I recently filmed this interview with Vishal Gondal, GOD-in-chief of Indiagames ltd, during my time at TED global in Oxford.

In the interview, Gondal discusses e local gaming industry, highlighting that in India, the biggest gaming platform is not the PC, nor gaming consoles…but the mobile phone! With 700 million mobile phone subscribers in India, a large portion of which are using their handsets to download games, this is no small achievement.

With a surge in the purchase of netbooks and lower-end PCs, Facebook gaming is also starting to take off in India.

To find out more about gaming trends in India, check out the interview above.

We recently came across Vodafone’s World of Difference International competition on Facebook, which gives eight people the opportunity to work abroad with a charity of their choice for 12 months.

Finalists were invited to submit a short film on the work they would like to do and Facebook users can then select the finalist of their choice to go on and take up one of the eight places.

At first we were quite enthusiastic about selecting one of the winners via Facebook – There are currently four finalists and two places left! However, all of them are incredibly enthusiastic about their work and all of the programs they want to be involved with are absolutely vital!

This got us thinking and we decided to take a look at Vodafone’s annual report for the last fiscal year…£44.5 billion! with 8.4% growth! And they’re asking users to choose between which two (out of four) charities should receive a boost. Personally, we think that all four candidates should be sent on placements…It’s really not going to leave a dent in Vodafone’s budget!

I recently came across this fantastic, interactive campaign by UNICEF.

A vending machine was placed in a busy US street offering consumers the opportunity to purchase a bottle of dirty “drinking water” for just US$1! The idea behind the vending machine was to create a novel way to raise money for UNICEF’s clean drinking water campaign, whilst involving supporters and educating them on the impact of contaminated drinking water in developing countries (and that a US$1 donation could provide a child with clean drinking water for 40 days!).

Not only did this great example of social trysumerism help to raise funds for the cause, either through a 1 dollar donation straight to the “vending machine” or via SMS, but also got potential supporters directly involved in the organization’s work right there and then on the street! Great, great idea!

During my recent trip to Johannesburg, I had the opportunity to meet Duane Raymond, the Head of New Media for the One goal campaign.

The campaign aims to get 72 million children who are currently not receiving an education, into school. In his interview, Duene discuss both the mobile and online tactics used to encourage supporters to join the campaign. These include celebrity endorsements online, widgets, SMS messaging.

According to Duene, the 1 goal campaign will also encourage its supporters to participate directly in actions themselves. This could include sending “yellow cards” to world leaders.

Towards the end of the interview, Raymond talks a little bit about his e-campaigning forum, described as the G20 of e-campaigning. This brings together leaders from the worlds of new-media and online campaigning to share ideas. To find out more, check out my interview!

A recent article published in ABC news has revealed the development of new software that will enable mobile phones to function in areas where there is no reception whatsoever!

The Australian researchers, at Flinders University, behind this new software, which has already been tested in the South Australian desert, assure that mobile phones will now be able to work anywhere, potentially helping to save lives in times of disaster.

According to the head of the project, Dr Paul Gardner-Stephen, the new software incorporates a compact version of a mobile phone tower into the device itself!

“With Haiti what was actually observed was that their mobile phone network and their landline phone network was essentially knocked out for the first 48 hours after the earthquake,” he said.

“The vast majority of the response to a disaster is actually from the local people there, so if we can provide them with ease of communications as soon as possible after the earthquake, not 48 hours, not 72 hours but potentially minutes after a disaster, then we can help them to start rescuing people from rubble and generally rebuilding, maintaining law and order.”

I recently came across yet another example of 2010 World Cup innovation – this time from Fifa itself!

This latest feature, found in the statistics area of the Fifa website, enables journalists and enthusiasts alike to track every player in the world cup using a “heat map”.

The heat map shows the areas of the pitch that each player covers during the match, tracking their movements when the ball is in play. The pitch is divided into 600 cells, and each cell lights up when the player enters that part of the field.

Not only does this provide the statistics section with a great visual feature, but the heat map also serves as an excellent example of how technological innovation can be used for, well, almost anything!

1 goal campaign is, by far, the best social campaign to be taking place throughout the 2010 World Cup.
Their objective: “Education for All and to call on world leaders to provide education for 72 million children worldwide by 2015″

1GOAL is a campaign seizing the power of football to ensure that education for all is a lasting impact of the 2010 FIFA World Cup. Raising our voices all over the world we believe that, together, we can make education a reality for the millions of boys and girls who remain out of school.

While in Johannesburg in South Africa, I was fortunate enough to have dinner with part of 1GOAL’s Spanish team based there and Duane Raymond, Head of new media at 1goal shared this excellent tool with me – the widget generator.

To check it out, go to http://widget.join1goal.org Select the size of the widget you require, choose your favourite celebrity or football player and voila you have your code. Just copy and paste this code into your website or blog to support this campaign.

Check back here soon to watch my interview with Duane that I recorded with my Flip. And don’t forget to sign-up for the 1 goal campaign right now on my blog.

Write the headline, the latest interactive phenomenon by Nike, is causing a stir during World Cup festivities in Johannesburg, showing just what an impact this kind of technology can have on the public.

The installation, which is almost half the size of an entire football pitch, enables World Cup fans to post messages of support to their favourite World Cup player – using Twitter, QQ (a chat program from China) and Mxit (a South African instant messaging service).

The message of support is then displayed on the side of Johannesburg’s Southern Life Centre building – the fourth tallest building in the city!

The messages are displayed for 12 hours each night – from 6pm to 6am and can be seen from a distance of about 2.5km. Users are notified if their message is chosen for selection via their social media of choice…showing them their message as it is projected!

For more information about how to get involved in this interactive, World cup program, search for the Write the Headline application on Facebook, or tweet your message of support for a player using #NikeFuture.

I am currently in South Africa working for Greenpeace International and recently had the chance to experience Jericho, a rural community just 3 hours away from Johannesburg. Greenpeace South Africa is playing a different World Cup there, a solar World Cup. In Jericho, people have been given the opportunity to watch the matches on a huge screen powered by solar energy. Over 600 people have taken this opportunity to watch the crucial matches of Bafana Bafana (a term of endearment meaning “the boys”) – South Africa’s national football team.
I recorded this interview with “FIFA’s alternative CEO” ! This project is an innovative way to transmit such an environmental message, driven by the creativity and hard work of Greenpeace South Africa.
Ayoba !!!

I’m travelling to Africa this week in order to work with a client on mobile projects in the continent and thought that now would be a great time to post an interview I filmed during the 2010 World Mobile Congress last February.

The interview is with Filip Nilsson, Regional Executive at Fundamo, a mobile financial services enterprise.

During the interview, Nilsson confirms that the biggest users of mobile banking are indeed people in developing countries. Africa is currently the highest-ranking continent for using these services – In 2008 alone, around US$ 2 billion was processed via Fundamo’s mobile banking facility, providing “mobile wallets” for over 2 million members that wouldn’t otherwise have access to banking services.

For more information, check out my video!