Podcasts about frontlinesms

MLOps Coffee Sessions #68 with Chris Albon, Wikimedia MLOps co-hosted by Neal Lathia. // Abstract // Bio Chris spent over a decade applying statistical learning, artificial intelligence, and software engineering to political, social, and humanitarian efforts. He is the Director of Machine Learning at the Wikimedia Foundation. Previously, Chris was the Director of Data Science at Devoted Health, Director of Data Science at the Kenyan startup BRCK, cofounded the AI startup Yonder, created the data science podcast Partially Derivative, was the Director of Data Science at the humanitarian non-profit Ushahidi, and was the director of the low-resource technology governance project at FrontlineSMS. Chris also wrote Machine Learning For Python Cookbook (O'Reilly 2018) and created Machine Learning Flashcards. Chris earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Davis researching the quantitative impact of civil wars on health care systems. He earned a B.A. from the University of Miami, where he triple majored in political science, international studies, and religious studies. // Relevant Links --------------- ✌️Connect With Us ✌️ ------------- Join our slack community: https://go.mlops.community/slack Follow us on Twitter: @mlopscommunity Sign up for the next meetup: https://go.mlops.community/register Catch all episodes, Feature Store, Machine Learning Monitoring and Blogs: https://mlops.community/ Connect with Demetrios on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dpbrinkm/ Connect with Neal on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/nlathia/ Connect with Chris on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chrisralbon/

The ache for meaning and purpose can quite literally drive us to insane ends. Ask Ken Banks. His pursuit of meaningful work that makes an impact took him to a primate sanctuary in Nigeria, then teaching English in Finland among other pursuits. Along the way, he leveraged his technology talents to create a text-messaging platform for non-profit organizations in developing countries. That seemingly simple act has cascaded a wave of impact he could hardly imagine and is still humbled about today.Working on Purpose is broadcast live Wednesday's at 6PM ET.Working on Purpose TV Show is viewed on Talk 4 TV (www.talk4tv.com).Working on Purpose Radio Show is broadcast on W4CY Radio (www.w4cy.com) part of Talk 4 Radio (www.talk4radio.com) on the Talk 4 Media Network (www.talk4media.com).Working on Purpose Podcast is also available on Talk 4 Podcasting (www.talk4podcasting.com).

  Online Fundraising Platforms Face Fresh Scrutiny New scrutiny is being applied to the donation fundraising tactics of political fundraising platforms. After a New York Times expose highlighting potentially deceptive practices was released in April, fresh criticism has come in the form of an open inquiry being led by four democratic state attorneys general. The inquiry is into both the Republican platform WinRed and the Democratic platform ActBlue. Nonprofits, particularly those in the political and advocacy spaces, should watch this narrative closely as new rules may arise regarding how campaign-affiliated companies and organizations can procure online donations from the public. Read more ➝ FrontlineSMS Closes After 15 Years The professional SMS messaging service FrontlineSMS has announced that it will be closing. The service, which provided users with a primarily free platform to communicate via SMS, will continue to be available as a free, fully open-source software on Windows, Mac, and Linux. In an open letter, FrontlineSMS CEO writes that “our products have been continuously used by community groups, service providers, and national governments alike, reaching tens of thousands of people a year. Over the last 15 years, we've supported users in 200 countries around the world with primarily free tools and support. We've been part of peer-reviewed academic studies, ground-breaking journalism, and the transformational change of life-saving systems – both as subject and as service provider.” Read more ➝     Summary Black women push for racial equity at nonprofits Gates Foundation staff are 'freaking out' about the nonprofit's future as Bill and Melinda divorce, an insider reportedly said Attorney generals looking into online fundraising practices: reports How nonprofit leader Catherine Howarth got HSBC to swear off coal

