betterplace lab around the world 2014 - english

Report 2014: How the internet and mobile phones are improving lives globally

Tanzaniap.24

Indiap.14

Israelp.20

Kenyap.22

Rwandap.26

China p.2

Indonesia p.8

Germany p.48

1

Dear Reader,

Can digital gadgets make the world a better place? In spring 2014, the betterplace lab, armed with rucksacks and notebooks, set off around the world.* Our goal was to research how aid organisations, NGOs, activists and social entrepreneurs are using the internet and mobile phones in 2014 – from India to Senegal, from Rwanda to Brazil.

Our first findings: There’s a revolutionary atmosphere building in a lot of the communities we met. An era is dawning globally in which the internet is no longer just for consuming banal content, where mobile phones do far more than communicate. Instead, these resources are being used to involve more citizens in the democratic process, deliver aid resources more efficiently, or educate disadvantaged children.

In this brochure we would like to present a small selection of some of the most engaging examples we came across. Like the “Breastfeeding Dads” in Indonesia, who have managed to lower child mortality by mobilising against the mighty milk-powder multinationals. Or “SokoText”, a text message service which lets Kenyan market-stall vendors cooperate to increase their income.

We have also developed some initial hypotheses about why social digital innovation is more successful in some countries than others. And about how dynamic innovation is in these countries, and why. This trip is just the beginning of this research – and something of a leap into the unknown. All the more reason to thank our partners who supported the Lab Around the World: Ashoka, Deutsche Lufthansa AG, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the BMW Foundation, the Millicom Foundation and Mozilla, as well as our media partner ZEIT Online.

But enough preamble. Now to dive into the whirring global network of hard-drives, websites, apps, and mobiles – and the new wave of idealism they’ve unleashed. We hope you enjoy your whistle-stop tour through our fifteen countries.

Your betterplace lab team

*The Lab Around the World was very much a backpacking trip and not some first class tour. Dennis, for example, paid €1.65 for his “room” in Indonesia.

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A highly digitalised urban middle class meets a very young NGO landscape. In recent years large technology companies have built big donation platforms and, along with the Communist Party, now promote philanthropy as part of a modern lifestyle. Trailblazer foundations such as the One Foundation lead the way in social digital. Well-known bloggers with millions of fans initiate and accelerate campaigns using popular social media platforms like Sina Weibo and WeChat. These typically focus on “safe” issues such as education and child poverty, whereas online campaigns on sensitive issues like working conditions or human rights are strictly policed.

Explorers: Joana Breidenbach and Pál Nyíri | [email protected] | [email protected]

oNly 1500 OrganisatiOns are allOwed tO cOllect dOnatiOns in china

45.8%use theinternet

88.7mObile phOnesubscriptiOnsper 100 inhabitants

No.29On the glObalinnOvatiOn indexNo.91

On the human develOpment

index

“If there’s an earthquake, people

donate. If there’s no earthquake,

they don’t.”

Bei Xiaochao, CSR Director, Sina Weibo

3

With 500 million users, Sina Weibo accounts for 80 percent of the Chinese micro-blogger market. In 2012 the company launched what has since become one of China’s three largest donation platforms (gongyi). More than 10,000 projects so far have used the site to raise over 30 million USD. In contrast with the gongyi run by competitor Tencent, which is heavily focussed on long-term donations, Sina Weibo Gongyi hosts one-off projects. Any user of the Weibo site can set up a project to gather donations – e.g. to finance the school fees of their child. There is a verification process; other users register as voluntary inspectors and assess the seriousness of appeals for help, either through phone calls or site visits. After

that the CSR team from Sina Weibo tries to connect the project to one of the (mostly state-run) foundations permitted to collect donations. Every donor has a user profile, with graphics showing how many other people each has enlisted to engage through

social media activity. Some “super-users” manage to mobilise up to a million people. The large Chinese social media and tech platforms cooperate closely with the government. At the

same time, they bankroll the infrastructure of the new philanthropic lifestyle, which is allowing Chinese people both to build greater trust between individuals and engage in helping the socially disadvantaged. gongyi.weibo.com

One person gets one million others

to engage.

Case study: Sina Weibo Gongyi

Find more examples, including Tan Wan (“The Eagle”), once China’s most legendary hacker, now entrepreneur with a social digital agency – go to: bit.ly/chineseeagle

4

China’s civil society is conquering the webChinese citizens are using the internet to collect donations. The Party regulates these initiatives closely. But shrewd dissidents find loopholes to support each other.

Three years ago, as journalist Deng Fei travelled through rural China, he came across a miserable sight: children in a schoolyard cooking themselves a meagre meal over an open fire. The children were going hungry – like millions of other Chi-nese schoolchildren.

The journalist wanted to help. He started a donation drive on the micro-blogging platform Sina Weibo, and called it “Free Lunch”. The initiative was a huge success:

three years and 40 million Weibo-follow-ers later “Free Lunch” is a nationwide movement and has collected 11 million USD in donations – enough to provide 360 schools across China with free meals for their pupils.

Deng’s initiative was totally in the inter-est of the Party. Back in 2008 the then Prime Minister Wen Jiabao had highlight-ed malnutrition among school children as a problem. Two years later journalists

The One Foundation is one of the organisations permitted to gather donations in China – e.g. with this lovely app

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from the state broadcaster CCTV picked up the issue. They managed to interest Liu Yunshan, head of propaganda in the Communist Party, in the fate of these children. The journalists produced a documentary which they were allowed to broadcast at prime time.

After this coverage the issue was considered unproblematic. One week after CCTV had shown the documentary Deng Fei started his campaign on Weibo. Soon afterwards the government itself announced that it was going to provide around 240 million USD per year to provide meals for school children in the country’s poorest regions.

Deng’s success story forms part of a great current of social change in China. In a country without a modern culture of mak-ing and collecting donations, in which all forms of organised civil society were out-lawed, a diverse landscape of NGOs has developed, supported by the new possibili-ties the internet provides.

The event that triggered this change was the major Sichuan earthquake in 2008.

In response to the crisis film star Jet Li founded the One Foundation (which only coincidentally shares its name with the development organisation set up by U2 front-man Bono). The Chinese One Foun-dation appeals to citizens to place standing order donations online. Their slogan is: “One person, one month, one Yuan”.

Internet giants Tencent, Sina Weibo and Alibaba also all set up large donation platforms in the aftermath of the disas-ter. Thanks to their enormous numbers of users – at times, QQ-Chat alone, run by Tencent, can have 180 million users online at once – these media outlets have given a serious boost to the nascent donation culture. No false modesty from Tencent CEO Dou Ruigang; his stated ambition: “Philanthropy shall become part of the Chinese lifestyle.”

So far, the figures are rather modest: the big platforms have collected around 80 million USD in donations. By way of com-parison, in Germany annual donations come to over 9 billion dollars.

Many observers see digital campaigns like Deng Fei’s “Free Lunch” as proof of an emerging civil society and of digital tech-nology creating new liberties. Some even interpret them as covert political protests from the big, aspiring middle class against

“Philanthropy shall become part of the Chinese lifestyle.”

Journalist Deng Fei has raised 11 million USD in online donations for school meals

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the inadequacy of the current political sys-tem. This middle class – according to this interpretation – can see massive social problems and, unable to directly influence state politics, is finding other ways to engage.

Unlike NGOs in Europe and the USA, most of China’s new NGOs don’t see themselves as a critical counterweight to the state and commercial economy. On the contrary: the communist government supports civ-ic engagement and such groups often take on tasks and functions in line with Party interests. The state lacks the means for an effective social policy and so it pushes re-sponsibility for social services – as many Western countries are doing – onto private initiatives, companies and donors.

But as soon as an initiative disrupts exist-ing taboos, the rules of the game change. For example, factory workers blogging about poor working conditions are re-pressed by the Party. The Party hires commentators – so-called “50 cent Party members” – who effectively disable critical debate on blog sites.

Any NGO that wishes to raise donations needs to be accredited with an official foundation. This grants the government a very effective filter: they only permit initia-tives which do not threaten their interests.

