BSX to launch at SANGONeT conference

The launch of the global pilot of Betavine Social eXchange (BSX) will take place on 15 October 2009 at the 5th Annual SANGONeT “ICT for Civil Society” Conference in Johannesburg. BSX is funded by Vodafone Group Social Investment Fund and is a joint Vodafone/Vodacom initiative with a number of South African stakeholders to investigate the functionality and usability of the BSX initiative.

The idea is to create mobile solutions to solve social problems in a sustainable manner via an open mobile applications community. A key outcome of the 6-month pilot will be the assessment of the efficiency of BSX as a mechanism for sustainable distribution of mobile solutions.

“This initiative forms part of the Vodacom‘s drive for collaborative innovation and co-creation of solutions in the mobile industry. We are very involved and committed to social upliftment in South Africa and we believe BSX can contribute to sustainable development,” says Shameel Joosub, MD of Vodacom South Africa.

The SANGONeT 2009 event will focus on the relevance of social media tools to the South African NGO sector. “BSX is a powerful example of innovative collaboration between the mobile industry and organisations at the forefront of addressing society's development challenges. We are pleased that the pilot project will be implemented in South Africa given the country's dynamic mobile industry and vibrant NGO sector,” says David Barnard, executive director of SANGONeT.

For more information www.vodacominnovation.co.za or www.betavine.net.