  Online Fundraising Platforms Face Fresh Scrutiny New scrutiny is being applied to the donation fundraising tactics of political fundraising platforms. After a New York Times expose highlighting potentially deceptive practices was released in April, fresh criticism has come in the form of an open inquiry being led by four democratic state attorneys general. The inquiry is into both the Republican platform WinRed and the Democratic platform ActBlue. Nonprofits, particularly those in the political and advocacy spaces, should watch this narrative closely as new rules may arise regarding how campaign-affiliated companies and organizations can procure online donations from the public. Read more ➝ FrontlineSMS Closes After 15 Years The professional SMS messaging service FrontlineSMS has announced that it will be closing. The service, which provided users with a primarily free platform to communicate via SMS, will continue to be available as a free, fully open-source software on Windows, Mac, and Linux. In an open letter, FrontlineSMS CEO writes that “our products have been continuously used by community groups, service providers, and national governments alike, reaching tens of thousands of people a year. Over the last 15 years, we've supported users in 200 countries around the world with primarily free tools and support. We've been part of peer-reviewed academic studies, ground-breaking journalism, and the transformational change of life-saving systems – both as subject and as service provider.” Read more ➝     Summary Black women push for racial equity at nonprofits Gates Foundation staff are 'freaking out' about the nonprofit's future as Bill and Melinda divorce, an insider reportedly said Attorney generals looking into online fundraising practices: reports How nonprofit leader Catherine Howarth got HSBC to swear off coal

The digital transformation of humanitarian operations raises (at least) two existential issues: one, how do humanitarians preserve what is unique about their work amidst growing dependence on uncontrolled commercial partners; and two, how do humanitarians avoid being exploited for their qualified immunity? The answer is to make an implicit assumption in humanitarian law explicit: humanitarian organizations have a duty to integrity. As part of a growing debate around the humanitarian use of digital cash assistance, Sean Martin McDonald, CEO of FrontlineSMS and co-founder of Digital Public, highlights the importance of organizations' responsibility to ensure that partners operating under their license abide by their humanitarian duties.

Ken Banks built the first version of FrontlineSMS over 5 weeks while unemployed at the home of his in-laws. Just a few years later, it was in use by development and conservation organizations in more than half of the countries in the world. He's described himself as a "scrappy" man who enjoys building his own websites and living out of a camper van for two years. And yet the world knows him as an authority on mobile technology for positive social and environmental change, as an adventurer and National Geographic Emerging Explorer, and as someone who's brushed shoulders with and won the support of people as diverse as Desmond Tutu and Peter Gabriel.   In our conversation, Ken describes the unlikely beginnings of FrontlineSMS - including how little it was used in the first two years after it was built. He shares how he started out running a primate sanctuary in Nigeria, and his initial work in conservation before global health and development really entered his life. He shares the surprising chain of events that led him to specialise in mobile technology for positive social and environmental change. And he also opens up about the stress of running a global, mission-critical piece of software, as well as the challenges he's faced within the aid and development industry. Finally we talk about his move into the private sector in 2018, to work on digital identity with Yoti as its Head of Social Purpose.   To find out more, download the show notes at https://AidEvolved.com  Let us know what you think of this episode on Twitter (@AidEvolved) or by email (hello@AidEvolved.com)

This week I had the privilege of having a conversation with Ken Banks. Ken has spent over 25 years working in and around humanitarian aid. He is the founder of FrontlineSMS and now works for Yoti as their Head of Social Purpose. In this episode we talk about Yoti’s recent social purpose report, their Guardian council, and what he has been learning.(the first version of this episode had audio problems) 