But the state surveillance has its cracks, which Guo Yuhua, who works to support political prisoners, has managed to slip through. By day, Guo is Professor of An-thropology at the well-regarded Tsinghua University. In his spare time he engages, along with around 10,000 other Chinese citizens, as a member of the Meat Party. Some say it’s the only real opposition party in China.

Donating to the opposition

The Meat Party was founded by Xu Zhi-rong, better known by his online persona Rou Tangseng, which he chose in honour of a classical literary character. Rou became active when the dissident blogger Ran Yunfei was arrested. This meant the Yunfei family lost the greater part of their livelihood, and Rou wanted to help. He appealed for donations on the Weibo plat-form. Rou’s appeal was so successful that the Party immediately ordered his Weibo account to be closed.

At the beginning of 2013 Rou opened a vir-tual shop on Taobao, the biggest of China’s e-commerce portals. Taobao is comparable to eBay. At the “Roupu”, which translates as “Meat Store”, Ran’s supporters could buy a thank-you note for a few Yuan. These purchases, however, were just a camou-flage for donations to Ran’s family.

In the first three days alone 4,600 cus-tomers donated a total of 120,000 Yuan (20,000 USD) at the Meat Store. Then the platform operator closed the shop. But Ruo

“As soon as an initiative disrupts existing taboos, the rules of the game change.”

7

opened a new store under another name. This time he sold meetings with people well-known people. A bank employee paid months’ wages for a dinner with a political scientist. An hour over tea with the anthro-pologist Guo went for 800 Yuan (130 USD).

Rou’s online store is unique in China. He has managed to motivate a young and, since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massa-cre, largely apolitical population to engage in political action. Intellectuals, students, shopkeepers and even government offi-cials shop at the Meat Store. Within eight months 10,000 Chinese people donated over 200,000 USD for political prisoners.

Gou puts this success down to the on-line-shopping procedure serving to de-politicise the act. Furthermore, film stars like Chen Kun have used social media plat-forms to inform millions of fans about the Meat Store’s auctions.

Meanwhile, the store takes care of sever-al of the families of political prisoners. The distribution of funds is organised through a grassroots democratic process. As soon as enough money has come in for a family, nine shop members are se-lected from within the shop’s database. These members discuss anonymously via chat which family shall receive the money. This organisational structure also has the

advantage that the Meat Store can contin-ue operating even if its founders are ar-rested. Guo herself has been taken in for police questioning on several occasions.

Pressure on the government

The rise of digital media in China has opened up new spaces in which old taboos have become socially acceptable. A cou-ple of years ago the US embassy in Beijing started to tweet the air pollution measure-ments taken by instruments on its roof. This led to public pressure for the Chinese authorities to also make their measure-ments public, which they eventually did. The Chinese figure, however, was always much lower than the American one. So developers programmed an App that sim-ply posted both values next to each other – without comments. It worked: today’s published data is reliable, and now there is a slew of hackathons focussed on improv-ing air quality.

The size of the domestic market, the al-most universal digital infrastructure and the enthusiasm of the Chinese for digital communication may set in motion a tre-mendous movement. But there is also fear of the powerful digital wave that could be unleashed, which sometimes causes peo-ple to hold back. When activists post on so-cial media, they often have little influence over what happens next. And so far, this is a risk few are prepared to take.

“In the first three days, customers of the Meat Shop

donated 20,000 USD.”

8

Sparks are flying in Indonesia. Jakarta is one of the world capitals of Twitter usage, with 65 million users. What’s more, Indonesia has the fourth biggest army of Facebook users. Everybody wants to be online! Above all, it seems, in order to post selfies and chat. Civil society, mostly organised in loose-knit networks, focuses on fighting corruption and stemming environmental destruction. The country, then, is both quite thoroughly digitised and socially engaged. But these two elements haven’t really united yet. Online fundraising and other social digital applications are few and far between. But there is effective online campaigning and Twitter, above all others, is a powerful tool for this in the country of a thousand islands.

Explorer: Dennis Buchmann | [email protected]

70% Of indOnesia’s tOtal bandwidth is used On Java and 70% Of this in Jakarta



“We’ve built planes, we’ve

built satellites – so why not

build an Indonesian Silicon

Valley?”

Dr. Budi Rahardjo, Professor at the

Institute of Technology in Bandung

No.87On the glObalinnOvatiOn index

No.108On the human develOpment

index

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“If you breastfeed for six months, you’ve saved enough money

for an iPhone!”

Case study: The Breastfeeding DadsAyahASI, a network of young fathers who also go by the name “the Breastfeeding Dads” know how to have fun with their work. They campaign for more mothers in Indo-nesia to breastfeed. Fathers campaigning for more breast-milk: it might sound comical, but it’s a deadly serious topic. Large multi-national companies pay midwives and hospitals to recommend their milk powder to young mothers in place of breastfeeding, leading to the death of around 30,000 newborns every year. That’s because in rural areas the water, which the milk powder is mixed with, is often unclean. The Breastfeeding Dads concentrate on the advantages of breast-feeding and have their target audience firm-ly in mind when they communicate this: “If you breastfeed for six months, you’ve saved

enough money for an iPhone!” – one advan-tage calculated to appeal to other fathers. This somewhat offbeat attitude obviously has wide appeal: to date the Breastfeeding Dads have accumulated a Twitter following of over 120,000. Their network of more than 50 engaged fathers scattered across

21 cities throughout the country also uses Twitter to answer questions from uncertain parents – typically between 50 and 300 per day. Their tweet-ing reached such a pitch

that it has got the issue onto the Indonesian government’s agenda. If things continue to progress at the same rate, their thousands of tiny pin-pricks could add up to a dagger in the heart for the milk powder companies. Twitter.com/ID_AyahASI

Almost as active as Indonesia’s civil society: Mount Merapi (see overleaf).

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The crowdsourced early warning systemWhen the volcano Mount Merapi in Indonesia used to erupt, the government was rarely of much help to those in its way. Now the people organise disaster protection for themselves – and do it better.

When Mount Merapi erupts, everything depends on the right people getting the right information. Their lives depend on it. They need a clear answer to the most pressing questions: Where are the nearest evacuation routes? Where is there safe accommodation? Where is there drinking water? If these things aren’t clear, then rescue missions are impeded by panicked people fleeing without knowing where to

go – and the probability increases that many people will die. Merapi is one of the most active volcanoes on Earth. When it erupted in 2006, the authorities proved unequal to the situation. “Some villages which were evacuated which weren’t in any danger,” complains Sukiman Mochtar Pratomoy, “and then we had to stick it out for three months in refugee camps in poor conditions.”

Sukiman Pratomo on one of the steep roads in Sidorejo village, where he runs the volcano information radio service Lintas Merapi.

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To prevent this mismanagement from happening again, several villages around Merapi teamed up after the eruption. They agreed that in the event of future eruptions they would warn one another, and founded the Jalin Merapi network. Since then Pratomo and others have set up the Linas Merapi community radio, an important part of the new warning system.

“When Merapi erupted again in 2010,” Pratomo says, “we evacuated our village ourselves.” Three hundred people died as a result of the eruption – but without the network it might have been many more.

The flexible network reacted rapidly – in contrast with the authorities, which had to struggle with bureaucratic approvals, budgets and coordination between local, regional and national decision makers. Just one day before the eruption on 26th October 2010 the volunteers of Jalin Merapi registered the Twitter account @jalinmerapi. Within a few days it had 35,000 followers.

In parallel radio stations warned the inhab-itants of nearby villages, and text messages further helped to spread warning messages. When Twitter came along, it made an ideal addition to the system – perfect for rapidly spreading information and organising response efforts. After the 2010 eruption, for instance, a single tweet was able to provide meals for 6,000 refugees within half an hour.

Today, in spring 2014, all is quiet in Sidorejo, the village where Lintas Merapi is based. Just a thin wisp of smoke trails leisurely from the volcano. At times like these the radio team sends out tips for farmers, weather forecasts, or general information about what to do in the event of an eruption – interspersed with regular updates about the state of the volcano. The station receives these from observation outposts. Volunteers from surrounding villages keep constant watch on the slopes of the volcano.

Together with observation cameras, sensors and measurement equipment – measuring, for example, dilation of the crater – the volunteers are an irreplaceable source of information. They don’t let the crater out of sight, and thanks to CB radio (citizens band radio, a means of short-range, two-way communication) they’re in constant contact with community radio stations, as well as with the Institute of Volcanology in Yogyakarta, a neighbouring major city thankfully not threatened by the volcano.

