After the spring rush of chapter launches and a hectic week in Singapore for CommunicAsia, thanks to Skype for the groovy umbrella!, we are thrilled to see new chapter locations coming online this month in Detroit, Tampa Bay and Ramallah, see below.

As detailed by Levi Shapiro, Dr. Yahya Al-Salqan took charge to launch MoMo in Palestine:

The founder of Mobile Monday Palestine is Dr. Yahya Al-Salqan. After six years and nine patents, Yahya left Sun Microsystems in Silicon Valley to start Jaffa.net. “In Silicon Valley, activities like Mobile Monday are part of the essential infrastructure for entrepreneurship. It is important to create a similar structure here for allowing experts to exchange ideas and strengthen the industry,” he said.

 

Most would agree that the Paltel Group dominates all aspects of Palestinian telecommunications. Paltel Group includes Jawwal (wireless), Paltel (fixed) and Hadara (ISP). Jawwal was the main sponsor for last night’s Mobile Monday event. When asked about mobile entrepreneurship, Ammar Aker, CEO of Paltel Group, cites his own organization. “Jawwal is a company of young people. The average age here is 28 years old. We are creating a core group of determined young professionals with the skills to lead. By the way, one third of this group is women.”

The mobile sector in Palestine is in transition. Programs like Mobile Monday, PICTI and the Middle East Venture Capital Fund are a helpful resource. Of course, each start-up must face its own unique challenges, as in the Arab proverb: “Every head has its own headache.”

Our heartiest congrats to everyone involved with this excellent effort! We are also proud to note this recent awards event, in which MoMo was an active participant.

mBillionth Accelerates Mobile Development and Innovation in South Asia

In keeping with the growing mobile boom in Asia, the Digital Empowerment Foundation along with the IT ministries of India and Sri Lanka recently hosted the first ever mBillionth Awards in New Delhi.

In June this year, over a dozen jurors met in Colombo and spent three days going through 165 nominations from across South Asia. A one-day conference was also held that week in Sri Lanka, which featured speakers including Jari Tammisto, CEO of Mobile Monday. Participating countries in the awards included Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.

Awards were given to mobile applications and services in 10 categories: m-governance, m-inclusion, m-news and journalism, m-education, m-entertainment, m-tourism, m-business, m-health, m-environment and m-heritage. The awards were announced at a day-long seminar and evening ceremony in New Delhi on July 23, drawing over 400 attendees. Review the full list of Winners Here.

Osama Manzar, founder of the mBillionth Awards and chairman of the Digital Empowerment Foundation, said the awards have a unique multi-stakeholder eco-system, which brings together government, private sector and civil society initiatives in mobile development. Mobile Monday was also a community partner for the inaugural awards.

“Financial inclusion via mobiles is a big trend in South Asia, and governments should do more to get involved. There needs to be much more work also in the use of mobiles for education,” observed Manzar. “Within South Asia, Sri Lanka leads in mobile teledensity. But India may have more mobile innovations due to the need to struggle with dozens of languages, hundreds of different cultures, and large economic divides,” he added.

People in South Asia are hungry for good content. Mobiles can fill in this gap, observed Peter Bruck, Chairman of World Summit Awards Mobile. The need of the hour is socionomics – economic activity with social inclusion, summed up Vishwanath Reddy, fonder of IMImobile. “No device has gripped the human mind as much as the mobile phone,” observed N. Ravi Shankar, Joint Secretary at DIT and CEO of the National Internet Exchange of India.

Ananya Raihan, director of D.Net in Bangladesh, called for improved relationships between carriers and content developers. Kunal Bajaj, partner at Analysys Mason, cautioned that discovery of mobile services remains a challenge for end users. Mobiles have flattened the earth, said Sivakumar Ramamurthy, managing director for Intel (South Asia). The next killer applications for mobiles may come not from a corporate giant but a garage developer, predicted Reshan Dewapura, COO of Sri Lankas ICT Agency. ICTs will be a key driver of economies in our region, he added.

Dr. Madanmohan Rao @madan



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What a rush it’s been – spring is in the air – as MoMo is pleased to welcome new members from Algeria, Pakistan and Sri Lanka to the global family.

The good folks at COMSATS Institute of Technology (CIIT) in Pakistan put together a fantastic launch event in Islamabad on April 19, marking the 100th MoMo Chapter location. With well over 300 people in the Marriott conference center gathered for the festivities, including Ambassadors and Ministers, the gala was certainly top-rate.

However, proving that ‘the cloud’ is not always our friend, Jari Tammisto was unable to bribe FinnAir to fly through the volcano and was therefore forced to make a spirited congrats speech – Via Skype – on the big screens instead. Making the incredible journey on behalf of MoMo Global; Mikki Jang did a truely Super job with the media, and on the evening panel discussions, while chapter founders Teemu Kiijarvi from Johannesburg and Lars Cosh-Ishii from Tokyo were in continuous demand to describe their operational experiences and explain the “Meaning of MoMo” to eager and inquisitive audiences.

The news was covered by most major media (online Here and Here) noting the local chapter website is just coming together. Massive Thanks to the kind support from so many players – including Ericsson and Nokia for their generous sponsorship, along with the tireless efforts of Reliplay, Cybercom Media and Riddes – our Hearty Congrats to All involved!

Later the same week, on 23 April, the local team in Colombo – pictured above – got rolling with an afternoon presser prior to the sky-lounge evening function. Inspiring keynotes were delivered by Reshan Dewapura, CEO of the ICT Agency, and several of the main organizing partners, followed by yet another Skype video (damn that cloud) from Jari and the traditional candle lighting ceremony.

MoMo Global was represented by Dr. Madan Rao from India, above, while Teemu and Lars were thrilled to meet the Really Great profs and students from the Mobile Labs at the University of Moratuwa.

Several daily news clips noted the launch (see Here and Here) and the local chapter website is coming up Here. With no less than eight partner companies leading the charge, and valuable support from the Centre of Excellence for Telco and Mobile at SLASSCOM, we are certain the future is bright for MoMo activities on that beautiful island, full of talented and energetic people, off the tip of India.

On May 10 Mobile Monday splashed into Algeria, as the inauguration of Mobile Monday Algiers was held on the 10th of May in presence of the Algerian Minister in charge of ICT, his excellence Hamid Bessalah, at the Palais de la Culture during the opening session of MED-IT. Jari Tammisto was – there! – presented as a “Guest of Honour” to address the delegates and welcome North Africa into the MoMo family. Several media links Here and Here. Algeria Je Taime!

Going forward, we have new teams coming together in locations ranging from Palestine to Pasadena and Serbia to Tampa. If you’re interested to get involved – by all means – Drop Us a Note Anytime!