A resource for activists using mobile technology worldwide.

The Future of Mobile Apps, Hope, and Why Pro-Poor Won't Work

There is a fascinating discussion about the fuure of mobile apps going on over at Change.org.  Nathanial Whittemore started it all with a hopeful and visionary blog post on how mobiles will be changing the world.  The discussion thread turned into a thoughtful discussion on mobile appplications and how this emerging eco-system of tools scales and interoperates to maximize resources.

Isaac Holeman, working on (and twittering about) MobilizeMRS, points out that "interoperability is a very important point..where it's not necessary for any one installation of anything to scale completely because data can move into or out of any system.  Mobile health stuff is so new that interoperability of medical data has hardly been considered, to my knowledge. With MobilizeMRS, one of the primary reasons we want to interface with medical records systems is that a huge amount of work has already been done to promote medical record interoperability with standards such as HL7."

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An Instant Lab in Your Mobile - Analyzing Blood, Detecting Diseases

Wired has finally picked up the story that has been circulating for a while -- the phenomenal medical diagnostic hack using a mobile and beginning to turn it into a lab for developing countries.

Aydogan Ozcan, assistant professor of electrical engineering at the UCLA School of Engineering and Applied Science and a member of the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), and his team of graduate and udergraduate students developed a medical diagnostic application from a mobile phone, in effect bringing the hospital to the patient. 

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Preventing Famine with a Mobile

Ethopia again this year has experienced crippling droughts.  Faced with the possibility of famine, UNICEF Ethiopia launched a massive food distribution program to supply the high-protein food Plumpy'nut to under-nourished children using mobile phones for monitoring and delivering supplies its more than 1,8000 feeding centers in the country. 

To coordinate the distribution and maintain appropriate stocks, field monitors reported on supplies and number of children fed through an SMS reporting system using a UNICEF-built mobile data collection and monitoring software, RapidSMS.  We have previously reviewed RapidSMS here, comparing it with a less scaleable lower-end tool, Frontline SMS. 

The emergency food supply chain before RapidSMS

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Reflections on Mobiles For Development -- A Landscape Taxonomy

Jonathan Donner,  Kentaro Toyama, and I recently wrote a paper -- "Reflections on the M4D Landscape" -- in which we critically examine the current diversity of projects and approaches in M4D.

We identify four common choices facing individual projects in mobiles for development: who are the intended users, how technically accessible the solution is, whether the project links to other platforms or content, and what the project requires from handset manufacturers and operators. 

We think that these choices collectively mark aspects of the current landscape of M4D. We also think that these choices made at the project level may create different M4D landscapes with implications for the breadth and depth of the technology’s impact on development. 

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Welcome, Patricia Mechael!

MobileActive.org welcomes on staff Patricia Mechael, an expert in mobiles for health, and mobiles for development.  I am personally so pleased to work with Patty!

Here is a bit more: Dr. Patricia Mechael has been involved in the field of International Health for over 12 years with field experience in over 25 countries with a special focus on Africa. She holds a Masters in International Health from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Hygiene, and a PhD in Public Health and Policy from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, where she examined the role of mobile phones in health in Egypt.

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MobileActive at the Global Forum for Media Development and 1st M4D Conference

I just came from the Global Forum for Media Development an Athens, Greece, where there is a lot of interest in how to use mobiles in media and journalism trainings, and in supporting citizen media efforts. I presented briefly our most recent work, A Mobile Voice, that describes how mobiles are used in citizen media. The dicsussions were lively and there were lots of ideas to take this work further.  Specifically needed are journalism trainings and better toolkits and how-to materials that detail what tools and approaches work where. Security was also of great concern, and participants were eager to learn more about mobile security for media and activists. Athens is, of course, also experiencing social turmoil right now, so I engaged in a bit of citizen journalism on Twitter on my own, interviewing police and demonstrators during the night. 

