Blog

JD Lasica interviewed me at the Aspen Roundtable on Mobile Phones in Civic Engagement and posted the video on OurMedia - quite fitting. I am talking about MobileActive.org, and how the incredibly innovative and creative people of the MobileActive community are making the world a better place with your work, ideas, and knowledge. I describe some of the great projects that we have featured here - your projects, and your work. Thank you for all you do!

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As the standoff in Zimbabwe continues after the election a week ago, mobile phones are used as a vital communication tool to disseminate news and information - sometimes to the point of jamming the networks. We have previously written about how jokes are used as a way of political expression. Dumisani Ndlela, in Zimbabwe, writes about this as well, and how the networks are overloaded with both messages from abroad and with the county. She also describes the jokes circulating:

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I recently had a chat with Patrick Meier, a doctoral student at Tufts University, and am thrilled to have started a conversation. Patrick is doing his dissertation on what he calls the "iRevolution," activism, repressive regimes and who is winning in the cat and mouse tech game. (And yes, I am paraphrasing!) He generously allowed us to repost one of his pieces on secure SMS and a mobile equivalent to TOR. We'll be in close touch with Patrick as he delves into the research - it's much needed and great work.

By Patrick Meier

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As we've written before, QR codes (a mobile bar code like the one in the image) have great potential for use by nonprofits and advocacy organizations to provide "just-in-time" issue information, be used as a recruitment tool, or provide an easy way to connect with an organization or make a donation. As QR codes become more widely used in the commercial sector, and as more people download the necessary software on their phones to be able to read the codes, nonprofits are likely to take advantage of the codes as well.

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MobileActive was in an article in the Boston Globe yesterday, titled "Ringtones with a conscience." The reporter took her stories from the MobileActive blog and compiled them into an article that describes some of the ways that mobile phones are being used for social good. The article is below, with links to the original MobileActive stories.

The mobile phone is the new call to action.

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In 2005, Samsung released a phone designed especially for women. The phone, with a "curvaceous, feminine design" included applications like a fragrance and aromatherapy guide, a shopping list, a calorie counter, a biorhythm clock, and a calendar to help women keep track of their periods. "Almost every woman will desire it," wrote one reviewer, in a piece entitled "High tech for the ladies."

Those marketers and reviewers have it all wrong.

For women around the world, mobile phones are not about sexy designs and knowing when it's that time of the month. Mobile phones are slowly changing the lives of women who use them and the communities in which they live. They've created a path out of poverty for many women in the developing world, as microfinance and "phone ladies" running businesses increase in numbers. Mobiles are enabling translation for victims of domestic violence in the United States, provide Ukrainian sex workers a way to safety, and protect Philippine domestic workers in the Middle East. Mobile phones are giving voice to female reporters in Africa and encouraging free speech in Egypt. And as mobile phones become increasingly ubiquitous -- they're already at 3.3 billion and counting -- they are likely to continue to influence the lives and societies of the women who use them in the future.

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The newest addition to the MobileActive YouTube channel is a video interview with Tamaryn Nelson, the program coordinator for Latin America and the Carribean at WITNESS. In the interview, Tamaryn discusses the Hub, a website that she calls a "YouTube for human rights," which allows people to upload videos of human rights and create campaigns around them by adding context and joining discussion groups. The site has some videos taken on mobile phones and plans to add direct upload via mobile in the future.

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TxtMob, a group SMS service and its creator, Tad Hirsch, a long-time MobileActive colleague, have ben subpoenaed by the city of New York to turn over information about TxtMob users and activists who participated in the 2004 protests against the Republican National Convention there.

In a blow to privacy and a chilling development to activists, the city, involved in a law suit, has requested that information about text messages, phone numbers, and other personal information is turned over to the city. Support is needed, so please go to TxtMob and donate.

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Erik Hersman, our excellent colleague and friend over at White African writes about a new mobile data collection tool for Africa focused right now on survey and field data capture. His review is reposted here with permission. Great stuff, thanks, Erik!

I was contacted about a month ago by Mark Fowles who works at Clyral, a web and mobile development company based in Hillcrest, outside Durban, in South Africa. He was emailing me to let me know about a new mobile data collection platform called Populi.net.

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Zimbabwe is going to the polls on Saturday and candidates there have made extensive use of mobile phones to get their message out. In what is likely going to be a fraught election with poll irregularities and violence feared, the three main candidates are nonetheless using mobiles to engage their supporters and get them to the polls.

Zimbabweans, faced with a state-controlled media with few independent outlets, are also using text message jokes to express their opinions, as we have reported previously here at MobileActive.org. According to the Voice of America, "One of the most popular messages, at the moment, among Mutare residents is one that reads "President Robert Mugabe should be sent to farm, while Morgan Tsvangirai of the opposition movement For Democratic Change should be sent to school... And [former ruling party finance minister] Simba Makoni must be allowed to rule."

The message is believed to the brain child of Makoni's backers."

The joke refers to Mugabi's controversial land reform, and candidate Twvangirai's limited formal education.

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