affordable housing unit, sending a strong message to young families that living in the suburbans is not your only option. His recent project, The Two Twenty is a co-working space on 20th Street that aims to bring other bright young minds together for a shared conversation of change.

Daren McLean is the mastermind behind Deezine.ca, a website design and marketing shop that aims to empower local community initiatives. He was the creator of I Heart Bike Lanes, a Saskatoon initiative to thank the city for improving bike lanes, the story reached over 500,000 people online. Daren's other projects include 3twenty, VerEco Home, The Shift Home, Winter Shines, Lugo and The Two Twenty. He continues to support important local community initiatives.

Ellen Quigley is a local environmental activist passionate about sustainable solutions. Ellen helped form We Are Many (WAM), an innovative, award-winning youth-run arts and environmental organisation with a focus on practical outcomes. This past fall Ellen gave a fantastic talk at TEDxSaskatoon about her goal to make Saskatoon garlic self-sufficiency by 2012. She also is a Saskatoon Cycles board member and organizer of this year's Ice Cycle. Ellen was also named Planet S Magazine's Best Young Activist, for "her work with the We Are Many (WAM) group or any of theroughly gerbillion other causes this tireless young lady has dedicated herself to, our readers would like to honour Ellen Quigley for her efforts!"

Ainsley Robertson was nominated for YWCA Women of Distinction Award in 2008 and for good reason. She co-founded The Princess Shop, a nonprofit organization that helps create an enhanced graduation experience for female students in need, as well as providing mentorship so they can continue their success after graduation. Ainsley gave a heart-felt talk at TEDxSaskatoon sharing the story of the Princess Shop. Ainsley's also ran in the recent Ward 5 city by-election, coming in a close second. She is a great example of a motivated young person passionate about helping others in our community. Hopefully this is not the last you'll hear from Ainsley, because she'd make a valuable addition to city council.

Sean Shaw is a young leader passionate about improving the political scene in Saskatoon. His blog is a fresh voice about ongoing activity at city council. He also was one of the contributors to the Saskatoon Speaks blog, writing a number of articles on ways to improve our city. Sean also is a board member of Saskatoon Cycles, a nonprofit that "advocates for a city in which cycling is a viable, year-round, mode of transportation that is safe and convenient for all ages". He was a main driving force behind this year's Ice Cycle and continues to advocate for a more cycling-friendly city.

Victor Das is involved with Transition Saskatoon, a local chapter to the global movement helping reskill cities for a more resilient sustainable future. Their recent event, Know Your Food And Water was a great discussion bringing awareness to genetically modified foods. You can checkout Transition Saskatoon's YouTube channel, including videos from People's Assembly on Climate Justice.

Mairin Loewen, an advocate for curbside recycling recently became the city’s youngest councillor ever. Mairin utilized the power of social media to get her message out, helping represent the young, more diverse and growing part of Saskatoon. Loewen was right to say, "I think there’s sort of a really dynamic and interesting group of young people in Saskatoon. It’s a youthful place and I don’t think that energy is as well represented as it should be on council. The innovation and creativity of people in Saskatoon is outpacing many of the (large organizations)." Mairin will be a great voice on city council providing a fresh view to the often stale ideas.

Flavio Ishii, is a local software developer that is also a cycling advocate. He often contributes to community initiaties such as the Saskatoon Sustainability Series, a documentary series to promote sustainable success stories and discussion how these ideas could be applied locally. He also helped organize the Saskatoon Ice Cycle as well as collecting used phones on campus for Hope Phones. If there is an event advocating cycling, there's a good chance you'll find Flavio nearby.

Mike Tanton is a shining star in Saskatoon's Cree-Metis community. He worked on the Aboriginal Faces of Saskatchewan project, that "highlights Aboriginal people in Saskatchewan who have used their talent and skills in their pursuit of personal excellence". He now works at the White Buffalo Lodge, offering guidance to our city's youth, another great example of an incredible young person in our community.

This is just a short list of some of the exceptional young people working everyday to help make Saskatoon a better place. Know of any other young leaders you'd like to see on this list? Would love to hear from you :)

Crowdmap Helps Give Cyclists A Voice In Saskatoon

2011-01-12T07:51:00.002-06:00

This week The Star Phoenix printed a story on the recent launch of the Ushahidi iPhone and iPad app, and how's it's being used in Saskatoon for cyclists to report incidents.

A website set up by a local man is allowing Saskatoon cyclists to report on the bicycle friendliness of different areas of the city.

Saskatoon Bike Map, located at saskatoonbikemap.crowdmap.com, lets users report bicycle-related incidents and information such as collisions, bike thefts or locations of good trails and displays the reports on an easy-to-understand map of the city. Dots on the map represent various report types, allowing site visitors to get a visual representation of what other cyclists are saying about areas of Saskatoon.

"Being a cyclist, I hear a lot of stories," said Bryn Rawlyk, who started the website in August. He got the idea after seeing a similar bike map of Los Angeles.

"It’s such an open, accessible way for people to collect info about bicycle incidents," said Rawlyk.

Rawlyk estimates that 20 to 30 users have contributed to the site. So far there are 50 reports posted, with the most common types being complaints of harassment and areas where bike paths are insufficient or not observed by non-cyclists.

"I regularly bike downtown, and I continually come across courier vehicles and trucks parked in the bike lanes blocking our path. It is especially a regular occurrence outside the police station on Fourth Avenue," said one user in a post on the site.

The website was created using Crowdmap, an open-source mapping platform built by Ushahidi, a non-profit technology company. The software was first developed to document post-election violence in Kenya in 2008. Since then it has been used for many reasons and in a variety of locations, such as Haiti during the aftermath of last year’s earthquake, Russia during widespread forest fires last summer or London during a transit strike. Anyone can set up a map on the Crowdmap website for free. The technology is currently being used in southern Sudan to report on the independence referendum. In two days, the Sudan VoteMonitor map has received 15 reports, ranging from arrests and violence to polling stations that are particularly well-organized.

"It can gather these reports on the spot," said Zak. The program uses the GPS abilities of handheld devices to precisely position the reports on the website map. It also allows users to take pictures of whatever they are reporting and post them. "People on the ground, they’re the ones who know best what is happening," said Zak.

The Ushahidi iOS app was downloaded 500 times during its first two days online. It’s already being used to report the locations of animals stranded by the recent flooding in Australia.

Zak is excited to see the software he worked on being used in his home city, and said bicycle-related issues need addressing. He returned to Saskatoon after spending time abroad and noticed how difficult it is to get around in the city without a car.

"I spent three years in places where you could walk everywhere," said Zak. "To come back and see the major congestion problems was a wakeup call."

The visual nature of the website makes it easier to spot trends in the reports.

"If you can identify exact locations, that can help," said Zak. He also believes having one site that collects all of the data could help local cyclists in future bids to city council.

"I think there are a lot of improvements we could do," said Rawlyk. "(The website) will give a good picture, from a cyclist’s perspective, of issues in the city."

According to Rawlyk, Saskatoon Bike Map allows the voices of local cyclists to have some permanence.

It's great to see Ushahidi getting local coverage, let's hope Saskatoon Bike Map can help improve the cycling situation in Saskatoon.

Looking Back At 2010

2011-01-03T16:08:00.027-06:00

It's easy to charge ahead with the new year, but I believe it's also important to first pause for a moment and reflect on all the things one's accomplished over the past year.

After spending the last three years living in Halifax and London, it as nice to know that 2010 would be spent back in Saskatoon allowing me to reconnect with friends and family. Unfortunately, getting assaulted during the last new years festivities was not exactly the warm welcome I was expecting. Also somewhat ironic, considering that over the past three years I've travelled to over twenty countries without experiencing any problems, guess thats why they say there's no place like home ;)

In January, the world watched in horror as an earthquake devastated Haiti's capital, Port au Prince. The Extraordinaries called an emergency team meeting, looking for ways our micro-volunteer platform could be used to help the people of Haiti. Over the next few days our team frantically worked to build a Missing Person Finder to allow volunteers to tag images from the earthquake, and to match those tagged images with missing person photos. We always knew the potential of the platform, but I believe it was the Haiti earthquake response that was the tipping point where the public also realized the real power of micro-volunteering, a few spare moments could make a big difference. And we had an incredible response, 76,584 disaster images tagged, 8,137 news photos collected from the earthquake, 746 possible matches identified and 24 matches good enough to contact family members, truly remarkable!

In February, I had the incredible opportunity to travel to Rwanda to help install an OpenMRS medical record system in a small rural hospital in Gitwe. It truly was a life changing trip for me. Being my first time in Africa, every day felt like two because by noon I had already experienced an entirely new day of sights, sounds and smells. The trip didn't come without it's challenges, from customs confiscating the computer hardware to major electrical conversion headaches to faulty hospital room power supplies and buggy open source software with almost non-existent internet connection for support. Somehow, at the 11th hour, we got the computers installed and the software running. Rwanda is such a beautiful country, but it was people that really touched my heart, especially the children. Whether it was them singing for us, or making paper airplanes together or visiting the local school, I'll never forget my time in Rwanda.

In March, I decided to leave the Extraordinaries so I could pursue some of my own interests and continue to support open source initiatives like Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS. It was a difficult decision to make, but I feel blessed for having the opportunity to contribute to the Extraordinaries' micro-volunteer platform, a fantastic team on a noble mission to allow the crowd to harass their wasted moments to volunteer for a worthy cause. I will definitely look back at my time with the Extraordinaries as a highlight of my career.

In April, as a favour to a friend Lucky Gunasekara, I developed the Reminders plugin for FrontlineSMS, open source software that has been used by NGOS around the world to send and receive text messages for such efforts as human rights monitoring, disaster relief, education programs and fundraising campaigns. The Reminders plugin added the ability to schedule an email or sms message for a future date for a variety of occurrences. The plugin has since been used to send reminders to TB patients in Indonesia, to send patient appointment reminders at AMPATH clinic in Kenya and in Romania for librarians to send overdue book notifications.

In May, I had the opportunity of speaking at the U of S Digitized conference to 250 high school students about why computer science was a must for solving the world’s biggest problems, and why innovation comes at the intersection of disciplines, with software development at the heart of social change.

Also in May, as a little side project, I developed Web Comics, a web comic reader for iOS. Being a comic fan myself, I was pretty excited to publish the app because it allowed other fans to share their favorite comics via Facebook, Twitter or Email. Much to my surprise, rather than happy fans I was greeted by an angry mob that mis-understood the app was just a RSS-reader pre-populated with feeds. Not wanting to upset the artists, I quickly pulled the app from sale. Learning from my mistakes, I altered the apps functionality allowing users to add their own feeds, and re-published to the App Store. That entire ordeal taught me a valuable lesson; Twitter is a powerful tool for communication, but also a vehicle for mass mis-communication.

At the end of May, with help from my friends in Halifax and Flavio Ishii in Saskatoon, we hosted the second Apps 4 Good iHackathon 4 Charity, with over fifty participants across two cities. Over the course of the weekend we started developing seven apps, truly inspiring to see everyone working towards a common goal. As Margaret Mead once said, "never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has." Unfortunately, the seven apps are still in development, but hopefully we can publish some of them in early 2011.

In June, I travelled to Toronto and had the honor of speaking at Mobile Tech 4 Social Change conference on Mobile Volunteerism during the Net Change Week. The entire day was filled with fantastic talks on how mobile devices are changing the world, excited to be part of that conversation. While in Toronto I also participated in the Future Lab event where my team was given the challenge, how can people in areas of conflict be given a voice? Our team proposed the idea of Megaphone, a VOIP system that allows participants to create ad-hoc groups and share information using an ordinary cell phone. The system could be used by farmers in developing countries to share crop prices, or for mothers in a rural village to notify others of potential threats. It's an exciting idea, hopefully one day soon it will move from concept to product.

