I have been meaning for a while to respond to a paper Rebekah Heacock, a graduate student at Columbia, wrote last year. Hancock describes in Mobile Activism in African Elections (PDF) three recent elections in Kenya, Nigeria, and Sierra Leone, and how mobile technology was used for both crowd-sourced and systematic election monitoring.
She poses that:
The proliferation of mobile phones in Africa is transforming the political and social landscape of the developing world, empowering people to source and share their own information and to have a greater say in what comes to international attention. This paper compares the use and impact of mobile technology in three recent African elections: Nigeria, Sierra Leone and Kenya.
On November 3, 2007 Pakistan's President Musharraf declared a state of emergency and martial law in Pakistan, suspending the Pakistan constitution. During the next three months, during the short-lived emergency rule, Bhutto's assassination, and the general election in February of 2008, there was an unprecedented outpouring of citizen media, organizing and information sharing facilitated by new media -- blogging, mobile phones, and online video.
Huma Yusuf, an astute and eloquent journalist based in Karachi, has reported now on the convergence of old and new media during the 'Pakistan emergency,' as it is most often referred to in the country. It is a must-read document for anyone interested in citizen media, particularly in times of political turmoil, for the wealth of insights it provides on the current uses of digital media and the opportunities for future work in this area.
The guys of ICT4D.at shot some great videos of the two key people at Souktel and at Ushahidi -- Jacob Korenblum and Eirk Hersman -- describing their respective projects. Even though filmed a few months ago, both describe vividly how they are using mobiles in their work. Well worth watching!
The CODEO Election Observation Center for the all-important 2008 Ghanaian election is a busy place. Data operators are sitting on rows of computers monitoring incoming SMS messages from 1,000 polling stations around the country. Mobile phones are ringing constantly with calls from the observers in the field. Maps of the 230 constituencies in Ghana adorn the walls of the modern building at the Kofi Annan International Peacekeeping Training Center in Accra.
The Observation Center, affectionately called the "OC" by CODEO staffers, is the technology hub of the massive amounts of qualitative and vote count data that is pouring in from the more than 4,000 election observers deployed by CODEO, the Coalition of Domestic Election Observers. This makes it by far the largest deployment of election observers in this year's election. Mobile technology, and text messaging in particular, is playing a critical piece in relaying both qualitative data on how the election is being conducted, and quantitative data that will verify the official results issued by the Ghanaian Election Commission.
The 2008 election in America has seen a much greater use of mobile technology than in any election before in this country. The Obama campaign in particular has been touted as very innovative innovative in its use of using text messages as part of their voter and volunteer engagement, culminating in the unprecendent text message announcement of the vice-presidential pick that went to an estimated million new text subscribers.
But these are not the only innovations. In the waning days before the election, a number of other efforts stand out that take advantage of mobile phones. Here are a few:
I have long been a great fan of Paul Notzold, the ingenious SMS graffiti artist and inventor of Txtual Healing. He is embarking on a 10-night tour through key states in America, projecting interactive displays where bystanders can text in why they are voting for Obama. Paul is famous for his interactive and whimsical SMS displays.
He describes how it works: "The simple explanation is that it’s a cellphone paired to a mac using proprietary software, custom scripting and graphics, and then the results are displayed through a projector connected to the computer. The whole system is mobile and with the right projector/beamer, quite bright."
The tour will lead him through so-called battleground states that are contested for the presidential vote: Indiana, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania. If you are in any of the states, go visit with him and text in why you are voting for Obama!
CNN recently reported on mobiles in election monitoring -- providing real-time data from the polling stations transmitted via mobiles. The article asserts: "The humble mobile phone is driving a new revolution which some experts hope could bring fairer elections and democracy to some African states. During the 2006 local government elections in Senegal, Radio Sud used reporters and correspondents with cell phones to call in what they saw. Many African countries have struggled against rigged elections and authoritarian rule since gaining independence last century. However, African observers say the growth of simple communication technologies like cell phones are assisting many states to progress towards open and fair elections in increasingly democratic systems."
CNN argues that the use of mobile phones increases accountability in elections and allows "independent media, especially radio, to provide accurate coverage of elections and make it more difficult for ruling parties to cheat and get away with it."
A new study from the University of Manchester argues that conflict is benefitial to mobile infrastructure investments. These investments have long thought to be dependent on 'pillars' like security and stability, finance and infrastructure, workers and labour markets, and the regulatory framework and tax. "Overarching all of these, the view is that good, stable governance forms the crucial basis for investment," write Agnieszka Konkel and Richard Heeks from the University of Manchester in the UK.
The idea was clever: Promise political supporters first dibs of hard-hitting news delivered via SMS. Presidential candidate Barack Obama's much-anticipated vice-presidential pick was supposed to be sent to his supporters via text message and email first - notifying people who had signed up with the campaign before the media, before anyone else. The buzz was on, and even though numbers are not released by the campaign, it is estimated that the campaign has now a list of about 1 million mobiles numbers when more and more people signed up to be the first to know who the campaign had picked as VP.
