Posted by KatrinVerclas on Nov 12, 2007
MobileActives, start coding! We called for an "Android for Good" last week and here it is. Google and the Open Handset Alliance's open platform released its software developer kit (SDK) today and issues a mobile application challenge that includes a call for applications for humanitarian benefit and economic development. The challenge will issue a total of $10 million USD, initially in a first phase that will award $25,000 each to 50 applications received by March 3rd, 2008. The second part of the challenge, launched after the first handsets built on the Android platform become available in the second half of 2008, will then award ten $275,000 and ten $100,000 prizes for the most promising apps that warrant further development.
According to the FAQ, the Alliance is "looking to reward innovative, useful apps that make use of Android's capabilities to deliver a better mobile experience." These include applications in these areas:
Posted by CorinneRamey on Nov 12, 2007
Bloggers, activists and organizers in Pakistan are using SMS - short test messages - to coordinate protests and send updates on the political situation since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf imposed martial law on November 3. Only 12% of Pakistanis have access to the internet and therefore mobile phones are a particularly useful communication tool in the current media blackout, imposed since emergency rule was imposed. Bloggers in Pakistan report that November 3 had the "highest number" of SMS messages sent -- an average of about 10 per mobile phone.
Posted by CorinneRamey on Nov 09, 2007
Understanding a housing mortgage isn't easy, especially within today's so-called subprime mortgages filled with legalese, deceptive interest rates and dishonest brokers. Having English as a second language doesn't make it any easier. Jeremy Liu and Tad Hirsch, the developers of Speakeasy, are using mobile phones to help non-English speakers fight the subprime mortgage crisis in the United States with an Asian-language specific foreclosure prevention hotline. MobileActive interviewed Liu for more information on this still-developing project.
Liu and Hirsch have developed a hotline that will connect Asian-language speakers faced with foreclosure or subprime mortgages with information in their native languages. Liu said that although similar hotlines exist in Spanish, there is no language-specific hotline for Asian languages. This leads to an information gap for Asian homeowners with subprime mortgages, many of whom don't know where to turn for foreclosure prevention assistance.
Posted by KatrinVerclas on Nov 06, 2007
I interviewed Paul Currion for a research project for the UN Foundation and Vodafone Group Foundation that will be released next year. I asked him about the "state of affairs" of using mobile phones in disaster relief work and humanitarian emergencies. Veritable blogger that he is, he summarized his thoughts on his blog and gave permission to cross-post here.
"I just had an interesting conversation with Katrin Verclas of Mobileactive, who is doing some research into cellphone use in different sectors, and in the course of our discussion a few points emerged about how cellphones are being used in the humanitarian sector.
Posted by KatrinVerclas on Nov 05, 2007
Google announced today Android and of the Open Handset Alliance, throwing wide open the field of mobile applications for commercial and social and civic causes and potentially much cheaper handsets that are especially important in developing countries. We here at MobileActive.org think that this will spur developments for the social sector that are faster and cheaper -- an "Android for Good."
The Open Handset Alliance is a consortium of more than 30 tech and mobile companies and Android is its open platform. Google's support of the project and development of the new mobile app software stack that includes an operating system, moddleware and open applications development is significant and seen as a major competitor to other mobile platform providers such as Microsoft, RIM, and Symbian.
Posted by CorinneRamey on Nov 02, 2007
We reported a few days ago on the use of a text-to-screen campaign by the advocacy coalition It's OUR Healthcare! (IOH) in California. Now that the campaign is over, we've interviewed the organizers for more details on this innovative use of SMS in political advocacy.
Matt Lockshin, the online organizer for the It's OUR Healthcare! campaign sat down with us for a conversation. Lockshin told us that although the campaign dealt with some technical challenges, he was pleased with the quantity of SMS messages received and the response from media, political advocacy groups, and people in California.
Posted by CorinneRamey on Nov 01, 2007
Imagine buying drugs to cure malaria, only to find that the ineffective medicine contains a mixture of chalk and starch. Or imagine taking counterfeit birth control and finding yourself pregnant, or getting inoculated for meningitis -- as was the case with 2,500 people in Niger -- and finding that the vaccine was deadly.
Posted by JSHolly on Oct 31, 2007
Educational Message Services and Southern Nevada Health District will be launching a new SMS program to help LGBTs in Las Vegas connect to smoking cessation programs. A first of its kind software interface will enable program administrators to publish packages of information into an SMS platform. LGBTs will be encouraged to text the program to vote for favorite male models, clubs, DJs etc, then once opted into the network, they will receive a series of logic questions and answers to determine the kind of messages they receive at weekly intervals for the duration of the program, i.e. smokers, friend of smoker, or alerts about smoke-free events in Las Vegas. The project is being funded by a grant from American Legacy, and the data collected by the SMS messaging will be researched by Dr. William Evans at University of Nevada, Reno. For information, contact Jonathan, email: jonathan@emsmail.org, or call 805-653-6000
Posted by CorinneRamey on Oct 31, 2007
California Activist Coalition It's OUR Healthcare has launched a new SMS campaign broadcasting text messages on a screen in Sacramento. The campaign is in response to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's latest health care proposal, which IOH says disregards issues of affordability, deductibles and coverage. The legislature is holding its first hearing on the issue today.
Posted by KatrinVerclas on Oct 30, 2007
Imagine an industry conference of IP communciations where coders are mashing up an SMS application for a small NGO researching best practices for poverty alleviation. We were curious about what that might look like, so MobileActive.org is at the annual VON conference, the industry gathering of IP communications firms. At its unconference-style Innovation Track, there will be gathering of coders producing an SMS platform for an NGO focused on evaluating poverty alleviation efforts in developing countries. The mashup sponsored by the Thomas Howe Company, a Voice over IP (VOIP) communications firm that focuses on mashups for the enterprise.
We published a recent call for submission of use cases when we first learned about this effort. While typically these kind of 'volunteer coding' projects lack in long-term sustainability and enterprise-level scaling, we are interested in seeing what will become of this mobile text-to-speech platform that will be used in evaluating microfinance loan offerings in the Phillippines and South Africa.