Noer Cholik in front of the seismometers at the Institute of Volcanology in Yogykarta, communicating with the volcano-watchers by CB radio.

“When Merapi erupted again in 2010, we evacuated our

village ourselves.”

12

It’s in this institute that Noer Cholik rolls his office chair diagonally across the large observation room, to where the CB radio receiver crackles in the corner. With one hand he operates the mouthpiece, discuss-ing the shape of the smoke plume. With the other hand he’s already tweeting.

“At first we were pretty sceptical,” says Cholik, “but Twitter is a good channel for keeping people constantly up to date with the most important information.”

The room contains more than 30 flat-screen monitors, showing measurement data and live feeds from the observation cameras. Every few minutes Cholik takes screen-shots and tweets the weather report for the volcano’s summit along with the hashtag #merapi. At the moment it’s raining, everything seems calm. But less than half an hour later there’s a rush of activity in the observation room. Cholik’s colleagues have heard through Twitter that a medium- sized wave of lava has formed and is flowing down Merapi’s slope. Now the observation cameras are showing a digger and a lorry getting swept away. Cholik’s colleagues fall silent. Their communication has narrowed to tweets and retweets.

Sukiman Pratomo in the radio studio, through the window he has Merapi’s crater constantly in view.

“Twitter is a good channel for keeping people constantly up to date with the most im-

portant information.”

13

“Twitter works so well for us because it forces people to get to the point,” says Elanto Wijoyono. He’s one of the people who look after the @jalinmerapi account. When disaster strikes, ten volunteers help to feed the Twitter account with relevant information.

“Twitter doesn’t just let you reach a lot of people, but precisely the right ones,” Wijoyono explains. Not only that, the crowd quickly verifies some tweets, while quickly weeding out mistaken reports. In addition to categorising hashtags such as #supply, #alert or #trans (transportation), both helpers and those in need always tweet their names and phone numbers, which aids verification.

So the flow of information from different sources converges, and is then disseminated through various channels: the outposts use CB radio to report to the volcanologists and the radio station, and information is spread by SMS, WhatsApp, Twitter and Facebook. And if they need to, people can always phone directly to check details. Merapi is sacred to the people in surrounding villages – and it erupts regularly. Therefore essentially the entire community is engaged in the early warning network.

When Merapi is calm, the guys from Jalin Merapi also help people living in the shadow of other volcanoes. For instance, those near to Kelud 300 kilometres away, or Mount

Sinabung on Sumatra, where the last eruption two weeks ago killed 14 people. There are community radio stations there too, and Jalin Merapi wants to help them incorporate other media channels too.

There are many lessons we can draw from the principle of the self-organising disaster information network. Even the UN Special Adviser on Social and Economic Issues was impressed when Sukiman Pramoto explained Jalin Merapi to him in 2013.

In the meantime the government authorities have also become more open to cooperation. Following the 2010 eruption they were won over by this civil society-led catastrophe management, and the way it handles information.

Signs, omnipresent around Merapi, showing evacuation routes

“Twitter doesn’t just let you reach a lot of people, but precisely the right ones.”

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A land of extreme contrasts In technological and digital terms, India’s major cities are comfortably keeping pace with countries like the USA – the latest smartphones, digital co-working spaces, hackathons: these things are the norm. But at the same time some parts of the countryside lack basics like healthcare and adequate food provision. More and more social entrepreneurs are try-ing to resolve these contradictions, intervening above all around healthcare, education and agriculture. The megacities of Bangalore and Pune are now referred to as the Silicon Valley and Palo Alto of Asia. In recent years the government has been very active in digitising even rural areas and in financing successful digital solutions.

Explorer: Medje Prahm | [email protected]

every villageshOuld have brOadbandiNterNet by 2020




index70.8mObile phOnesubscriptiOnsper 100 inhabitants

“Because of our vast geography and the

number of people we have technology

is going to be important if you want to

deliver any kind of service.”

Nelson Moses, Editor at SocialStory,

India’s biggest blog on social entrepreneurship.

15

Case study: Babajob

“I thought: we need a LinkedIn for the poor!”

Around 90 percent of the Indian population work in the informal sector. That means they are gardeners or maids, with slim chances of getting a “legal” job and earning lower wages than workers in the formal labour market. The platform Babajob helps to make jobs in the informal sector, which are normally filled just through word of mouth, more visible and accessible. That means more freedom for people without formal training to switch employers, and more wage transparency, since pay-rates are also published on the site. Founder Sean Blagsved describes having the idea for Babajob: “I thought: we needed a LinkedIn for the poor! We need to digitise the social networks that exist between people, to help

them escape poverty.” So he developed a marketplace for job offers, where those seeking work could apply using their computer, by text message, or by phoning a call-centre – depending on what means they had access to and whether they could read or write. Today the site unites 1.6 million

jobseekers with 100,00 potential employers and lets the former compare the payment rates on offer and how far away the workplaces are. On average users of Babajob can increase their income

by 20 percent. By creating a new “digital formal” job sector in which employers and workers meet, the platform also increases how well regarded such jobs are in general. babajob.com

Good flow of information: Nextdrop sends information about clean water by text message. Read more about this and other projects at: bit.ly/indiansms

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Watering the fields with a phone callEngineer and farmer’s son Santosh Ostwal developed a phone-operated remote controlled water pump for his grandfather. Today farmers right across India are using his invention.

Santosh Ostwal can still clearly remember how tough life used to be, back when he was a young boy and his family lived working the land. Every night Ostwal’s octogenarian grandfather had to head out across the fields – often multiple times. He had to walk a mile to turn on the irrigation pumps. Otherwise his crops would have died for lack of water.

The pumps need electricity, but in rural India it’s scarce. Even today, farmers there operate their water pumps mostly at night. And because the power often cuts out, they often stand idle; on the other hand, if the power supply remains stable the pumps run right all night, both wasting a huge amount of precious water and also rinsing a lot of nutrients out of the earth.

Santosh Ostwal with his invention, the Nano Ganesh mobile water pump controller © Santosh Ostwal

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So the farmers have to go out at night. But then who tends the fields during the day, or takes the produce to market? “Access to elec-tricity and water is a big problem for Indian smallholder farmers,” says Santosh Ostwal.

The unreliable electricity supply was some-thing Ostwal couldn’t do anything about – but he did resolve to find a way to operate the pumps remotely. That way he could at least spare his grandfather the nocturnal commutes.

That was twenty years ago, and now Ostwal has done what he set out to do. The engi-neer, now 49, pulls out his mobile phone, dials a number, enters a code, and a distant water pump turns on or off. It’s operated by the mobile signal and a small box con-nected to the pump: the box serves as on-off switch and it’s operated by phone signal.

Ostwal named his invention Nano Ganesh after the elephant god Ganesha, the re-mover of obstacles and god of knowledge, commerce and fortune. “Nano Ganesh is an ultramodern technology, encapsulated in a very simple and robust way to present it to the farmers in remote areas in rural India,” he says. His grandfather is among those who benefit. But thousands of other small-holder farmers in India now profit from the technology. Ostwal has sold 20,000 boxes so far – but there are millions of pumps

across the country still operating without remote control.

Sontosh Ostwal has told his tale count-less times: the story of the young boy who wants to help his elderly grandfather and who, after countless failed attempts, finally succeeds. Nonetheless, he still tells it with pleasure and pride. He responds to every question with a loud “ha!” before answer-ing, and is delighted when people want go into detail. He explains everything slowly in a melodious, rolling Indian English. He wants the person he’s addressing to understand everything.

Ostwal started his journey by getting a degree in engineering, then he started look-ing for ways you could operate irrigation pumps remotely. It took him ten years until he’d created a product that was ready to market. Because he could not find a creditor to support the project, he had to finance its development using the savings of family and friends. Unlike many successful Indian entrepreneurs, Ostwal has never studied in the US or UK. And he plays up his humble background: “I am the grandson of a farmer, my entire family is a farmer family. That is

“Nano Ganesh is an ultramodern technology,

encapsulated in a very simple and robust way.”

