FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CONTACT: Katrin Verclas, Aspiration
413-687-9877 or 413-884-0094
katrin [at] aspirationtech.org

Activists from Around the World Gather for
First-Ever “MobileActive” on Use of Mobile Phones in Human Rights,
Democracy Campaigns

Washington, DC, September 6, 2005 – Ring, ring …Social
Change is Calling: Green Media Toolshed and Aspiration, two US-based
nonprofit organizations, are convening technologists and activists
using mobile phones and text messaging for advocacy, human rights work,
democracy campaigns, and mass mobilizations. MobileActive: Cellphones
for Civic Engagement will take place in Toronto, Canada on September
22-24, 2005 – www.mobileactive.org.

“Call me on my cell phone -- Send me a text message -- You can get me
on my cell when you need me. These are not just words among friends
anymore. Now that power is being used by activist working for mass
mobilizations, human rights campaigns, emergency relief, environmental
protection, and democratic elections,” says Katrin Verclas of
Aspiration: Better Tools for a Better World.

Marty Kearns, one of the organizers, says: "Email is dead. The
cell phone is the real tool for moving voice and connecting on the go.
In a world on the move, we need to connect the voice of the people to
civil society campaigns. The voices of the world are on mobile devices
and the leaders of social change need to be there to engage and
mobilize.”

MobileActive.org and the MobileActive strategy meeting bring
together campaigners, technology experts and communications strategists
to reconnect campaigns, issue work and civic engagement to people on
the street. MobileActive will help speed the dissemination of
innovative practices and technology by skill and knowledge-sharing
among activists. Attendees will explore strategies and tactics for the
use of cell phones as an organizing tool, and develop useable guidance
for practitioners, donors and campaigners to be disseminated widely.
The overarching goal is to help civil society activists capitalize on
the global wireless phone infrastructure for advocacy communications
and organizing.

Activists and technologists from the Philippines,
England,Canada, Argentina, Mexico, South Africa, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, and
the Congo representing Greenpeace, Amnesty International, Fahamu,
Working Assets, txtpower.org, WorldChanging.org, the Open Society
Institute,MacArthur Foundation, MIT Media Labs, EchoDitto, Association
de Defense des Droits des Prisonniers, Txtmob, Mobile Voter, Movement
Strategy Center, Surdna Foundation, Mobile Reporter, 160Characters,
ACORN, and many others will attend.

Strategists and activists interested in participating, please
go to www.mobileactive.org.
AboutGreen Media Toolshed: Green Media Toolshed is a nonprofit
environmental organization that provides communications tools to its
members, environmental nonprofits, so that they can more effectively
project
their messages to the public and decision-makers. GMT provides tools
and membership services to more than 165 environmental groups across
the U.S. www.greenmediatoolshed.org

About Aspiration: Aspiration, www.aspirationtech.org, connects
nonprofit organizations with software solutions that help them better
carry out their work. We want nonprofit organizations to obtain and use
the best software to maximize their effectiveness and impact so that
they, in turn, can change the world. We identify what is available and
what is missing in NGO software arena, and foster relationships,
delivery systems, and sustainability strategies between NGOs around the
world.