Press on Caktus Group

Caktus Recognized as Top Web Development Company in Raleigh

Tue, 24 Apr 2018 13:00:00 +0000

Since Caktus’ founding in 2007, we have dedicated ourselves to growing sharp web apps the right way. The tenets of our Success Model drive us to focus on strategic partnerships, prioritize the most valuable features, develop for scalability, and recruit a sharp team. We’re pleased and honored that this focus on doing things right has been recognized by leading review website Clutch.

Presidential debate questions influenced by open source platform

Tue, 25 Oct 2016 18:40:02 +0000

During the past two presidential debates, moderators from ABC and Fox asked candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump voter-submitted questions from PresidentialOpenQuestions.com. The site, created by the bipartisan Open Debate Coalition (ODC) with the support of Caktus Group, is built on top of the open source Django web framework.

The Journal of Medical Internet Research Features Epic Allies Phase 1 Study Results

Thu, 16 Jun 2016 12:00:00 +0000

The Journal of Medical Internet Research recently published “Epic Allies: Development of a Gaming App to Improve Antiretroviral Therapy Adherence Among Young HIV-Positive Men Who Have Sex With Men”. Epic Allies, initially funded by a federal Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant, represents a partnership between Caktus, UNC’s Institute of Global Health and Infection Diseases, and Duke Global Health Institute.

Florida Open Debate Platform Receives National Attention (The Atlantic, USA Today, Engadget)

Tue, 03 May 2016 12:00:00 +0000

Several national publications have featured the Florida Open Debate platform, including USA Today, Engadget, and The Atlantic. Caktus helped develop the Django-based platform on behalf of the Open Debate Coalition (ODC) in advance of the nation’s first-ever open Senate debate held in Florida on April 25th. The site enabled citizens to submit debate questions as well as vote on which questions mattered most to them. Moderators then used the thirty most popular questions from the site to structure the debate between Florida Senate candidates David Jolly (R) and Alan Grayson (D). According to *The Atlantic, *more than 400,000 votes were submitted by users on the site, including more than 84,000 from Florida voters.

Caktus CTO Colin Copeland Helps Launch Open Data Policing Website

Thu, 17 Dec 2015 13:50:11 +0000

Today, at Caktus headquarters, CTO and co-founder of Caktus Colin Copeland will stand at a press conference along with activists, police representatives, and elected officials to announce the launch of OpenDataPolicingNC.com. The first site of its kind, OpenDataPolicingNC.com draws on public records to publish up-to-date stop, search, and use-of-force data—broken down by race and ethnicity—for every police department and officer in the state of North Carolina. The volunteer effort, led by The Southern Coalition for Social Justice (SCSJ) and technical leadership by Colin, includes approximately 20 million anonymized data points from 15 years of NC traffic stop data.

Identifying Racial Bias in Policing with a Data-driven App

Fri, 16 Oct 2015 21:16:16 +0000

Recently, Caktus co-founder Colin Copeland spoke about the creation of a web app that analyzes North Carolina traffic stop data to identify racial bias during the Code for America 2015 Summit. The website allows both police departments and community members to visualize a dataset of more than 18 million stops statewide. Colin spoke with Ian Mance, the originator of the app idea and staff attorney with the Southern Coalition for Social Justice. Together with fellow community members, Andy Shapiro and Dylan Young, they used Django, an open source web framework, to make policing data more accessible.

Colin Copeland to Speak on Police Data and Racial Bias at Code for America Summit

Tue, 29 Sep 2015 17:33:09 +0000

This Thursday, Colin Copeland, CTO and Caktus Group Co-founder, will be co-presenting “Case Study from North Carolina: Identifying Racial Bias in Policing Practices” during the prestigious 2015 Code for America Summit in Oakland, CA. This invite-only event joins technologists, activists, and officials ranging from mayors to White House officials to discuss technology’s role in civic participation.

Stanford Social Innovation Review Highlights Caktus' Work in Libya

Fri, 12 Jun 2015 18:43:50 +0000

The Stanford Social Innovation Review recently featured Caktus in “Text the Vote” in Suzie Boss’ “What’s Next: New Approaches to Social Change” column. It describes how our team of developers built the world’s first SMS voter registration system in Libya using RapidSMS.

Marketplace Radio Highlights How Service Info App Helps 1.5 Million Syrian Refugees

Tue, 28 Apr 2015 18:51:07 +0000

Image Courtesy of UK Department for International Development [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons

Recently, one of our projects, Service Info, received national attention thanks to a Marketplace interview. American Public Media’s Kai Ryssdal spoke with International Rescue Committee CEO David Miliband about how Service Info is helping 1.5 million refugees of the Syrian conflict in Lebanon. The Syrian conflict is one of the worst ongoing humanitarian crises, accounting for the majority of the world’s refugees.

Caktus Group's Colin Copeland Recognized Among TBJ’s 40 Under 40

Wed, 22 Apr 2015 14:56:43 +0000

Caktus co-founder and Chief Technology Officer, Colin Copeland, is among an outstanding group of top business leaders to receive the Triangle Business Journal’s 2015 40 Under 40 Leadership Award. The award recognizes individuals for their remarkable contributions to their organizations and to the community.

PyCon Blog Features Caktus Group

Tue, 27 Jan 2015 21:07:10 +0000

Brian Curtis, the director of the Python Software Foundation, recently interviewed and featured Caktus on the PyCon website. PyCon is the premiere event for those of us within the Python and Django open source communities. Brian writes about our work designing the PyCon 2015 website, our efforts in Libya, and what’s on the horizon in 2015. We’re excited about this recognition!