From a Nano Ganesh promotional pamphlet.

18

why I can proudly say I know the purpose of the farmer and understand their thoughts.”

The breakthrough came five years ago. Ostwal entered the “Nokia Calling All Innovators Award”, a competition for innovations built on mobile phone technology. In Barcelona, where the final of the 2009 competition took place, he stood on a stage and, using his phone, turned the pumps in his home village of Pune on and off again. The crowd went wild. Ostwal won.

From that moment he spent the rest of that year in the limelight. The Economist reported on Ostwal’s invention, he spoke at TEDx conferences, at the Mobile World Congress and to an audience from USAID, the US-American national aid agency. He

invested the prize money and speaking fees in the development of Nano Ganesh. He still didn’t have any outside investors.

That was also the moment that Ostwal’s perspective on the scope of his invention changed. “I realised this is the dream that I have been working on the last 15 years of my life. I wanted to help farmers all over the world. Until that event I couldn’t reach a global platform.

The first step is spreading his invention within India. “If there are 30 million water

An Indian farmer tests the remote controlled pump using his mobile phone.

“I wanted to help farmers all over the world. Until

that event I couldn’t reach a global platform.”

19

pumps in India, why should I just take care of twenty thousand? That passion doesn’t allow me to settle down with less!” enthuses Ostwal.

There are Nano Ganesh pumps now in almost every Indian province. At the time of researching Ostwal is in discussions with some regional governments that want to promote the use of the pumps with sub- sidies. He’s also in talks with an investor.

Ostwal doesn’t want to disclose details of these discussions. But he’s optimistic that soon many millions will be able to use their mobile phones to remotely operate their irrigation pumps, meaning they will no longer have to set off into the night. His grandfather would surely have approved.

20

Technology, education, entrepreneurial spirit – it’s all there. At least, it is in the secular Jewish population: 75 percent of Israelis are Jewish, and of these 10 percent are ultra-orthodox and eschew the internet completely. There is fertile ground for social digital innovation in Israel: education levels are very high, particularly in high-tech sectors; the entrepreneurial spirit is widespread; and financing is widely available, be it through crowdfunding, foreign investment, or well-maintained personal networks. Innovations are developed with the international market in mind from the very outset, most-ly because the domestic Israeli market is tiny. At present social digital entrepreneurship is not viewed as particularly sexy. Most potential innovators want to convert this into a successful business.

Explorer: Sarah Strozynski | [email protected]


60%Of israelischOOls make use Of e-learning



index


“Israel is definitely a start-up nation.

But none of this brainpower is used to

solve social problems. Everybody just

wants to create the next Angry Birds.”

Nir Shimony, Founder, Tech For Good

21

“Making History: Israel on a Timeline” uses Facebook to teach history. The proj-ect was set up by two young Israeli en-trepreneurs who wanted to take history lessons, previously the preserve of the educa-tionally privileged, adapt them for the sensibili-ties of young people and make them available free of charge. To do this the team, comprised of software developers and teachers, have presented history, be-ginning with the Second World War, so that it appears in chronological order as a

live-steam on the Facebook newsfeed. The team selects material on the basis of the national Bagrut, the exam taken by stu-dents at the end of secondary education.

Spurred on by initial suc-cess and popularity, they began to create other timelines, documenting the creation of the Israeli state and the creation of Israeli settlements in the

Middle Ages. Facebook can be more than just videos of kittens – the site is what you make of it.

It began with the Second World War.

Case study: “Making History: Israel on a Timeline”

There’s plenty of co-working spaces in Israel, the Social Lab or Tsofen for instance. Or if solo-working is more your vibe, head to the beach.

22

In Africa’s social digital landscape, most view Nairobi as the pinnacle. Yes, there’s a lot happening in Kenya, but the social digital scene should not be overesti-mated. In particular the iHub in Nairobi, a co-working space from which over 150 digital projects have already emerged, enjoys quite a lot of attention from international media and investors. There are also various social digital awards and innovation challenges. But critics believe Kenyan start-ups are over-funded. What’s clear is that a lot of Kenyans are well educated and skilled in the art of elevator pitches. These entrepreneurs are always online and never without their smartphones. But at the same time, only around 40 percent of the population has internet access. The digital elite stands in contrast to the population at large, half of whom live below the poverty line – and this gulf is getting wider.

Explorer: Kathleen Ziemann | [email protected]





“Social entrepreneurship has

come on a long way in Nairobi.

Nairobi acts like a hub, both

attracting and promoting these

ideas. It helps that the city is so

strong economically.”

Victoria Nyakundi, Financial Officer,

Ashoka East Africa

>17m kenyans use the mObile payment system

m-pesa

23

Vegetable sellers and kiosk owners play an important role in feeding the inhabitants of Nairobi’s slums. However, because they can only buy and sell in small amounts, their prices stay high. Bulk-buyers can buy produce at a much- reduced rate, and then pass the better prices onto the end buyer. The social business Soko-Text lets these small-scale vendors buy at wholesale prices by aggregating their orders with an SMS system. Here’s how it works:

the vegetable seller sends his or her order in text message form to the SokoText number: 12 kilos of beans and five kilos of

tomatoes, say. SokoText adds up the orders of the different sellers from the slum, buys the total amounts from the wholesale merchant, and divides them up. Five international students started the

project in May 2014 with a first shop in the Mathare slum and have already won several prizes and grants for their idea. sokotext.com

SokoText aggregates the orders of vegetable sellers in the slum and buys them

in bulk for a lower price.

Case study: SokoText

The iHub in Nairobi, probably the best known social digital co-working space anywhere in the world.

24

Social digital innovation is only just getting going. Power cuts are frequent, and the network of sand roads in Dar es Salam defeats Google Maps. Only 4.4 percent of the population has access to the internet. That may sound low, but it marks a rapid development: the number of internet users has more than doubled in just five years. More than half of Tanzanians now have a mobile phone. In the major cities, social digital workspaces and ideas are growing in significance. Dar es Salam is already home to three co-working spaces and one of them, BUNI Hub, receives government support. But the Tanzanian tech level is still more focussed on learning HTML basics than refining elevator pitches. Hence there are only a few established examples of social digital initiatives from Tanzania, as well as several exciting pilot projects.

Explorer: Kathleen Ziemann | [email protected]

NoNe of the

3 teCh hubsis in the capital dOdOma

4.4%use theinternet




“We’re mainly working here to create

the mindset of successful entrepreneurs ...

but people don’t share their ideas, and

that’s really important if you want to

keep improving.”

George Mulamula, CEO,

DTBi Business Incubator

25

“In Tanzania more people have access to mobile phones than to clean drinking water,” says Annie Feighery, CEO of mWater. The project gets healthcare workers to test water quality and publish the results on an online map using smartphones. First they register the spring or well and its GPS coordinates in the database. Then they take a water sample. The samples just need to be left over-night in clear plastic bags, which have been treated with chemicals that show by colouring the water whether it contains the dangerous E. coli bacteria. If it’s yellow the

following morning, it’s safe to drink; if it’s green then it contains too many bacteria. The healthcare worker then uploads the test results using the app, which are plotted on the online map. Healthcare authorities

can use this information to improve overall access to clean water. So far 400 water sources have been tested, and many more will follow. Around 90,000 people

will benefit from the implementation of the app in a pilot in the Mwanza region. mWater is also an open source project: they have published their code for anybody to use. mwater.co

90,000 will be able to drink clean water

thanks to the app.

Case study: mWater

A less controversial Facebook floatation. Read about examples including Habari Mazao, informing farmers about market prices by text message, at: bit.ly/tanzanianfarmers

26

“Vision 2020” has caused a small internet boom in Rwanda. This government programme aims to speed up the transition from a subsistence economy to a knowledge economy. The kLab, a co-working space with top facilities, was set up in 2012 and has given birth to a tiny start-up scene in Rwanda. The first ideas are there, but few have been implemented. The government, headed by the controversial President Kagame, is itself leading the way: in its five focus areas of agriculture, local government, health, education and finance, they already offer half a dozen social digital services. Some NGOs are adapting digital systems which have already been successful elsewhere to local conditions. Use of mobile phones is widespread, but the internet is still far from being a mass medium. That’s part of the reason why there’s (as yet) not much social digital innovation in this small, East African country with few natural resources.

