Announcing the new "mobility" project

Over the past six months or so I have been talking with about a dozen high-profile mobile companies, IT companies and mobile specialists to gauge interest in a new project, one which builds on the work of Nathan Eagle in East Africa (see http://web.mit.edu/eprom for details). I have also been speaking with a major US Foundation, who have expressed interest in funding the initial scoping phase of the project.

The challenge was this. How do we empower individuals in developing countries to develop and build their own mobile applications? EPROM has already been teaching computer science graduates in a number of East African universities, but how can we scale this initiative, allowing universities in other parts of the developing world to do the same? And with software development largely taking place on desktop computers, how can we empower users to build applications on the phones themselves? And if we could, what would a mobile-based programming environment look like?

Within the next couple of months or so, "mobility" hopes to start exploring these questions. The potential is huge if we can find appropriate, sustainable solutions.

There is a holding website in place, which describes the thinking behind the project, at http://mobility.kiwanja.net. This will be replaced by a collaborative Wiki once the project commences.

Anyone with skills and experience in mobile applications development, mobile education or software tools development are all welcome to get in touch.

Feel free to share this news with your own networks and lists. I will begin posting names and details of the founding partners once the project starts to move forward. Please join us.

Ken Banks
Founder
kiwanja.net