Six organisations have been named as winners in a bridges.org competition to find the most innovative use for handheld devices in social and economic development.
The challenge was to demonstrate innovative ways to harness the power of handheld computing devices in the areas of health (HIV/AIDS), education and agriculture. Each winning organisation will receive up to 35 HP H4100 iPAQs to implement their projects.
The winners are:
* Cell-Life, which is using wireless solutions to manage medical problems associated with antiretroviral distribution, specifically to be used in rural sites where electricity, PC networks and the Internet are not available.
* Collaborative Visual Computing Laboratory at University of Cape Town, which will demonstrate a future learning environment that combines the use of handhelds with desktops and wireless technologies.
* African Centre of Crop Improvement at the University of KwaZulu-Natal, which will use handhelds for more effective data collection in the largest and most diverse crop-breeding programme for African food security.
* Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital, where nurses and doctors will use handhelds to access medical information.
* Nceduluntu Sanctuary Trust, which will use handhelds to support the medical treatment for HIV/AIDS-infected children and help with inventory and budget control.
Their projects will be featured in case studies to illustrate how handhelds can be used to help bridge the digital divide and address local needs.
"We were tremendously impressed with the standard of entries from across SA," says Carol Wright of the Economic Development and Tourism Directorate for the City of Cape Town and a member of the judging panel.
"The winning applicants had innovative ideas, which both harness new technologies to further the effectiveness of their organisations and will help to ultimately achieve important social and economic development goals. These projects are exciting and innovative applications of the use of ICT for development."
Share