Explorer: Moritz Eckert | [email protected]

8.7%use theinternet



index

56.8mObile phOnesubscriptiOnsper 100 inhabitants but Only 15% have electricity

“Great ideas used to just die in people’s heads.

Thanks to the internet, and the low barriers to

entry it allows, now many more ideas can be

implemented.”

Emmanuel Amani Kayitaba,

Director of ICT, Ministry of Infrastructure

27

Coffee farmers in Rwanda used to have it tough. All accounting had to be done by pen and paper. Analysing the figures, to compare yields with other farmers or learn from previous mistakes, was difficult. And perhaps the most important problem: scattered across rural areas far removed from digital communication, farmers had only very limited access to invest-ment capital for new machinery. The NGO TechnoServe addresses all of these problems with a text message service. More than half of Rwandans today own a mobile phone. Farmers use their phones to send figures about their production and stock levels to a central server. This creates a database that allows

analysis, which in turn not only helps the farmer to become more efficient, but also helps investors. For the first time investors can see transparently which cooperatives are working well and which are not – hence where they might be able to invest or

provide support and advice. The system was originally financed by the Gates and Rabobak Foundations. In 2014 it aims to become sustain-able, financing itself by charging farmers a mod-

est fee to use the service. 53 of the 215 co-operatives in Rwanda are already using the system with success. Let’s drink to that – I’m having a fairtrade latte. technoserve.org/our-work/where-we-work/country/rwanda

Helps not only farmers to become more efficient but also helps investors.

Case study: TechnoServe

The kLab in Kigali offers ideal conditions for entrepreneurs and table-football aficionados.

28

labtogether Germany’s leading conference on social digital is in its third year.

For the past two years our conference has brought together digital social innovators and experts from Germany and beyond. This year’s event on November 6th will be our biggest yet – on the agenda: data protection, digital disaster relief, embracing failure and more. Interested in attending? Just get in touch!

Studies, reports and concepts We know something you don’t know.

With partners including the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the Millicom Foundation, and Mozilla, our research publications focus on a particular aspect of social digital innovation and present it engagingly, varying the format according to the target audience. We also draw on our expertise to develop and implement concepts, such as social innovation competitions or hackathons.

TrendreportWho’s doing what where in social digital?

Our primary publication scours the length and breadth of the social dig-ital landscape, compiles the coolest examples we find in one place and analyses current trends. The result is a unique database of projects – 585 and counting in the German version, grouped under 34 trends. The En-glish-language version launches in autumn 2014 – Watch this space!

A short ad break – what the betterplace lab does when it’s not on the road:

29

Workshops and resources Making NGOs and foundations more digital-savvy.

Capability building in the social sector is an important aspect of our work. We provide resources and workshops for nonprofits on smart use of social media, effective online fundraising, digital storytelling and more. Our “NGO Meter” programme also helps organisations measure their performance.

Talks and lectures How the internet and mobile phones improve lives worldwide.We have a thing or two to say about that. We take to the stage in various settings armed with a mix of abstract analysis and very concrete, vivid examples. Let us inspire at your event.

pHeNOMeNAl

SOCIAl – DIGITAl!

Get in touch now! [email protected] +49 (0)30 76764488-46

30

There is boundless optimism around technology. From the government to aid agencies, many are heralding entrepreneurship generally, and tech start-ups specifically, as a central motor for the country’s future prosperity. This optimism is embodied in a large cohort of early-stage entrepreneurs – young, educated, and with big plans. They are the beneficiaries of new sources of funding – foundations and investors gradually interested in looking beyond Kenya and South Africa. They are predominantly based in the capital Accra, probably in one of several new tech hubs there to avoid otherwise punishing overhead costs. They view themselves as fundamentally dif-ferent from the older NGOs (which are often digitally backwards) and they have no qualms about making big profits along the way. Despite this, they have a strong sense of social impact, and conviction that the solutions to the country’s major problems will be digital.

Explorer: Ben Mason | [email protected]

the meltwaterentrepreneurial schOOl Of

teChNology15.000usd/mOnthfOr internet




index


“In Africa, to become really big

you have to be solving one of the

biggest social problems.”

William Senyo, Co-Founder, SliceBiz

31

Why haven’t MOOCs taken off in West Africa? After all, “Massive Open Online Courses” contain lectures from world- leading professors for free; meanwhile tens or hundreds of millions of young Africans wanting a university education cannot afford one, but do have increasing in-ternet access. And yet take-up so far has been disappointing. The Open University of West Africa (OUWA) hopes to change that. OUWA quickly discovered that providing free internet access and offering a modest financial incentive caused a sevenfold

increase in the proportion of students completing a course. Several hundred students have passed through OUWA so far, and its combination of offering

freely available digital content and exploiting existing offline infra-structure makes its model hyper-scalable. A crucial step in getting people to sign up will

be the promise of recognised accreditation – OUWA are currently discussing the possibility of awarding degrees to OUWA students through universities in Europe and the USA. ouwa.org

The rate of students completing a course increased sevenfold.

Case study: Open University of West Africa

The colourful iSpace Hub is home to several social digital projects including a crowdfunding platform to help farmers, and the equality warriors at Tech Needs Girls.

32

Senegal, in terms of social digital, is the light that shines brightest in francophone West Africa. While there are plenty of sprouting seedlings of social digital innovation in Senegal, we’re still waiting for major impact. Many people are inspired by the ideal of social entrepreneur-ship, and as internet and smartphones use increases (at least in the cities), more and more people are trying to use them for social good. Helping the enthusiasts along are numerous hubs and informal networks, but social digital initiatives also face obstacles such as a lack of directed government policy and, above all, scarce funding opportunities.

Explorer: Ben Mason | [email protected]

5 tech hubsfOundedin dakar since 2010


No.98On the glObalinnOvatiOn index No.163

On the human develOpment

index


“Social digital innovation in

Senegal – it’s cooking but it’s

not cooked yet.”

Alexandre Rideau, Founder, RAES

33

When in 2012 President Wade attempted to stand for a constitutionally questionable third term, passions ran high, with clashes erupting between support and opposition. The episode has left a lasting mark (beyond the strongly-worded roadside graffiti): the crisis brought people together around several online initiatives, and forged networks which still persist today. One of these, the SUNU2012 initiative, provided the elec-torate with information about the different candidates and their policies. They created a basic online profile for each of the 14 candidates and then emailed them the login details so they could expand it

themselves – all but one did. On election day itself, a nationwide network of volunteers played an important role in monitoring the vote using the Twitter-

hashtag #sunu2012. Since the election, the project has turned into an online platform for fact-checking and civic engagement. Several hundred specific pledges from the government’s

manifesto are individually listed and people can give their opinion about whether these have been adequately fulfilled. Founder Cheikh Fall has gone on to set up the ‘Afriktivistes’ activist blogging platform; and in the end, Wade lost the election. twitter.com/sunu2012

Citizens can comment online, whether election promises have been kept.

Case study: SUNU2012

No shortage of hardware at RAES, a digitally-focussed NGO in Dakar. But does Senegal have a language problem? Answers here: bit.ly/senegallanguageproblem

34

A digital giantWith 86 million users, Brazil has the fourth-highest internet usage of any country; it also has the world’s second-largest Facebook community. More than half of the population is under 30, meaning more than half of Brazilians are digital natives and receptive to almost any app or online service. Moreover, a middle class is currently emerging, living mostly in major cities with access to state-funded digital technology. Social digital innovations are aimed above all at problems around urbanisation, political transparency and civic participation. There are apps for urban gardeners, maps of infrastructure problems, platforms for petitions and watchdogs for (or against) the government – almost all of them arising from the actions of a few engaged citizens.

Explorer: Anja Adler | [email protected]





“When the dictatorship ended in 1985,

we fought for the right to speak but we

didn’t fight to be heard. Now we’re creating

a culture in which the government listens

to its citizens!”

