MobileActive's Blog

On day three of MobileActive ’08, I attended a session led by engineer Blaine Cook, formerly Twitter’s Chief Architect.

Cook summarized what the group was looking for:

“We would like an ongoing, up-to-date tool. A migration tool that keeps us moving from one social network to the next so NGO’s can move and migrate from platform to platform. We need the ability for any one organization to connect with any other organization.”

Mixit was mentioned as a useful tool, but Cook noted cross-border interoperability issues: Mixit requires GPRS which isn’t that credible across borders. Using a SIM card costs a lot to text across borders. Cook suggested that there could be a network where you send to SIM chip in Uganda from Uganda, but set up a network with nodes to dramatically cut costs of cross-border activism.

Cook said that it costs around $20,000-30,000 for a short code in the US and you can send as many SMS’s as you like. He mentioned that Twitter got a bill for $37,000 in Egypt for only 6000 Twitter users.

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On day two of the MobileActive ’08 conference in Johannesburg, I attended a session entitled "In the Elevator With Operators: How to Pitch New Service Ideas to Mobile Companies” that focused on how to pitch mobile development projects that present both a social and a business opportunity. It was moderated by Jesse Moore of the GSMA Development Fund, and panelists were Pieter Verkade, the CMO of MTN South Africa, and Vuyani Jurana, executive director at Vodacom SA.

At some point, people with new mobile ideas in the development field need to get mobile operators involved so services can scale from small pilot projects to sustainable efforts that service many more people. As Moore said: “If you’re losing money, scale is your enemy. If you’re making money, scale is your friend.”

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Google Labs in India recenty launched SMS Channels, a new, free SMS messaging service for India only that may prove to be incredibly useful for citizen groups and NGOs.  The service allows anyone to set up a group of mobile subscribers to message to, or for a group to message each other many-to-many. A user can receive news alerts and blog updates via SMS, for example; or a group can group-text message to each other.

There are many commercial group messaging solutions in India where the primary means of mobile communiations is SMS. However, unlike GupShup, Zook, and MyToday, Google’s SMS channel is two-way allowing for SMS discussions and also enabling subscribers to publish to the channel.

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We are pleased to release the newest MobileActive.org resource, A Mobile Voice: The Use of Mobile Phones in Citizen Media.

In this report we explore the dynamics of the role of mobile phones in enhancing access to and creating information and citizen-produced media.  We explore trends in the use of mobile telephony with a focus on software and platforms that make content creation and broadcasting easier.  We also present an inventory of current and potential uses of
mobile phones to promote citizen media and freedom of information, and present short case studies of examples--all from the MobileActive.org community.

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In our ongoing reviews of mobile tools focused on the NGO sector, here is our latest edition: A review of FrontlineSMS, the much-written-about desktop SMs bulk messaging tool. We take a look at some use cases, outline technical considerations in using Frontline, and describe the tests that we ran.

From the review:  

Firstly, and most importantly for many users, FrontlineSMS provides a simple way to send and receive SMS on a laptop or desktp, with contact management and grouping ability for bulk messaging.   Provided installation comes off without a hitch and you are using a supported phone, this should allow new users to get started quickly, after which they can explore some of the more advanced functionality.

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In our ongoing and ever-expanding series of how-to resources for NGOs and grassroots organizations using mobile technology in their work, we are releasing a new primer on "Mobile Surveillance."  Our reviewer, Melissa Loudon, gives an overview of mobile surveillance risks and tips and tools on how to prevent surveillance for secure communications.

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The National Council of Resistance of Iran reported recently that SMS use in Iran is now regulated. According to the article, the Organization of Communications Regulations in Iran has imposed restrictions on sending SMS, requiring a security check by the Ministry of Intelligence and Security (MOIS) to receive clearance for using the service.

The article details the regulation: "Sending SMS deemed contrary to national security will be punishable by law. Any change of address by the subscriber of the service must be reported promptly to the relevant authorities. It is the security agents who decide which SMS are in breach of national security."  The article further states that "according to some figures every day over 20 million text messages are received in Iran, the peak hours are between ten in the evening and one in the morning. The SMS has become a tool to exchange messages by opponents of the regime."

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The Open Mobile Consortium, a working group of developers and organizations engaged in open source mobile applications for social change, is meeting in New York at UNICEF today and tomorrow. The Open Mobile Consortium was founded at MobileActive08 to build an open source community for collaboration and shared development between relevant organisations engaged in mobile development for social good.

The goal of the meeting is to assess the landscape of tools, and begin to develop a technical roadmap.  

The Open Mobile Consortium believes that it is critical to overcome frthe current agmentation in this field, and to align existing projects that are developing and implementing mobile tools.  A longer-term vision is to work as an open source consortium, with funding for coordination and project management, as well as code integration, refactoring and producing documentation for training and support. 

MobileActive.org will participate in tomorrow's portion of the event, and report back on key discussions.

I am thinking a lot about how nonprofits and NGOs can use mobile phones for fundraising (this being the holiday season and all) and have been collecting examples of campaigns that I like to extract some lessons and data on how it's working. Here are my picks of some that I have come across. I'll tell you what I like and why (and what's not so great here).  Note that I have no data yet on how WELL they have worked but believe me, we are on it for a whiteb paper on the topic later in the season...So, here is November's pick!

UNICEF's Halloween Trick-or-treat for UNICEF campaign:

• How it works: Donors can text the word “TOT” to 864233 (UNICEF) to make a $5 donation via premium SMS that gets billed to the user's phone bill or prepaid card. 
• What's nice about this: This campaign uses the just-in-time feature of mobile perfectly and had great potential to be used during the Halloween season where kids walk around with little donation boxes when the go door to door  -- kids collecting for kids.  Most people at the door give a few coins as opposed to $5, so with the right promotion, this campaign could generate extra money in addition to the collection. 

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