(This is part of a series of posts reporting on mobile media project from Highway Africa 2009 and Digital Citizen Indaba 4.0. Both were held in Grahamstown, South Africa, September 2009).
Brenda Burrell of Kubatana.net in Zimbabwe runs Freedom Fone, an audio tool for information services. She presented Freedom Fone in a workshop titled “Bringing down the barriers: Interactive audio programming and mobile phones” at Digital Citizen Indaba 4.0.
FreedomFone comes from the desire to deliver information to “those who need it most,” people with simple phones without GPRS connections. Freedom Fone integrates a content management system (such as Drupal) with information services via SMS and voice.
Fluid Nexus is an application for mobile phones that is primarily designed to enable activists to send messages and data amongst themselves independent of a centralized cellular network. The idea is to provide a means of communication between people when the centralized network has been shut down, either by the government during a time of unrest, or by nature due to a massive disaster.
Fluid Nexus is an application for mobile phones that is primarily designed to enable activists to send messages and data amongst themselves independent of a centralized cellular network. The idea is to provide a means of communication between people when the centralized network has been shut down, either by the government during a time of unrest, or by nature due to a massive disaster. During such times the use of the centralized network for voice or SMS is not possible.
Yet, if we can use the fact that people still must move about the world, then we can use ideas from sneaker-nets to turn people into carriers of data. Given enough people, we can create fluid, temporary, ad-hoc networks that pass messages one person at a time, spreading out as a contagion and eventually reaching members of the group. This enables surreptitious communication via daily activity and relies on a fluid view of reality. Additionally, Fluid Nexus can be used as a hyperlocal message board, loosely attached to physical locations.
The mobile phone is the most ubiquitous tool of the moment; using a mobile phone (rather than an audio recorder) to record spontaneously produced sounds will result in opportunities to capture more true-to-life field recordings.
audioTagger uses the sound recorder in mobile phones to capture sound in urban spaces. The audio file is then mapped using Google Maps to visualize the location of the audio tags. audioTagger is a momentary exploration of urban space, using mobile technology to captures a sonic moment. Anybody with a data-enabled mobile phone can participate and contribute to audioTagger's exploration of the environment, using the mobile phone as a field recorder.
Traditional news media is a changing industry and conversations discussing the future of news media as it transforms itself abound. What is the future of the newsroom in citizen journalism?
SaveTheNews.org, an organization that is devoted to bringing public policy into conversation about the future of news media, hosted a forum in late August where former staff of Rocky Mountain News and journalists from around Denver fielded a host of questions regarding the future of news media. Below are a few highlights of the conversation (transcript available in full here).
With Veeker, users can send instant video, picture, and text messages from their phone or PC to anyone's phone or email, and receive video, picture, text, and webcam messages on their phone, email, or profile page. Users can blast video, picture, text, and webcam messages to multiple phones or emails at once, embed a Message Widget that lets others send webcam messages to their phone and email, and use the same Message Widget to display any video or picture message in their Veeker account.
Souktel, an SMS service based in the Middle East and East Africa, is all about connections. The service, launched in 2006, uses SMS to connect users to everything from jobs and internships to humanitarian aid and youth leadership programs.
The name comes from "souk," the Arabic word for "marketplace," and "tel," or "telephone. Although at least 80 percent of people in Palestine have access to mobile phones, most people have Internet access only in cafés or public places, said Jacob Korenblum, co-founder of Souktel. "Getting information about medical care, jobs, and food bank services can be difficult," he said. And even at Internet cafes, Korenblum said that many people, especially women, lack access to these services. "We wanted to develop a very simple service," he said. "That's how Souktel started."
The World Wide Web enabled quick and easy information dissemination and brought about fundamental changes to various aspects of our lives. However, a very large number of people, mostly in developing regions, are still untouched by this revolution. Compared to PCs, the primary access mechanism to the WWW, mobile phones have made a phenomenal penetration into this population segment. Low cost of ownership, the simple user interface consisting of a small keyboard, limited menu and voice-based access contribute to the success of mobile phones with the less literate. However, apart from basic voice communication, these people are not being able to exploit the benefits of information and services available to WWW users. Spoken Web is designed to provide the benefits of IT to the underprivileged population in developing countries who are characterized by illiteracy and poverty.