Leonardo Eloi, Product Director, Meu Rio

90% Of peOple under 30 in riO’s biggest favelas have internet access

35

If there’s a problem the government doesn’t want to see, you’ve got to paint it in very bright colours. At least, that’s what young street artist Thiago Mundano is trying to do with his project Pimp My Carroca. Seven years ago he began to paint Sao Paulo’s fleet of around 200 rubbish trucks, to draw attention to the plight of a marginalised and ostracised group. The Carrocas collect over 90 percent of the rubbish in Brazil’s major cities, but the authorities don’t want to acknowledge the problems facing this group. The rub-bish collectors work in the black market, so nobody wants to associate with them. Mundano started using Facebook and Twitter and the brightly coloured trucks to organise online and offline protest

campaigns. So far he has financed the project entirely through the crowdfunding platform Catarse. He’s also currently working on an app which will plot not only the various recycling stations but

also the rubbish collec-tors on a map. To make it work, the Carrocas will be given GPS-en-abled smartphones. This means that for Sao Paulo alone Thiago needs

20,000 phones and around 150,000 USD over the next two years to fund courses, phones, and to develop the platform. He’s currently seeking support – for example from foundations – but for now wants to remain independent. That might mean turning once again to his online supporters for assistance. pimpmycarroca.com

Thiago’s currently working on an app

which plots recycling stations on a map.

Case study: pimp My Carroca

Centre of operations: the IBM-sponsored nerve centre of the “Smart City” Rio de Janeiro.

36

Bolivia is lagging behind. Digital infrastructure in Bolivia is developing sluggishly, and few people seem to be conscious of the potential for technology and the internet to boost social progress. While it’s true that more and more Bolivians are using mobile phones, it’s mostly just to make calls because internet coverage is patchy and slow. The government is currently seeking to expand internet coverage and there are some promising social digital projects in agriculture and education, as well as a small blogger community. There’s no dynamic start-up scene to speak of. One reason for this is a highly regulated and monopolised telecommunications market. Bolivia is home to few IT specialists and the atmosphere is pervaded by a low-level techno-scepticism.

Explorer: Mareike Müller | [email protected]

295m usdspent On the firstbOliviantelecOmmunicatiOn

satellite39.5%use theinternet

N0.111On the glObalinnOvatiOn index


index


“There’s no digital culture

yet in Bolivia.”

J. Eduardo Rojas, Fundación Redes

37

PROINPA uses digital tools, above all videos and text messages, to keep smallholder farmers in rural parts of the country up to speed with technical and technological developments in agriculture. This knowledge transfer is important to ensure that farmers maintain competitiveness and secure their liveli-hoods. PROINPA does this by training promoters and kitting them out with cameras and laptops. Some communities of farmers who already have expertise about advanced techniques, for instance in the use of natural fertilizers, learn how to record this knowledge in instructional

videos. These videos are then taken to other communities and shown using a screen and projector, so that others can profit from the knowledge. PROINPA is active right across Bolivia and has reached more

than 11,000 potato and quinoa farmers, meaning that around 45,000 people in 400 communities have benefitted indirectly. As a result of increased yields, these farmers

have increased their annual income by a total of five million USD. PROINPA belongs to the RED TIC Bolivia network, and is supported by the Dutch consortium Connect4Change. proinpa.org

PROINPA has reached more than 11,000 potato

and quinoa farmers.

Case study: pROINpA

Farmers filming a tutorial video for the PROINPA Foundation | © Jaime Cisneros

38

Old languages live on – thanks to the internetFor centuries the languages of native Bolivians have been suppressed. Now due to online software Quecha and Aymara are flourishing again.

The 18-year-old Karina grew up in Sucre, Bolivia’s capital city. She wears modern clothes and speaks Spanish. Her grand-mother lives more than 90 miles away in Villa Orías in the countryside, wears traditional dress and speaks Quechua, the language of the people of the same name. Everyone in her village speaks it. To Karina’s grandmother Spanish is a foreign language. Karina doesn’t speak Quechua, however. “My parents didn’t think that

speaking Quechua would be important any more after we moved to the city,” she explains. “That’s why they only taught us Spanish.” To be able to communicate with her grandmother, Karina now studies vocabulary on YouTube, watching free video tutorials. Soon, she hopes, her Quechua will be good enough. Indigenous languages were never taught Karina’s school. For a long time Bolivia’s indigenous peoples, their cultures and languages, were neglected

Amara in traditional dress © VocesBolivianas

39

or even disparaged by official institutions. That’s another reason why many parents have not passed on their mother tongue to their children, raising them instead speaking Spanish.

Ever since Evo Morales of the Aymara people was elected president, old traditions have been accorded more weight. It’s a stated objective of Morales’s policies to preserve them. This is no small under-taking: alongside Spanish, Bolivia today has 36 official national languages. Most have far fewer speakers than Quechua and Aymara, both of which have been declared endangered languages by UNESCO.

More than 6,500 languages are spoken worldwide. Every ten days one of them disappears and at least half of all languages are predicted to die out over the course of the twenty-first century. Above all the lan-guages of minority groups are threatened with extinction. This remains the case in Bolivia as well, despite Morales’s efforts. However, his government has introduced compulsory lessons in indigenous languages at schools. If Karina Valda were still at school, she’d probably be studying Quechua. And maybe she’d be using Itati Tórrez’ software to do so.

Itati Tórrez is herself still at school. The 14-year-old has developed a piece of interactive educational software called “Aymarat aruskiptasiñani”, which translates as “let’s talk Aymara”.

Guided by an interactive tutor, the student completes four different units before taking an evaluation – all in Aymara.

It has taken Itati two years to develop the software. It all began with a homework assignment at school. Itati’s IT class had to build a piece of educational software. It was Itati’s mother, a linguist working in

adult education, who gave her the idea of making it an Aymara program. “My mother helped me with developing the content”, Itati says.

Itati is now working on a more advanced second edition of the programme and has had the software patented. This year “Aymarat aruskiptasiñani” will be used in Aymara classes in elementary schools across Bolivia. Itati has already exported her product to Chile, where it will be used to teach Mapudungún, the language of the Mapuche people.

“Besides Spanish, Bolivia has 36 official national languages.“

A teacher using educational software. © [email protected]

40

There are many more examples in Bolivia alone of modern technology being used to preserve old languages. For instance, the non-profit organisation Educ@tic has developed more than 200 comput-er games for teaching Quechua, Aymara and other languages.

The blogger community Jaqi-Aru (“The People’s Voice”) wants to extend the Aymara language into cyberspace. Jaqi-Aru is now associated with Global Voices.org, a global blogger movement that gives voices outside the mainstream media a platform.

Atamiri (“Communicator”) is a programme for simultaneous translation into twelve different languages developed by the Bolivian mathematician Ivan Guzman de Rojas, and it can now be used worldwide. Atamiri is designed specifically for the grammar and syntax of Aymara and out-performs standard online translators like Google Translate. The associated chat soft-ware “Qopuchaqi” can be downloaded for

Jaqi aru, one of several initiatives working to preserve and promote Aymara

“The blogger community Jaqi-Aru (‘The People’s Voice’) wants to extend the Aymara language into cyberspace.”

41

free. It allows a Frenchman, for instance, to communicate with a Brazilian in his mother tongue and to receive translated answers in real time.

Quechua, the language of Karina Vladas’ grandma, has also been digitally revitalised. Even multinationals Google and Microsoft have played a part in this renaissance: Google has started a search engine in Quechua and Microsoft issued a Quechua version of Windows and Office.

Transcription and exchange through digital media lead to the standardisation of indigenous languages. This helps to preserve them, experts say. Languages present on the internet form a vital connection to the world beyond and manifest the identity of their respective speakers, explains Nikolaus Himmelmann, chairman of the German Association for Endangered Languages. Karin Valda, with her thoroughly modern upbringing, would probably agree.

42

There’s visible progress and an air of excitement. In Colombia’s young but highly dynamic social digital start-up scene, projects are springing up out of hubs and coworking spaces like weeds after a downpour. The government has cottoned on to the potential of digital technology and is promoting the extension of digital infrastructure, for instance in Arepa Valley, Colombia’s answer to Silicon Valley. The government’s Apps.co initiative supports the development of smartphone applications. Last year the first wave of apps with the greatest social impact were awarded prizes. Enterprises in the social business sector jostle with each other, courting the CSR budgets of large companies, as there’s little start-up funding available from venture capital. So far there hasn’t been a smash-hit social digital success that has been successfully exported, since most solutions take a localised approach and only scale up slowly.

