A resource for activists using mobile technology worldwide.

I had the great pleasure to meet Krista Dong and Zinhle Thabethe from iTeach who are at the frontlines of treating and preventing AIDS in South Africa, the epicenter of this global crisis. These amazing, committed and inspired women talk about their daily experience working with people with HIV and AIDS in Kawazulu Natal and how they think mobile phones could expontentially scale their work. As Krista says, "To deal with the scope of this problem, to even beging to make a dent, we need new ideas, crazy ideas. And everyone, everyone has a cell phone." Watch if you want to hear from frontline workers how mobile phones can revolutionize their social change work.

This interview was conducted at PopTech. The video was shot entirely on a Nokia N95 mobile phone, courtesy of PopTech and Nokia. Click on the video below or go here for a larger screen.

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HIV/AIDS is one of the most significant human, health, and development issues facing Africa today. NGOs and health care providers are increasingly turning to mobile phones to address the unique challenges of AIDS awareness, prevention and treatment. "HIV/AIDS is arguably the most pressing development problem facing South Africa – and Africa," asserts a report by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF ) and Women'sNet, a South African network of people who use ICTs in gender-related advocacy and support.

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Mobile empowerment was the theme of the PopTech session with Nokia, Eprom, and MobileActive. Nathan Eagle, a researcher and passionate mobile advocacte for entrepreneurs in Africa, talked about the EPROM project that trains African computer science students in mobile application development and research on mobile applications and value-added services within in African context. Joe MacCarthy from Nokia's Research Lab in California described Nokia's support of mobile initiative in health and education, including MobiSus in Brazil, and Mapya in Kenya.

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MobileActive's Katrin Verclas will be at PopTech in Maine for a special two-hour session on 'mobile empowerment." Together with Joe MacCarthy from Nokia and Nathan Eagle from MIT's EPROM project, we will explore how mobile phones are used in civil society, particularly in the developing world.

MobileActive will focus on civic empowerment and democratic participation, of course, and on economic empowerment. We will tell some of the stories of the mobile pioneers for social change around the world who are part of the MobileActive Community. Join us live!

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Two organizations who are part of MobileActive.org have been recognized by Politics Online as two of the Top 10 Who Are Changing the World of Internet and Politics. This award seeks to "recognize the innovators and pioneers, the dreamers and doers who bring democracy online." And pioneers they are.

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The government of Togo has banned the use of SMS by the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), the Togolese ruling political party, reports Highway Africa News Agency. The High Authority for Audiovisual Communications (HAAC), a press regulation body, has prohibited the messages because voters viewed the SMS as intimidation, calling them "unfair propaganda" and an "illicit practice."

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Hoy introduce MobileActive un recurso nuevo para los activistas movilistas. Esta guía de estrategia en español tiene información detallada sobre el uso de los teléfonos celulares en América Latina y estudios sobre los celulares usados por el activismo social en varios países latinoamericanos.

Today MobileActive introduces a new resource for mobile activists. Our first Spanish-language Strategy Guide provides detailed information about the use of mobile phones in Latin America and case studies of mobiles used for social activism in different Latin American countries.

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We have come across several grant opportunities for MobileActives in health care and education.

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MobileActive's roving reporter Noel Hildago or the Luck of 7 interviews Noria Yunis, an activist from Egypt using mobile phones to organize.

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Abu Sufian's small room in Fultola, Bangladesh looks like a standard Internet cafe. There are four workstations -- each with a mouse, keyboard, and monitor -- where customers can check email or browse the Internet. But this isn't just any Internet cafe -- the center is all made possible by one mobile phone.

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MobileActive.org series on mobiles in development continues. Here is guest writer Abi Jagun from the University of Manchster who deconstructs the hype on mobiles in civil society:

By the end of 2007 about half of the world’s population will be using mobile phones; and it is likely that this proportion will continue to increase as more people - predominantly in developing countries - get connected to mobile telecom networks.

The benefits of mobile phones continue to be widely publicised. In particular, they allow people to receive and communicate information interactively and/or simultaneously by voice and data -- beyond the physical limitations imposed by geography. But is the hype useful for a throughtful exploration of the potential of mobiles in development, or, in fact, a hindrance?

