Monthly Archives: August 2010

Older Adults growing on Social Networks

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Over the past year we’ve seen an increase in interest from community members who are keen to be active on Social Networking sites. The Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs) have been running Social Media programmes for adults over the past 2 years and this year they’ve experienced high volumes of participants in all their classes. The interesting fact about this is that the members who were excited about Social networking were those who are 50+ and this is supports the research done by Pew Internet. According to a study by Mary Madden, Senior Research Specialist:


“Social networking use among internet users ages 50 and older has nearly doubled—from 22% to 42% over the past year. While social media use has grown dramatically across all age groups, older users have been especially enthusiastic over the past year about embracing new networking tools. Although email continues to be the primary way that older users maintain contact with friends, families and colleagues, many users now rely on social network platforms to help manage their daily communications—sharing links, photos, videos, news and status updates with a growing network of contacts.

Half (47%) of internet users ages 50-64 and one in four (26%) users age 65 and older now use social networking sites.
Half of online adults ages 50-64 and one in four wired seniors now count themselves among the Facebooking and LinkedIn masses. That’s up from just 25% of online adults ages 50-64 and 13% of those ages 65 and older who reported social networking use one year ago in a survey conducted in April 2009. Young adult internet users ages 18-29 continue to be the heaviest users of social networking sites like Facebook and LinkedIn, with 86% saying they use the sites. However, over the past year, their growth paled in comparison with the gains made by older users. Between April 2009 and May 2010, internet users ages 50-64 who said they use a social networking site like MySpace, Facebook or LinkedIn grew 88% and those ages 65 and older grew 100% in their adoption of the sites, compared with a growth rate of 13% for those ages 18-29. (See image below)”

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The full report can be downloaded here.

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MGeos: Mobile GeoService with low-end phones

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One of the exciting partnerships for our company MoVigo Technologies is the partnership with a innovative Mobile Company in Finland Pajat who is the creators of a Mobile GeoService application focused on affordable GPS enabled phones. Some of the key features of MGeos are:

* define program specific point-of-interests (POIs), routes and areas with associated data to be collected
* data can be of multiple types: text, numbers, single and multichoice alternatives, conditional subquestions
* capture pictures to be included for POIs
* collect data with affordable mobile phones with GPS and camera
* upload data directly to a central database over the cellular network or via an internet connected computer
* edit existing data in the mobile device during follow-up visits
* back-office reporting and analysis
* visualize the collected data in different ways

We will keep you updated about future developments of MGeos.

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The Reconstructed 2010

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We’ve started our latest Reconstructed class where we will take men and women from the local community on the lifechanging journey of Social Media. The class will be managed by the ex-Reconstructed team of 2008 and 2009. Some of the topics that will be covered in the evening sessions are:

- Blogging
- Micro-Blogging
- File-Sharing sites
- Location-based services
- Instant Messaging
- Using Social Media for Social Change


We are looking forward seeing how the future graduates of 2010 will embrace the technology in making a difference in the lives of others.

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JamiiX on the BBC

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Yesterday was another great day for the RLabs and JamiiX teams as we had a guest appearance on the BBC Digital Planet Show. It was an opportunity to share about the launch of JamiiX in South Africa and Europe as well as discussing the current developments with the Reconstructed Living Lab (RLabs). Thanks to Digital Planet team for this opportunity and the show can listened here.

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Introducing RLabs Portugal

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The last few weeks I’ve been to Europe and what an interesting journey it has been. I was representing RLabs in Portugal at the Annual International School of Digital Transformation in Porto, Portugal and the week was an opportunity to learn from experts and meet incredible people from all over the world. However, the highlight of the trip to Portugal was the meeting with an amazing group of people who have a heart to reconstruct their communities using innovation and technology.

During the week we had a number of discussions and meetings and it is with great excitement that I would like to introduce the world to our FIRST RLabs Social Franchise called RLabs Portugal. The RLabs Portugal initiative will be launched soon in Porto and at a later stage expanded to Lisbon. Over the next few weeks we will share more about the team and the projects in Portugal. As we celebrate the announcement of RLabs Portugal today you can follow them on Twitter for more updates.

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From the Cape Flats to Europe

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The second leg of the JamiiX World Tour was Helsinki, Finland where it would be the first time JamiiX will be made available to Europe. JamiiX is a Web 2.0 technology that manages and aggregates conversations via (Mobile) Instant Messengers and Social Networks in a central place. The story of JamiiX is that it is the first Web 2.0 technology conceived and developed on the “notorious” Cape Flats in the Western Cape, South Africa.

This European launch of JamiiX was a follow up of the Cape Town event a few weeks ago. With guests from various industries and technology companies including (Nokia, Mobile Brain Bank) including our hosts and partners (Pajat). The event was held at a stunning venue the Royal Ravintola Klub and Terrace where we welcomed the guests with some great South African tunes and Cape Town atmosphere.

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The event was co-hosted by Aalto University and sponsored by SAFIPA. The evening was an opportunity to share the history of JamiiX and the people behind it as well as share some key points about JamiiX:

1. It is currently using the FREEmium model.
2. It is a distributed system to manage mulitple conversations via web
3. It is easy to register
4. It is hosted on the Cloud and make use of the Software as a Service (SaaS) model
5. JamiiX eXchanges have special features that was on demo to the crowd
6. Push Technology and conversation management tool is changing the way people will manage conversations
7. Introduction to the JamiiX Open API
8. JamiiX as Contact Centre 2.0
9. JamiiX on mobile

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The partner in Europe was also revealed at the launch event with lots of interest from various sectors. The guests at the launch were able to play and test JamiiX after the presentation and Q&A session. Overall the JamiiX technology was very well received with possible contacts and clients to be revealed soon. Thank you to everyone who attended and Helsinki for opening the JamiiX doors to Europe. This adventure is also a testimony that innovations from the dusty streets of Africa can have a global impact. Well done to everyone at RLabs and the community who are the reason for celebrating. Next part of the journey will be in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

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