Explorer: Mareike Müller | [email protected]

gOvernment initiative

apps.Co has suppOrtedthe develOpment Of

896apps




index


“In March 2013 the Urban Land Institute

selected Medellín as the most innovative

city in the world that year – ahead of New

York and Tel Aviv. We may not be at the same

level technologically, but in terms of social

innovation we are.”

Rocío Arango Goraldo, Ruta N

43

Conexión Colombia is the local equivalent of betterplace.org. The online donation-platform was set up in 2003 and in the past ten years has passed on over 26 million USD to social projects in Colombia. The projects on the plat-form tend to be small, local initiatives, which are screened for effec-tiveness and quality. In total more than 360,000 people have benefitted from the donations – in money, time, and in kind – raised through the platform. Originally Conexión Colombia was intended to raise money from the Colombian Diaspora for projects back home. However, most of the donations now come from within the country,

followed by Mexico, the USA, Spain, France and the UK. The platform passes on 100 percent of donations to the respective projects, though donors have the option to make a small supplementary donation

to support the running of the platform. But the platform’s financing comes primarily from cooperation with various companies, including DHL Express, CedibanCo and PwC.

Conexión Colombia places great impor-tance on transparency and publishes all of its figures and impact measurement reports alongside reports from the projects they host. conexioncolombia.com/

More than 360,000 people in Colombia have

benefitted from donations on the platform.

Case study: Conexión Colombia

The bogohack innovation lab in Bogotá. Medellín is doing even better; the one-time drug-trafficking nexus is now a metropolis of innovation.

44

Costa Rica’s transformation into a digital society is running at breakneck speed. Thanks to a good education system, proximity to the USA, and widespread internet and mobile phone coverage, a small start-up scene has established itself in Costa Rica. Alongside this, there is also an emerging social digital scene. Social digital remains something of a niche topic, as well as a very young and urban one. Innovations emerge from small groups of social entrepreneurs, mostly in university incubators. Some companies are also joining in, for example from the local tech or agency scenes. The government has organised hackathons on topics like reducing smoking. NGOs use the internet as a matter of course, but are rarely the drivers of change in the most innovative and most stable country in Central America.

Explorer: Moritz Eckert | [email protected]

332%increasein mObile internet traffic in2012-2013



index

146mObile phOnesubscriptiOnsper 100 inhabitants

46%use theinternet

“There are no role models here when

it comes to social entrepreneurship –

we’re always having to look to the USA.”

Federico Halsband, Entrepreneur

45

“Upe! Be a traveller – not a tourist,” instructs the motto UPEPlaces. The platform matches adventurous travellers with small local communities, where they get the chance to live mixed in with the locals. Founder Omar Castillo had the idea during a trip to Peru: “One evening I was stranded somewhere in the countryside and I only had two options: roughing it on the street or knocking on somebody’s front door.” He opted for the latter and the days that followed provided the most intense travelling experience of his life. As opposed to massive competitors such as AirBnB, UPEPlaces sees itself not as an inter-

mediary not for accommodation but for experience. In 2013 the first 500 travellers used the service. If all goes well, UPEPlaces will offer both a good oppor-tunity for communities otherwise cut off from tourism revenues and to the growing

number of trav-ellers searching for individuality and authenticity. UPEPlaces con-siders itself to be a social business: they keep 20

percent of the amount paid, which allows them to keep expanding to new communi-ties. And what’s with the weird name? Well “Upe” is an affectionate term of welcome in Costa Rica. upeplaces.com/home

“One evening I was stranded in the countryside and I only had

two options: roughing it on the street or knocking on somebody’s

front door.”

Case study: Upeplaces

Ignorance is bliss: this app linked to a mouthpiece to let the smoker know, which harmful chemicals he or she is inhaling.

46

In terms of social digital, the USA leads the world. No other country boasts so many NGO websites, digital campaigns and functioning platforms for donating, crowdfunding, petitions or pooling non-profit data. The combination of a strong NGO sector, a mature IT market, transparency requirements, and a large population quick to take up new technologies has given rise to a diverse social digital landscape over the past 20 years. This culture is fuelled by foundations, companies, and impact investors who invest hundreds of millions of dollars every year in technological infrastructure for civil society. Admittedly, social digital innovation in the USA is relatively fragmented and many enterprises lack a sustainable business model.

Explorer: Joana Breidenbach | [email protected]


23%annual increase in “civic-tech“ OrganisatiOns

2008-2012


index


84%use theinternet

“There’s never been a better

time to make preparations

for a social digital society.”

Lucy Bernholz, Founder, Digital Civil

Society Lab, Stanford University

47

The Feedback Labs are an agglomeration of different organisations which try to incorporate feedback loop mechanisms into the work of NGOs and governments. While the organisation operates inter- nationally, its driving force for the time being comes from the US. Feedback loops are based on the many-to-many and crowdsourcing principles. The objective is to channel the opinions of citizens to ensure that philanthropic and public funds are well spent. International aid and devel-opment is a focus of the Labs’ work. The organisation was founded in 2013 with a

pilot project in Dar es Salaam in Tanzania. The Tanzanian Ministry of Finance and the NGO Development Gateway created an “aid management platform” which displayed the finances of 50 organisations

working actively on the ground in delivering aid. The Tanzanian gov-ernment was able to use this information when deciding on the alloca-tion of state funds. This means the government

has a clearer picture of the needs and wishes of its citizens and can work more effectively with development organisations to give people the kind of support that they actually need. feedbacklabs.org

The government has a clearer picture of

the needs and wishes of citizens.

Case study: Feedback labs

Don’t settle for anything less than changing the world. The “Declaration of Innovation” at the 1776 Incubator.

48

Digitisation of civil society infrastructure is moving sluggishly. Several larger German NGOs have invested considerably in their internet presence. For a lot of small and medium-sized organisations, on the other hand, it’s more about getting an online presence in the first place, and understanding how to use social media effectively. A lot of established institutions, including large foundations and government ministries, view the digital agenda as more of a threat than an opportunity. Nowhere is social mistrust of tech giants like Facebook and Google greater than in Germany. Financial investment in social digital innovations is thin on the ground, particularly compared with countries with similarly strong economies such as the USA. Hence there is a wide gulf between state and philanthropic institutions on the one hand, and on the other a young and engaged cohort of digital natives, who have set up several innovative platforms for donations, crowdfunding and political transparency, but need considerably more support.


119mObile phOnesubscriptiOnsper 100 inhabitants

28germancrOwdfundingplatfOrms currently active

84%use theinternet

“The internet is unchartered

territory for all of us.”

Angela Merkel, ChancellorNo.6On the human develOpment

index

49

Wheelchair users can check quickly and easily on wheelmap.org whether cafes, shops and other public places have wheelchair access. This information is crowdsourced: anybody can make an entry on the map, mark-ing which places have stairs, a ramp, or nar-row doorways. Rates of participation are high, showing how useful the tool is for a large number of people – there are an estimated 1.5 million wheelchair users in Germany alone. The information is available in 21 languages and 450,000 points have been plotted all over the world, from pharmacies to local authority buildings to restaurants. The site

uses an easily under stood traffic-light system: red means inaccessible, orange means limited accessibility, and green means fully wheelchair-friendly. Grey markings show places that have yet to

be rated. As with other location or travel apps, users can filter by category, for example searching for accessible cafes near to their current location. Thus wheelmap.org promotes freedom and inclusion.

Wheelmap is a project from the Sozialhelden (“Social Heroes”), a group of engaged individuals which draws attention to, and devises solutions to, social problems. wheelmap.org

The information is available in 21 languages

and 450,000 points have been plotted all over the world.

Case study: wheelmap.org

Germany is seeing more and more social digital hackathons, such as the SAP InnoJam, where techies rapidly build solutions to social problems.

