Testing can be tasty

One of the things I love about what I do is the enormous variety of projects and challenges we get to sink our teeth into. Normally, I would use such a turn of phrase entirely metaphorically – except in the case of our launch of the new Debonairs Pizza online ordering system.

Although not directly involved in the project beyond some high level discussions, it has been a pleasure for me to assist in its testing. The new system allows customers to browse a store’s menu, create an order and place it directly with their chosen store – all from the comfort of their PC or mobile phone. At the moment, payment is cash only with the facility for credit card payments to be launched soon.

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Why not SMS in Africa?

I read an interesting post from Steve Song earlier entitled “Why SMS in Africa” which outlines why SMS will remain relevant in the African context for some time to come. I agree with Steve that both IP and non-IP technologies should be considered but want to elaborate on the challenges SMS-based service face.

Naturally, through our work on Mobile Researcher and Mobenzi, we’ve had a lot of technology decisions to make along the way. It goes without saying (although I’ll say it anyway) that I do not believe in a “one technology fits all approach”. SMS is obviously great for ad hoc, instant communication and a range of other communication-oriented tasks. But it falls down in a lot of other, more complex (and sometimes more valuable) scenarios.

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Looking back at 2009

Being the first day of 2010 and with the prospect of returning to work (full time) on Monday, I thought it was a good opportunity to jot down a quick post to reflect on the ups, downs, successes and challenges of the year that has been. (more)

Announcing Mobenzi

For some time, we’ve had an ambition to leverage the platform provided by Mobile Researcher to do more than simply collect data. We felt that the ability for ordinary mobile phone users to download and use the mobile application provided a great opportunity to involve them in something significant. (more)