Today's Mobile Minute features links on fundraising with QR codes, a survey report on how audiences get information, a breakdown of how journalism is changing due to mobile phones, the announcement of a clearer definition of mobile broadband, an open-source, solar-powered mobile network, and five cross-platform mobile development tools.
Today's Mobile Minute covers the unfolding BBM security controversy, Ushahidi's new Crowdmap online platform, a roundup of mobile apps for the disabled, a break down of what mobile ownership numbers actually mean, and the take-away on mobile remittances from the Tech@State conference.
Press One for Freedom Fone, Press Two for Farm Radio: How Stations Use Integrated Voice Response data sheet 4786 Views
Two years ago, Bev Clark, the co-founder of Kubatana.net, was awarded a large grant as part of the Knight News Challenge for Freedom Fone, an open-source software platform for distributing news and information through interactive voice response (IVR) technology. Freedom Fone was officially launched in late February of this year and has since been downloaded about 200 times, said Amy Saunderson-Meyer of Freedom Fone.
Freedom Fone leverages audio as a mobile function using IVR, a technology that allows a system to detect voice and keyboard input. IVR allows a user to call, enter or say specific numbers, and listen to or contribute audio content. (Many readers are already familiar with IVR - you’ve likely encountered it when you call a customer service number and are prompted with instructions to press numbers for different issues or service departments.)
Since the launch, Freedom Fone has provided support to specific organizations including Equal Access in Cambodia, Small World News TV, TechnoServe, One Economy Corporation, and Africa Youth Trust.
Today's Mobile Minute brings you coverage on why the the idea of a "cyber-utopia" is flawed, a demonstration of a hacked phone tower, a report on Alabama's increasingly mobile-based news consumption, licensing iPad and iPhone apps from the New York Times, and mBillionth's mobile awards.
As a part of the Mobile Media Toolkit, we are producing how-to screencasts that show how to use various mobile tools that have to do with the production and dissemination of content and media.
I argued recently that content publishers should publish for the mobile web rather than build more apps. So it only felt appropriate to do a how-to screencast on how to actually produce content for the mobile web. One way is to use the polular and open source blogging software Wordpress as the back-end of the website, and optimize it so the front end is suitable for mobile viewing. We help viewers go through this process in a brief how-to screencast. See it below or click through to the How To article.
How to Mobile-Optimize a Wordpress Website data sheet 12477 Views
Author:
Prabhas Pokharel
Abstract:
Publishing for the mobile web is an important way to reach audiences on mobile phones. This screencast demonstrates an easy-to-use tool that can enable many content producers pubish for the mobile web. Wordpress.org has developed software which lets many around the world create websites fairly easily. This tool, the Wordpress Mobile Pack, makes it easy for those content producers to also publish on the mobile web.
In this short how-to video, we show how easy it is install the Wordpress Mobile Pack and generate a mobile version of websites, along with pointers to the more advanced features of the software.
Publishing for the mobile web is an important way to reach audiences on mobile phones. This screencast demonstrates an easy-to-use tool that can enable many content producers pubish for the mobile web. Wordpress.org has developed software which lets many around the world create websites fairly easily. This tool, the Wordpress Mobile Pack, makes it easy for those web publishers to now publish on the mobile web.
In this short how-to video, we show easy it is install the Wordpress Mobile Pack and generate a mobile version of websites, along with pointers to the more advanced features of the software.
There is a need for tools that let publishers create mobile-optimized websites that are also easy to edit and upload content to. In particular, tools that integrated with existing solutions (like Wordpress.org publishing software) to create mobile websites are needed.
This plug-in takes a Wordpress.org-based site, and mobile-optimizes it. The back-end remains the same as Wordpress.org and is therefore easy to edit and upload content to. The desktop version of the site remains the same as well. What the plug-in adds is the ability for mobile viewers to see a website that is easy to navigate on a mobile handset. Auto-detection of mobile phones, conversion of widgets, and many more features are included.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a server
Key Features :
Adds a mobile switcher so mobile viewers are redirected to a mobile-optimized theme.
