It’s fast-approaching time for us to down tools for the weekend here on Conversations. But before we head off for some liquid refreshment, it’s time to share the fruits of our browsing over the last week – the news that we discovered from blogs, feeds and Twitter. If you come across any interesting stories over the week that you think deserves a wider audience, do let us know in the comments and if we like them, they’ll appear here next week.
- Analysts at consultancy Deloitte think that World Cup traffic could bring mobile networks to their knees, reports the Telegraph. Apparently, it’s down to people streaming entire matches to their mobiles. Not surprising that some networks are reviewing their attitude towards ‘unlimited’ mobile data tariffs. If you’re planning something similar, nonetheless, don’t forget your sun-shade.
- The Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development is putting a new $10 million fund into the Haiti relief efforts. It’s relevant here on Conversations because the money is going into reviving the country’s banking infrastructure with mobile banking.
- On the subject of mobile banking, former Nokia Principal Scientist Jan Chipchase has been publishing a series of articles on how this technology might relieve poverty. They’re not a casual read by any means, but provide a lot of useful information if you’re interested in the subject.
- Still on a rather serious note, how Concern Worldwide made photo-IDs for 9000 women across 116 villages in Niger – a country on the verge of a major hunger crisis. The IDs meant they could legally register for mobile phones, which in turn gave them access to emergency cash coupons for food.
- VisionMobile has a great article on the eight-year history of mobile video calling, its issues and likely future. It wasn’t invented earlier this week, despite what you might have heard…
- And finally, and rather less seriously, those young people are at it again with their socially questionable use of mobile phones – this time at work. According to a recent survey (via. textually) :
— 11% of 18-24 year-olds think it’s appropriate to ask for a raise via text;
— 32% say it’s okay to “call in sick” to work via text and 22% have actually done it;
— 11% think it’s okay to quit a job via text
We wonder how they feel about getting sacked via SMS?