{"id":1498,"date":"2015-12-09T04:22:25","date_gmt":"2015-12-09T12:22:25","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/?p=1498"},"modified":"2017-05-16T16:01:33","modified_gmt":"2017-05-16T23:01:33","slug":"apps4good-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/coyotecommunications.com\/coyoteblog\/2015\/12\/apps4good-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Apps4Good movement is more than 15 years old"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Back in 2001, while working on the United Nations Information Technology Service (UNITeS)<\/a>, launched by then UN Secretary General Kofi Annan and hosted by the United Nations Volunteers programme (part of UNDP),\u00a0I wrote a paper on\u00a0Handheld computer technologies in community service\/volunteering\/advocacy<\/a><\/strong>. It’s a compilation of examples of volunteers, citizens,\u00a0grass roots activists and others using handheld computers – what then were called personal digital assistants (PDAs) – \u00a0or mobile phones as part of community service, volunteering and or advocacy. I found examples from\u00a0health and human services<\/a>, from environmental science<\/a>, from citizen reporting initiatives<\/a>\u00a0and from activists<\/a>. My favorite example was a project where software was developed for PDAs that allowed illiterate trackers in Africa to record wildlife observations by selecting icons from a set of pictures<\/a> that depict various species and animal behaviors.<\/p>\n

That was 14 years ago, before the term apps4good<\/em> came into vogue, and some of these initiatives were already more than a year old then – that means apps4good, using mobile phones for good, is a movement that’s more than 15 years old<\/strong>. Some of the initiatives I wrote about are still in existence. Some have long ago ended – but similar initiatives, and much more advanced ones, have popped up since. For instance, there’s the Smart Health App<\/a>, which focuses on providing accurate baseline information resource on HIV\/AIDS, TB and Malaria and is currently available in Tanzania, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa, Angola, Ghana, and Senegal. Or mPedigree<\/a>, a phone app which allows pharmaceutical retailers and users to verify the authenticity of a drug; this is done by text-messaging a unique code found on the product to a universal number.<\/p>\n

My point is this: humanitarian aid workers and people working for nonprofits and NGOs anywhere, including volunteers, are using such tools in ways beyond just fundraising. Here are articles with more recent examples:<\/p>\n