Spoken Web is an entire platform that lets ordinary phone subscribers create and deploy their own applications and services over a simple phone call. It can be used to proliferate IT information and transactional services to masses on existing IT/Telecom infrastructure. It requires no additional cost of ownership to end users other than an ordinary phone.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a server
Key Features :
Creation and deployment of voice apps
Reaching out to masses on existing infrastructure
Main Services:
Stand-alone Application
Tool Maturity:
Under development/pre-launch
Platforms:
All phones -- Voice
Current Version:
1
Program/Code Language:
Java
Number of Current End Users:
1,000-10,000
Number of current beneficiaries:
1,000-10,000
Languages supported:
multi-lingual
Handsets/devices supported:
All voice-capable phones.
Reviews/Evaluations:
Article in the Economic Times: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/Food/IBMs-spoken-web-to-ramp-up-Amuls-milk-business/articleshow
Here are some mobile events for the month of September that we thought are noteworthy and of interest to the MobileActive.org community. If you know of others, please mail us at info at MobileActive dot org.
Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camps are local events for people passionate about using mobile technology for social impact and to make the world a better place.
Mobile Tech 4 Social Change Camp in Bangalore includes:
Mobile Services and ICT4D: To the Network Economy - Bridging the Digital Divide, The Ethiopian Case data sheet 4430 Views
Author:
Naod Duga
Publication Date:
Aug 2009
Publication Type:
Journal article
Abstract:
This paper presents a development paradigm for Ethiopia, based on appropriate services and innovative use of mobile communications technologies via applications tailored for sectors like business, finance, healthcare, governance, education and infotainment.
The experience of other developing countries like India and Kenya is cited so as to adapt those to the Ethiopian context. Notable application areas in the aforementioned sectors have been outlined. The ETC ‘next generation network’ is taken into consideration, with an emphasis on mobile service offering by the Telco itself and/or third party service providers. In addition, enabling technologies like mobile internet, location-based systems, open interfaces to large telecom networks, specifically service-oriented architecture (SOA), Parlay/JAIN and the like are discussed.
The paper points out possible endeavors by such stakeholders like: telecom agencies and network operators; businesses, government and NGOs; entrepreneurs and innovators; technology companies and professionals; as well as researchers and academic institutions. ICT4D through mobile services and their role in bridging the digital divide by building a virtual ‘network economy’ is discussed.
Cryptosms provides sms encryption for mobile phones running j2me. It is open source and under GPL license. It uses a public/private key scheme. See cryptosms.org for more details and a list of supported devices.
Tool Category:
Runs on a mobile phone
Key Features :
Public/private key pair encryption of sms, exchange of keys, key verification via fingerprint, completely separate from the normal sms programme, no interference with normal phone operations, all data (keys, received sms, addressbook) is in a crypto container secured with a passphrase...
Freedom Fone addresses the need for simple, affordable, uncensored communication technology. It allows for frequently-updated, short segment audio programming. It removes the technical challenge of hosting and setting up the back-end, allowing users to concentrate on content.
Freedom Fone merges the mobile phone with citizen radio programming. Audio files are stored by Freedom Fone in a content management system which is updated through a simple-to-use browser interface. These audio clips populate an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) menu which callers can navigate through for information. Individuals can contribute questions, content and feedback by leaving voice messages via the IVR interface. Freedom Fone can be operated as a collective, with different groups managing different channels of information from the same installation.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a server
Key Features :
The Freedom Fone system lets implementers create simple voice menus that users can call in and navigate using their keypad. The voice menus can contain the news and information that the users may be interested in listening to, and also allow users to leave messages. There is also call-back functionality (user calls, hangs up, the system calls them back) for user cost reduction. The system includes SMS polling functionality as well.
These, and more features, are listed on the feature pages of version 1.5, and version 1.0.
