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I did tech work and tech education in two developing countries so here is what think.

You should listen to some of the other posters and get your feet wet to see about volunteering in a disadvantage local community in any tech capacity. The developing world is gonna to be orders of magnitude worse than the first world ghetto in terms of resources and poorly executed or vaporware jobs done by predecessors. Also, most people up to the most high in a developing country are going view any type of computer professional as an expert in all IT skills so this local volunteering could help you learn to wear the hats. Check out http:idealist.org to get a local gig.

If you want to get a feel for what the computing environment is in a low resource country without reliable power or broadband, check out this white paper http://www.inveneo.org/2014/07.... The organization Inveneo does well-reputed work as a network and systems integration partner in third world countries. You can also look at the large organizations such as MSF, UN, Partners in Health, US-AID, CARE, VSO and try to apply to the IT area for a job or a volunteer. The paid jobs are going to weight past volunteer experience in a developing country pretty strongly.

But from you talked about, you are interested in the software side. Developing nations generally don't have good electrical power or networking so those type of professionals are more in need than software professionals. I think if you want to get job doing that a combination of any volunteer experience in a developing country, and a remote contribution to a major humanitarian open source project would be the way forward. Software projects to watch that receive attention in the global development scene are http://www.ushahidi.com/, Humanitarian Open Street Map Team, http://hot.openstreetmap.org/ and Open Medical Record System Open MRS. http://openmrs.org/

Ushahidi came out of Africa and it's awsome. There is talent somewhere! ushahidi.com

There are very good commercial reasons why open projects like Ushahidi and Sahana dominate the field, and why PR tokens from large private firms will always be just that.

More power to 'em, but if it costs a city from deploying a mature and well supported (not to mention free) platform like the two mentioned above, well fuck 'em instead - that's trading lives for PR.

The Open Source Framework ushahidi from http://ushahidi.com/ might just enable the App developer to do what he wants for his audience with the use of a link imnstead. While Apple may, or may not engage in filtering links in their browsers, other browsers on the Apple platform should be able to convey the information properly - Apple could off course begin filtering content in other ways on your/their devices - But don't give up just because Apple are misguided regarding the sharing of information. This is exactly the reason to drop coding for iPhone or Android specifically - Create your stuff in HTML5 (the living standard) and they'll have a harder time shutting you up.

Free & Open Source projects mentioned in the article:

Sahana: http://sahanafoundation.org/
  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sahana_FOSS_Disaster_Management_System

Ushahidi: http://www.ushahidi.com/products/ushahidi-platform
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ushahidi

Sahana is more for coordinating disaster relief, Ushahidi more for quickly getting the message out and visualizing where the hot spots are in a chaotic situation, be it unrest or disease breakout.
They compliment each other.

Just like big pharm ignoring tropical diseases, there's no money in it so big software has ignored this domain, the UN is too big and bureaucratized to move quickly, and so frankly it's up to us. PHP, Python, RDBMSs or crowd-sourcing expert? They can use your help, and it's a bit more productive use of your time than playing video games.

I'm going to quote a post of my own:

I assumed it would be a crowdsourcing approach like Ushahidi, where the public sends in reports of violence via mobile phone, usually simple text messaging. Initially developed for the post-election violence in Kenya, Wikipedia notes that it has also been used "to track anti-immigrant violence in South Africa... violence in eastern Congo... pharmacy stockouts in several East African countries... monitor elections in Mexico and India... [and by Al Jazeera] to collect eyewitness reports during the 2008-2009 Gaza War."

There is value in mapping violence. Even if you can't stop it, it is helpful to know when and where it is occuring, to help formulate a response -- and in many of these places, the simple act of documenting violence is itself revolutionary.

And if you can use existing infrastructure (like a quick text message on a mobile phone) then it's even better.

I assumed it would be a crowdsourcing approach like Ushahidi, where the public sends in reports of violence via mobile phone, usually simple text messaging. Initially developed for the post-election violence in Kenya, Wikipedia notes that it has also been used "to track anti-immigrant violence in South Africa... violence in eastern Congo... pharmacy stockouts in several East African countries... monitor elections in Mexico and India... [and by Al Jazeera] to collect eyewitness reports during the 2008-2009 Gaza War."

There is value in mapping violence. Even if you can't stop it, it is helpful to know when and where it is occuring, to help formulate a response -- and in many of these places, the simple act of documenting violence is itself revolutionary.

Both Sahana and Ushahidi are Free and Open Source projects, and like any non-profit org are always in desperate need of qualified helpers. Join the mailing lists, introduce yourself & explain what programming or other help you can bring, and I'm sure they'll point you to a list of 1000 waiting tickets in a bug tracker somewhere! It's a lot more productive use of your hobby time organizing resources & solving puzzles for real instead of sinking it into a video game ... !

2010 Summer of Code ideas links given as those are immediate needs the communities have prioritized.

http://www.sahanafoundation.org/
http://wiki.sahanafoundation.org/doku.php/foundation:sahana_gsoc10

http://www.ushahidi.com/
http://www.ushahidi.com/dev_team
http://wiki.ushahididev.com/
http://swift.ushahidi.com/extend/ideas/

fix a bug, save someone's life (or maybe 70 or 300.. it scales!) who wouldn't otherwise've made it... no joke. how often do you get that opportunity in your day to day? maybe we can't do f.all about leaking oil wells, but we do have the ability to do something here. which is pretty neat if you think about it.

