Phone lines collapsed soon after the devastating earthquake in Haiti, but large parts of the network infrastructure was actually intact. This led many people to use the internet and social networks to try and contact friends and relatives and get information about their condition.

According to a BBC article, Facebook, Twitter, and e-mailing were widely used after the earthquake and in order to help those in need, volunteers came together to develop a specific tool, combining web and mobile phone technologies. The result is Project Ushahidi, which gathers reports sent in by Haitians in need of water and food, or needing help with locating a missing person. The reports can be submitted through either mobile phones or the web and are forwarded by Ushahidi to different organizations working on the ground. This enables the work on the ground to be completely focused on the needs of the population, as reported by ordinary people.

Read more here.

Source: BBC.

Written by Fanny Johansson

Students with their laptops in a Nigerian school. Photo by: OLPC.

At times referred to as Africa’s high-tech economy, Rwanda is planning to transform its economy by 2020 – and technology is a big part of the plan. According to a recent Economist article, introducing computers in the classrooms is one of the key issues.

Part of the Rwandan policy plan is that every child between 9-12 years old should have a laptop with internet connection by 2012 – a laptop that is to play a central role in the learning process, for example through the possibility of downloading free educational software. The American charity One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) will supply the laptops and the Rwandan government is hoping to extend the program to younger kids if all goes as planned. OLPC estimates that by 2012, they will be able to sell the laptops for as little as 75 USD – and that they will have developed more advanced models than those available today; ones that are waterproof, don’t break as easily, and have colour screens. The laptops will also work using minimal power.

Want to know more? Read the entire article here.

Source: The Economist.

Written by Fanny Johansson

Many people, especially in developing countries will visit Internet the first time in a mobile instead of a computer in 2010 according to IDCs prediction. we’re not yet talking about “the death of the PC”; far from it, as 2010 will see over 300 million PCs sold. But we are talking about mobile devices no longer being viewed as strictly subservient to PCs but as primary client platforms for developers and users alike.

Over 1 billion mobile devices will access the Internet in 2010. IDC predicts that, for the first time, there will be over 1 billion mobile devices accessing the Internet by year-end, gaining quickly on the 1.3 billion PCs accessing the Internet (the former are growing at 2.5 times the rate of the latter). The most strategic portion of these mobile devices are converged mobile devices (aka smartphones),

IDC ends the year as usual with an outlook for the coming year in the information technology and telecommunications market.

Read the whole report here.

Intimacy is not about distance!

“We worry that IM, texting, Facebook are spoiling human intimacy, but Stefana Broadbent’s research shows how communication tech is capable of cultivating deeper relationships, bringing love across barriers like distance and workplace rules”. Watch Stefana Broadbents speak at TED Talks.

This is another official update to the original “Shift Happens” video.

This completely new Fall 2009 version includes facts and stats focusing on the changing media landscape, including convergence and technology

Participate in the discussion on the shifthappens wiki

Picture source: Aldred Nobel from nobelprize.org

Nobelprize.org has become more accessible trough social media but when will Internet get the Nobel Peace Prize? We hope that it already will be this year due to the extraordinary impact it has for communication between people, transparency and ways of spreading learning.

Back from summer holidays, we at Nobelprize.org are turning our attention towards the upcoming 2009 Nobel Prize announcements in early October. This year there will be even more ways to follow the course of the announcements, as we launch a Facebook page to add to our other social media channels, including our dedicated YouTube channel and up-to-the-minute Twitter feeds, as well as our RSS feeds on Nobelprize.org.

That’s why education matter!