A resource for activists using mobile technology worldwide.

SANGONeT and MobileActive.org invite you to register now for MobileActive08.  MobileActive08 is the only global gathering that is connecting leaders who are working at the convergence of civil society, mobile technology and social change.  If you:

• have expertise in the field of mobile technology for social development,
• are a researcher working on mobile technology for social impact, or
• are a mobile service provider with interest in the social market,

MobileActive08 is for you.  Register now!

MobileActive08 is the largest event to date focused on mobile technology for social development. This global gathering brings together people like you - practitioners, researchers, technologists and donors experienced and interested in the use and application of mobile technology for social impact.  Register now!

At MobileActive08 you will explore how mobile phones are effectively used to advance civil society work, assess the current state of knowledge in the use of mobile technology to advance social development, and investigate trends, needs and investment opportunities.

We will cap attendance at 350 people and we expect to fill up quickly, so please register now to ensure your participation. Our partners at SANGONet and we at MobileActive.og look forward to welcoming you to South Africa!

Mobile social marketing works in increasing awareness and moving people to actions. It is also becoming an effective way to engage users and constituents. Throughout our experience with mobile campaigns, we've run into the some great campaigns and some failures as well.

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Curious how your state ranks on reproductive choice? NARAL Pro-Choice America makes it easy to find out. By texting the word "grade" and the abbreviation of your state to a short code, you get an almost-instantaneous text response with your state's grade and opportunities for more information. "One of the reasons we decided to invest in mobile technology is we want to diversify how we're communicating with people," said Kristin Koch, Deputy Director of Communications at NARAL. NARAL recently began a mobile program -- they're calling it Txt4Choice -- and has been exploring how to use mobile in ways that compliment and integrate into their already developed communications strategy.

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The numbers speak for themselves: There are currently 236 million cell phone users in the U.S. – an astounding 76% penetration. In December of last year alone, 18.7 billion text messages were sent — up 92% from 9.7 billion in December 2005. Estimates for this year are topping 195 billion text messages sent in 2007. That is 600 million text messages a day.

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Preparations for MobileActive08 are in full swing! MobileActive08 is all about mobiles for social impact - and submissions for some great sessions on mobiles in health, data collection, humanitarian relief, advocacy, human rights, environmental protection and other areas.  

We are still accepting proposals for sessions for MobileActive08 with YOUR ideas for mobiles of social impact until June 30th. MobileActive08 will take place in Johannesburg October 13-15.

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Mobile phones are more prevalent in the U.S. than ever before. Today, over 86% of the US population ages 13 and up owns a mobile phone. Although Americans say that the mobile phone is the device that they hate the most (it even beats the alarm clock and the television!), the cell phone is here to stay. In the past decade, mobile users have grown from about 34 million to more than 203 million, and growth is expected to continue to increase exponentially.

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MobileActive releases the newest addition to our growing resource hub: Mobile Phones for Polling and Engagement.

Polling via SMS can be a unique way to engage current supporters and attract new audiences. Polls can ask any number of questions, from opinions about an organization to views on a controversial issue. However, perhaps the most valuable aspect of polling isn’t the feedback that organizations receive directly from a poll, but rather the relationships with constituents and growing mobile support base that polls can help build.

Organizations engage in mobile polling for two reasons:

• to generate a list of mobile numbers to use for future communications and engagement
• to get an informal sense of constituent views for use on an organization's web site, for generating media coverage, and learn more about a particular segment of its constituency.

Mobile Phones for Polling and Engagement includes a case study of polls conducted by Media Focus on Africa (MFAF) as part of their Election Assistance Campaign, which sought to promote civic participation and discussion of political issues prior to the December 2007 Kenyan elections. Through SMS polling, MFAF asked its constituents some tough questions.

Should politicians accused of corruption be prevented from vying for political seats? Is tribal identity more dominant than the identity of being a Kenyan? Can voting still deliver credible results after the chaotic party nominations and bribery?

The questions were advertised on television, radio shows, and newspaper advertisements. Thousands of Kenyans responded to the polls via SMS on their mobile phones, helping to bring issues of voting and civic participation into the national conversation.

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The numbers should speak for themselves. In 2006, there were 9.2 million new tuberculosis (TB) cases and 1.7 million TB deaths. Of these cases, 5.3% were a tough strain of TB that is resistant to treatment (known as MDR-TB, or multiple drug resistant tuberculosis). The total cost of TB control programs in high burden countries is estimated to be about $2.3 billion in 2008.

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We have written previously about mobiles as sensing devices to collect data and develop maps and understand patterns of human movement, traffic, air pollution, and even the spread of diseases. The mass-tracking of mobile devices and the use of mobiles as ubiqitous sensing devices are very promising but also have generated controversy, most recently when a Boston University study published in Nature revealed it has tracked 100,000 anonymized mobile phone users' position in an unidentified country (we suspect the UK) without these users' consent.

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