Our domain got spoofed. The first indication was a ton of auto-responders in the past week that all got delivered to our catch-all email account. Most of these auto-responders were supposedly in response to our emails. But looking at the message header revealed a ton of emails with our domain name but unknown user names. TerimaddoxSilver@appropriateit.org, JennaeconometricGalindo@appropriateit.org, HenriettasuperstitiousLin@appropriateit.org, and so on and so forth. This is just a sample. We had 70+ such unknown users on one single day.

Setting up a Sender Policy Framework (SPF) record is one way to prevent domain spoofing.

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PC World has an enlightening article from Kiwanja’s Ken Banks about the growing disconnect between mobile applications envisioned for development and the realities on the ground.

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A while ago Google’s Android Developer’s Challenge announced the first round of winners for creating cool mobile applications. The competition elicited 1,788 submissions, of which a panel of judges picked 50 winners who each won a $25,000 award.

Reviewing the Top 50 mobile applications slideshow (pdf) gives us a good sense of the reach of mobile applications in the future and how the NGO sector has and can continue to benefit from these developments.

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Appropriate IT sponsors the Information & Communication Technologies for International Development (ICT4ID) learning network. June’s ICT4ID meetup topic was Technology Transformations for the Base of the Pyramid (BoP). A few additional research resources on the topic:

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Courtesy of Paul Lamb’s Download Divide over at Cool and Conscientious Ning network, a link to an article lamenting how far South Africa and Africa have fallen behind on the digital frontiers, using Firefox download statistics as proof.

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What: Flash application builder that provides a quick way to create a dynamic widget. We used it to create a partnership badge for Women’s Learning Partnership.

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As part of the Sustainability Development Network week from Feb 19-29, World Bank had an educational and inspiring seminar on how ICTs can play a role in the economic empowerment of women. Yeah, OK, I am probably biased because the event incorporates three of my favorite areas – ICT, women, economic empowerment. But it really was all that and more.

Lots of real-world examples and case studies from all over world were presented at the seminar. Here is my brain (and link) dump from the event.

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A benefit-feasibility quadrant from the December 2007 working paper on “Going Wireless: Dialing for Development. How Mobile Devices are Transforming Economic Development at the Base of the Pyramid” by David Lehr, Acumen Fund.

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Catholic Relief Services (CRS)

The Monitoring & Evaluation (M&E) team at Catholic Relief Services (CRS), a humanitarian relief agency headquartered in Baltimore, had been collecting and compiling an impressive array of digital resources with the goal of creating an M&E Digital Library. The collection included articles, bibliographies, checklists, guides, surveys, and training materials in a variety of formats from PDFs to documents and presentations.

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Next up…

Photo Blog on National Institute for Training of Women Trainers in Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for Social Change in Beirut, Lebanon. Convened by Women’s Learning Partnership (WLP) and Collective for Research and Training on Development-Action. Facilitated by Yours Truly.

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