The Herald-Sun: Durham Firms MDC and Caktus Group Team Up to Assist in Healthcare Enrollment

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 19:43:50 +0000

We’re proud of our collaboration with Durham-based non-profit MDC to create the health insurance exchange alternative for North Carolina, NCGetCovered.org. The site was recently featured in the Herald-Sun. We’re excited to see our commitment to social good making an impact in our local community. Don’t forget the open enrollment deadline for health coverage is February 15th!

The Triangle Business Journal: Fighting the South's Low Survival Rate for Those with HIV/AIDS

Mon, 19 Jan 2015 18:26:50 +0000

The Triangle Business Journal recognized Caktus’ work in the fight against HIV/AIDS in an important article discussing lower survival rates for those diagnosed with the disease in the southern United States. The article lauds our work on the medication adherence app Epic Allies as innovative in the effort to develop and maintain consistent medication habits for those living with HIV/AIDS.

PyCoder's Weekly: Caktus Included in Top Projects and Articles of 2014

Fri, 16 Jan 2015 20:02:09 +0000

The weekly Python e-mail newsletter, Pycoder’s Weekly included Caktus Developer Dan Poirier’s post, Celery in Production on their list of the best articles and projects of 2014! Take a look at their list and be sure to revisit Dan’s post.

The Triangle Business Journal: Caktus is Growing!

Mon, 12 Jan 2015 19:57:25 +0000

The Triangle Business Journal recently featured Caktus’ addition of seven full-time jobs to the local economy. This growth is a direct result of increasing interest in Django powered web applications as well as a grant from the National Institutes of Health. It’s no secret we’re filling up our new Morris Street building with smart, sharp, passionate people.

Caktus Libya Project Makes Top 10 Stories of 2014 for Technology Tank

Tue, 06 Jan 2015 18:07:44 +0000

Technology Tank, a communications and tech think tank, recently ranked their top 10 stories of 2014 and Caktus made the cut. Earlier this year, we shared a story about Libya’s SMS voter registration system. We’re happy to learn that other people were just as excited about our work enfranchising Libyan voters as we are! The list is based on number of visits to the story.

Chapelboro.com: Carrboro Firm Develops Web App to Register Voters in Libya

Tue, 01 Jul 2014 15:56:31 +0000

Chapelboro.com recently featured Caktus’ work in implementing the first ever voter registration system via text message.

TechPresident: Libya Uses World's First Mobile Voter Registration System

Thu, 26 Jun 2014 10:00:00 +0000

Caktus team members from our Libya mobile voter registration team recently spoke with TechPresident about the context and challenges of implementation.

Triangle Business Journal: The Triangle technology fueling Libya's election

Thu, 26 Jun 2014 02:30:21 +0000

The Triangle Business Journal recently featured our work in Libya on the first ever SMS voter registration system.

Herald Sun: Carrboro Tech Firm Plans Move to Downtown Durham

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 21:05:25 +0000

The Herald Sun covered Caktus’ planned move to a historic building in Downtown Durham.

Triangle Business Journal: Carrboro Tech Company Moving to Downtown Durham

Tue, 25 Mar 2014 21:03:31 +0000

Triangle Business Journal covered Caktus’ purchase of downtown Durham building.

FastCompany: 10 Most Innovative Companies in Local

Fri, 14 Feb 2014 21:59:21 +0000

FastCompany named Caktus client, UNICEF, as one of the Top 10 Most Innovative Companies in Local. UNICEF received this honor for their launch of RapidSMS, an open source platform for quickly building SMS applications.

Time Magazine: 100 Most Influential People of 2013

Thu, 18 Apr 2013 21:09:57 +0000

UNICEF clients Erica Kochi and Christopher Fabian were listed among Time Magazine’s 100 Most Influential People of 2013 for creating text-message based applications in the developing world. They spearheaded RapidSMS, the open source web framework used for applications like sending infant HIV results via text in Zambia. Caktus worked directly with Kochi and Fabian and were instrumental in the core development of RapidSMS, the creation of RapidSMS.org on behalf of UNICEF, and initial RapidSMS applications in Africa.

Project Mwana featured in the BBC

Tue, 25 Sep 2012 14:20:13 +0000

Caktus has had the opportunity to work on the infrastructure of RapidSMS, an application framework that allows data collection and logistics coordination using mobile phone text messages for communication. The BBC World News recently posted an article, "RapidSMS: Saving a life in 160 characters" detailing the effects of RapidSMS technology is having on HIV/AIDS treatment in the developing world. The article focuses on work being done to combat the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Malawi where there is one of the highest rates of infection in the world.

Project Mwana in MobileActive

Mon, 16 Apr 2012 13:52:51 +0000

This past week, Project Mwana was a featured article on the site MobileActive. Project Mwana is a RapidSMS application that connects rural health clinic workers in Zambia and Malawi to HIV testing centers, increasing the collection and turn around time for results to over 50%. Tobias worked with the UNICEF Innovation team on the ground in Zambia and Malawi to assist with the systems architecture and training local developers to maintain the system. The RapidSMS platform allows the application to be easily scalable at a very affordable cost, making it one of the most efficient ways to connect people and send data between people. By the end of 2012, the goal is to have 250 clinics in Malawi using Project Mwana and complete coverage in Zambia by three years.