In July, I worked with SMS Medic to help develop a new plugin for FrontlineSMS called TextForms, to allow structured data gathering via SMS. The plugin was piloted in Haiti and Pakistan to monitor hospital resource levels. I've also been a long time fan of SMS Medic, so it was pretty awesome working with Josh Nesbit and Dieterich Lawson.

In August, I became Ushahidi's Mobile Project Manager and began developing the long awaited iOS app. Building the app from ground up, it was exciting to apply all the things I've learned in iOS development from the past year.

In September, I worked with FrontlineSMS to develop FrontlineSMS Mapping plugin which allowed Ushahidi incident reports to be collected via SMS, and uploaded once an internet connection became available. The plugin was originally developed by Emmanuel Kala, but I continued from where he left off, adding new functionality including integration with TextForms and FrontlineForms plugins, providing new ways to collect incident reports.

In October, I gave a talk at Saskatoon Barcamp on Lessons From A Freelancer, nice to see such a developed software community here in Saskatoon. In early October my wife and I travelled to Greece for a friend's wedding, getting to also visit Turkey along the way.

In November, I began developing an Android app for GVFI.org to replace their traditional paper forms with a mobile app to help reduce errors and while providing realtime access to information. The app eventually be used by GVFI.org field agents to monitor potential virus outbreaks in high risk areas like bush meat markets in Cameroon.

In mid November, I had the amazing opportunity to speak at TEDxSaskatoon on Dharma and the purpose of life. Sharing some of Deepak Chopra's wisdom from Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success; that everyone has a special talent, and it's purpose in life to use that talent to help others. The idea of dharma has been a major influence on my life, so it was excited to share this concept with others.

Also in November, my friend Flavio Ishii and I organized the Saskatoon Sustainability Series, a documentary series to share the success stories how other cities have solved similar challenges Saskatoon is now facing by embracing sustainable ideas.

Finally in December, I added the finishing touches to the Ushahidi iOS app and submitted it to the App Store. The iOS app was just officially released today, excited to finally have it available for the community.

So there it was, my 2010. It's easy to get caught up in the daily task or challenge, but after looking back at the last twelve months, I'm proud of what I've accomplished this year. But upon reflecting, I've also realized there is still work to do. In 2010, I hoped to bring two powerful ideas to life: everyone is a teacher, and everyone has a story to share. Unfortunately, these two ideas got put on the back burner as other items took priority. But you can expect to hear from me more about these two ideas in 2011 :)

Dharma and the Purpose Of Life

2010-12-24T11:20:00.012-06:00

This fall I had the honor of speaking at TEDxSaskatoon, on what Dharma means to me, here is a video and summary of my talk.

A few years ago, a close friend of mine gave me a book by Deepak Chopra called The Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success. It's a beautiful concise little book filled with value life lessons, but one chapter in particular has had a major influence on my life, and that's the chapter on Dharma.

So what is Dharma? Well, Dharma is the sanskrit word which means the purpose of life. And the Law Of Dharma states that everyone has a unique talent, and it's your purpose in life, to discover that talent, and use it to help others.

One, you are unique, no one has your genetics, your education and your life experiences.

Two, you have something special to offer, that no one else has.

Three, you need to discover what that unique talent is.

And four, it's your purpose to use that special gift to help others.

Woodrow Wilson said, "you are not here merely to make a living. You are here to enable the world to live more amply, with greater vision, and with a finer spirit of hope and achievement. You are here to enrich the world."

Now, I don't believe this talent is just one specific thing, but rather a collection of broader skills. For example you may have a passion for music and a love for children. Or maybe you have lost a loved one, which can allow you to better understand and help others cope through their difficult time.

There are two people that have really inspired me, because I believe they not only understood this principle of Dharma, but truly embraced it in their lives.

Kip Keino is considered to be one of greatest Olympic athletes, and also a national hero in Kenya, all for good reason. In the 1968 Mexico Olympic Games, Kip was leading the 10,000 metre race, with two laps remaining collapsed on the track from an acute gall bladder infection. He was helped to his feet which disqualified him, but he went on to cross the finish line. Now doctors told him he was far too ill to run any of the following races. But going against their request, a few days later he not only raced in the 5,000 metre but he placed silver. Now on the day of the 1,500 metre, again he was told he was far too ill, but he decided he owned it to his country to at least run. So Kip hopped into a taxi and headed to the Olympic stadium, only to get stuck in a traffic jam. He thought, he's not gonna sit in this taxi and miss his opportunity to run for his country. So he hopped out of the taxi and ran the rest of the way to the stadium, and to the start line. He not only won that race, but set an Olympic record in the process.

Now it's a truly remarkable story, but I think what he did after that, is the really remarkable part. Unlike most of today's professional athletes, Kip understood he needed to use his talent to help other people. He went back to his small village of Eldoret in Kenya and opened the Kazi Mingi farm, an orphanage for children. That farm has now expanded to a running camp, which has inspired and trained an entirely new generation of African runners, who are not only winning medals, but following in Kip's footsteps and giving back to their community.

Now, the next person you may not have heard of. In fact, you probably would only know her if you grew up in my small town in southern Saskatchewan. Her name was Linda Froshaug, and she was my high school English teacher. Linda loved three things; English literature, teaching and horses. And everything that Linda did revolved around the love of those three things. You know, it was quite common to have conversations run long after class about T.S. Elliot. Or for Linda to take the entire grade on a wagon ride in the hills south of Glentworth.

Now Linda wasn't a wealthy person, but I believe she was successful and happy, because she was sharing her passion with other people. Unfortunately Linda passed away in 2003 with cancer but I still think of her. And she taught me a very valuable lesson, that you don't have to be famous to help others and to do great things with your life.

TEDx is all about people sharing their passions, so my final question to you is, what is your Dharma?

Saskatoon Sustainability Series

2010-12-08T17:34:00.006-06:00

The best way to promote change, is through education. Educate the public on a better alternative, and change will follow.

This idea is at the very heart of the Saskatoon Sustainability Series, a documentary and discussion series to promote sustainability in Saskatoon. The idea for the event came following city councils decision to disregards the option for a pedestrian and cyclist only bridge. Many people, including myself, were very discouraged that the public opinion was being completely ignored. With the idea of change through education, my friend Flavio Ishii and I decided there was value in sharing the success stories of other cities by showcasing episodes from PBS e², the award-winning documentary. The first three episodes we selected highlighted sustainable solutions to similar problems Saskatoon is now facing.

For the first event, we showed the episode on Portland which highlights their urban boundary strategy which has not only reduced urban sprawl, but stimulated a denser more vibrant core. The second episode we showcased the revitalization of Melbourne's downtown by creating more people friendly spaces. And the third event we highlighted Bogotá, which has seen an incredible reduction in crime simply by embracing cycling and public transit.

Not all these ideas can be applied in Saskatoon, but there is value in sharing the success story of others. And hopefully we can learn from them in the process.

For more information about the Saskatoon Sustainability Series, join the Facebook Group or follow us on Twitter.

Saskatoon Help Portrait

2010-12-05T12:52:00.005-06:00

Yesterday, something remarkable happened in Saskatoon. Seven photographers, ten volunteers and one makeup artist met at The Salvation Army on Avenue C and 19th Street for Saskatoon's first Help Portrait event. Help Portrait is a global initiative to provide family photos for those less fortunate that may not have the resources to pay for traditional methods. The volunteer event coordinated by Krystian Olszanski, a local software developer and photography enthusiast, took over two hundred photos of seventy-one families for a total of a hundred and five people.

The Help Portrait project is a great example of ordinary people volunteering their professional skills to help others in their community. For those that volunteered, it was a great opportunity to improve their skills and become more engaged in their community. For the recipients, it was an opportunity to create lasting memories of their family while knowing that others are looking out for their well-being.

Krystian said the entire day was filled with lasting memories. One lady told him, "if I had any money I would definitely pay for those pictures. Thank you for making me look so pretty." Another man was somewhat hesitant to have his picture taken because he didn't have anyone to give the picture to, but after some cheering up from volunteers got a photo taken with a Santa hat. It's remarkable how a simple gesture like taking someone's photo can provide so much meaning.

You can view the photos from the event on the Flickr group or join the Facebook group for more information.

Huge congrats to Krystian Olszanski and all the volunteers that brought this event to life. As Margaret Mead said, "never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has."

Homeless In Saskatoon

2010-12-03T12:18:00.000-06:00

Nowhere To Go is a short documentary about homelessness in Saskatoon.

Nowhere To Go - Part One

Nowhere To Go - Part Two

TEDxSaskatoon

2010-10-29T12:34:00.004-06:00

I've been a long time fan of TED, and was quite excited to hear that it was coming to Saskatoon. TED Talks are all about sharing inspiring ideas, so I was honored to be asked to be giving a short talk at the event.

A few years ago, a close friend gave me a copy of Deepak Chopra's book, The Seven Spiritual Laws Of Success. It's a beautiful concise little book, but the ideas ring true for any faith. The chapter on dharma has played an important role in my life, so I have decided to do my TED Talk exploring the idea; that everyone has a unique talent, and it's your purpose in life to discover that special gift, and use it to help other people.

For more information about TEDxSasktoon, visit their website http://tedxsaskatoon.com.

Lessons From A Freelancer

2010-10-18T20:26:00.013-06:00

I had the pleasure of speaking this past weekend at Saskatoon Barcamp on Lessons From A Freelancer, here's a summary of my talk.

So, why become a freelancer?

For one, it allows a flexible location. I made the transition from employee to freelancer four years ago, when my wife (fiancee at the time) moved away for school. We knew that she would have May, August and December off each year, for which we'd probably return home. However, not many employers are too keen on you taking three months of holidays, so I began freelancing out of necessity. This has allowed me to work remotely for clients in Seattle, New Jersey and San Francisco while I was in Halifax, or most recently to work for organizations in London and Nairobi while living in Saskatoon.

Two, it offers a flexible schedule. For example, if you are not a morning person, you can choose to start your work day later. Or, if you need to do other stuff during the week, you can choose to work weekends instead, it all depends on how flexible your clients are. For example, last spring I worked Monday, Tuesday and Wednesdays for a Halifax company, and volunteered Thursday and Fridays for two other organizations.

Three, you can choose your clients. As an employee, you often don't have the luxury to choose your boss, but as a freelancer you choose who you work for and more importantly, who you don't work for.

Four, this also means you can choose your work. I love the mobile space, so prefer mobile projects over web-based ones. I am also particularly interested how mobile applications can help disadvantaged groups, so for the past two years have favored helping social good initiatives over corporate clients. As an employee, it's common to get moved to other teams, for example maintenance. As a freelancer, you have more control over what kind of stuff you work on.

Five, you can set your wage. If you have a skill set that is in demand, you can often negotiate your wage with you client. However, I find there's somewhat of a compromise between your wage and the kind of work you want to do. For example, I've often chose lower paying contracts that I find interesting, over higher paying ones that are less interesting.

But being a freelancer is not all good, working from home is both a blessing and a curse. For one, there's isolation when you work at home, sure you can wear boxers and bunny slippers, but you can't have a conversation over the water cooler or bounce an idea off a co-worker. Last year in Halifax, I was fortunate to have the opportunity to work one day a week from The Hub, a shared workspace for freelancers. If there is a co-working spaces in your community, I highly recommend you try it out.