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SMS Critical in Election Monitoring in Ghana

The CODEO Election Observation Center for the all-important 2008 Ghanaian election is a busy place.  Data operators are sitting on rows of computers monitoring incoming SMS messages from 1,000 polling stations around the country.  Mobile phones are ringing constantly with calls from the observers in the field.   Maps of the 230 constituencies in Ghana adorn the walls of the modern building at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra.  

The Observation Center, affectionately called the "OC"  by CODEO staffers, is the technology hub of the massive amounts of qualitative and vote count data that is pouring in from the more than 4,000 election observers deployed by CODEO, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers.  This makes it by far the largest deployment of election observers in this year's election.  Mobile technology, and text messaging in particular, is playing a critical piece in relaying both qualitative data on how the election is being conducted, and quantitative data that will verify the official results issued by the Ghanaian Election Commission.

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Worlds Aids Day: India's Condom! Condom! Ringtone Public Health Campaign For "Real Men"

file under:
aids, hiv, hiv-aids, india, ringtone

In our day-long coverage of innovative HIV/AIDS campaigns, here is one from India.  The question:  How can you encourage men to use condoms to reduce the incidence of HIV/AIDS?  The answer: Drive up sales of condoms with an innovative and often tongue-in-cheek multi-media campaign, including catchy ringtones featuring the jingle Condom Condom.

The BBC World Service Trust, the charitable arm of the BBC, has been running a public health campaign in four states in southern India and has now launched a campaign to make clear that "smart men use condoms."

Here is one scene, played out at a wedding: a mobile ringtone buzzes with a loud refrain "condom! condom!"  The BBC Trust writes: "Embarrassing for the person holding the mobile phone? Not a bit of it - the reaction of those around the red-faced man is to see him as smart and responsible."

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World Aids Day and the Role of Mobile Phones in Combatting HIV/AIDS: Project M

Today is World Aids Day, a day where individuals and organisations from around the world come together to bring attention to the global AIDS epidemic.

Mobile phones are increasinly playing a key role in combatting HIV/AIDS, providing public education and information services, patient monitoring and support, data collection, emergency medical services, and even educational games. 

We have written much on this topic, of immense importance to the world where there are now more than 33 million people living with the disease, making it one of the most destructive epidemics in recorded history.  Throughout the day, we'll feature a few projects that use or have used mobile technology in HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment that stand out.

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UPDATED: Terror Attacks in Mumbai: Mobiles and Twitter play Key Role in 24/7 Reporting

file under:
mumbai, twitter

UPDATED POST: Mobiles are yet again playing a key role in citizen reporting as terror attacks grip the Indian city of Mumbai.  Twitter, the microblogging service that is available in India, was especially instrumental in conveying first hand reports as the chaotic events were unfolding in the city.  Twitter users set up aggregator accounts at Mumbai, Bombay@BreakingNews and with the search tag #Mumbai.

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For the Holidays: Volunteering in the Palm of your Hand

The Extraordinaries, a new project by Mobile Voter (disclosure: I sit on the board of Mobile Voter) seeks to revolutionaize the way we volunteer.  We wrote about its precursor before. Busy people in the West rarely volunteer for lack of time to go to an organization. Most volunteer opportunities require training, vetting, and time commitments. In fact 46% of non-volunteers in America, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, say they don't because they are too busy. 

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0800 Rede Jovem: SMS with opportunities for young people

Local information and media is one of the areas where mobiles can be an ideal delivery vehicle.  Rede Jovem, a Brazilian NGO created 0800 Rede Jovem, or Mobile YouthNet, a project that reaches young people through SMS on their mobile phones with local opportunities and information about what is going on in their communities. Soledad Muniz talked with Alice Gismonti from Rede Jovem about the SMS project.

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Vodafone America Wireless Contest for Innovations for a Better World

The Vodafone Americas Foundation has a new Wireless Innovation Challenge to promote innovation and increase implementation of advanced wireless related technology for a better world. The foundation is providing $600,000 in awards to support projects "of
exceptional promise." The Challenge is open to projects from universities and nonprofit organizations based in the United States.