Adds several mobile-optimized themes to the set of themes available on Wordpress.
For webkit-enabled devices, has an advanced theme that takes advantage of those features.
Provides a mobile admin panel so the blog can be administered using a mobile phone.
Mobile ad widgets that are easy to integrate with Admob and Google Ads.
The Mobile Minute is here to bring you the day's mobile-for-development new. Today's Minute covers disaster assistance applications on smartphones, a BBC guide to using pocket-sized video cameras for reporting, the UN ICT Hub's first Briefing Report on ICT4D in the Asia-Pacific region, the development of two new systems that allow mobile phones to work in areas with no reception, an intriguing idea for an iPhone app to combat homelessness, and an event on mobile payments in the Tech@State series in Washington DC.
There are now over 5 billion mobile subscriptions around the world. Smartphone ownership is steadily growing, both in the United States and abroad. Smartphone ownership is projected to be above 50% of all mobile phones in the United States by next year. This has many NGOs and other content and media prodicers wondering about how best to produce content for mobile phones (high-end devices, in particular). SMS and voice-based applications have their use cases, but many content producers today are wondering whether to produce a mobile website or a mobile application (app) to distribute their content.
We have a new feature! We want to keep you updated with fresh content all the time - in addition to our-indepth content. So - it’s time for the Mobile Minute, your daily guide to the latest mobile news and information. Today's post covers Google's App Inventor, SMS farming alerts, using a phone for eye exams, why your nonprofit needs a smartphone, and reaching another milestone: 5 billion worldwide mobile subscriptions.
• “Philippines Farmers to Get Rice-Growing Advice Via Text Message.” International Rice Research has developed an SMS program that will text rice farmers information about crops. Farmers fill out information about their crops over their mobiles, and receive back information about timing, fertilizer, and growing amounts. (via Textually.org)
• “Eye Exams Using a Mobile Phone.” MIT researchers developed an eye exam that runs on mobile phones. The article quotes the MIT News, describing the tool as, “In its simplest form, the test can be carried out using a small, plastic device clipped onto the front of a cell phone's screen. The patient looks into a small lens, and presses the phone's arrow keys until sets of parallel green and red lines just overlap. This is repeated eight times, with the lines at different angles, for each eye.”
• “Over 5 Billion Mobile Phone Connections Worldwide.” This BBC article looks at the rapid growth and high penetration rates of worldwide mobile phone subscriptions, examining the mobile boom in India and China, multiple mobile phone ownership, and what those numbers might mean. The article is based on information from Wireless Intelligence, the database for the GSMA. As of this mobile minute, the exact number of subscriptions is at 5,019,477,554.
[Mobile Minute Disclaimer: The Mobile Minute is a quick round-up of interesting stories that have come across our RSS and Twitter feeds to keep you informed of the rapid pace of innovation. Read them and enjoy them, but know that we have not deeply investigated these news items. For more in-depth information about the ever-growing field of mobile tech for social change, check out our blog-posts, white papers and research, how-tos, and case studies.]
[Updated with images] In Grahamstown, South Africa, getting and sharing news is a mobile experience.Grocott’s Mail, a local paper, incorporates mobile phones into many aspects of its news service – from disseminating headlines via SMS, to encouraging readers to text in their opinions, to a Knight Challenge-winning citizen journalist training program.
MXIT: Uses, Perceptions and Self-Justifications data sheet 2132 Views
Author:
Wallace Chigona, Agnes Chigona, Bomkazi Ngqokelela, and Sicelo Mpofu
Publication Type:
Journal article
Abstract:
This paper reports on a pilot study investigating the perceptions and use of Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM) amongst the youth in South Africa. MIMs are enjoying a high adoption rate amongst the youth in South Africa and MXit is by far the most popular MIM. However, the media, parents and educators are overly concerned with the use of the system. The accusations against MXit have included the allegations that it is time-wasting for the youth, it is a hunting ground for paedophiles, and it leads to anti-social behaviours.