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Do you have a mobile technology solution that you would like to explore, but lack the technical expertise to do so? On October 29, the Innovation Track at the VON Conference in Boston, USA will convene a group of world-class programmers to develop a mobile solution for the NGO with the best idea.

The programming team will create an application using voice and text technologies to support the goals of the selected nonprofit or NGO. Areas for NGOs to consider include:

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The rural mobile market is growing, and carriers are working to meet the unique demands and challenges of this sector of the population. Even in the poorest countries -- like Sierra Leone, which ranks 176 out of 177 countries on the UN's 2006 Human Development Index -- mobile phones have become a growing necessity, creating a unique set of cultural norms and practices.

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Mobile use and prevalence is exploding throughout the developing world. As Tim Kelly writes in id21 insights's September newsletter, in 1990 there were only 14,200 mobiles in Africa, which by, 2005, grew to a total of 137 million. Id21 predicts that the majority of the world's poor will have mobile access within the next generation. This number continues to increase, showing just how important mobile phones have become in development.

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The MobileActive.org community stands with the people who so courageously demanded a free and democratic Burma. Our thoughts are with you on this dark day for human rights and democracy.

In a quick move, the US carrier Verizon today revsersed its refusal to issue a short code to abortion rights advocacy organization NARAL. According to a statement by Verizon:

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Verizon Wireless, a phone carrier in the United States, has rejected a request from an abortion rights group to use its network for an SMS program, according to the New York Times.

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Thousands of monks have taken to the streets in Myanmar within the past month in pro-democracy demonstrations. Today the Burmese government threatened the monks with legal action.

The government has shut down mobile phone service to pro-democracy supporters, activists, and some foreign journalists, writes the Agence France-Presse. A journalist and photographer from the AFP are among those who have lost phone service, and the agency has requested that Myanmar restore service to the journalists. The National League for Democracy also reports that its landline phone has been cut off, according to this article in The Economic Times.

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Programs all over the world have shown how mobiles can be an effective tool in providing services to homeless individuals, people with AIDS, and other marginalized populations. Here are a few of the most effective efforts to involve mobiles in innovative ways.

The stereotype is that homeless people don't need mobiles. Why bother with a phone when you can barely afford to put food on the table or don't even have a bed to sleep in? But several different projects have shown that mobile phones can be an important stepping stone in brealing a cycle of poverty. Most importantly, mobiles allow homeless people to get jobs. Employers aren't likely to respond to a resume that lists the phone number of the local homeless shelter, or worse, one without a phone number at all.

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Owning a mobile is becoming an indispensable element of young people's lives all around the world. This well-done 30-min video focuses on mobiles in education, explores whether mobiles are a force for good, or an example of technology gone awry; and offers a lot of cultural analysis of how young people use mobiles.

Produced by teachers.tv about young people's use of mobiles (albeit UK-focused), it is a good look at the world of young people with mobile phones, and the impact on schools and education. Young people are mobile natives and schools and NGOs better take heed.

 

We are starting a series of articles on mobile phones in economic development this week and to kick it off, Business Week in its current issue published a few interesting summaries of the state of affairs in mobiles in economic development. This apparently just to make it easy for us to get MobileActives around the world up to speed!

Upwardly Mobile in Africa describes farmers in Kenya using mobiles to bring their products to market and mobile payments using the Keyan mobile payment system M-Pesa. The article describes Grameen Foundation's Village Phone Program that we will be featuring in our next article that is expanding into Uganda in collaboration with the local carrier MTN where there are now 13,000 Village Phone Operators renting out a mobile phone with the help of microcredit and discounted airtime.

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Brenda Zulu interviews Ndesanjo Macha, the Regional Editor for Sub Saharan Africa (Global voices) at Highway Africa.

He says: "Mobile technologies are cheaper, they do not require the infrastructure and investment other technologies need...Africa has the fastest growing number of subscribers....mobile phones are the key to producing content, sharing content, reading, looking at pictures and images, and even doing businesses."

He describes how mobile technology facilitates rural development and participation, linking rural farming communities with the global public sphere; mobile blogging; and mobile reporting.

Check out the blog at Web2fordev.net for other great content. Hat tip to Christian Kreutz!