Main Services:
Interactive Voice Response (IVR)
Voting, Data Collection, Surveys, and Polling
Tool Maturity:
Currently deployed
Platforms:
All phones -- Voice
Current Version:
1.5
Program/Code Language:
PHP
Number of Current End Users:
None/not deployed yet
Number of current beneficiaries:
Under 100
Support Forums:
https://dev.freedomfone.org/wiki
Languages supported:
All
Handsets/devices supported:
Mobigater (http://www.mobigater.bg) GSM modems. See more details at http://dev.freedomfone.org/wiki/
Gathering crisis information from the general public can provie insights into events happening in near real-time. Allowing easy intake, visualization and mapping of this information can be very valuable. To this effect, the goal is to have an open source application so intake and visualization methods are customisable and deployable in a wide variety of settings.
Ushahidi is a platform that allows anyone around the world to set up their own way to gather reports by mobile phone, email and the web - and visualize and map them. It is being built so that it can grow with the changing environment of the web, and to work with other websites and online tools.
Tool Category:
Runs on a mobile phone
Runs on a server
Is a web-based application/web service
Key Features :
Google Map Visualization of Reports
Integration with SMS input, FrontlineSMS, various Web tools
Admin panel and Web Input of externally validated stories
As I've mentioned, the Mobile Media Toolkit team will be attending the upcoming Highway Africa conference.
We are excited to meet up with Harry Dugmore and Guy Berger at Rhodes University who have been behind the Lindaba Ziyafika ("The News is Coming") project. The project, motivated by a desire to reach young people in Grahamstown, has taken Grahamstown's newspaper and enabled it for mobile-based citizen contributions.
Reporters need to travel lightly, stay connected to sources and editors, and stay aware of their surroundings. gReporter allows reporters to upload content with GPS information attached.
gReporter provides a single, clean app for capturing photos, audio and text reports, connecting GPS coordinates with this data, and sending it to a server using a Google Android phone.
Tool Category:
Runs on a mobile phone
Key Features :
Takes photos and uploads them with GPS coordinates
In developing countries, a lack of communication can be a major barrier to grassroots organizations. FrontlineSMS uses resources that many NGOs already have (phones and computers) to create a means of instantaneous, two-way communication.
FrontlineSMS is a free software that turns a laptop and a mobile phone or GSM modem into a central communications hub. Once installed, the program enables users to send and receive text messages with groups of people through mobile phones.
Tool Category:
Runs on a computer with tethered modem or mobile phone
Key Features :
Does not require an Internet connection
Is laptop-based so it can be used on the road or during power outages.
It stores all phone numbers and records all incoming and outgoing messages.
Messages can be sent to large groups or individuals.
The pre-cursors to mobile phones were walkie-talkies, and the first generation of mobile phone networks only supported voice communications. With second generation networks and a happy accident came SMS, and only with the third generation networks came mobile data services in the form of GPRS.
Most applications using mobile phones these days tend to use these newer channels of communication—SMS and data. But even though we sometimes forget, voice is still a part of mobile phone communications. This article profiles interesting ways in which voice technology is being used for social work all around the world.
Asterisk is a powerful PBX system, but requires a lot of effort to just install. There was a need for something that was easier to install and administer, thus the creation of TrixBox
TrixBox offers two options, TrixBox CE and TrixBox Pro. TrixBox CE is an open telephony platform that combines the best of the open source telephony tools into one easy-to-install package. Based on an enhanced LAAMP (an open source bundle of Linux®, Apache™, Asterisk®, mySQL®, and PHP), the TrixBox dashboard provides easy to use, Web-based interfaces to setup, manage, maintain, and support a complete IP-PBX system. TrixBox Pro is an enhanced version that comes with more support than TrixBox CE.
Tool Category:
Runs on a server
Key Features :
Unlimited Extensions, Voicemail and fax Support, VoiceMail to email and web, IVR Menu System, Ring Groups, Call Queues, Conferencing, Time-Based Routing, Music On Hold, Paging and Intercom, Admin Status Screen, Package Manager for easy updates, Network Settings and Phone Provisioning Tool, Opern Source Echo Cancellation.
VoiceGlue is a GPL tool that allows the integration of Asterisk with OpenVXI, and thus create a VoiceXML interpreter based on an Asterisk base. Because of the flexibility of Asterisk, VoiceGlue allows VoiceXML to be run on more than just SIP systems.
Tool Category:
Runs on a server
Key Features :
Interaction with Asterisk; VXML 2.0 interpreter with some VXML 2.1 features; Pre-recorded audio playback in Asterisk audio formats; Asterisk DTMF detection; High-performance, high-scalability architecture.