Projects must demonstrate a multi-disciplinary approach that uses innovation in wireless related technology to address a critical global issue in one or more of the following areas: access to communication, education, economic development, environment, or health. The
technology should have the potential for replication and large scale impact. Teams should have a business plan or a basic framework for financial sustainability and rollout. Submissions deadline is February 2, 2009.

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Google India's Free SMS Channel

Google Labs in India recenty launched SMS Channels, a new, free SMS messaging service for India only that may prove to be incredibly useful for citizen groups and NGOs.  The service allows anyone to set up a group of mobile subscribers to message to, or for a group to message each other many-to-many. A user can receive news alerts and blog updates via SMS, for example; or a group can group-text message to each other.

There are many commercial group messaging solutions in India where the primary means of mobile communiations is SMS. However, unlike GupShup, Zook, and MyToday, Google’s SMS channel is two-way allowing for SMS discussions and also enabling subscribers to publish to the channel.

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A Mobile Voice: The Use of Mobile Phones in Citizen Media

We are pleased to release the newest MobileActive.org resource, A Mobile Voice: The Use of Mobile Phones in Citizen Media.

In this report we explore the dynamics of the role of mobile phones in enhancing access to and creating information and citizen-produced media.  We explore trends in the use of mobile telephony with a focus on software and platforms that make content creation and broadcasting easier.  We also present an inventory of current and potential uses of
mobile phones to promote citizen media and freedom of information, and present short case studies of examples--all from the MobileActive.org community.

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FrontlineSMS: A MobileActive.org Review

In our ongoing reviews of mobile tools focused on the NGO sector, here is our latest edition: A review of FrontlineSMS, the much-written-about desktop SMs bulk messaging tool. We take a look at some use cases, outline technical considerations in using Frontline, and describe the tests that we ran.

From the review:  

Firstly, and most importantly for many users, FrontlineSMS provides a simple way to send and receive SMS on a laptop or desktp, with contact management and grouping ability for bulk messaging.   Provided installation comes off without a hitch and you are using a supported phone, this should allow new users to get started quickly, after which they can explore some of the more advanced functionality.

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Mobile Surveillance and How to Avoid it: A new primer from MobileActive.org

In our ongoing and ever-expanding series of how-to resources for NGOs and grassroots organizations using mobile technology in their work, we are releasing a new primer on "Mobile Surveillance."  Our reviewer, Melissa Loudon, gives an overview of mobile surveillance risks and tips and tools on how to prevent surveillance for secure communications.

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Open Mobile Consortium Meets in New York

The Open Mobile Consortium, a working group of developers and organizations engaged in open source mobile applications for social change, is meeting in New York at UNICEF today and tomorrow. The Open Mobile Consortium was founded at MobileActive08 to build an open source community for collaboration and shared development between relevant organisations engaged in mobile development for social good.

The goal of the meeting is to assess the landscape of tools, and begin to develop a technical roadmap.  

The Open Mobile Consortium believes that it is critical to overcome frthe current agmentation in this field, and to align existing projects that are developing and implementing mobile tools.  A longer-term vision is to work as an open source consortium, with funding for coordination and project management, as well as code integration, refactoring and producing documentation for training and support. 

MobileActive.org will participate in tomorrow's portion of the event, and report back on key discussions.



Mobile Fundraising Picks of the Month!

I am thinking a lot about how nonprofits and NGOs can use mobile phones for fundraising (this being the holiday season and all) and have been collecting examples of campaigns that I like to extract some lessons and data on how it's working. Here are my picks of some that I have come across. I'll tell you what I like and why (and what's not so great here).  Note that I have no data yet on how WELL they have worked but believe me, we are on it for a whiteb paper on the topic later in the season...So, here is November's pick!

UNICEF's Halloween Trick-or-treat for UNICEF campaign:

  • How it works: Donors can text the word “TOT” to 864233 (UNICEF) to make a $5 donation via premium SMS that gets billed to the user's phone bill or prepaid card. 
  • What's nice about this: This campaign uses the just-in-time feature of mobile perfectly and had great potential to be used during the Halloween season where kids walk around with little donation boxes when the go door to door  -- kids collecting for kids.  Most people at the door give a few coins as opposed to $5, so with the right promotion, this campaign could generate extra money in addition to the collection. 

