Lindsay Powell (Bio)

Title: Mobiles for Social Change

Date and Time: July 21, 2011, 12:30 pm EST

Lecturer: Lindsay Powell

Summary: This webinar will provide attendees with an overview of the "Mobiles for Development" (M4D) and "ICT4D" (ICTs for Development) field in order to demonstrate why mobiles are perceived to be a more effective development tool than other new ICTs. Best practices in M4D will be discussed with a focus on para-poor approaches, which involve designing interventions in consultation with poor communities and in accordance with the communities’ specific resources, capacities and demands. We will consider the important roles played by intermediary organizations and local capacity in M4D projects in addition to examining areas that need improvement. These areas include building local capacity to use mobiles for social change and assessing the impact of M4D projects. The lecturer will draw on her own experience and research to provide a real world example of an M4D project: the Jokko Initiative, a project implemented by the American NGO Tostan (in partnership with UNICEF) which uses mobile phones as pedagogical and social mobilization tools in rural African villages. With the support of still images and video, this webinar will demonstrate how the positive impact of the Jokko Initiative can be attributed to Tostan's participatory approach and capacity-building function as a local and effective intermediary organization. All attendees who are interested in learning more about M4D will obtain access to online resources at the end of this webinar.

Title: Privacy and Wireless Technology

Date and Time: July 19, 2011, 12:30 pm EST

Lecturer: Howard Simkevitz

Summary: Penetration rates of mobile devices are accelerating at unprecedented levels. As devices and networks proliferate, more and more personal information is implicated. From network providers to application developers, privacy is key to successful wireless business operations. Without privacy, information flows may be compromised and the customer experience may be diminished. Privacy fosters customer trust and should be built into wireless solutions up-front before issues emerge. After a short definitional exercise, this webinar will explain why investing in privacy is important. It will cover some of the privacy risks facing those in the wireless space, how to mitigate such risks and suggest how organizations can advance a culture of privacy thereby developing customer trust.

Title: Mobile Money for the Unbanked: What's hot?

Date and time: July 28, 2011, 12:30 pm EST

Lecturer: Claire Penicaud

Summary: 2011 has been a very exciting year for the Mobile Money industry. With 106 deployments across the world now, and 87 planned, this industry has doubled in size over the past 12 months! Mobile Money is gaining momentum around the world, particularly to conduct payment transactions. This is true not only in developed countries, where solid banking infrastructures and financial/banking services are available, but also in developing countries where Mobile Money can sometimes be the only way to make payments and transfer funds. A few weeks ago, the GSMA Mobile Money Summit took place in Singapore, bringing together the key leaders of the mobile and financial sectors to develop the solutions that will drive the future of the Mobile Money ecosystem. Many key topics from regulation to management of a network of agents have been examined. In this webinar, Claire Penicaud, Coordinator of the Mobile Money for the Unbanked (MMU) programme at the GSMA, will share with you the highlights of the Summit and latest news about the industry.

Claire Buré

Title: Factors affecting mobile technology adoption

Date & Time: June 14, 2011, 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time

Lecturer: Claire Buré

Summary: Mobile data services such as m-commerce, MMS, gaming, and music on demand are becoming an important – and integral – part of many people’s everyday lives. This is creating a new consumer group: mobile consumers. Yet recent studies claim that the rate of take up is slower than expected by telecoms. And we still know relatively little about the motivations and circumstances that drive consumers to use particular mobile technologies.

This webinar will provide an overview of the factors that affect consumer adoption of mobile technologies – not only the most well-known factors (such as age, perceived usefulness and ease of use) but also emotion-based factors such as excitement or fear that are only recently being identified as determinants for user adoption rates. Once we can identify why and how people are adopting mobile technologies, we will be more easily able to design and implement technologies that appeal to broad audiences. This discussion will be relevant to any type and size of organization, from social enterprises to corporations.

