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.
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:
Frontline SMS is free, bulk SMS software designed for NGOs and grassroots organizations. The software is not web-based, so all data is stored on a local computer instead of a central server. It sends SMS messages through either one or more mobile phones or a modem connected to the computer. The initial version was designed by Ken Banks in 2005 and a rebuild was released in May 2008. The most recent version as of this writing is 1.4.8.,released in August 2008.
What is FrontlineSMS?
Frontline SMS is free, bulk SMS software designed for NGOs and grassroots organizations. The software is not web-based, so all data is stored on a local computer instead of a central server. It sends SMS messages through either one or more mobile phones or a modem connected to the computer. The initial version was designed by Ken Banks in 2005 and a rebuild was released in May 2008. The most recent version as of this writing is 1.4.8.,released in August 2008.
Use cases
Perhaps the star use case is that of a Stanford University-sponsored pilot project in Malawi, a pilot slated to run until next year. The project uses SMS to enable communication between St. Gabriel's Hospital, a hospital in Namitete, Malawi, and about 600 rural health workers. Some messages are sent from community health workers asking for doctors visits or to monitor TB or HIV/AIDS drug compliance. Other messages are automated to include information about drug dosage and other medical issues.
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!
Three hundred and eighty people gathered from all over the world in Johannesburg last week to discuss how mobile phones might be used for social and political purposes in developing countries. The event crackled with the kind of energy that happens when people gather on a topic for the first time. Russell Southwood, a prominent researcher and analyst in South Africa, looks at the issues raised by the event. Excerpts follow.
At the core of all this energy was a very simple notion. The technology device of choice for the majority of people in developing continents like Africa is the mobile phone. If you want to deliver messages to people or get them to respond then SMS or voice is an obvious route to go down.
Two great blog-posts wrap up MobileActive08. Ismail Dhorat from ignite^2 gives an overview of one of the best sessions on ReadWriteWeb:
I found this presentation by Tino Kruetzer, a researcher at the University of Cape Town, extremely interesting. It was based on the interim results of a pilot study on mobile internet usage by low income youth in Cape Town. Some of the key findings were:
MobileActive08 delved right into the key issues that we have been talking about for some time now. During the Mobile Cafe in the opening session, key themese emerged that need to be addressed to fully "unlock the potential of mobile tech for social change."
It was rightly noted that we need to make "common ground" - there are lots of small projects that should start sharing notes, tech, and experiences. This is one of the key reasons, of course, why we co-convened MobileActive08 - to bring the best and the birghtest people in this field together to start comparing notes. Several participants talked about the importance of voice. Much attention is focused on SMS and higher-end applications but voice is often neglected.
The cost of mobile communication is a hug barrier for many projects that needs to be addressed in order to go beyond a small proof-of-concept phase to anything resembling sustainable use of mobiles.
As more than 300 mobile social innovators set out to Johannesburg to convene at MobileActive08, we wanted to let you know how you can follow the proceedings and participate remotely. We will be blogging many of the amazing sessions here on this blog, on MobileActive08's blog; and you can follow and discuss proceedings through these channels:
There is yet another competition focused on mobile app development, this time sponsored by USAID and Netsquared. Starting on October 13, Development 2.0 will reward the innovative uses of mobile technologies for international development withup to $10,000 for the winner. While this is less than some of the other recent competitions, applicants can get advice and improve their ideas and clarify their project submissions during the entire application process on a project gallery.
A open voting process will determine the best projects, and then a jury of USAID senior staff will select the final winners. More info is here.
Other compeitions open right now:
Knight News Challenge -- $5 million awarded to digital media projects, including mobile citizen media projects;
How are social movements in the global South taking advantage of the ubiquity of mobile phones? Melissa Loudon, a researcher now working at the University of Capetown, looked at how the South African Treatment Action Campaign (TAC) is using mobiles in their work to advocate for a comprehensive HIV/AIDS policy in South Afric, and wrote this article based on her research.
Kevin Gillan, a researcher on the British anti-war movement, describes social movements as “definitionally collective and communicative”. Co-ordination of protest action, mobilisation of financial resources and strategic interaction would be almost unthinkable without information and communication technologies (ICTs). Although the importance of mass media to social movements has long been recognised, new ICTs burst on the scene in 1999 when demonstrators in the 'Battle of Seattle' orchestrated unprecedented protest action using mobile phones, email and the Internet. Ever since, ICTs have been accepted as an integral part of mobilisation in the North.
This article was written by Lisa Campbell of the Youth Action Network and is reprinted here with permission. Lisa's research and articles are on her blog Mobile Revolutions.
Mobile phones are the first telecommunications technology to be more popular in developing nations, than their developed counterparts, far outnumbering internet coverage (Zuckerman 2007). More and more people are using their phones to access the internet instead of computers. Soon there will be more cell phone users than literate people on the planet. This signifies a shift into a new age of digital literacy, where avatars, emoticons, pictures, sounds and videos often hold more power than names and numbers.
Economists around the world are hailing cell phones as the solution for ICT development and a ray of hope in bridging the digital divide.
In our occasional mobile tool reviews, we are featuring this week two reviews of similar mobile applications that provide bulk messaging focused on NGO needs. Today's review is of RapidSMS, an open source enterprise level bulk messaging application developed by UNICEF. Later this week we'll be reviewing FrontlineSMS, the much-touted grassroots bulk messaging desktop application.
