MobileActive's Blog

By Bruce Girard, reposted with permission.

At first glance SMS text messages would seem like a natural for inclusion in a community radio station’s essential toolkit. SMS messages are inexpensive and easy-to-use and in recent years the mobile phones that are needed for sending and receiving them have become ubiquitous. However, an informal survey of recent projects indicates that use of SMS messages among community media in the developing world is still at an early stage. In most stations SMS use is informal. The few cases identified of community stations making more complex use of SMS messages have accompanied political crises or natural disasters and have inevitably been donor financed. There are few, if any, experiences of complex uses of SMS by community media without external funding and technical support, even though the financial and technical resources required are minimal.

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In 2007, Sierra Leone had its first election since the end of a 10-year civil war. Previous elections had been run by the United Nations (UN), and there was fear that these highly contested elections would not be run fairly and transparently under the Sierra Leone National Election Commission (NEC).

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The news is coming. Or at least that's what Guy Berger titled his Knight News Challenge project, which aims to connect diverse populations in Grahamstown, South Africa to news through mobile phone- based citizen journalism and news delivery. Berger, head of the School of Journalism and Media Studies at Rhodes University was recently awarded a Knight News Challenge grant, which funds "digital information innovations that transform community life."

Berger talked with MobileActive about the project. "This is hyperlocal," he said.

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A journlalist I know, Jatindra Dash from the eastern Indian state of Orissa, started this rather interesting SMS-based news-service in the Oriya language which is spoken by some 31 million people.

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SANGONeT and MobileActive.org invite you to register now for MobileActive08.  MobileActive08 is the only global gathering that is connecting leaders who are working at the convergence of civil society, mobile technology and social change.  If you:

• have expertise in the field of mobile technology for social development,
• are a researcher working on mobile technology for social impact, or
• are a mobile service provider with interest in the social market,

MobileActive08 is for you.  Register now!

MobileActive08 is the largest event to date focused on mobile technology for social development. This global gathering brings together people like you - practitioners, researchers, technologists and donors experienced and interested in the use and application of mobile technology for social impact.  Register now!

At MobileActive08 you will explore how mobile phones are effectively used to advance civil society work, assess the current state of knowledge in the use of mobile technology to advance social development, and investigate trends, needs and investment opportunities.

We will cap attendance at 350 people and we expect to fill up quickly, so please register now to ensure your participation. Our partners at SANGONet and we at MobileActive.og look forward to welcoming you to South Africa!

Mobile social marketing works in increasing awareness and moving people to actions. It is also becoming an effective way to engage users and constituents. Throughout our experience with mobile campaigns, we've run into the some great campaigns and some failures as well.

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Curious how your state ranks on reproductive choice? NARAL Pro-Choice America makes it easy to find out. By texting the word "grade" and the abbreviation of your state to a short code, you get an almost-instantaneous text response with your state's grade and opportunities for more information. "One of the reasons we decided to invest in mobile technology is we want to diversify how we're communicating with people," said Kristin Koch, Deputy Director of Communications at NARAL. NARAL recently began a mobile program -- they're calling it Txt4Choice -- and has been exploring how to use mobile in ways that compliment and integrate into their already developed communications strategy.

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Note: This primer was written for the NTEN newsletter, targeted at a US audience and thus focuses on America. For more on mobile advocacy in many other parts of the world, see here.

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Preparations for MobileActive08 are in full swing! MobileActive08 is all about mobiles for social impact - and submissions for some great sessions on mobiles in health, data collection, humanitarian relief, advocacy, human rights, environmental protection and other areas.  

We are still accepting proposals for sessions for MobileActive08 with YOUR ideas for mobiles of social impact until June 30th. MobileActive08 will take place in Johannesburg October 13-15.

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