MobileActive.org

Technology that has been taken for granted by people in wealthy countries is making life easier and safer for many poor in developing countries.

The rapid spread of cellular telephones in many African countries has been a remarkable and unexpected phenomenon particularly when one considers the high levels of poverty and social turmoil that occurs in many of these countries. Last year the Enterprise Africa! team visited Botswana in order to document the poverty alleviating aspects of the cellular telephone. Technology that has long been taken for granted by people in wealthy countries is making life easier, safer, and more prosperous for many, including the poor in developing countries. A result of the rapid diffusion of this technology is the creation of a vast number of jobs and enterprises, enabling many Africans to escape the poverty trap.

The most obvious benefit of cellular telephones is that they provide access to communication where none existed before. Families in remote areas, and farmers and businesses that could not afford or even obtain fixed lines, are now able to talk with loved ones, receive orders, schedule deliveries, and make appointments. Mobile phones were an immediate success, even in areas that already had access to landlines, because in addition to connectivity they offered services like itemised billing, prepaid or contract options, and other value-added services.

LiveEarth, the global music event taking place today, is launching one of the most ambitious mobile campaigns in its effort to organize people worldwide on climate change.

Live Earth is broadcast to more than two billion people with concerts in New York, London, Sydney, Tokyo, Shanghai, Rio de Janeiro, Johannesburg, and Hamburg.

Concert goers and those watching online and on television in four countries will be able to 'answer the call' via sms by texting in a key word in one of six issue areas, pledging to change their behavior to save the earth from climate destruction. Keywords such as home, job, shop, ride, share, and lead can be texted in to short code 82004 in the Unites States and UK, to 70707 in Germany, and 199 66 777 in Australia.

Nokia and Vodafone have launched a new wiki, Share Ideas, designed to help share ideas about how to use mobile phones for civil society. Please check it out!

We are pleased that there is a growing body of academic research on the use of mobile phones in civil society.  While primarily focused on mobiles as a tool for economic development (references), we are learning of a few that are explicitly focused on mobiles in activism.  

Redante Asuncion-Reed just published his Master's on the use of cell phones in activism focusing on a Fahamu, an African-based organization active in the MobileActive Network.   You can download it here.

He writes: