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The Digital Agency for International Development

Entries by alan

Solar Diaries - Day 9 - Darkness

Started the day with a cloudy sky and just over 12 volts. The nights are drawing in and trying to read the monitor in a dark room is a strain on the eyes. I've been researching low power 12 volt LED lights...

By Alan Jackson on 02 October 2010

Solar Diaries - Day 7 & 8 - Deltas

When we do retrospectives we look at the "plusses" and what we'd like to change, the "deltas". It's a much more positive than "what went badly" which can turn in to an excuse to winge. In that spirit I thought I'd talk about some of the deltas of the solar power experiment.... nah, forget it, I'll just winge!

By Alan Jackson on 02 October 2010

The Solar Diaries - Day 4

It's the beginning of day four of my solar experiment and off to a good start. The sun is out this morning, bright blue skies, although the forecast is ...

By Alan Jackson on 16 September 2010

CrisisCamp Cambridge - #PakFloods

The next CrisisCamp work day in the UK is in Cambridge at Aptivate's offices in the Humanitarian Centre. For more details see http://wiki.crisiscommons.org/wiki/Cambridge

By Alan Jackson on 13 August 2010

The (ongoing) need for speed

13 years ago Jakob Nielsen wrote an important article stating that one of the most significant factors in web usability is speed. Now he has to say it again.

By Alan Jackson on 21 June 2010

R&D: Robots and Development

The Samfya Resource Centre is a telecentre (Internet cafe) run by young women in Samfya, Zambia for other local young women - a component of Camfed's "CAMA" network. As part of our ongoing support for the Samfya Resource Centre, we have sent them robots.

By Alan Jackson on 16 March 2010

Getting Ready for Crisis Camp London - Day 2

We're getting ready for the second Crisis Camp London day, this Saturday, at the London Knowledge Lab. Considering how quickly last Saturday was put together we had a great turn out. We're hoping for, and expecting, an even larger turn out this time. If you are technical (eg. an IT project manager, a coder, a user experience person) or have relief experience and want to help Crisis Camp London support Haiti, then please come along. More details and a link to the registration inside...

By Alan Jackson on 28 January 2010

When it comes to websites... small IS beautiful

There are two reasons why you should make your websites as small as possible. The first is usability. The second is global accessibility. Over the past 5 years the average web page has increased by 300%. Meanwhile, in developing country universities, we estimate the bandwidth available to an individual user will have increased by only 20-60% ...

By Alan Jackson on 09 July 2009