Shayan Mashatian (Bio)

Title: Mobile Marketing Elements and Methods

Date & Time: June 16, 2011, 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time

Lecturer: Shayan Mashatian

Summary: Since the introduction of SMS and shortcodes, followed by smartphones and mobile apps, mobile technologies have been considered an important component of marketing programs. Regardless of the size of organizations or the industry they operate, mobile technologies can be used for new user acquisition or to improve customer loyalty programs by using various techniques such as mobile coupons and other methods.

This webinar will review various mobile technologies (e.g. SMS, MMS, Mobile Web, etc.) that can be used for mobile marketing, reviewing the elements of each and explaining different methods to define a mobile campaign. Finally, a few key case studies will be reviewed to show how mobile technologies can be integrated with social media (e.g. twitter) to maximize the effect of mobile marketing initiatives.

Farshad Mahlooji (Bio)

Title: ‘Mobile Readiness’ for Organizations

Date & Time: June 21, 2011, 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time

Lecturer: Farshad Mahlooji

Summary: Adopting and using mobile technologies now seems like a must for any organization, such as to expand its marketing programs or improve operation efficiency. But how ready are you to achieve that goal, and to do it well?

Implementing mobile solutions needs to be orchestrated within the organization to ensure necessary processes, infrastructure and knowledge are in place to support it. Also external factors to ensure its success such as acceptance of organization's partners and customers to use the new tools is crucial.

In this webinar, we will present a framework to analyze the 'mobile readiness' of organizations for implementation within their projects and programs, and review a method to explore the factors that affect a successful implementation of mobile solutions.

Adam Clare (Bio)

Title: Mobile Game For Education

Date & Time: June 23, 2011, 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time

Lecturer: Adam Clare

Summary: Mobile games provide a good platform for simulations around microfinance and social entrepreneurship which can be used by the simplest phone models anywhere.

This webinar will cover some of the fundamentals of game design and how to approach them by looking at the similarities and differences between designing a game for fun or for serious gaming. We'll look at why some games become viral and popular while others stay on the sidelines. An emphasis will be placed on mobile and social gaming as they are the currently the fastest growing sectors of the gaming world.

A case study of a mobile social game for entrepreneurs to improve financial literacy that is currently in development will be presented with an opportunity to participate in the game making process.

Amy ter Haar (Bio)

Title: A comparative approach to open-source technology and (business) licenses for mobile application for development

Date & Time: June 28, 2011, 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time

Lecturer: Amy ter Haar

Summary: Organizations launching and managing mobile applications, (especially with regard to Social Enterprise Organizations) often overlook the intricacies involved when making a decision to adopt technology and business licenses and how such licences become intertwined. Accordingly, this webinar will review how these licences affect one another and will include a comparative approach to discuss the similarities and differences between common open source technology licences, namely, Apache 2, and the precedent-setting business licences such as Creative Commons. Furthermore, it will briefly explain how adopting once licence over another for your mobile application will be affected by the technology and business licences that you choose for an application to illuminate how this is linked to the enterprise structure of the organization.

A case study will be presented to explain how adopting a Creative Commons licence in conjunction with both Apache 2 and GLP makes a practical business difference when launching a new social enterprise mobile application.

Gaby David (Bio)

Title: Camera Phones: A Change on Visual Landscape

Date & Time: June 30, 2011, 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time

Lecturer: Gaby David

Summary: Among the numerous features available on mobile phones, camera phones affect many aspects of our lives. The way they are being used is changing our perception of concepts in many interesting ways, such as our interpretation of news, sense of immediacy and even the newsworthiness of particular issues.

This webinar explores how the capturing and sharing of camera phone images is changing the communication landscape.

Jessica Ching 

Carla Gould 

Title: Meet The Designers

Date & Time: July 5, 2011, 12:30 pm Eastern Standard Time

Lecturers: Jessica Ching and Carla Gould

Summary: Technology is ubiquitous in daily life, yet the functions each individual demands from it can vary tremendously in both explicit and nuanced ways. How does the physical interaction with a mobile device enhance or hinder a user's experience with mobile technology? Through close observation of human behavior, desires and needs unmet by current mobile products are revealed.

This webinar will look at the process behind developing new handset hardware, using case studies from designs developed for TELUS by OCAD University students.