Please join us for the next Technical Meeting of the Open Mobile Consortium Working Group. It will be held July 1 and 2 at MIT, in Cambridge, MA/USA. The Technical Meeting will be focused on extending functionality to OMC tools. We have identified specific challenges outlined below but are hoping to hear from you as well as to what you would like to see addressed.

Here are some challenges we came up with/would like to see:

1. Create Library for RapidSMS to accept a JavaRosa XForm
2. Add RapidAndroid to ODK
3. Allow Android (either through ODK or RapidAndroid) to work as a backend for RapidSMS (via USB and/or http)
4. Allow RapidSMS to repost SMS to InSTEDD apps (any one of them)
5. Submit ODK xform to RapidSMS or InSTEDD back-end
6. Mesh4x ODK and JavaRosa with the same library to RapidSMS over SMS
7. Add robust Spomc thin client to relay SMS messages to a RapidSMS server in case the Internet is down.

Below is a registration form to let us know whether you can come, vote on the above challenges, and suggest your own. We will have remote participation so please respond even if you are not able to come in person. However, we would to have you (and feed you) if you are!

Hope to see you in July in Cambridge.

Erik Hersman (Ushahidi), Henrietta H. Fore (USAID Administrator) and Kirsten Bokenkamp (RapidSMS Malawi)

Columbia University and UNICEF received first-prize in the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID)’s “Development 2.0 Challenge” for an innovative system designed to adapt commonly accessible technology to better monitor the health and nutritional status of children in Malawi.

“This is a perfect example of UNICEF’s vision of bringing together experts from around the world and from diverse fields such as academia, private sector and civil society. The aim is to leverage this global knowledge and create solutions which help achieve lasting benefits for children,” says Dr. Sharad Sapra, Director of UNICEF’s Division of Communication.