Imagine this scenario: A woman in Johannesburg, South Africa, stands at the fish counter in her local supermarket and texts the name of a fish to a phone number. Within seconds, she receives back information via a short text message informing her whether the fish is legally and environmentally harvested, and advising her whether “to tuck in, think twice or avoid completely.”
The shopper is using FishMS, a text messaging-based service that provides point-of-sale information about the impact of fishing on fish stocks, enabling consumers to make informed choices about the seafood they purchase. Infolines provide valuable, just-in-time information, but in the end their real potential is how they change behavior based on the information, and result in concrete actions by consumers and constituents. Infolines can also be a good hook to get people to join your mobile list.
How did they do it?
SASSI, the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative, condensed available research on local fish stocks into wallet-sized cards that organized species into three color-coded categories: green, for species that are not over-fished; orange for fish are legal to sell, but where stocks are not as abundant as ‘green’ species; and red, indicating fish that are illegal to buy and sell in South Africa.
With the collaboration of the World Wildlife Fund, local IT company iVeri.com, and a programmer, SASSI migrated this system to a mobile platform, enabling a wider group of consumers to access more regularly-updated data.
According to SASSI coordinator Jaco Barendse, cell phones are "the ideal way to combine technology and information with the growing awareness that the ocean's resources aren't infinite.”
What was the impact/results?
Between December 2006 and February of 2008, the service in South Africa received 30,000 queries with 7,254 individual users. One of the advantages for Sassi, said Barendese, is the rich data on fish demand that the service has yielded. “We can see that the market is responsive, especially to press releases,” he said. “If something was in the news about a certain type of fish, you can also see the spikes the next day on the usage.”
Barnedese said that one of the goals of the project has been to engage the stores that sell fish. “We not only are engaging the consumers, we're engaging the retail sector,” he said. “It's not just a matter of making people choose things, it's making people question things.” He said that some retailers have called SASSI in response to customers asking about the sustainability of certain fish after using the service.
FishMS Locations
Imagine this scenario: A woman in Johannesburg, South Africa, stands at the fish counter in her local supermarket and texts the name of a fish to a phone number. Within seconds, she receives back information via a short text message informing her whether the fish is legally and environmentally harvested, and advising her whether “to tuck in, think twice or avoid completely.”
The shopper is using FishMS, a text messaging-based service that provides point-of-sale information about the impact of fishing on fish stocks, enabling consumers to make informed choices about the seafood they purchase. Infolines provide valuable, just-in-time information, but in the end their real potential is how they change behavior based on the information, and result in concrete actions by consumers and constituents. Infolines can also be a good hook to get people to join your mobile list.
How did they do it?
SASSI, the Southern African Sustainable Seafood Initiative, condensed available research on local fish stocks into wallet-sized cards that organized species into three color-coded categories: green, for species that are not over-fished; orange for fish are legal to sell, but where stocks are not as abundant as ‘green’ species; and red, indicating fish that are illegal to buy and sell in South Africa.
With the collaboration of the World Wildlife Fund, local IT company iVeri.com, and a programmer, SASSI migrated this system to a mobile platform, enabling a wider group of consumers to access more regularly-updated data.
According to SASSI coordinator Jaco Barendse, cell phones are "the ideal way to combine technology and information with the growing awareness that the ocean's resources aren't infinite.”
What was the impact/results?
Between December 2006 and February of 2008, the service in South Africa received 30,000 queries with 7,254 individual users. One of the advantages for Sassi, said Barendese, is the rich data on fish demand that the service has yielded. “We can see that the market is responsive, especially to press releases,” he said. “If something was in the news about a certain type of fish, you can also see the spikes the next day on the usage.”
Barnedese said that one of the goals of the project has been to engage the stores that sell fish. “We not only are engaging the consumers, we're engaging the retail sector,” he said. “It's not just a matter of making people choose things, it's making people question things.” He said that some retailers have called SASSI in response to customers asking about the sustainability of certain fish after using the service.
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