Having a non-steady income has probably been one of my biggest challenges being a freelancer. Gaps between work means gap between income, and delayed payment by clients just add to the problem. Unfortunately, phone and power companies still want to be paid on a monthly basis, and surprisingly, will cut service when you don't pay your bills (who knew?!).

Freelancing definitely requires more bookkeeping. Collecting receipts, time tracking, submitting invoices and filing taxes are all very time consuming. I love developing and I love creating great software, however I can honestly say I don't really love bookkeeping.

Unfortunately there are no benefits being a freelancer. Dental, eye and other medical coverage are common for most employees, but as a freelancer, you might end up like this guy getting your cavity filled on the street. Hopefully you can take advantage of medical coverage from your spouses employer ;)

And finally, you have to find your own work. Once you build up a reputation and have a few clients under your belt, work may start coming to you, but for the first while you really need to be aggressive in finding clients. Note, holding a cardboard sign on a street corner might not be your best option ;)

Which leads me to the traits that make a good freelancer. For one, you need to be independent. As an employee, your boss tells you what to work on, and often how to do it. You don't have that guidance as a freelancer, so you really need to be independent enough to find your own solutions.

Another key trait on being a freelancer is motivation, because if you're like this guy on the couch, you probably are not gonna be a good freelancer.

And when clients are paying you to come up with innovative solutions, being creative is a must.

And finally, to be a good freelancer, you need to be a good salesman. When you are an employee, you don't exist outside that company. As a freelancer, you are that company.

Because you really are your own personal brand, which means you need to constantly market and promote yourself.

That could mean handing out business cards while riding on the bus or while standing in the checkout line at the grocery store.

There is also huge value in attending conferences; networking, shaking hands, buying drinks and just meeting people because everyone is a potential client.

Your online reputation is becoming increasingly important. If you're building web apps for a client, and you don't exist online, why would they hire you? That would be like hiring a mechanic that doesn't own a car. Question, when was the last time you Googled yourself?

Having a strong LinkedIn profile has become a necessity for freelancers, the more connections and recommendations you have, the better. While I was living in Halifax, I made sure that I was the number one search result for Windows Mobile in Nova Scotia. If you're specializing in a particular area, are you the top result in your geo-graphic location on LinkedIn?

I believe the key is really becoming an expert in your area of development, and having a blog is a good way to show your knowledge. For example, if you're a graphic designer, you should be blogging about Photoshop tips or tutorials on CSS. The people reading your blog could be potential clients.

Twitter is another great way to build your online reputation. Where a lot people use Twitter to chat with friends and post photos of what they just ate, a smart freelancer uses Twitter to share articles and join conversations to help build an online reputation and become an expert in their field.

GitHub is everywhere (apparently even on the deck of the Enterprise!) and it's quickly become thee online code repository, but it's also a fantastic way to build an online reputation. Publishing your own side projects or forking other repositories is a great way to showcase your development skills. Imagine a potential client having to choose between you and another contractors, but the other contractor has public GitHub repo's filled with well written, highly readable code. Who do you think that client will hire?

StackOverflow is another great place to build an online reputation. Not familiar with StackOverflow? It's a question and answer platform, but many smart developers are building incredible online reputations simply by answering other developers questions. Wanna find a super knowledgeable Hibernate developer? Turn to StackOverflow and see how their peers rated them.

Contributing to an open source project, is a great way to gain valuable skills, get connected to a community and profile your talent. If I was looking to hire a good freelancer, I personally would hire someone thats contributed to an open source community for six months, over a person thats worked in the corporate environment for three years. Why? Contributing to an open source project requires all the same traits that make a good freelancer; independent; motivated and creative, where simply being an employee doesn't guarantee any of those.

It's also worth getting connected with a recruiting firm. Although a recruiting firm may take a percentage of your pay, my experience is that recruiting firms can often find higher paying gigs. Maybe companies don't have HR departments, so turn to recruiting firms to find the best developer for a particular task, and willing to pay for it. It's also good just having your profile registered with a recruiting firm, because somewhere down the line a client might be looking for your skill set and it might just be during a downtime.

There are a lot of great tools out there, FreshBooks is a great online invoicing system, BaseCamp is great for client communication and GitHub is awesome for hosting your code. One thing to note, many clients will already have their own set of tools, which requires you to be flexible and adapt to their standards.

And finally, a few lessons I've learned along the way. One, time estimates are always challenging, I think it's safe to say every developer over estimates their talents. Although the project could go off without a hitch, there are always unforeseen roadblocks: waiting for client feedback or perhaps buggy third party software. I know some freelancers apply double estimate rule, others prefer to triple their original time estimate. Clients are happy when you can complete ahead of schedule, but not quite as happy when it takes longer than expected, so make sure you give yourself enough time.

For one of my first gigs, a senior contractor at a recruiting firm gave me a very valuable piece of advice. He said, "there are two kinds of contractors. One kind of contractor works twelve months out of the year, and continues to develop with the languages they know. The other kind of contractor only works eight months out of the year, and spends the other four months learning new languages, attending conferences and getting certifications. The second kind of contractor are at the high end of the pay scale, and although the first kind always have work right now, they soon become dinosaurs." Technology changes so fast, it's important to stay up to date, continual education is an absolute must for any freelancer.

Billing rates are probably one of the most common questions I get asked by non-freelancers. My rate has varied between projects, but I think the answer really depends on what kind of skill set you can offer, and how much of a demand that is to a client. For example, clients aren't gonna pay you at the high end of the scale if it takes you a month to get up to speed with their system. (Why clowns? I just thought it was a funny picture)

Invoices and the lag between client payments has probably been one of my biggest challenges. Because it's natural to have gaps between work, you should bill so accordingly. There is also overhead expenses like invoicing and other paperwork, so it's important to bill clients enough to cover your non-billable time. I know some freelancers demand a percentage up front before development can begin, I think this is something I will start doing for future contracts.

Finally, one horror from the past. For my first contract I worked remotely for most the project, then went onsite for the last two weeks to wrap things up. We had agreed at all travel expenses including flights, accommodation, car rental, gas and food would be covered, which for two weeks added up to $4500. Well, surprisingly the company that hired me, went bankrupt, and left my travel expenses unpaid. Let's just say that was a painful lesson to learn...

Did I miss anything? Have any other lessons on being a freelancer? I'd love to hear your ideas :)

The Solution To Climate Change

2010-09-24T06:56:00.001-06:00

Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams' new book MacroWikinomics explores how mass collaboration is radically changing all aspects of society. One passage from the chapter on solving climate change really jumped out at me:

"Make people and business pay the full environmental costs of what they produce and consume and suddenly every investment and purchasing decision made in retail stores, financial markets, and small and large companies around the world will be made in pursuit of the least-cost low-carbon option. Weaving carbon emissions into every business decision will drive innovation and deployment of clean technologies to a whole new level, and make energy efficiency much more affordable. Industries will need to invent and adopt new technologies that boost efficiency to limit their emissions. And consumers will curtail their own carbon footprints as the prices they pay for things like air travel and exotic fruits begin to reflect their true costs to the planet."

Wow, well said! Learn more at http://www.macrowikinomics.com

Grasslands National Park

2010-08-17T18:12:00.007-06:00

This past weekend while visiting the farm, we took the drive south of Wood Mountain to see the Grasslands National Park. It was my first time there and I have to admit, it truly is an magical place. The moving clouds casting their shadow across the rolling hills. The landscape full of life whispers stories from the past, visiting the park is like stepping back in time.

You can view my photos from Grasslands National Park here.

Ushahidi iPhone App

2010-08-11T16:55:00.004-06:00

One of the first tasks as Ushahidi's Mobile Project Manager, is to deliver the much-anticipated Ushahidi iPhone app. We've had an iPhone app in the works for the past year, however a lot has changed since we first envisioned the app. For example, background processing is now available on the iPhone 4.0, and the iPad now offers a much larger screen real estate.

So if we built the app from the ground up, what would it look like? How could we design the app to be as simple as possible, and yet still familiar to the user?

After some discussion about the current iPhone app prototype, I've realized the desired Ushahidi app functionality mirrors that of the current Apple Mail app.

Apple Mail	Ushahidi App
Allows you to access multiple inboxes	Should allow you to access any of the Ushahidi deployments
Selecting an inbox will display the email for that account	Selecting an Ushahidi instance should display the list of reports
Selecting an email displays the full details	Selecting an incident should display the full report details
You can forward an email to your friends	You should be able to share an incident with friends via Email, Facebook or Twitter
A new email is created via a modal dialog	You should be able to create new report in the same famous

So, taking those points into consideration, I created a new iPhone and iPad project using the Apple Mail app as a model. Below is a Prezi demonstrating the proposed application flow:

Ushahidi on Prezi

This is the first attempt at re-thinking the Ushahidi app, so your feedback is always welcome. You can view the current Ushahidi iPhone code at: http://github.com/ushahidi/Ushahidi_iPhone

Ushahidi

2010-07-28T23:23:00.009-06:00

Back in the fall of 2008, my friend Kaushal Jhalla introduced me to an exciting open source project called Ushahidi that was developing a platform for mapping crisis information. Ushahidi, which means "testimony" in Swahili, was initially created to map reports of violence in Kenya following the post-election fallout at the beginning of 2008. The website proved to be a valuable tool in citizen journalism allowing people in areas of conflict to report incidents of both violence and peace efforts via the web and mobile phone.

The co-founders Erik Hersman, Juliana Rotich, Ory Okolloh, David Kobia and Henry Addo realized the need to turn their website into a platform, so it could be used by others around the world. Their open source platform has since grown and now deployed around the world for such efforts as tracking the outbreak of H1N1, monitor elections in Sudan and Mexico and most recently used to monitor the effects of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Ushahidi also played a crucial role in the Haiti earthquake response efforts, in particular it's partnership with Samasource and FrontlineSMS to establish Mission 4636.

Last spring I had the privilege of contributing to their efforts by developing a Windows Mobile application for their platform, which was recently deployed in El Salvador to help map crime.

The Ushahidi team continues to inspire and amaze me. So, it is a great honor to 'officially' join the team as Mobile Project Manager. I will be helping to coordinate their fleet of mobile apps, both by contributing and working with developers from around the world. On the agenda, release of the long-awaited Ushahidi iPhone app, updates to current the Windows Mobile, Android and J2ME mobile apps and the development of the elusive Ushahidi BlackBerry app.

If you have any ideas or would like to contribute to one of these projects, please contact me.

Saskatchewan

2010-06-29T12:47:00.006-06:00

I spent the past weekend at my parents farm in southern Saskatchewan. Summer's are particularly busy on the farm so it was nice to be home to help out. It was a beautiful weekend and luckily I brought along my camera to capture a few photos. While walking the fence line in our pasture just south of Glentworth, I realized something:

Happiness is a green pasture, a blue sky and a line of fence that needs fixing.

With the clear blue sky above, vast green pasture all around and the flowering alphapha fields swaying in the wind, it made me appreciate just how beautiful Saskatchewan really is.

However Saskatchewan's beauty is not just a destination, but rather the landscape and sky all around with an incredible color palette that changes with every season. Here are a few photos that capture some of that hidden beauty.

Web Comics Republished

2010-06-15T19:25:00.008-06:00

Back in May I published an iPhone and iPad application called Web Comics, a RSS reader designed especially for viewing and sharing your favorite web comics.

I was excited when Web Comics hit the App Store, however rather than happy fans I was flooded by an angry hate mob on Twitter.

Here's a blog post about the original app, and here's another article by Lauren Davis discussing the entire ordeal. I'd recommend you read the comments on both articles, lots of interesting discussion from both sides.