It is interesting, however, that despite the negative perceptions of the system, the youth are still using it, and presumably with their parents’ blessings. Data for the study was gathered through in-depth interviews with randomly selected youth who use MXit, as well as with parents of children who use the system.
The study has found that the youth use the system mainly for social networking and that, to most users, the system is more than just a communication tool - it is also part of their lives. The study has also unearthed the perceptions of the users towards fellow users and towards non-users. In addition, it has been noted that both the users and parents of users are employing self-justification strategies to deal with the cognitive dissonance arising from the negative discourse on MXit and their continued use or support of the system. The findings of this study contribute to the understanding of how the youth use new media. The findings could be useful for those who may want to use new media for educating the youth and for marketing purposes
MXit up in the Media: Media Discourse Analysis on Mobile Instant Messaging data sheet 1988 Views
Author:
Agnes Chigona and Wallace Chigona
Publication Date:
Dec 2008
Publication Type:
Journal article
Abstract:
Mobile instant messaging has the potential of providing youth not only with a social space where they can interact and bond but also with a learning environment. MXit is the most popular mobile instant messaging application in South Africa. Due to its nascency, little academic research has been done on the application.
The application has drawn considerable local media interest; however, most of the media coverage has been negative. Media discourse of the application is of academic interest, since media discourse is one of the many ways through which reality is constructed. This means there is a relationship between media discourse and public opinion. Distortions in the media may misinform and engender impaired decision making amongst policymakers as well as members of the public. Discourse analysis can reveal distortions in media communication and counter misinformation.
Using critical discourse analysis, we have analysed the media discourse on MXit by employing the Habermasian concept of the ideal speech situatio and its validity claims as a conceptual tool. The analysis shows that (i) the media discourse is fraught with distortions; (ii) the media have mainly used the voice of adults to legitimise the discourse and marginalise the voices of the youth.
We have another new case study up where we report on an innovative audio-based citizen journalism project in Chhattisgarh, India. Tribal citizen journalists have been reporting news in their own languages through a new service called CGNet Swara. CGNet stands for Chhattisgarh Net). The service allows citizen journalists to call in and record news in one of four local languages. The news that has been produced has been picked up in India's mainstream media, and some reports have led to concrete action: in one case, teachers whose salaries hadn't been paid for months were paid after a news report elicited a calling campaign from listeners. We've previously mentioned the project in a short blog post. This much more extensive case study is a part of some work we have been doing on citizen media projects using audio, radio, and mobile
CGNet Swara is a new audio-based citizen journalism service in Chhattisgarh, India. Citizen journalists can call a phone number to record news, and listeners can call in to hear news recorded by citizens around them. When citizen journalists call, they simply press 1 to record news and record some audio onto the system. Listeners can call the same number, press 2, and hear the last three items that the moderators have selected to be published on to the service.
The moderators receive requests via email when a citizen journalist posts content, after which they verify the report (sometimes adding notice that a report isn't verified, sometimes investigating more, on a case-by-case basis), edit the recording, and publish it. There are currently three moderators, all professionally trained journalists.
In 2008, Bruce Girard concluded in a MobileActive.org guest post that the addition of text messaging technology into the community radio toolkit was still in its infancy. SMS use at radio stations was informal, he wrote, and the few cases of more complex use of SMS messages accompanied political crisis or natural disaster and were largely donor financed.
Two years later, we delve once again into the state of SMS and mobile technology at community radio stations, by way of an informal survey. While advances have been made and creative projects have emerged, integration remains an ad-hoc and individual enterprise.
This report summarizes existing projects and success stories, highlighting the most popular uses of mobile technology. It concludes with a discussion of the challenges that community radio stations face in adopting SMS and mobile technology.