Michelle Casbon is back in the host seat with Mark Mirchandani this week as we talk data science with Devoted Health Director of Data Science, Chris Albon. Chris talks with us about what it takes to be a data scientist at Devoted Health and how Devoted Health and machine learning are advancing the healthcare field. Later, Chris talks about the future of Devoted Health and how they plan to grow. They’re hiring! At Devoted Health, they emphasize knowledge, supporting a culture of not just machine learning but people learning as well. Questions are encouraged and assumptions are discouraged in a field where a tiny mistake can change the care a person receives. Because of this, their team members not only have a strong data science background, they also learn the specific nuances of the healthcare system in America, combined with knowledge of the legal and privacy regulations in that space. How did Chris go from Political Science Ph.D. to non-profit data science wizard? Listen in to find out his storied past. Chris Albon Chris Albon is the Director of Data Science at Devoted Health, using data science and machine learning to help fix America’s health care system. Previously, he was Chief Data Scientist at the Kenyan startup BRCK, cofounded the anti-fake news company New Knowledge, created the data science podcast Partially Derivative, led the data team at the humanitarian non-profit Ushahidi’s, and was the director of the low-resource technology governance project at FrontlineSMS. Chris also wrote Machine Learning For Python Cookbook (O’Reilly 2018) and created Machine Learning Flashcards. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Davis researching the quantitative impact of civil wars on health care systems. Chris earned a B.A. from the University of Miami, where he triple majored in political science, international studies, and religious studies. Cool things of the week How Itaú Unibanco built a CI/CD pipeline for ML using Kubeflow blog Why TPUs are so high-performance BFloat16: The secret to high performance on Cloud TPUs blog TPU Codelabs site Benchmarking TPU, GPU, and CPU Platforms for Deep Learning paper Machine Learning Flashcards site Interview Devoted Health site Devoted Health is hiring! site Ushahidi site FrontlineSMS site New Knowledge site Joel Grus: Fizz Buzz in TensorFlow site Snowflake site Periscope Data site Airflow site Kubernetes site Chris Albon’s Website site Partially Derivative podcast Partially Derivative Back Episodes podcast Question of the week Chris Albon To paraphrase: A computer program is said to learn if its performance at specific tasks improves with experience. To find out more, including the definition of a partial derivative, buy a pack of Chris’s flashcards. Who knows, they might help you land your next job. Where can you find us next? Michelle is planning the ML for Developers track for QCon SF on Nov. 13. Mark is staying in San Francisco and just launched two Beyond Your Bill videos: Organizing your GCP resources and Managing billing permissions. Sound Effect Attribution “Small Group Laugh 5” by Tim.Kahn of Freesound.org “Crowd Laugh” by Tom_Woysky of Freesound.org “Transformers Type SFX 2” by HykenFreak of Freesound.org “Approx 800 Laugh” by LoneMonk of Freesound.org “Bad Beep” by RicherLandTV of Freesound.org “C-ClassicalSuspense” by DuckSingle of Freesound.org

Ken Banks, Head of Social Impact at Yoti, developer of FrontlineSMS, and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer talks about the technology underpinning the emergence of digital identity, centralized versus decentralized systems and how tech has the potential to change our approach to identification. Find out more about Good ID here: https://www.good-id.org/en/ Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/goodid Brought to you by Omidyar Network, Caribou Digital and Unfold Stories.

I had an incredible time interviewing one of my personal heroes Ken Banks. He is the Founder of kiwanja.net and creator of messaging platform FrontlineSMS. He is a PopTech Fellow, a Tech Awards Laureate, an Ashoka Fellow and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, and has been internationally recognized for his technology-based work. In 2013 he was nominated for the TED Prize, and in 2015 Ken was appointed CARE International’s first Entrepreneur in Residence and is also a published author, with his first edited book, “The Rise of the Reluctant Innovator.” In today’s episode, we cover different topics including finding one’s purpose in life, the power of paying attention, starting an organization and much more! If you’re interested in social entrepreneurship or starting your own organization then you have to listen to this man! He has some of the most genuine and practical advice I have ever heard! TEN THINGS TO LOOK OUT FOR 1. Some of the lessons Ken learned from one of the lowest points in his life! 2. His initial reaction when he first got National Geographic explorers award 3. His friendship with the Nobel prize winner Desmond tutu 4. How can one find their purpose in life 5. Importance of being humble 6. Why he decided to create an app called “app for my children” 7. Advice for young entrepreneurs 8. Working with the U.K. Prime minister’s delegation to Africa 9. What does Kiwanja mean and what is he doing with the platform. 10. What does it mean to be a reluctant innovator! Ken’s Favorite Movie: The Green Mile Ken’s Favorite Books: 1. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens 2. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer Connect with Ken: Website: http://www.kiwanja.net/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=ken%20banks&src=typd Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kiwanja/?hl=en Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/ken.banks Connect with Shristi Website: limitlessgrit.com Email: limitlessgrit@gmail.com instagram: https://www.instagram.com/shristigajurel/?hl=en Twitter: https://twitter.com/search?q=shristi%20gajurel&src=typd Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/shristi.gajurel1