Since removing the original app from sale, I've been busy adding improvements including the ability to add your own comic feeds. You can also select from a list of featured comics or discover comics other fans have added. The app also displays the number of times a comic has been viewed, a great way to see it's popularity.

The app still has many of the original features including starring and filtering on unread episodes as well as sharing via Twitter, Facebook and email. The application is also designed especially for the iPad and iPhone which makes it perfect for reading your favorite comics on the go.

For artists, the app is a great way to get your comic in the hands of new readers. And since the app displays the full RSS feed content, comics with embedded advertisements can benefit from click-throughs thus generating revenue for the artist.

If you would like to have your web comic featured, please submit your comic details here or email web.comics.reader@gmail.com if you have any questions.

You can download Web Comics for your iPhone or iPad at: http://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/web-comics/id368792200

Mobile Volunteerism

2010-06-13T18:14:00.045-06:00

This past Wednesday I had the honor of speaking on mobile volunteerism at Mobile Tech Training during Net Change Week in Toronto.

In my talk I shared some examples how mobiles are aiding traditional volunteerism, are allowing new forms of micro-volunteerism as well as a few interesting ways devices are being used to indirectly volunteer for a cause.

We are entering an incredibly exciting time. One, we are experiencing massive cell phone adoption unlike we've ever seen before. Two, these devices are becoming increasingly powerful. Three, there is a movement of people wanting to help make a difference. Mobile devices are and can play a crucial role in volunteerism.

First, some interesting mobile statistics.

there are more people on earth with cell phones, than without
mobile phones are the fastest growing consumer market in history
mobile phones have an incredibly large user base with over 23 million mobile subscribers in Canada
massive mobile usage, over 122 million sms messages sent daily in Canada
over 80% of Canadians take their cell phone to bed
it's a one-to-one relationship with it's user, the device is very personal and seldom shared
most important, it's always carried, and always connected

There is a large number of devices, with a wide range of functionality.

low end devices still have voice and sms capabilities
sms is a powerful platform to send and receive data
high end devices are really powerful micro computers
you can watch and capture video
you can listen and record audio
it can find your location and detect the direction of your movement
you can take photos, read and write
internet-enabled, you can browse the web and send emails

But it's not the individual features that's interesting, but rather how you can combine these features together. The mobile device is the ideal platform for engagement, providing realtime collaboration on the go.

Macro-Volunteerism

So how are mobiles being used now to help aid traditional volunteerism?

One great example is VolunteerMatch, which helps you find volunteer opportunities nearby. In March, they launched an iPhone application to extend their platform allowing users to easily find opportunities closest to where they live, work and go to school. They utilize the location-detection and mapping capabilities of the iPhone to make it even easier to discover one of the 75,549 volunteer opportunities. You can also get recommendations from other volunteers and share your activity with friends on Facebook or Twitter.

The president of VolunteerMatch Greg Baldwin said, "The social and mobile era is here, and new audiences will be engaged and inspired to volunteer without ever opening up a traditional Web browser. We're excited to help nonprofits more effectively use these tools to get the support they need."

Great application but unfortunately it's US-only, so where's the Canadian equivalent?

Idea: Mobile developers out there, there's an opportunity to provide similar functionality for Canadian content.

Another interesting example is the Florida-based niceSERVE, who organize a faith-based event that mobilizes people to serve locally. This event connects volunteers and local non-profits by creating helpful service projects that are geared toward revitalizing communities. Here's a video explaining how niceSERVE works.

Brilliant idea, give people first hand experience helping a nonprofit, while reducing the barrier of entry. Their event happens three times a year, allowing members of the community to give back, and as a result helps build lasting relationships. The niceSERVE iPhone app helps make sign-up even easier. One, select a location. Two, select a category. Three, select a project.

The niceSERVE mobile app does a great job to help aid the signup process, but what if their application also allowed:

capture and post videos of the event
take and share photos from the day
become friends and share contact info with other volunteers
donate directly inside the app or send a request for a donation
share their activity with friends on Facebook or Twitter
send push notifications for future events

Huge potential for their mobile app to engage volunteers at and following the event.

Idea: Could Volunteer Canada adopt a similar nation-wide strategy for their volunteer week?

Micro-Volunteerism

So VolunteerMatch and niceSERVE are good examples of using mobile devices to help aid people in discovering volunteer opportunities nearby. However, they only utilize a few of the powerful features the mobile device offers like internet-access, location-detection and mapping capabilities.

What if we tapped into the other powerful capabilities, could we volunteer on the actual device? This is exactly what micro-volunteerism is aiming to accomplish.

The Extraordinaries is a micro-volunteer platform for mobile phones and web browser that delivers on-the-spot and on-demand volunteerism. I had the honor to both volunteer and work for The Extraordinaries over this past year. Here's a video by The Extraordinaries explaining micro-volunteerism.

The Extraordinaries have some impressive stats, and they are just getting started. There are over 120 organizations now using their platform with 250 projects available and 32,000 registered micro-volunteers that have completed over 325,000 micro-tasks.

A good example is First Aid Corps, who have used the platform to map over 400 life-saving defibrillators across North America. Or Kaboom which now has over 350 play spaces mapped thanks to The Extraordinaries.

But the best example that demonstrates the true power of the platform was our Haiti earthquake response. On January 12th, 2010 a massive earthquake devastated Port-au-Prince, the capital city of Haiti. The world watched in horror. We had an emergency Extraordinaries team meeting to brainstorm ways to help the people of Haiti. We came up with a number of great ideas, but decided our platform could be best utilized for a missing person finder. With communications down, family members in North America were left with the uncertainty of knowing if their loved ones were still alive, however news agencies and aid organizations were streaming photos from the disaster. So our missing person finder would harness the power of the crowd to tag disaster photos (example boy, girl, man, women, alive, injured), then serve a missing person photo beside a related disaster photo allowing micro-volunteers to identify possible matches.

As a team, we always knew the power of the platform, but I believe it was the Haiti earthquake response where the general public understood that their micro-actions could make a difference. And we had an incredible response:

76,584 disaster images tagged
8,137 news photos collected from the earthquake
746 possible matches identified
24 matches good enough to contact family members

Insight: People want to help, you just need to give them a way.

Jacob Colker, the co-founder of the Extraordinaries had a great quote that captured why mobile is so critical to micro-volunteerism: "For me, the future of volunteering is finding ways to fit meaningful experiences into small amounts of time that are much more conducive to [people's] hectic, busy lives, and if we're going to reach them in small amounts of spare time, then the device that makes the most sense to do that is the smartphone."

So the Extraordinaries have a platform that empowers nonprofits allowing the crowd to micro-volunteer via the mobile device.

On the other side of the coin, Samasource and CrowdFlower are using mobile devices to micro-volunteer in a very different way. Their iPhone application Give Work allows micro-volunteers to help support and provide work for refugees.

You download the app, and by tagging a video or tracing a road, you will generate money to help support training for a refugee completing similar micro-tasks, as well as provide quality assurance. Once a refugee reaches 75% accuracy, they move from training to paid work. Here's a video explaining how it works.

Upon completing a micro-task, you earn points which equate to real world value for a refugee. For example, 5 points is one tomato, 10 points is one sms message, 100 points is half a fish, 1000 points is five minutes of airtime and 10,000 points is one large bag of flour. Give Work definitely is a great example of mobile volunteerism.

Ushahidi is another interesting group using mobiles to harness the wisdom of the crowd. Their crisis mapping platform was created following the post-election violence in Kenya. Their open source platform has been used to track outbreak of H1N1, monitor elections in Sudan and Mexico and most recently used to monitor the effects of the Gulf Oil Spill.

But the best example of using Ushahidi for micro-volunteering was the role it played in the Haiti earthquake response, in particular it's partnership with Samasource and FrontlineSMS to establish Mission 4636. In the wake of the earthquake in Haiti, a free short code 4636 was established to meet the urgent needs of the Haitian people through SMS messaging. The problem; the majority of sms messages being sent from earthquake victims were in Haitian Creole or French which made it difficult for aid workers to understand. The solution; use FrontlineSMS to receive incoming messages, pass those messages through Samasource allowing micro-volunteers to translate, then publish the translated message to Ushahidi. Volunteers would then prioritize those translated messages so the information could be used by aid workers to find missing people or deliver aid. There was over 170 volunteers working in the situation room in Boston to help translate and prioritize the 80,000 sms messsages sent to 4636. Here's a video explaining Ushahidi's role in the earthquake response.

Indirect-Volunteerism

So mobiles are being used to aid traditional volunteerism, and micro-volunteering allows tasks to be completed on the actual device, but there are other interesting ways that people are using mobiles to indirectly volunteer for organizations.

CauseWorld is an iPhone and Android application that lets you check-in for charity. Building upon the success of FourSquare, CauseWorld allows you to check-in to retail stores to collect karma points. These karma points can then be donated to over 27 causes including LiveStrong, Donors Choose, Global Giving and Red Cross. Here's a short video demonstrating how you can check-in for charity.

Since you are checking-in on behalf of a nonprofit, you really are indirectly volunteering for that organization. Is this really a form of volunteerism? Some may argue no, but checkout the statistics on the impact of their application:

offset over 1.4 million pounds of carbon
donates over 174,000 meals to Americans
planted over 42,000 trees in rain forests
donated over 18,000 books to children
cleaned over 6.7 million litres of water

Question: An interesting idea but unfortunately the application is US-only, so where's the Canadian equivalent?

Another example of indirect volunteerism worth noting is MobileRice, built upon the success of the highly addictive web-based game FreeRice which has collected over 77 billion grains of rice over the last two years. Download the MobileRice iPhone app and by testing your vocabulary skills you help donate rice to the World Hunger Programme. You normally wouldn't consider playing this game volunteering, however since you are investing your time and the result is raising funds for that organization, you are really volunteering without even knowing.

Question: Are there other ways we could allow people to indirectly volunteer?

Mobile devices are changing the way we work and live, and also the way we volunteer. They are being used to aid traditional volunteerism, enable micro-volunteering and allow unique ways to indirectly volunteer. But as the number and power of the mobile device increases, so does the potential for mobile volunteerism.

VolunteerMatch - http://www.volunteermatch.org
niceSERVE - http://www.niceserve.org
The Extraordinaries - http://beextra.org
Give Work - http://www.samasource.org
Ushahidi - http://www.ushahidi.com
CauseWorld - http://www.causeworld.com
MobileRice - http://www.freerice.com

Big thank you to Hima Batavia for inviting me to speak at Net Change Week, it was an honor to be part of such an important conference.

The Dash

2010-06-06T08:46:00.001-06:00

I attended a funeral this past week for a great man that left us far too soon. At his service they read a beautiful poem by Linda Ellis called The Dash:

I read of a man who stood to speak
At the funeral of a friend
He referred to the dates on her tombstone
From the beginning to the end

He noted that first came the date of her birth
And spoke the following date with tears,
But he said what mattered most of all
Was the dash between those years

For that dash represents all the time
That she spent alive on earth.
And now only those who loved her
Know what that little line is worth.

For it matters not how much we own;
The cars, the house, the cash,
What matters is how we live and love
And how we spend our dash.

So think about this long and hard.
Are there things you’d like to change?
For you never know how much time is left,
That can still be rearranged.

If we could just slow down enough
To consider what’s true and real
And always try to understand
The way other people feel.

And be less quick to anger,
And show appreciation more
And love the people in our lives
Like we’ve never loved before.

If we treat each other with respect,
And more often wear a smile
Remembering that this special dash
Might only last a little while.

