An estimated half of all mobile phone users in Kenya use WhatsApp, an instant messaging platform that provides users an affordable way to send and receive text messages, photos, and other media at the one-to-one, one-to-many, many-to-one, or many-to-many levels. A mobile learning intervention aimed at strengthening supervisory support for community health workers (CHWs) in Kibera and Makueni, K...

Purpose – Instant messaging and e-mail are popular communication methods on college campuses. However, students’ perceptions of the two technologies vary greatly. This study seeks to investigate the differences between instant messaging and e-mail. Design/methodology/approach – A survey was given to 545 college students. Findings – Instant messaging is perceived as offering many advantages over...

Older instant messaging programs typically require some form of installation on the client machine, enabling forensic investigators to find a wealth of evidentiary artifacts. However, this paradigm is shifting as web-based instant messaging becomes more popular. Many traditional messaging clients (e.g., AOL Messenger, Yahoo! and MSN), can now be accessed using only a web browser. This presents ...

This research-in-progress paper studies the active and passive usage of mobile instant messaging (MIM) applications. Grounded on two-factor theory and three-factor theory, we propose the features of MIM applications influence the active/passive usage of MIM applications through users’ satisfaction and dissatisfaction. The proposed features are categorized into three factors: exciting factors wh...

This paper presents the results of an exploratory investigation into telecommunications practices and challenges among the Deaf in South Africa. Telecommunication products like cell phones, TTY’s, sMessage terminals, e-mail, fax messaging, instant messaging (IM) were some of the technologies investigated. The research shows that the Deaf considers IM as the most successful technology for both b...

Language skills are essential for education and economic development. Many countries (especially in Africa) have more than one official language and even more unofficial languages. Being able to express oneself effectively in the written word is required for tertiary education. Unfortunately, cell phones are often blamed for the degradation of language skills. There have been many studies blami...

In recent years, it has come to attention that governments have been doing mass surveillance of personal communications without the consent citizens. As a consequence these revelations, developers begun releasing new protocols for end-to-end encrypted conversations, extending and making popular old Off-the-Record protocol. New implementations such messaging appeared, several chat applications u...