Kenya Connected: Mobile Technology is Linking Journalists to Local Sources data sheet 2411 Views
Author:
Camilla Karlsen
Publication Date:
Jun 2010
Publication Type:
Report/White paper
Abstract:
This study explores how news journalists' working conditions are changing in an African developing country due to the growth in information communication technologies (ICTs). The special focus is set on news journalists' use of mobile technology because the rate of mobile penetration in to Africa is so significant these years that the region is actually driving the mobile market’s growth worldwide with a teledensity of over 50%. Although mobile technology has been in the Africa continent for almost two decades it is only within the last two to five years that people have made regular use of these technologies due to recent improvements in accessibility and cost-efficiency.
Interviews with several Kenyan news journalists and other media actors conducted in January and February 2010 were used as the prime empirical data in the study. Thus, to the extent that mobile technology has an effect on the journalistic working process, the following problem statement and research questions served as a guide for this study and were answered in the analysis that drew upon the theoretical framework of journalistic working processes, gatekeeping theory, disruptive technologies, and ICT for development (ICT4D):
• PS: How do Kenyan news journalists use mobile phones in their work? • RQ1: In which ways does mobile technology affect the journalistic working process? • RQ2: How does mobile technology affect public interaction with the news media?
The findings suggest that Kenyan news journalists use mobile technology in several ways in their work: they set up interview appointments by calling their sources; they conduct telephone interviews; they record interviews using the mobile phone’s microphone which is particularly useful in conflict-sensitive reporting; they send Internet links to their sources whom can read the online news from their mobile phone’s browser. The consequences of journalists’ use of mobile phones are, for instance, that in the past two to five years mobile technology has linked journalists with sources from Kenya's remote areas and enabled the news media to publish reliable stories which would have been difficult to verify a few years ago. Also, the Kenyan public has gained easy access to the news media, for example by participating in radio call-in shows and the information they provide is sometimes researched by journalists and turned into news stories. The traditional gatekeeper role of the press has changed to fact controller, and it is likely that the public's knowledge contribution can help to promote democracy in the country.
We are very interested in the role of mobile phones in citizen media, including how mobile phones can function as a portable newsroom or radio studio. To that end, our latest how-to guide, Mobile Audio Recording in the Field (and how to get a clear sound on the streets), walks you through the process of recording audio content on your mobile phone, whether you are recording from a studio, your home, or in the field.
This how-to is part of the Mobile Media Toolkit, which includes many other case studies, how-to guides, resources, and tools to use mobile phones for reporting, content delivery, and citizen participation.
Bubble Motion is a global provider of mobile messaging and social media applications: BubbleTalk™ service, a personal voice messaging service, Bubbly™, a voice-based social networking service, and BubbleCast™, an audio content broadcasting service.
Mobile Audio Recording in the Field (And How to Get a Clear Sound From the Streets) data sheet 22963 Views
Author:
Melissa Ulbricht
Abstract:
This How-To article provides tips for recording and sharing clear-sounding audio from a mobile phone. Often, recording on a handset is done in less-than-ideal environments. This article offers recording tips to help you capture quality audio to ensure a clear sound, even when you report on the ground and outside of a professional recording studio. We'll describe the best way to create, share and edit audio content depending on what resources you have (or do not have). You will also find a brief outline of some of the most popular and easy-to-use tools for creating, editing, and sharing audio content.
Your mobile phone is an instant audio-recording and storage device, and it can be used anywhere. This How-To article provides tips for recording and sharing clear-sounding audio from a mobile phone. Often, recording on a handset is done in less-than-ideal environments. This article offers recording tips to help you capture quality audio to ensure a clear sound, even when you report on the ground and outside of a professional recording studio. We'll describe the best way to create, share and edit audio content depending on what resources you have (or do not have). You will also find a brief outline of some of the most popular and easy-to-use tools for creating, editing, and sharing audio content. Some tools require a specific call-in number and thus are geographically limited in scope. Other tools are Internet-based and widely available while others are specific to smartphones or iPhones. This article will give you a solid overview of what is available depending on your locale and resources, and will offer guidance for further tips and techniques.
A recently launched campaign at a popular youth radio program in Nepal focuses on the voices of youth - or at least, text messages of youth. Regardless, the SMS campaign seems to be making strides.