So, when your eulogy is being read
With your life’s actions to rehash
Would you be proud of the things they say
About how you spent your dash?

How will you spend your dash?

iHackathon 4 Charity

2010-05-31T11:58:00.008-06:00

The iHackathon 4 Charity event on May 29th and 30th was a huge success! Over fifty participants across two cities, seven apps, and seven new charities!

I am continually impressed by the power of bringing together a group of talented people with a common goal. To brainstorm over a hundred great app ideas, and then to turn seven of the best ideas into a reality is truly remarkable!

Over the weekend the Halifax teams were busy creating four great applications; swipey tappy, a game teeming with hearts in support of Leave Out Violence (LOVE), Stick Person Theatre which benefits Joints in Motion, Artists4Good, a digital background app that showcases local photographer to help Clean Nova Scotia and Sushi Roll-Up, a light-hearted game that allows users to put together sushi rolls under a time crunch in support of Stepping Stone.

The Saskatoon crew developed three awesome applications over the weekend; WeDJ, a social DJ’ing app with a twist that will benefit Choc’laCure who help raise funds for the Saskatoon Cancer Centre, CoachPad a handy sports team sketchpad that supports North East Outreach a small non-profit charitable organization in Melfort, Saskatchewan that provides 24 hour crisis hotline and finally ShouldI, a social decision maker that will benefit Saskatoon Friendship Inn who provide breakfast and lunch for over 500 people daily.

To help bridge the distance between Halifax and Saskatoon, we streamed live video between the two venues throughout the entire weekend. It definitely added an interesting 'room next door' dynamic allowing us to share ideas with our remote counterparts.

Big thanks to The Hub Halifax, Mindsea, Say Hi There, Beyond The Box Law, InnovaCorp, Liquid Media, Vendasta and Zu.com for sponsoring this great event! And of course the weekend would not have been possible without all the fantastic volunteers!

As Margaret Mead once said, "never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has."

For more information about Apps 4 Good, who we are, what we do and why we do it, please visit: http://www.apps4good.ca/about/

Software For Change

2010-05-14T15:28:00.003-06:00

Last Friday I had the honor of speaking at Digitized, a conference at the University of Saskatchewan meant to inspire high school students to pursue a career in computer science.

I had two main goals for my talk. One, to show students that computer science doesn't always mean writing lines of code and sitting in a cubicle. And two, that software when combined with other disciplines, has the power to change the world.

The first part of my presentation I retraced my last year working with the Extraordinaries and Ushahidi, organizing M4ChangeHFX, co-founding Apps4Good, and travelling to Rwanda.

However, I believe the second part of my presentation was the most interesting, in which I profiled eight of my heroes in the social good realm. This inspirational group is using software to help make the world a better place. They continue to inspired me and definitely worth being highlighted.

Ben Rigby / Jacob Colker - The Extraordinaries (software + volunteerism)
Alan Curtis Kay once said "the best way to predict the future, is to invent it." I believe this is very true for Ben and Jacob who are truly pioneering micro-volunteerism. The Problem: volunteerism statistics are surprisingly low due to an already overworked population. The Solution: use software to harness our spare moments to micro-volunteer for organizations you are passionate about. Thanks to the Extraordinaries, using your iPhone or web browser you can now help an organization like First Aid Corps build a map of defibrillators to help save lives. Or help Library of Congress to make their archives more accessible. Or help Nature Abounds to identify businesses and schools that are "going green". Two truly remarkable guys that are empowering others, to do good.

Erik Hersman - Ushahidi (software + crisis)
Erik Hersman is one of the founders of Ushahidi, a crisis mapping platform that was created following post-election violence in Kenya. Their open source platform has since been used to help map the outbreak of H1N1, track wildlife in Kenya, provide post-earthquake crisis response in Haiti, and most recently to map the spread of the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Ushahidi is a great example of the power of innovative software combined with a passionate community that is helping to solve real world problems. Erik also helped establish iHub, an innovation hub in Nairobi that is quickly becoming the next Silicon Valley. Erik is definitely an icon and huge inspiration.

Katrin Verclas - Mobile Active (software + mobile)
Katrin Verclas is the founder of Mobile Active, a global network of people using mobile technology for social impact. Katrin is a powerful voice in the mobile community and a testament that good things happen when you bring smart people together. The Mobile Tech 4 Social Change barcamp she started has now spread to New York, Washington, Nairobi, London, Berlin, Halifax and this summer Toronto. Katrin continues to support numerous mobile initiatives and helps share the stories of others using mobiles for good.

Matt Berg - ChildCount+ (software + health)
Matt Berg was recently named Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People and for good reason. The ChildCount+ project which he helped develop is now responsible for improving the lives of over 100,000 pregnant mothers and children under the age of five in Kenya. Using 160-character text messages, ChildCount+ is providing improved health monitoring, faster interventions and better immunization. A remarkably humble guy, and a true inspiration.

Ken Banks - FrontlineSMS (software + longtail)
Ken Banks is truly a pioneer in using cell phones to solve real world problems. Ken is also a strong believer in providing low cost solutions for the long tail, arguing that we often focus too much on the bleeding edge which is not accessible to the world's poor. FrontlineSMS, is a great example of Ken's principle in action, free open source software that turns a cell phone and laptop into a low cost communication hub. It is now being used by NGOS around the world to send and receive text messages for such efforts as human rights monitoring, disaster relief, education programs and fundraising campaigns. I joked with the students during my talk, that the old saying 'the next Bill Gates', well in the development community people say they'd like to be the next Ken Banks :)

Josh Nesbit - FrontlineSMS:Medic / Hope Phones (software + health)
Josh Nesbit is one of co-founders of FrontlineSMS:Medic, a module built on top of FrontlineSMS that is revolutionizing global health by empowering rural healthcare workers. Initially piloted in Malawi, and then expanded to Uganda, it now serves 1.2 million patients and in the next year will be rolling out additional services across several continents. Josh also helped establish Hope Phones, used phone recycling program that uses the proceeds to purchase appropriate phones for rural healthcare workers. A $10 used cell phone will give 50 families access to emergency medical care, health information and clinic resources. I had the pleasure of meeting Josh at M4ChangeNY, as well as the honor of having him speak at M4ChangeHFX, an truly incredible guy.

Nathan Freitas - Open NYSenate (software + politics)
Nathan Freitas is an advocate for privacy and free speech. He's contributed to a number of important projects including The Guardian that aims to create a secure, trustworthy smartphone solution that helps protect identity of it's user. This is especially important in countries when speaking out against the government or political groups can be dangerous. He also worked with the New York Senate to develop their Open Legislation program, a fantastic example of open government and transparency in politics.

Stacey Monk - Epic Change (software + fundraising)
Stacey Monk is the founder of Epic Change and a legend in the social good fundraising community. She continues to find innovative ways to help fund important development projects. Her most recent initiative, To Mama With Love is a collaborative art project that honors moms across the globe, and in the process is helping to raise money to build a school in Arusha, Tanzania. Stacey is definitely an inspiration and innovator in social good.

These eight people are a testament that software, when combined with other disciplines, has the power to change the world. Unfortunately due to time constraints, I could only profile eight, however there are definitely many more that deserve to be included in this list.

Who would be in your list of innovators using software for change?

Web Comics: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly

2010-05-11T15:50:00.007-06:00

I recently published an iPhone / iPad app called Web Comics, a simple RSS reader with over a hundred of your favorite web comics, allowing you to share your favorite episodes with friends via Facebook, Twitter and email.

I was excited when Web Comics hit the App Store yesterday, however rather than happy fans I was flooded by angry artists upset that their content was being consumed by the app.

I quickly reacted to the inquiries, changing the price from $1.99 to FREE, and then eventually removing the app from sale.

My apologizes to the artists, I did not mean to offend, the exact opposite actually.

I love all these comics, and read many of them daily. However I found it frustrating not being able to read them in one place, especially on my phone. That's why I created the app, because I personally found it quite useful, and I hoped that others would too.

In hindsight I should have asked permission from each artist to consume their content.

My apologies again.

Update:

Great followup by Lauren Davis on Web Comics App Aftermath
Great blog post by No Reason Comics on The Twitter Storm

FrontlineSMS Reminders Plugin

2010-05-04T16:37:00.007-06:00

FrontlineSMS is powerful open source software that turns an ordinary laptop and mobile phone into a low cost communications hub. It's used by NGOS around the world to send and receive text messages for such efforts as human rights monitoring, disaster relief, education programs and fundraising campaigns. It's also at the heart of FrontlineSMS:Medic which is revolutionizing global health by empowering rural healthcare workers.

So when my friend Lucky Gunasekara asked if I could develop a much requested reminder plugin, I jumped at the opportunity. For one, it gave me an excuse to dive into the Frontline source code. And two, it would benefit the entire community.

The Frontline Reminders Plugin allows you to schedule email and SMS reminders for a specific date range occurring once, hourly, daily, weekly or monthly.

There was a bit of a learning curve to develop the plugin, especially with my somewhat limited Java, Hibernate and Thinlet experience. Thankfully Alex Anderson and Dieterich Lawson were great help answering my questions on the Frontline Google Group.

The plugin definitely has room for improvement, and I already have a few ideas for additional occurrence types; Every Weekend, Every Weekday, Every Sunday, etc.

You can checkout the source code at: http://github.com/dalezak/FrontlineSMS-Reminders

Building A Community For Our Aging Demographic

2010-04-16T12:46:00.001-06:00

Last week as part of the Oxfam Saskatoon W8 Potluck Series, Patricia Roe from the Sherbrooke Community Centre gave a fantastic talk regarding the challenges our community faces in supporting our aging population.

Of that aging demographic, 37% will be over 80 years of age, 25% will have some kind of dementia and 33% will live with some kind of disability. This poses a major challenge for the declining number of youth that need to support this large cohort of older people.

Patricia has worked at the Sherbrooke Community Centre for the past twenty years, whose mission is "to create a world for people, when they no longer live out in a community." Sherbrooke offers a number of progressive programs that address the loneliness, helplessness and boredom that often occur at institutions. Those programs include a store that residents can work in, a multicultural spiritual centre, a large gardening program, music, dance and wine making clubs, as well as an international acclaimed art program. Most recently they introduced a successful writing program that allows residents to share their stories.

As Patricia says, "what we can do in our community, and what we can do as leaders in the community, is make change here. And if we make that change, then people are gonna start demanding change." She believes it's our responsibility as a society to help make life full and abundant for our aging population. There are practical small things we can do locally that can have a big impact in our communities.

You can listen to Patricia's talk at: Oxfam W8 Series - Particia Roe.mp3

Preparing For Rwanda

2010-02-14T17:25:00.013-06:00

Tomorrow I depart for Rwanda to help deploy an open source medical records system in a rural health clinic in Gitwe. I will be joined by the incredibly talented Lucky Gunasekara, Steve Andersen and Jordan Smock. The OpenMRS system we'll be deploying in Gitwe will initially be used to register and manage local HIV-positive patients, with plans to later be expanded to monitor TB, malaria and general patient care.

This past year I've tried to focus my efforts on initiatives where technology can drive social change. I am also particularly interested in the innovative ways mobiles are being used in Africa, especially in healthcare. So I am honoured to have the opportunity to collaborate with Lucky, whose work at Frontline SMSMedic is helping empower health workers in rural areas around the world.

The trip has come together in a rather short amount of time. I received the first email on December 29th asking if I was interested, and now six weeks later will be making the journey from Saskatoon to Kigali traveling through Calgary, London and Nairobi. Our team will also be installing the computer hardware which Steve, Jordan and myself will be bringing along with us.

