Week 1 Summary

We were very glad to begin Week 1 with a great deal of enthusiasm and participation from those who registered. Your participation last week brought a lot of value to the course. The discussions have been wide-ranging and some very good ideas have emerged from the participants. An example is the use of missed calls to help an individual who finds her/himself lost in the valleys or mountains of the Himalayas. Similar applications can be developed for countries and regions where tourism is an important source of income and revenue. Some more examples can be cited from the Forum discussions. We have also seen people sharing information on some outstanding examples of M4D in action. Some have brought forward very interesting data- such as on tele-density in sub regions of countries which are not reported in aggregate statistics.

You, the participants, are able to think up solutions. You are able to imagine new ways of using mobile devices and services in addressing some human development concerns. This is the kind of bridge in thinking that we would like to build through this course. We should enable flow of ideas between the development community and the developer community. We feel good about getting there. We thank you all for the participation in the first week.

As a reminder, we have content in four tracks: technology, agriculture, education and credit/banking. They will be made available every week. Starting the 5th Nov., we will start more focused discussion sessions in the three application sectors. This should give an opportunity to participate more intensely in your area of interest and establish closer linkages with participants from your preferred domain in human development.

We thank you again and wish you a satisfying experience in the weeks to come.

The M4D Course Team