50

Catalysts and obstacles for digital-social innovation: an overview*

Ghana: established digital

social community widespread use

of mobile phones poor infrastructure passive government

Senegal: using existing infrastructure widespread use of mobile phones lack of sustainable financing no role models

Costa Rica: highly educated “returnees”

(predominantly from USA) digitally active government no local role models no entrepreneurial mindset

USA: digitisation of

everyday life large domestic market access to finance market fragmentation

Bolivia: international financial aid widespread use

of mobile phones tech-scepticism lack of IT skills

Colombia: digitally active government widespread use of mobile phones culture of entrepreneurialism lack of investors

Brazil: digitally savvy population active civil society scepticism towards NGOs techies prefer profit to

social enterprise

Israel: digitally savvy population culture of entrepreneurialism techies prefer profit

to social enterprise small domestic market

Germany: good IT training active civil society lack of investors passive government

51

* We understand “digital-social innovation” to include any instance in which individuals and institutions – irrespective of their legal status or financing model – make use of digital technology to further the social good, that is, aiming to allow as many people as possible to lead the life which they consider to be right and good.

Indonesia: digitally savvy population active civil society mobile phone saturation passive government

India: making use of

existing infrastructure culture of entrepreneurialism digitally active government scepticism towards NGOs

China: financing through CSR digitally savvy population aspirational middle-class repressive government

Tanzania: making use of existing

infrastructure digitally active

government lack of IT expertise no local role models

Kenya: widespread use of

mobile payment (M-Pesa)

culture of entrepreneurialism

well-educated “returnees”

lack of sustainable financing

Rwanda: digitally active government agencies specialising in digital-social making use of existing infrastructure lack of sustainable financing

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Culturally, economically, politically and historically, Bolivia is very different from China. Making a comparative list of their respective catalysts and obstacles for in-novation, or trying to gauge the overall dynamic, might seem like nonsense. It’s a kind of inductive reasoning: trying to piece together general theories from thousands of individual factors. It’s laborious, but we dare to try.

So, what do Indonesian fathers promoting breastfeeding on Twitter have in common with an SMS service for farmers in Ghana? Well for one thing, the fact that both are trying to make the world better, and are using digital technology to do so. Increase the resolution and categories emerge, such as financing strategy, organisational structure or target group. And it’s clear that we’re dealing with something that’s complex, qualitative, and constantly in flux. Goodbye universal formula, hello mind-map of causes and connections.

We aren’t deterred, therefore, by our deeply heterogeneous findings across various countries, and begin by remaining on the

descriptive level. What next? Well even if you’re comparing apples and oranges, you can at least say that both are kinds of fruit. The point is that social digital innovation is a worldwide phenomenon, but its mani- festations are diverse. In some countries it’s found more in loose-knit civil society networks which make use of widely available technology (as in Brazil, Indonesia, and to some extent China). In other countries, you find more people building their own tech innovations (such as the new apps coming out of India and Kenya).

The population is engaged, but the government is slumbering.

Another common feature uniting all countries: they all have a national government. And about half of the countries we visited had a national digital policy, promoting the digitisation of civil society through various initiatives and providing infrastructure.

Apples and oranges: the challenge of international innovation comparison

What’s the difference between China and Bolivia? Nope, there isn’t a punch-line coming. That’s just one of the many questions we asked ourselves after returning from Lab Around the World. Because we want to answer the über-question: what’s the universal formula for social digital innovation?

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These tend, with the exception of Ghana and Tanzania, to be among the more dynamic countries. In many countries, particularly those with more dynamic economies such as India, Brazil or Kenya, people are excited about ICT. These countries have more or less reached mobile phone saturation and smartphones are becoming ever more affordable. Apps, social media and instant messaging bridge the gap between city and countryside. This solves a handful of social problems indirectly, such as by allowing city-dwellers to send money home to families in remote villages using the SMS-payment service M-Pesa.

Are we seeing silos rather than social digital networks?

Another thing we found interesting: in almost all the countries we visited, we barely found any innovation within “classic” NGOs, that is, in charities, aid organisations, or large foundations. We found it instead in smaller networks of activists, techies and young entrepreneurs, who are coming up with ideas and following through with them. Hence in many countries parallel structures have developed, with classic government and charity working on one side, and digital entrepreneurs on the other – at least, that was our first impression. There’s a lack of exchange and collaboration between the two sides. One encouraging exception is India, where many NGOs are establishing partnerships with innovators and social digital service providers to increase their impact and efficiency. Something similar is increasingly being

attempted in other countries, often mediated through hubs, incubators and innovation competitions.

Lab Around the World 2014 was only the beginning of a long journey. Not only are there many more digital civil societies to be explored and researched – we also want to better understand the different make-ups of those societies, to understand the optimal conditions for stimulating innovation for the general good. A universal formula? Maybe it’s out there after all.

Our ranking of social digital dynamic:

1. India

2. USA

3. Brazil

4. Kenya

5. Rwanda

6. Colombia

7. Indonesia

8. Israel

9. China

10. Costa Rica

11. Germany

12. Ghana

13. Tanzania

14. Senegal

15. Bolivia

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The authors

Sarah Strozynski studied Political Science and works

for the betterplace.org platform as a concept designer, developing online fundraising tools for social organisations.

Joana Breidenbach holds a PhD in cultural anthropology

and is author of numerous articles and books, focusing particularly on the cultural conse-quences of globalisation.

Joana co-founded the betterplace.org platform

in 2008 and then the betterplace lab in 2011.

Joana Breidenbach

Ben Mason is the prodigal son of the betterplace lab. He first came to the lab as in intern in 2011 whilst still a student of Philosophy and German, only to return full-time two years later as Captain of International Projects.

Ben Mason

Anja Adler is an Associate Researcher in the better-

place lab and is also cur-rently studying for a doctorate in Political

Science.

Anja Adler

Kathleen Ziemann graduated with an MA in Politics and

Cultural Sciences, and more recently trained as a Design Thinker. Kathleen worked as an editor at Médecins

Sans Frontières before joining the lab in 2012,

and she now has chief responsibility for our primary

publication, the Trendreport.

Kathleen Ziemann

Mareike Müller has an MA in Social Communication and wrote her thesis on online communication by NGOs. Before joining the lab team in 2013, Mareike worked at the Deutsche Gesell- schaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ).

Mareike Müller

Sarah Strozynski

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Dennis Buchmann has a background initially as

a biologist and then as a journalist – deciding this wasn’t broad enough, he more recently he added

a Masters of Public Policy to the mix. Dennis

co-founded the better-place lab with Joana and is

the editor-in-chief for our publications. He is also founder and CEO of meinekleinefarm.org.

Pal Nyiri is a Professor of Global History from an Anthropological Perspective at Vrije University in Amsterdam and has co-authored several publications with Joana. Helpfully, he also happens to be fluent in Mandarin.

Medje Prahm studied Philosophy and Economics, writing her Masters thesis on impact measurement in non-profits, a topic she was able to pursue further at Stiftung Neue Verantwortung. Medje is the lab’s Interior Minister, holding the whole show together on a practical level, alongside researching.

Moritz Eckert co-founded the betterplace.org plat-

form and only in 2014 migrated to the lab, to have a more analytic perspective on using digital tech to improve

lives. Mo is the Get-The-Word-Out Guy, making

more people aware of what we do.

Dennis Buchmann

Pál Nyíri

Moritz Eckert

Medje Prahm

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Imprint betterplace lab Lab around the World Brochure 2014

Produced by: betterplace lab gut.org gemeinnützige AG Schlesische Straße 26 10997 Berlin Germany

www.betterplace-lab.org/projects/lab-around-the-world

Authors: Anja Adler, Joana Breidenbach, Dennis Buchmann, Moritz Eckert, Ben Mason, Mareike Müller, Pál Nyíri, Medje Prahm, Sarah Strozynski, Kathleen Ziemann

Translated by: Ben Mason, with contributions from Theresa Valenta

Editors: Dennis Buchmann, Moritz Eckert, Ben Mason, Olivia Parkes

Sources: Human Development Index 2014 (HDI): hdr.undp.org

The Global Innovation Index 2014: globalinnovationindex.org

International Telecommunication Union 2013 itu.int

The fifth figure for each country we researched on the ground.

Proofreading: Franziska Kreische, Jonathan Back

Design concept, artwork and layout: Rico Reinhold

Printed by: Ruksaldruck, Berlin

Ghanap.30

Senegalp.32

Brazilp.34

Boliviap.36

Costa Ricap.44

USAp.46

Colombia p.42