Packing has been somewhat challenging, my first trip to Africa, I want to pack lite but also bring all the necessary items. Besides the two Samsung N150 10" netbooks for the clinic, I'm also packing the following items. For clothes; Salomon trail shoes, Birkenstocks, pair of shorts, pair of MEC travel pants, long sleeve breathable MEC shirt and a breathable t-shirt. For medical items; Malarone, Cipro, Advil, Tylenol, Robacacet, Imodium, Gravol, Sinutab, Polysporin, Blistex, Purell, few band-aids and some travel probotics. Other items; Katadyne Exstream XR water bottle, Pristine water treatment drops, Ultrathon insect repellent, Ombrelle sunscreen, mosquito bed net, Petzel headlamp, Gerber multitool, universal power converter, sunglasses, hat, digital camera, an unlocked cell phone and finally a copy of Mountains Beyond Mountains.

Inspired by Stuff Your Rucksack, I am also bringing along several packages of pencils, pencil crayons, notebooks and pencil sharpers which hopefully will go to good use when we visit some nearby schools.

To better understand the important role technology can play in healthcare, checkout this great video on Partners In Health’s work in Rwanda.

I'm honoured to be involved in such an incredible project. I'm nervous and feel somewhat under prepared due to the nature of the trip coming together so quickly. But mostly I'm excited to have the opportunity to travel to Africa, which hopefully is the first trip of many.

Dirty Oil, And The Alberta Tar Sands

2010-02-03T12:45:00.004-06:00

Dirty Oil, a documentary film that explores the controversy surrounding the development of Alberta's tar sands, the battle between industry, government, local communities, environmentalists and the devastating impact it's having on the environment.

Learn more at http://www.babelgum.com/dirtyoil

Update: Dirty Oil will be coming to theatres in Canada in April and May 2010. If you are interested in a screening in your town, please contact mark.cranwell@babelgum.com.

Petropolis, Aerial Perspectives Of The Alberta Tar Sands

2010-02-03T12:35:00.004-06:00

Petropolis, a documentary filmed primarily from a helicopter gives an unparalleled view of the world's largest industrial, capital and energy project, the Alberta tar sands.

Canada's tar sands are an oil reserve the size of England. Extracting the crude oil called bitumen from underneath unspoiled wilderness requires a massive industrialized effort with far-reaching impacts on the land, air, water, and climate.

Learn more at http://www.petropolis-film.com

H2Oil, The Tar Sands And The War For Water

2010-02-03T12:15:00.008-06:00

"We are creating an environmental catastrophe that will take centuries to recover from...if we recover at all." - David Suzuki

The documentary H2Oil tells the story of one of the most significant and destructive projects of our time, the Alberta tar sands.

Due to the difficult process of extracting oil from the tar sands, it takes 2-5 barrels of fresh water to produce a single barrel of oil. The result, the tar sands operations are draining the Peace-Athabasca Delta, which is the collector of more than 1/6 of Canada's fresh watersheds. Its depletion, exploitation, privatization and contamination — has become the most important issue to face humanity in this century.

"The great economic boom is going to be the great economic disaster and devastation to our land and people." - Chief Allan Adam, Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation

Learn more at http://h2oildoc.com

The Truth About The Tar Sands

2010-02-03T11:46:00.001-06:00

"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive." - C. S. Lewis

Andrew Nikiforuk, environmental journalist and author of Tar Sands: Dirty Oil And The Future Of A Continent has created a video that explains the realities of the Alberta tar sands and dirty oil. Besides being an environmental disaster by destroying forests, wiping out woodland habitat and polluting our water systems, it is also wreaking havoc on economic systems and energy policy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VjjnEzoxEI8

InfoExecutive Article On Apps 4 Good

2010-01-25T09:44:00.005-06:00

The Canadian IT magazine Info Executive recently interviewed me on Apps 4 Good, and our mission to build apps for charity.

Doing Good ... There's An App For That

When Dale Zak and a team of volunteer software developers from Halifax set out to create an iPhone app one warm weekend in July, the idea was simple – by Sunday, there would be three new apps ready to be sold on the iPhone app store, with proceeds going to local charities.

In fact, it took four months for the fruits of the group’s labour to become a reality, but by December, the group had two iPhone apps available at the App Store and was officially registered as a corporation with a mandate to donate proceeds from the applications to charities.

Under the Apps 4 Good name, the group of developers has launched “Wish You Were Here”, an app that allows users to take photos and send digital postcards to friends, and “Meet Me Here”, an app used to schedule meet-ups via e-mail and Twitter.

“It’s hard to ignore the Apple app store,” Zak said of his decision to base the charity around the platform. “It’s just so successful and the fact that you can publish your app and you instantly have millions of people it’s accessible to – they take care of rolling out updates and they take care of purchases. In software development, one of the big challenges is just reaching a market. You can develop a great app but if no one sees it, no one’s going to be able to buy that application.”

The apps developed by Apps 4 Good have had moderate success, with about five to ten purchases per day (they cost $1.99 each), according to Zak, but what matters for the group is that ultimately, charities like Phoenix Youth Programs and Feed Nova Scotia are benefitting.

“It doesn’t seem like much, but if that’s constant every day for a year, that all adds up and at the end of the day, it’s more than the organizations would have had if we didn’t do this,” Zak said.

And it’s not just local charities basking in the good will – over the two-day iPhone Hackathon 4 Charity event in July, the developers became friends and built work alliances resulting in new collaborative projects. What’s more, the event gave the group exposure that has since turned into a number of freelancing gigs for some members.

So what exactly goes into designing an iPhone app? According to Zak, coming up with a new and interesting idea was the biggest challenge the developers faced when building the applications. “There’s so many apps now in the app store,” he said. “You really have to be creative and you have to make something that’s simple to use, but also fun.”

More than 20 ideas were reviewed and subsequently scrapped in favour of the postcard and meet-up apps, including a Farmer’s Market application to help visitors share information on vendors. “We voted on the ones we thought were really good ideas and also which ones we thought we could accomplish in a short amount of time,” Zak explained.

But the process was by no means an easy one. Although most of the work for the applications was done at Hackathon, graphics had to be created, a marketing plan had to be drawn up, the corporation had to be registered and an Apple license had to be procured. “But the good thing is now, because we’ve established Apps 4 Good, we’re planning on having a second event in the spring,” Zak said, adding that he hopes to expand Hackathon to Saskatoon and Montreal.

Apps 4 Good also ironed out a few kinks that stymied its progress the first time around. “We chose to use GitHub as our repository for our code … it’s a great system, but one of the problems we faced is there’s no integration with Xcode, the development environment on Apple to make iPhone apps,” Zak explained. “There’s no way to plug GitHub directly into Xcode so we couldn’t do updates inside of our actual development environment. That slowed down our process a bit."

Going into the second event, Zak has a better idea of what he’d like to do differently, including extending Hackathon to a week-long event instead of over two days. “In hindsight, what we should have done is followed more of a development process,” he said. “We would have had an envisioning stage, we would have gone into design, we’d have gone into development and then moved into testing.”

For Lori Barker, director of development for Phoenix Youth Programs, Apps 4 Good’s work is a good example of how technology can be leveraged to support community projects. “I just think it’s wonderful,” she said. “I think the power of what social media can do and what technology can do in support of the charitable sector is phenomenal. I think we’ve really seen that change over the last couple of years … Social media is a way people can really engage in an active way. Last sentence seems incomplete? Through technology, like the app they’ve developed for the iPhone very much does that.”

Help support Apps 4 Good by becoming a Facebook Fan or downloading our apps.

In The End

2010-01-22T15:06:00.001-06:00

In The End by Faithless, a powerful song about two babies, one born into wealth, the other into poverty and how their lives diverge.

http://www.last.fm/music/Faithless/_/In+the+End

LSK
My baby was born in a bed
With white sheets, machines and heat
Traveled home in a car to a three room nest, eats and sleeps
Laminate flooring to crawl on, TV,
Talks, starts to walk, amongst love and security.
Goes to school, learns to read and write
Probably follows a team with his friends
And gets to ride the train,
Fall in love, probably fly on a plane
Get to work all week and spend what he earns
On the high street
He's got doctors, nurses, fireman, churches,
Kindergarten, wedding bells and jet black hearses
Passport, bankcard, maybe his own yard
Locks and alarms, trinkets and charms,
Maybe a baby in his arms

Maxi Jazz
My baby was born on his knees
One of poverty 's offspring
Came into the world coughing,
Already full of mother's disease
Went back to a flat, with no gas, no cash,
Rapped in a duvet full of cigarette ash,
Mama can't get no sleep,
Baby never quite get enough to eat.
Goes to school, learns to steal and fight,
Probably form a team with his friends,
Go steam those trains
Fall in love and never trust nobody again
Gets to work all week standing on the high street for Joe, Hustling blow, hustling blow.

The Star Phoenix Profiles The Extraordinaries

2010-01-19T15:23:00.002-06:00

The Star Phoenix recently reported on my work with The Extraordinaries and our efforts to help Haiti earthquake victims.

http://www.thestarphoenix.com/news/Programmer+helps+following+earthquake/2457736/story.html

A Saskatoon man is creating a means to help the Haiti earthquake relief effort with just a few clicks of the mouse.

On Monday, Saskatoon computer programmer Dale Zak helped put the finishing touches on a program that allows Internet users to tag images taken in Haiti in the aftermath of the earthquake. People looking for loved ones in the country can then search through the database, narrowing the number of images by specifying whether those depicted are male and female, young and old.

An army of "micro-volunteers" around the world is already busy attaching labels to the photos. The labels will help narrow the search. Already, 5,700 photos have been tagged by volunteers since the database launched Thursday.

Photos of missing people can also be uploaded to the site. Volunteers will be able to scroll through existing images while looking at a photo of the missing person at the same time.

The team has worked around the clock since the earthquake to launch the program. Zak estimates the group of developers worked at least 40 hours to get the databases online, using photos pulled from the photo-sharing website Flickr.

"We were trying to think about ways we could use our system to help the people that are in Haiti. It just seemed like a right fit that we used our image tagger and our searching to help identify photos coming out of Haiti," said Zak, 29. "There are a lot of photos being taken, but a computer can't tell if it's a man or a woman or a teenager, or if the person's alive or dead, but you and I can glance at that photo and can quickly tell what's going on. Adding tags makes it easily searchable."

Zak has worked with the San Francisco-based organization The Extraordinaries for the last year to develop programs such as this one. Other projects include tagging photos for a Portuguese visual arts library and mapping an online database of defibrillators around the world.

"There's so much wasted time, but if we can make these kinds of things addictive, people can volunteer and feel more engaged in their community," he said. "That's our goal."

Volunteers can use cellphones or spare moments on the computer to complete the tasks, which are posted as "missions" by different organizations.

Zak anticipates the program they developed after the earthquake will work to help identify other missing people, or work in the event of another natural disaster.

"Now that we have this framework in place, that if another disaster happens we can have this stuff in place already," he said.

This program also allows those who can't contribute financially to do something.

"A lot of aid is going to Haiti right now, but this is just another way that you sort of can help just in your spare time," Zak said.

Those interested in becoming a "micro-volunteer" can visit http://haiti.beextra.org.

Log On To Help Haiti

2010-01-19T12:48:00.001-06:00

NBC News just profiled our efforts at The Extraordinaries to help find Haiti earthquake survivors.

http://www.nbcbayarea.com/news/tech/Extraordinary-Site-Aims-to-Find-Haiti-Quake-Survivors-82059317.html

View more news videos at: http://www.nbcbayarea.com/video.