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Does Mobile Tech Help Women?

Kutoma Wakunumadid a great presentation at MobileActive08 on her research that investigates whether women are benefitting from mobile technology. In this interview, shot by ICT4D.at at MobileActive08 in Johannesburg this year, she discusses how women are using mobile tech, what some of the barriers are, and social implications of mobile communications for women. A blog post about the discussion we had at MobileActive08 about women and mobile phones is here.

Take a look also at the notes from a session on participatory design for mobile tech with and for women here and an earlier article we wrote about women and mobile technology -- Who Will Join This Standing Up.



Observations from Mobile Tech for Social Change Barcamp and Tim Berners Lee!

Thank you again to all who came out for Mobile Tech for Social Change barcamp in San Francisco!  We had a great day at Google.org which graciously hosted us.  Two highlights for me:  A live video conversation with Tim Berners Lee who talked about the need for making the mobile web accessible to all people around the world, and his new Web Foundation.  (Some video from the conversation is here.) It was wonderful to see that Tim understands the importance of mobiles in the next generation of the 'web' when the majority of the world is already accessing the web throught their mobile screens.

The second thing that thrilled me was the enthusiasm, interest, and knowledge displayed at the barcamp where the 80 participants enthusiastically delved into key topics.  We hadmore than 24 session, all user-generated, and many more conversations.  

A few key themes that have been emerging again and again:

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Twitter the Vote and Other Mobile Innovations in America's Election

The 2008 election in America has seen a much greater use of mobile technology than in any election before in this country.  The Obama campaign in particular has been touted as very innovative innovative in its use of using text messages as part of their voter and volunteer engagement, culminating in the unprecendent text message announcement of the vice-presidential pick that went to an estimated million new text subscribers. 

But these are not the only innovations. In the waning days before the election, a number of other efforts stand out that take advantage of mobile phones.  Here are a few:

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Virtual Forum "Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas" 17-28 November 2008

file under:
agriculture, ICTs, rural, telephone

Mobile phones bridge the rural digital divide, bring economic benefits, and act as agents of social mobilization through improved communication. But what are the real challenges of reaching rural areas, and what are some of today’s most beneficial applications that can help rural communities, specifically regarding agriculture development?

The Virtual Forum on "Mobile Telephony in Rural Areas" will examine the challenges that rural communities face in enhancing the benefits of mobile telephony, and look at some examples of interesting initiatives and good outcomes from around the globe.

Subject Matter experts include:

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Invitation to MobileTech for Social Change -- A Barcamp

We are very privileged to co-host MobileTech for Social Change, a barcamp on 4 November 2008 in San Franciso from 10 am - 2 pm.  We are especially pleased to co-organize the event with Dan Appelquist from Mobile2.0, Mobile Monday UK, and Vodacom. Registration is here!

Fresh back from MobileActive08, we'll explore mobile tech to advance social development and social change goals. Expect this to be highly participatory and interactive, and cover anything you wanted to know about using mobiles for social change. MobileTech for Social Change is open to anyone with passion and interest in the topic and since it's a barcamp, bring your ideas, innovations, products, tools, projects, and organizations!

And if you want to be an angel and sponsor the event, contact us at info at mobileactive dot org!  Registration again: Go here!

 



Mobiles and News Gathering at Al Jazeera

With the advent of ubiquitous mobile phones recording video, audio, and photos and easily connecting to a worldwide audience, everyone has the potential to become a citizen reporter on the spot, as news and events are happening.  Traditional news organizations (aka mainstream media) are struggling to keep up and find relevance among the new voices from around the world.  Al Jazeera, the Arab news company (and arguably not exactly mainstream media) has been testing mobile phones with its reporters and for its media coverage. Safdar Mustafa, head of Al Jazeera's mobile media unit, explains how in this coverage from MobileActive08.



More videos are on the MobileActive YouTube channel.