UNICEF in Nepal has teamed up with the popular Nepali radio program Saathi Sanga Man Ka Kura, which means "chatting with my best friend." The program, also called SSMK, is run by the non-governmental organization Equal Access Nepal. SSMK has been on the air for 10 years and reaches millions of youth listeners (primarily ages 13 to 26) throughout Nepal. In April, UNICEF and SSMK launched a campaign that allows young listeners to take an active role in a conversation, all via SMS.
Rupa Joshi, a communications specialist with UNICEF, explains the origins of the campaign.
The Mobile Phone and the Public Sphere data sheet 4830 Views
Author:
Janey Gordon
Publication Date:
Jun 2009
Publication Type:
Journal article
Abstract:
This article seeks to explore the influence of the mobile phone on the public sphere, in particular with regard to its effect on news agendas, gatekeepers and primary definers. Using the examples of the Chinese SARS outbreak (2003), the south-east Asian tsunami (December 2004), and the London bombings (July 2005), the author questions the extent to which the mobile phone is challenging conventional and official sources of information.
At times of national and personal calamity, mobile phone is used to document and report events from eyewitnesses and those closely involved. Using multimedia messages (MMS) or text messages (SMS) to communities of friends and families, as well as audio phone calls, mobile phone users may precede and scoop official sources and thwart censorship and news blackouts. They can also provide valuable evidence of what actually occurred. Users are able to take pictures and short films and transmit these rapidly to others along with reports of what is happening where they are; they are also able to access other media broadcasts and the internet. They are what have become known as `citizen journalists'.
The evidence suggests that mobile phone usage is contributing to the public sphere and in some instances is circumventing official repression or inadequate information. There is also an indication that the `mobcam' is capturing images that would otherwise be lost. However, the mainstream media has been quick to take advantage of this citizen journalism and mediate it within its own parameters.
VoxBuilder ODE (Online Development Environment) is a hosted VoiceXML Platform which allows developers to host/test VoiceXML-based Applications on a remote VoiceXML gateway. Similar to other web-based VoiceXML development platforms, such as Tellme Studio, BeVocal etc., voxBuilder provides an external VoiceXML gateway and a configuration application to connect live telephony numbers/extensions with the VoiceXML-based telephony applications. voxPilot provides the environment free for the initial design and development. The application can then be deployed within Europe for a fee. VoxBuilder supports testing of VoiceXML applications from multiple countries by providing local numbers.
Tool Category:
Is a web-based application/web service
Key Features :
A key feature of voxBuilder is that the development environment supports both Text-to-Speech and Speech Recognition in multiple languages. Currently supported languages include Danish, English, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Spanish, Swedish and Turkish. voxBuilder's support for multiple languages is based on an extension attribute "xml:lang" (similar to VoiceXML 2.0) which is applied to the following VoiceXML 1.0 tags - <grammar>, <prompt> and <vxml>.
Bubbly is a voice-blogging service for mobile phones where individuals and celebrities record voice updates heard by friends, family, fans and followers. Bubbly is like Twitter with a voice and is bringing social networking to mobile phones. Bubbly's mobile operator partners include: Airtel, Vodafone, Turkcell, Digi, Indosat, AIS, CSL/New World Mobility.
Tool Category:
App resides and runs on a mobile phone
Key Features :
Venturebeat has covered Bubbly and the service has gained 500,000 users in India. "Bubbly is cell phone service that aims to bring social media to the masses. It builds on the foundation set by Bubble Talk, which has 100 million users who use the service to send voice messages to on other individuals. With Bubbly, messages go to a bigger audience — followers." By offering features that drive phone usage (text and voice), operators are able to use Bubble Motion to drive new sources of revenues that have previously been untapped.
CGNet Swara is a new audio-based citizen journalism service in Chhattisgarh, India. Citizen journalists can call a phone number to record news, and listeners can call in to hear news recorded by citizens around them. When citizen journalists call, they simply press 1 to record news and record some audio onto the system. Listeners can call the same number, press 2, and hear the last three items that the moderators have selected to be published on to the service.
