TECHNOLOGY: IRINs pick of the year - 2010

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NAIROBI, 21 December 2010 (IRIN) - It has been a big year for the uptake of new online technologies in emergencies, especially those using mobile money, text messaging (SMS), online mapping and crowd-sourcing. We have also spotted a number of interesting, off-beat and innovative science and technology developments. Here is a round-up of the year's most intriguing and important humanitarian technology articles from IRIN. Is the humanitarian community ready or able to take up the potential of crowd-sourcing? http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=89735 There are so many mobile health initiatives, we rounded up a few of them in December: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=91287 Mobile-phone cameras and barcodes are being used in a Kenyan scheme to insure farmers' purchases of fertilizer against bad weather. Payouts are made by mobile money: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=88327 Delayed HIV test results can complicate treatment. In remote areas of Mozambique, results are being returned from the laboratory by mobile networks using SMS printers: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90868 After several false starts, a vaginal gel (or microbicide) to help protect against HIV infection showed promise in trials in South Africa: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=89895 Magnetic resonance sounding is being used to search for underground water in arid eastern Chad: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=89359 Sugar glassification may reduce the need to refrigerate vaccines: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=88159 Could a bio-control method - a "good mould" - reduce poisoning by aflatoxin? http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=89390 Sanitary pads made from papyrus in Uganda bolster refugee women's dignity: http://www.irinnews.org/report.aspx?ReportID=88359 Kenya's record in pioneering mobile-powered civic activism continued with two systems using SMS to monitor its referendum vote: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90050 Genetically-modified mosquitoes are soon to be released in the wild in trials in Asia: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportID=90959 In September, a two-hour TB test was announced, revolutionizing TB testing, later approved by WHO in December: http://www.irinnews.org/Report.aspx?ReportId=90377 bp/mw © IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org