On September 4th 2015, SIMLab hosted a Brown Bag Lunch at the OpenGov Hub in DC, an informal session for colleagues in the technology and development community. Our panel explored the mobile money space from all perspectives: community-level implementation, programs, technology and international policy. We were delighted to be joined by Kay McGowen, Digital Finance Team Lead at USAID’s Global Development Lab; Leo Tobias, Technology Team Manager at the Grameen Foundation; Sean McDonald, CEO of FrontlineSMS and myself Kelly Church, Project Director of the Credit project at SIMLab with crafty moderation by Laura Walker McDonald, SIMLab’s CEO. The discussion is available for download as a podcast, and we expect the insights gained will be valuable for the international development and tech community for practitioners and beyond. Releasing the event as a podcast is an experiment in providing resources for the community that live on beyond the work itself - let us know what you think in the comments!

Ken Banks is the founder of kiwanja.net and creator of FrontlineSMS. He devotes himself to the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world. He has worked at the intersection of technology, anthropology, conservation and development for the past twenty years and, during that time, has lived and worked across the African continent. He is a PopTech Fellow, a Tech Awards Laureate, an Ashoka Fellow and a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, and has been internationally recognised for his technology-based work. In 2013 he was nominated for the TED Prize. Ken is also a published author, with his first edited book, “The Rise of the Reluctant Innovator”, released in late 2013. His latest project, Means of Exchange, looks at how everyday technologies can be used to democratize opportunities for economic self-sufficiency, rebuild local community and promote a return to local resource use.

Sean Martin McDonald is the CEO of FrontlineSMS. Frontline technologies is used by thousands of organizations to reach tens of millions of people, saving lives, improving healthcare and building inclusive societies. Frontline was named the #1 Technology NGO in the world and was listed by the Nominet Trust Social 100 in 2014.Sean is a Trustee of the Awesome Foundation DC and an affiliate with Harvard University's Berkman Center. Sean is an advisor to Digital Democracy, DoSomething.org, ECPAT USA, the Law Without Walls Program, TechChange, and UNDP. Sean is a lawyer, barred in New York. He also holds an M.A. in International Peace and Conflict Resolution from American University.

A presentation on the insights and challenges of the first year of the applied research pilot 'Africa's Voices' by CGHR Research Associate Dr Claudia Abreu Lopes, given during a seminar on the 'Africa's Voices' project.

How can we use technology to support sustainable development? In this university podcast, media expert Tim O’Reilly discusses notions of collective intelligence, man-machine symbiosis, and real-time feedback loops from sensors to provide a context for understanding the role of tools like FrontlineSMS, Ushahidi, Crowdflower, Samasource in powering the future. He considers Google’s autonomous vehicle and unpacks the technology behind it to provide deeper insight into where technology is taking us. O’Reilly delivered his remarks at the USRio+2.0 Conference hosted at the Stanford Graduate School of Business. https://ssir.org/podcasts/entry/technology_and_environmental_sustainability

A seminar discussion with the editor of (Sokari Ekine) and a contributor to (Ken Banks) a new edited book – SMS Uprising: Mobile Activism in Africa (Fahamu, 2009) – which is the first of its kind to explore how and the extent to which new communications technologies are changing public action in Africa, and the impact of this on governance and people’s well-being. Sokari Ekine is an activist with a multidisciplinary background in technology, education and human rights. She is the author of the blog Black Looks (www.blacklooks.org). Ken Banks is the founder of www.kiwanja.net and the developer of FrontlineSMS (www.FrontlineSMS.com). He specialises in the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world and previously lived and worked throughout Africa for 16 years. This talk is part of the Centre of Governance and Human Rights Events series.