主播大秀

Pokemon Go has brought augmented reality to the masses by allowing players to use it on mobile phones they already own. During the Ebola response, people accessed lifesaving information from an app they regularly used – WhatsApp. Drawing parallels between the two, Yvonne MacPherson argues that low-tech solutions, which take advantage of what people already have to hand, are often more appropriate than high-tech alternatives. 

This blog was originally published on . 

As the hugely popular augmented reality game app Pokemon Go excites techies and Luddites alike, it ought to be a reminder of where we are with digital health, and where we aren’t.

I was recently at a future-focused technology event in New York City where I spoke about how useful the instant messaging app WhatsApp was for sharing information and interacting with communities in West Africa during the Ebola crisis. WhatsApp is the most popular chat app in Africa, largely because it is easy to use and can offer a cheaper or free alternative to text messaging.

During the Ebola crisis in 2014-15, WhatsApp gave the 主播大秀 special dispensation to use it as a broadcast platform, lifting the limit for a broadcast group beyond its usual cap of 250 people. The 主播大秀 set up a subscriber-based Ebola service, posting images, text and audio content from the World Health Organization, the Centers for Disease Control and UNICEF to its 20,000 subscribers, most of whom were in West Africa. At 主播大秀 Media Action, the 主播大秀’s international development charity, we took this idea and made localised versions of the service and produced our own content.