Both Sahana and Ushahidi are Free and Open Source projects, and like any non-profit org are always in desperate need of qualified helpers. Join the mailing lists, introduce yourself & explain what programming or other help you can bring, and I'm sure they'll point you to a list of 1000 waiting tickets in a bug tracker somewhere! It's a lot more productive use of your hobby time organizing resources & solving puzzles for real instead of sinking it into a video game ... !

2010 Summer of Code ideas links given as those are immediate needs the communities have prioritized.

http://www.sahanafoundation.org/
http://wiki.sahanafoundation.org/doku.php/foundation:sahana_gsoc10

http://www.ushahidi.com/
http://www.ushahidi.com/dev_team
http://wiki.ushahididev.com/
http://swift.ushahidi.com/extend/ideas/

fix a bug, save someone's life (or maybe 70 or 300.. it scales!) who wouldn't otherwise've made it... no joke. how often do you get that opportunity in your day to day? maybe we can't do f.all about leaking oil wells, but we do have the ability to do something here. which is pretty neat if you think about it.

Both Sahana and Ushahidi are Free and Open Source projects, and like any non-profit org are always in desperate need of qualified helpers. Join the mailing lists, introduce yourself & explain what programming or other help you can bring, and I'm sure they'll point you to a list of 1000 waiting tickets in a bug tracker somewhere! It's a lot more productive use of your hobby time organizing resources & solving puzzles for real instead of sinking it into a video game ... !

2010 Summer of Code ideas links given as those are immediate needs the communities have prioritized.

http://www.sahanafoundation.org/
http://wiki.sahanafoundation.org/doku.php/foundation:sahana_gsoc10

http://www.ushahidi.com/
http://www.ushahidi.com/dev_team
http://wiki.ushahididev.com/
http://swift.ushahidi.com/extend/ideas/

fix a bug, save someone's life (or maybe 70 or 300.. it scales!) who wouldn't otherwise've made it... no joke. how often do you get that opportunity in your day to day? maybe we can't do f.all about leaking oil wells, but we do have the ability to do something here. which is pretty neat if you think about it.

I was centrally involved in the Haiti earthquake relief effort. One interesting open source app we, the State Department, the UN, Red Cross, US Marines, and others used was called Ushahidi, which is a crowd-sourced news & mapping tool. Within hours of the quake the good people at Ushahidi had set up an instance to track reports and direct relief efforts at http://haiti.ushahidi.com./

You could watch, real-time, as reports funneled into the map of people texting from inside collapsed buildings requesting evac, and see first-responders picking up on them. Once Digicel, Haiti's cellphone company, started pushing official messages about which shortcode to text help requests to, and also to distribute the locations of medical help, food, water, etc., then it really picked up steam.

It was the first time we had all seen anything like it. The Marines told us they were using it almost like a trouble-ticket system to route their emergency teams because it was the only actionable information they could get.

Not all have amateur radio licenses. Ushahidi can use devices you do not need licenses for (mobile phone SMS, email, web). Some goods links: http://github.com/ushahidi http://ushahidi.com/

/me likes :
"The beta version platform is now available as an open source application that others can download for free,..."

We just need to cheat in the annoying form at:
http://download.ushahidi.com/

Well that same form points directly to github.

/me likes :
"The beta version platform is now available as an open source application that others can download for free,..."

We just need to cheat in the annoying form at:
http://download.ushahidi.com/

• Inveneo. They are helping setting up a terrestrial wireless network. Because that is one of the things they do. http://www.inveneo.org/?q=haiti-response
• ushahidi is setting up and managing their crisis-reporting application here http://haiti.ushahidi.com/ more of what they do is here: http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2010/01/15/haiti-update/
• The missing persons registry is here: http://www.haitianquake.com/ (google took that one over, it seems)
• There is a CrisisCamp for techies going on in DC today. They need GIS experts & programmers specifically. If you are in the area, here are the details: http://ow.ly/WQDD
• The university of heidelberg (yup, not a company) has put up a routing service based on Openstreetmap data: http://openls.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/osm-haiti/
• There is more on what the OSM community has done here: http://www.opengeodata.org/2010/01/14/haiti-openstreetmap-response/

In short, you don't even have to go to Haiti to be a helpful techie.

• Inveneo. They are helping setting up a terrestrial wireless network. Because that is one of the things they do. http://www.inveneo.org/?q=haiti-response
• ushahidi is setting up and managing their crisis-reporting application here http://haiti.ushahidi.com/ more of what they do is here: http://blog.ushahidi.com/index.php/2010/01/15/haiti-update/
• The missing persons registry is here: http://www.haitianquake.com/ (google took that one over, it seems)
• There is a CrisisCamp for techies going on in DC today. They need GIS experts & programmers specifically. If you are in the area, here are the details: http://ow.ly/WQDD
• The university of heidelberg (yup, not a company) has put up a routing service based on Openstreetmap data: http://openls.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/osm-haiti/
• There is more on what the OSM community has done here: http://www.opengeodata.org/2010/01/14/haiti-openstreetmap-response/

In short, you don't even have to go to Haiti to be a helpful techie.

mobile is almost everywhere and will effectively be everywhere soon. it's actually a key ingredient to solving some of the challenges present in the developing world. FOSS is a big part too - such as the Ushahidi folks who are helping out in numerous ways with the situation in Haiti - from their base of operations in Nairobi.