Nuance Cafe, or Bevocal Cafe, is a free, Web-based development environment for developing VoiceXML-based applications. You program VoiceXML applications, and Nuance Cafe will interpret these for you. A generic number is provided that users can call (with a PIN), and corporate support is available to build larger and more dedicated systems.
Tool Category:
Is a web-based application/web service
Key Features :
Web-development environment for VoiceXML applications. Availability of a carrier-grade back-end VoiceXML hosting platform.
Open Source VoiceXML Interpreter that is platform-independent. (VoiceXML is designed for creating audio dialogs that feature synthesized speech, digitized audio, recognition of spoken and DTMF key input, recording of spoken input, telephony, and mixed initiative conversations.)
A free VoiceXML interpreter for JAVA with an open architecture for custom extensions. Demo implementation platforms are supporting JAVA APIs such as JSAPI and JTAPI. It implements VoiceXML 2.1. The platform independent implementation can be used for free.
FreeSWITCH is an open source telephony platform designed to facilitate the creation of voice and chat driven products. It can be used as a simple switching engine, a PBX, a media gateway or a media server to host IVR applications using simple scripts or XML to control the callflow.
Tool Category:
Runs on a server
Key Features :
FreeSWITCH includes many modules which provide applications by default including conferencing, XML-RPC control of live calls, Interactive voice response (IVR), TTS/ASR (text to speech/automatic speech recognition), Public switched telephone network (PSTN) interconnection ability supporting both analogue and digital circuits, Voice over IP protocols including SIP, Inter-Asterisk eXchange, H.323, Jabber, GoogleTalk and others. Applications using the FreeSWITCH library can be written in C/C++, Python, Perl, Lua, JavaScript using Mozilla's SpiderMonkey engine, Java and Microsoft .NET via Microsoft's CLR or via Mono.
FreeSWITCH is designed to be modular, easy to use with scripting done entirely in XML, and more stable than Asterisk.
We are excited to attend Highway Africa 2009 and the Digital Citizen Indaba 4.0. The theme is "Reporting Africa - 2010; Developement and Democracy," and the lineup of workshops and debates includes topics such as Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace: Secure Communications, Using Twitter as a Source for Journalists, and Mobile Technology as Source of Revenue for Media Business. (Full program here) DCI, which will be held right before Highway Africa is featuring workshops on Bringing down the Barriers with Interactive Audio Programming and Mobile Phones, Civil Society Use of Mapping Tools and Mass Media Takeup, and Digital Media and the Right to Language. (Full program here)
GroundReport.com is a platform for the kind of journalism that has many names: hyperlocal journalism, citizen journalism, wiki journalism. Rachel Sterne's idea is to have a website where anyone can just sign up and submit articles, and become an instant citizen reporter. Submitted content goes through a plagiarism filter and a group of editors will edit before any content goes live.
Based on the number of hits and the ranking of the author, good articles get filtered to the front page, and the hope is that bad articles will stay at bay with bad rankings and scarcely any hits. Contributors are compensated based on article rankings but compensation averages only a few cents.
As smartphones proliferate around the world, we ought to remain cognizant of what information we share on those phones with applications, application developers, advertisers and marketers. Phones are incredibly personal, always on, and always with most of us. As a result, they can reveal sensitive information. In fact, it is time for smartphone users to put pressure on application developers, platform providers, and eventually legislators to protect private and potentially sensitive information.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation recently published a paper on locational privacy. Because smartphones know where we are (using GPS, and if not, using applications such as Google’s My Location service), they can reveal a lot of information about activities, patterns of behaviour, and relationships we have.
Af the Afghani elections are coming up this week, there are a projects focusing on the election and citizen media coverage that we like to note.
First, as Taliban has intensified violence and has threatened to disrupt the elections and "kill those who vote," the Afghani government has called for reporters to avoid coverage of violence so that Afghanis aren't scared away from polling stations. Meanwhile, associations such as the Independent Journalist Association of Afghanistan have refused to take the order and has promised to continue reporting. The ban on reporting is phrased as a "request" in English, and as "strictly forbidden" in Dari (good synopsis of ban and violence here).