Want to help?Visit http://haiti.beextra.org

Helping Haiti Earthquake Victims

2010-01-18T20:25:00.001-06:00

On January 12, 2010, a 7.0 magnitude earthquake rocked Haiti, killing over 200,000 people and leaving the Haitian capital of Port-au-Prince in ruins. The damage this disaster has caused is still unmeasurable as friends and families around the globe try to contact loved ones while thousands of others continue searching for ways to help.

The Extraordinaries have created a support page to harness the power of the crowd to help locate and identify missing persons with just a few minutes of your time.

You can help! Visit the The Extraordinaries' Haiti Earthquake Support Center and use your spare moments to help Haiti earthquake victims.

The Image Tagger — Sort through news photos coming out of Haiti and categorize (tag) them with keywords like “adult, child, alive, deceased.”

The Matcher — We’ve engineered a system that matches faces of missing people to faces in photos coming from Haiti. The goal is to help desperate families find their loved ones.

The Search Engine — As volunteers tag images, they are fed into the Extras’ “search engine”. This system allows families to search through images taken post-earthquake in Haiti, and specify certain characteristics.

http://haiti.beextra.org

True Generosity

2010-01-12T00:27:00.002-06:00

Do you know what true generosity means?

Just read this passage from the incredible book, The Power Of Kindness:

"When the terrible September 11 terrorist attack took place, most of the world knew in a matter of minutes. But some people heard about it much later. A tribe in South Kenya, in an area remote from Western technology, learned about the attack only seven or eight months later. I do not know how these people, who are not in the least acquainted with our world, imagine it to be, and what they understood about the catastrophe. But they realized a tragedy had occurred. Dressed in their multicolored garments, they held a solemn meeting and decided they would send their most precious possession - sixteen cows - to the people of New York to help them in this difficult moment. These people, who had known the torment of hunger, were now ready to give up their food to show their solidarity to other human beings they had never met."

Wow, truly remarkable!

A Meaningful Life

2010-01-09T11:50:00.005-06:00

I just finished re-reading Tuesdays With Morrie, a true story of a dying man offering invaluable life lessons. The book is filled with hidden gems on forgiveness, aging and happiness but one particular passage on life's purpose caught my attention.

"So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They are half-asleep, even when they're busy doing things they think are important. This is because they're chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into your life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning." - Tuesdays With Morrie, Mitch Albon

What gives you purpose and meaning?

Wish You Were Here!

2009-12-31T12:59:00.001-06:00

What an exciting finish to the year for Apps 4 Good, releasing our second charity application, Wish You Were Here along with a great CBC News interview!

Wish You Were Here is a fun way to send brilliant digital postcards to your friends and family! Checkout some screenshots of the app in action or download via Apple App Store.

Huge congrats to the Wish You Were Here team; Nick Brunt, Andrew Burke, Matthew Jewkes, Shaun Johansen, Raymond Seto and especially Bill Wilson for the major push to get the app into the App Store before the end of the year. Brilliant team, truly beautiful app!

The proceeds from Wish You Were Here will benefit Feed Nova Scotia, the provincial food collection and distribution centre for approximately 150 food banks and meal programs across Nova Scotia. They provide year-round food deliveries to member food banks and meal programs who serve at least 38,000 Nova Scotians each month. To learn more about how you can help, please visit their website www.feednovascotia.ca.

To learn more about our mission to help improve our community, please visit our website www.apps4good.ca.

Apps 4 Good on CBC News

2009-12-30T12:28:00.001-06:00

CBC Nova Scotia News recently interviewed two Apps 4 Good members, Tracy Boyer and Bill Wilson on the release of our first application, Meet Me Here and our continued mission to help our community by building apps for charity.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GQyUVj3s9ao

The Power To Change The World In The Palm Of Your Hand

2009-12-09T23:09:00.005-06:00

ABC News did a great special on The Extraordinaries, 'the power to change the world in the palm of your hand'.

How can you turn your spare time into social good?

How about helping Big Cat Rescue locate big cat abusers and illegal breeders? Or helping First Aid Corps build a map of defibrillators (AEDs) around the world to save lives? Perhaps tagging photos to help battle climate change for 1Sky? Or maybe writing a message of encouragement to help a child break out of poverty for Christel House?

Got an iPhone? Download the application: download.beextra.org

Or try out our new web based missions right from your browser.

Meet Me Here Released, First Apps 4 Good Application

2009-12-07T07:30:00.045-06:00

I am very proud to announce Meet Me Here, the first charity application released from Apps 4 Good!

Meet Me Here allows you to quickly schedule and send a meetup to your friends via email and Twitter! It's as easy as:

Where - find your current location, choose from bookmarks or search for an address
Who - select one or multiple contacts from your Address Book and Twitter
What - enter meetup information
When - pick meetup date and time
Send!

Download Meet Me Here: meetmehere.apps4good.ca

So what exactly is Apps 4 Good? Well let me take a step back and explain...

Back in July I organized an event called iPhone Hackathon for Charity, which brought together talented software developers with the common goal to build as many iPhone applications as possible. However unlike other hackathons, iHackHFX was unique because the proceeds from the applications developed are donated to local charities.

The idea of building apps for charity came following Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Halifax, which allowed me to share a number of conversations with local nonprofit organizations. During these discussions, a common theme emerged: a down-turn economy with high unemployment rates has increased the demand for non-profit services, however with limited resources non-profits are forced to choose between cutting services or cutting staff.

Dharma states that everyone has a special gift or talent, and it is your life purpose to discover that talent, and use it to help others. So in the spirit of Dharma, the iHackHFX weekend arose as an attempt to help support these local charities by applying our talents as software developers.

The weekend turned out to be an overwhelming success. Fifteen participants helping develop three applications, each of which reached various stages of completion. The weekend proved that a lot can be accomplished in a short amount of time. However, before we could publish our applications a legal entity needed to be formed, thus Apps 4 Good Inc was born.

"Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

Since that weekend, we have been busy laying the foundation for Apps 4 Good, as well as adding the finishing touches to our applications. After a lot of hard work and many volunteer hours from the entire team, we are very proud to release our first application, Meet Me Here, which is now available for sale on the Apple App Store.

The proceeds from Meet Me Here will benefit Phoenix Youth, who offer ten programs and services that support at-risk and homeless youth, ages 12-24. The organization helps youth transition from a place of need, to a place of happy and healthy independence. Their mission is to break the cycle of poverty and homelessness. To learn more about how you can help, please visit their website www.phoenixyouth.ca.

None of this would have been possible without the incredible support of the entire team. I am very fortunate to have Tracy Boyer, Joanne Maccrea, Bill Wilson, Chris Weisenburger, Ryan Deschamps and Shaun Johansen among our board of directors. We are forever indebted to The Hub Halifax for hosting our hacking sessions throughout the fall. Huge thanks to Nick Brunt and Ian Conrad of Say Hi There for amazing graphic design on iHackHFX, Apps 4 Good and Meet Me Here websites. Major thanks to all participants for their volunteer hours especially Bill Wilson and Dmitri Dolguikh of Mindsea, Jesse Rusak of North Knight, Hatem Nassrat and Craig Oldford of Keane, Andrew Burke of Shindig, Jessy Ouellette of Yonen Labs, Matthew Jewkes, Anthony Myers and Shaun Johansen. Big thanks to the iHackHFX sponsors; InNOVAcorp, Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia, Splice Apple Experts, The Coast and Be Massage for helping make that weekend possible.

What's next? Expect our second application to be published in the coming days, and our third application to be released before Christmas.

To learn more about Apps 4 Good mission to improve our community, please visit our website www.apps4good.ca.

Change Camp Halifax

2009-12-06T11:02:00.004-06:00

Yesterday's Change Camp Halifax at The Hub was an engaging day of conversations. The open-space un-conference asked the question What does Halifax as a vibrant city mean to you?

Participants posted topics for discussion and then attended the talks they were most passionate about. I was particularity interested in #Barrington2010 discussing the future of Barrington Street in Halifax.

Barrington Street has some beautiful historic buildings. However over the past year, a number of these properties have become vacated and left in limbo as properties managers such as Starfish Properties await the right time for development. Some of these properties already have plans and others are awaiting approval. Rather than leave these vacant properties with covered windows, the group discussed creative ways to use them as as transitional spaces:

flash galleries like Nocturne to display local artwork
open mic nights for local musicians
indoor bike parking lot
venue for buskers
Christmas present wrapping station
mini-golf course
quiet reading space
display historic Halifax information in store front windows
flee markets, book sales, bake sales
Lego competitions inside store front windows
web cams that create a portal into other cities

The group will continue to discuss the future of Barrington Street on January 9th at The Hub. Checkout the Barrington Street photo gallery; any ideas for creative uses come to mind?

Huge congrats to Emily Richardson on organizing an incredibly successful Change Camp and for The Hub for once again being the perfect venue in Halifax for open-space conservations.

Do Something...Extraordinary!

2009-09-16T05:32:00.000-06:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-dXdr4QGNU

Social Media Revolution

2009-08-17T06:55:00.005-06:00

Social Media Revolution

Building Community By Building Apps

2009-07-30T06:01:00.009-06:00

"Never underestimate the power of a small group of committed people to change the world. In fact, it is the only thing that ever has." - Margaret Mead

While organizing Mobile Tech 4 Social Change conference in Halifax, a recurring theme emerged: a down-turn economy where non-profits are struggling to fund their cause. Many of these charities have not seen an increase in government funding for the past 15 years. Due to increased unemployment charities are now experiencing a massive increase in the demand of their services. As a result, they are forced to choose between cutting services or cutting staff.

Following the event, I shared an inspiring conversation with Sera Thompson from The Hub, asking the question: How can we help these charities? They already have the knowledge and experience to solve problems on a local level, they just need more resources to do so. I'm a software developer by trade, so my first thought was 'I can build them software'. But there is only one of me and a lot of deserving charities. But having just organized a successful Mobile Tech conference with talented members of our community gave me an idea: What if we formed an army of software developers that together as a collective could create a whole fleet of applications, in which the proceeds from each application would be donated to local charities? Thus, iPhone Hackthon 4 Charity was formed.

Hack: a quick or clever fix to a difficult problem.

The idea is simple. Bring together talented software developers, graphic designer and marketers to build as many iPhone applications as possible over the course of a weekend. Each team decides what application to build and ultimately which charity will receive the proceeds from the App Store sales.

The weekend started with a conversation around the Wall Of Apps discussing what applications were possible to develop in two days. Of the dozen great ideas, we narrowed our selection down to three and then split the fifteen participants into teams:

Post Card - sending post cards from your phone
Meet Me Here - quickly share your location with friends
Civic Snitch - report problems in your community using your phone

The weekend was also about improving and sharing skills, as well as building and strengthening connections. It was inspiring to see strangers quickly become friends and accomplish a great deal in a short amount of time. At the root of everyone's hard work was the shared belief that their efforts were making a difference. Will Lachance said it best in his great blog post, "the feeling that the work you’re doing will be used for good". Charity doesn't have to be about making a donation once a year as a tax write-off, but instead about uniting a community and allowing individuals to utilize their talents for a common goal.

It was great to see the community support for the event. From the thirteen local charities that submitted proposals, three were selected to be receive the proceeds from the applications:

Post Card - Feed Nova Scotia
Meet Me Here - Phoenix Youth Programs
Civic Snitch - Ecology Action Centre

The iHackHFX teams hope to have all three applications finished and available for sale on the App Store in mid to late August. For those charities that were not selected this round, don't fret. Due to the success of the event and strong support from the participants, we are now in the process of establishing a not-for-profit legal entity to allow future events. We also hope this organization provides the mechanism for the idea to spread to other cities.

