The overarching goal of the Next Billion Network is to incubate, nurture and launch socially beneficial mobile technologies in real world networks as self-sustaining operations. In its two years of operation, we’ve succeeded in spinning off the following projects as independent ventures run jointly by NextLab alumni and local organizations in the developing world
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Assured Labor seeks to improve the lives of workers in developing countries by using mobile phones to match dependable workers with honest employers in Brazil. In Spring 2008, NextLabbers worked with Assured Labor executives and developed the technology that enables the Assured Labor service. Assured Labor then released its first beta on July 2008, and is now running as a for-profit company with expansion plans across Latin America. |
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The NextLab team collaborated with Centers for E-Health and Tele-Medicine in Southeast Asia to develops a mobile-linked web application that allows doctors to diagnose and recommend treatment for rural patients remotely using text, photo, audio, video, and other data collected by mobile phone. The MoCa Dispatch Server, a plugin of OpenMRS, is developed to handle the communication between mobile phone and OpenMRS server. MoCa is now a growing student-run open source movement, and is being launched Philippines in the Summer of 2009, and in Mexico in the Fall of 2009. |
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A runner-up at the mobile track of the MIT $100K Business Plan Contest, DINUBE was developed by NextLab students as a mobile-enabled, cloud-based payment and transaction platform targeted at the under-banked population that is fully interoperable with network carriers and financial institutions. It being prepared to launch as a for-profit startup in the Mexican market for the Fall of 2009. |
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In Spring 2008, NextLab students designed and developed a system that uses commodity mobile phones with Near Field Communication (NFC) capability (normally used for contactless payments and transit applications), for facilitating the tracking and care of patients in collaboration with Interactive Research and Development (IRD) in Karachi. Subsequently IRD adapted the system and integrated it into their larger system and deployed in collaboration with Nokia and the Hindus Hospital on-site in Pakistan during Dec 2008. In April, the project won “Best NFC Service of the Year 2009," and " Most Innovative NFC Research Project of the Year 2009" at the NFC Forum Global Competition 2009. |
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In January 2008 NextLab launched Disaster Management as a mobile communication platform that supports bi-directional broadcasting and data collection. It is now being used by Catholic Relief Services in India for disaster monitoring and in Vietnam for environment sensing. Unlike existing mobile systems that are proprietary or custom-developed, this technology creates a general, open toolset that can be leveraged across various scenarios from disaster management to environmental conservation in remote locations.
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