This idea also introduces an intriguing new funding model: sales from the applications created in a weekend have the potential to help fund charities for months to come. Apple gives 70% of sales back to the developer, which means that if we sell an app for $0.99, and it sells 1000 copies, that would generate $700 for the chosen charity. If it sells 10,000 copies, well...you get the idea. The amount of money that each app will generate is yet to be determined but with over two billion downloads on the App Store, there is potential for an application to be a hit.

Thanks to The Hub, we were able to create the ideal work environment. Their open concept space was a great platform for collaborative dialog between teams. And to prove that work doesn't have to be painful, attendees enjoyed afternoon massages thanks to the good people at Be Massage, t-shirts with styling Nick Brunt artwork thanks to Mind Sea, and our own personal DJ thanks to Rich+ness. Delicious meals from Local Source throughout the weekend were also provided courtesy of InNOVAcorp, Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia and Huminah Huminah, and snacks thanks to Splice Apple Experts.

Overall the weekend was a huge success! Haligonians know a sunny weekend is a rare and beautiful thing, so huge kudos to the fifteen participants who put common good above their own personal interest.

Big thanks to the lovely Nadine LaRoche of Interrobang Inc. for her great press release, and Nick Brunt and Ian Conrad of Say Hi There for their incredible marketing support. Huge thanks to Tracy Boyer of The Hub for her incredible dedication and helping make the event a success. And the weekend also wouldn't have been possible without our fantastic sponsors!

Official Press Release : iPhone Hackathon 4 Charity

2009-07-24T07:42:00.003-06:00

Official press release for iPhone Hackathon 4 Charity, thanks to the lovely Nadine LaRoche of Interrobang Inc.

Local talent unite to build iPhone applications at two‐day charity event

iPhone Hackathon 4 Charity
July 25 & 26, 2009
9:00 a.m. Sat. to 5:00 p.m. Sun.
The Hub Halifax, 1673 Barrington St.

The city’s pioneering talent—including software developers, graphic designers, social media gurus and marketing experts—will come together on July 25 and 26 at The Hub Halifax (1673 Barrington St.) with a common goal: to build as many iPhone applications as possible in one weekend.

But the iPhone Hackathon has an objective bigger than merely making a dent in the new media and social technology market. Along with bringing together likeminded individuals, the event will support voluntary sector organizations by donating the profits from each iPhone application to a Halifax charity. Building one application means funding for one local charity. Building two applications means funding for two charities. The more applications built, the greater number of charities benefited.

Currently, a dozen local charities have submitted proposals: Caregivers Nova Scotia Association, Joints In Motion, Learning Disabilities Association of Nova Scotia, Imagine Bloomfield Society, Phoenix Youth Programs, Stepping Stone, Leave Out ViolencE Nova Scotia, Entrepreneurs' Forum, Ecology Action Centre, Ummah Masjid & Community Center, Titz’n Glitz , Street Feat and Feed Nova Scotia.

By bringing together the development community, the iPhone Hackathon 4 Charity will also provide participants with the opportunity to improve and share their skills, as well as to build and strengthen connections, creating the ultimate environment for those interested in developing their abilities in creating for the iPhone platform.

Dale Zak, a local mobile software developer, and the man behind the Hackathon, hopes attendees will benefit from relationships created at the event that could lead to employment opportunities down the road, but his real passion lies in the impact the Hackathon will have on charity. The event demonstrates that supporting charities doesn’t always have to equate to handouts, and can instead be an occasion for people to come together, utilize their talents and reach for a worthy common goal.

"I'm really excited for this event," says Zak, who recently held a successful Mobile Tech 4 Social Change conference at The Hub. "Just imagine if just one of the applications we build is a hit. It could literally empower one of these very deserving charities.

"Now imagine if a couple of them are hits."

The inception of the Hackathon has, too, brought together local ingenuity: Tracy Boyer of The Hub Halifax took on the role of co‐organizer and the event's artwork and promotion were put in place by Nick Brunt and Ian Conrad, respectively, of Say Hi There. The Hackathon is also taking place thanks to its sponsors, including The Hub Halifax, InNOVAcorp, Nova Scotia Economic and Rural Development, The Coast, Say Hi There, Be Massage, Mind Sea, Splice and Huminah Huminah—all local businesses.

The two days of application development will begin on Saturday, July 25, at 9:00 a.m. and the event is open to anyone to participate. During both afternoons, Be Massage will be present to deliver some much needed head and neck massages to attendees, and Saturday evening will feature a post‐supper visit from DJ RICH+NESS, a break to party, and an all‐nighter for those knee‐deep in app development. The applications will be launched at 6:00 p.m. on Sunday as the Hackathon comes to a close.

For a detailed schedule of the weekend’s events, please visit: www.ihackhfx.com, and to register, visit ihackhfx.eventbrite.com. Follow the iPhone Hackathon 4 Charity on Twitter by searching the hashtag #iHackHFX.

About Dale Zak: With over six years of professional experience as a software developer, Zak has helped develop mobile and web applications for large corporate companies like Caterpillar, Ritchie Bros and Pitney Bowes. He holds a Computer Science Honours Degree in Software Engineering from the University of Saskatchewan.

Currently living in Halifax, Zak is working for Metaworks to develop a Windows Mobile application for the company's Mantis system. He has also been putting his mobile talents to good use by volunteering for two incredible projects: Ushahidi and the Extraordinaries. For Ushahidi, the mobile application Zak is developing will allow anyone with a Windows Mobile device to easily view and create crisis incidents in the field; for the Extraordinaries, he's helping develop the initiative's revolutionary micro‐volunteering platform for the iPhone.

Event Contacts & Info
Twitter: #iHackHFX
Web: www.ihackhfx.com

Contact: Dale Zak
Founder, iPhone Hackathon 4 Charity
dalezak at gmail.com

Secondary Contact: Nadine LaRoche
Principal, Interrobang Inc.
nlaroche at gmail.com

iPhone Hackathon 4 Charity

2009-07-21T08:09:00.013-06:00

Wanted: Software developers. Graphic designers. Social media gurus. Marketing experts. Ninjas.

iPhone Hackathon 4 Charity to be held on July 25 & 26 at The Hub Halifax is a two day event that will bring together talented software developers and graphic designers with the common goal to build as many iPhone applications as possible in one weekend.

The profits from each application will be donated to a local Halifax charity. Building one application means funding for one local charity. Building two applications means funding for two charities, so the more applications we build the greater number of charities will benefit.

Charitable organizations will be funded based on criteria determined by organizers and participants. Caregivers Nova Scotia Association, Joints In Motion, Learning Disabilities Association of Nova Scotia, Imagine Bloomfield Society, Phoenix Youth Programs, Stepping Stone, Leave Out Violence Nova Scotia, Entrepreneurs' Forum, Ecology Action Centre and Ummah Masjid & Community Center were among the ten local charities that submitted proposals.

Besides supporting these great local charities, the event will also help build relationships among the software development community and highlight The Hub as the ideal working environment for freelancers.

The perks for attendees? Massages courtesy of Be Massage, DJ Rich+ness spinning tracks Saturday evening and smashing T-shirts with original Nick Brunt artwork thanks to Bill Wilson of Mind Sea. Attendees will also enjoy snacks throughout the weekend thanks to Splice Apple Experts and meals courtesy of InNOVAcorp, Broadband for Rural Nova Scotia and Huminah Huminah.

As usual, The Hub has been incredible for hosting and helping organize the event. And big thanks to Ian Conrad and Nick Brunt of Say Hi There for their slick poster design and helping promote the event.

For more information visit http://www.ihackhfx.com or email ihackhfx@gmail.com.

Who Will Solve Our World's Biggest Problems?

2009-06-17T06:41:00.002-06:00

To have an impact, to not turn away and have the responsibility to take action? Watch this inspiring video with the Echoing Green 2009 Fellows.

And The Winner Is...The Agora

2009-05-30T21:37:00.007-06:00

In the spirit of change, the proceeds from Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Halifax were donated to a local charity. I believe this was important for two reasons. One, there are a lot of very worthy charities deserving of the money. Two, getting people talking about a cause helps raise awareness and understanding.

Everyone who attended the event submitted a charity into a hat, the list included: Alzheimer's Society, Boys and Girls Club, The Arthritis Society, Learning Disabilities Association of Nova Scotia, Imagine Bloomfield, Heart and Stroke, Adsum of Women and Children, Halifax Association for Community Living, Music Nova Scotia, Cancer Society, Leave Out Violence, Hope Phones, Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, Brigadoon Children Camp, United Way, GLBT and Feed Nova Scotia Food Bank.

But the winner that was randomly selected was The Agora, a networking space to meet like minded people who want to engage with social justice and peacemaking. The local church group is located on 2730 Fuller Terrace and a community garden is just one of their programs.

"Fuller Lawns Community Garden is located in the front lawn of The Agora building. The garden plots are made available to Agora members and community members with priority given to those living within walking distance of the garden. We hope that this community garden will help build relationships between our church and community members, encourage people to grow their own food and also beautify our neighborhood. This summer was a summer of small beginnings but we hope that next year and years to come will grow this garden into something rich not only in food but in peaceful relationships with one another." - Agora

Brett Nissen, an Agora member passed along this thank you message:

Thank you again to all who attended the Mobile Technology 4 Social Change session at TheHubHalifax, as it is because of your decision to be there, that this small school actually has opportunity to continue on educating and building hope into an area where girls are undervalued and overworked. Hope is when people believe in possibilities.

For more information about The Agora, visit their website http://www.theagora.ca. Hopefully receiving the proceeds from the event will help their fight for social justice.

FrontlineSMS Medic and The Extraordinaries Big Winners at NetSquared N2Y4

2009-05-27T19:59:00.012-06:00

Wow, huge day for FrontlineSMS Medic and The Extraordinaries! Both picked up numerous awards at NetSquared N2Y4 Conference in San Jose. The conference highlights and awards innovators using social technologies for progressive change.

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.” - Margaret Mead

FrontlineSMS Medic was the bigger winner of the evening taking home three awards: #1st in N2Y4 Mobile Challenge ($25K), FACT Social Justice Award ($5K) and Microsoft Mobile Challenge ($15K). Here's an interview of the SMS Medic team from N2Y4 talking about the project and how this money will help their fight to improve global health.

The Extraordinaries also took home two big awards: 2nd in N2Y4 Mobile Challenge ($15K) and FACT Social Justice Award ($5K). Here's an interview with Jacob Colker the co-founder of The Extraordinaries talking about the smartphone as a volunteer platform and his vision of the future.

There was a lot of great projects nominated for N2Y4 awards but good reason that SMS Medic and The Extraordinaries came out on top.

SMS Medic is not only an innovator in mHealth but also redefining what global health means. Their project is literally bringing healthcare to millions of people previously without. Their recent initiative Hope Phones is a great example how they are turning old cell phones into a tool of change empowering healthcare workers around the world.

The Extraordinaries are not only innovators in crowdsourcing but also pioneering micro-volunteerism allowing anyone with a smartphone to easily do social good. From finding craters on Mars to spotting possible cancer in mammogram photos to becoming a political watchdog by finding hidden pork in legislation, it will all be possible while standing in a grocery line or riding on a bus, thanks to The Extraordinaries.

For both teams winning these awards is incredibly important. One, the money will go along way to support their development which up until now has been funded from pockets of their small teams. Two, it's great to see each being recognized for their world changing efforts.

On a personal level, it was a real honor having both Jacob Colker and Josh Nesbit talk at this past weekends Mobile Tech 4 Social Change in Halifax.