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).
Faced with the challenge of monitoring elections in a country that lacks infrastructure and reliable Internet access to transmit election data by conventional means, the monitoring group National Election Watch, abbrviated NEW, used a unique tool to transmit election data: SMS. (MobileActive.org had written prevoiously about this election and the role of SMS - see Texting It In: Monitoring Elections With Mobile Phones)
Polling via SMS can be a unique way to engage current supporters and attract new audiences. Polls can ask any number of questions, from opinions about an organization to views on a controversial issue. However, perhaps the most valuable aspect of polling isn’t the feedback that organizations receive directly from a poll, but rather the relationships with constituents and growing mobile support base that polls can help build.
Organizations engage in mobile polling for two reasons:
to generate a list of mobile numbers to use for future communications and engagement
to get an informal sense of constituent views for use on an organization's web site, for generating media coverage, and learn more about a particular segment of its constituency.
Mobile Phones for Polling and Engagement includes a case study of polls conducted by Media Focus on Africa (MFAF) as part of their Election Assistance Campaign, which sought to promote civic participation and discussion of political issues prior to the December 2007 Kenyan elections. Through SMS polling, MFAF asked its constituents some tough questions.
Should politicians accused of corruption be prevented from vying for political seats? Is tribal identity more dominant than the identity of being a Kenyan? Can voting still deliver credible results after the chaotic party nominations and bribery?
The questions were advertised on television, radio shows, and newspaper advertisements. Thousands of Kenyans responded to the polls via SMS on their mobile phones, helping to bring issues of voting and civic participation into the national conversation.
Thousands of people download voter registration forms every day from Rock the Vote, but they don't necessarily know the voter registration deadline for their state. We're all busy and it can sometimes take people a few days or weeks before they print and mail the registration form. One of the programs we've been testing at Rock the Vote is the use of text messages to remind young people of their registration deadline. Our early evaluation results from the primaries indicate that these SMS reminders boosted registration rates of our registrant list by about 4% points!
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.
Limbo, a mobile marketing company, provided three of the U.S. presidential candidates with free mobile advertising. The goal was to measure how voting intentions and perceptions change with SMS advertising.
The results were surprising, Limbo's Chief Marketing Officer Rob Lawson told MobileActive. SMS advertising changed the "voting intentions" of 28% of the people who received the messages and about 14% of recipients said they viewed the candidates more positively after the campaign. "I was surprised by the impact on voting intention," said Lawson. "I thought people would be comfortable receiving them, but I didn't think it would cause them to pay more attention to the candidates."
This February 5th isn't just any Tuesday in the United States. It's Super Tuesday, so named because 23 of the 50 states are holding presidential primaries, making it the contest that could potentially determine the all-important presidential Democratic and Republican nominees.
Television station MTV (Music Video Television) has an innovative new effort to get out the youth vote and merge citizen journalism with mainstream media. The effort, dubbed "Street Team '08," is made possible through mobile phones.
We are occasionally commissioned to write introductory articles about the mobile revolution and implications for NGOs for various publications. Here is one broad overview of some areas where mobiles are deployed in civil society.
Cellphones have become the most ubiquitous communication device in the hands of human beings. There are an estimated 3.5 billion mobile phones in use and there is coverage in even remote corners of the world. Cellphones have revolutionized not just the way we work and organize within cultures and societies, but have the potential to change how NGOs (non-governmental organizatios) operate.
Mobile phones are already experimentally used in multiple ways by NGOs. We at MobileActive.org have been tracking how organizations in areas such as health and disease prevention, economic development, humanitarian relief, democratic participation, and advocacy are using mobile phones to make their work more effective and efficient.
Following are a few examples of what we have seen and where we think mobile phones have potential to be used more strategically by NGOs.
Groundviews is now featuring its latest content on mobile devices. Go to http://groundviews.mofuse.mobi/ to access articles from the award-winning Sri Lanka citizen journalism site on a mobile phone. Groundviews mobile works with Blackberry’s, the iPhone and all recent Nokia, Sony Ericsson, LG, Samsung and other mobile phones capable of and set up for Internet access. Our site does not require 3G or high speed connectivity and is not tied to any mobile operator or service.
Groundviews - http://www.groundviews.org - Sri Lanka's first and award winning citizens journalism website features ideas, opinions and analyses on humanitarian issues, media freedom, human rights, peace, democratic governance and constitutional reform.
Post-election violence has exploded in Kenya in the wake of the December 27 presidential elections. Ethnic killings -- which today's New York Times suggests may have been carefully planned -- have increased, and estimates of the death toll range from 650 to over 1000. In the midst of this, people both in and outside the country are using mobile phones in innovative ways to communicate political knowledge and circumvent the media blackout.
Political ringtones, wallpapers, and SMS election updates are part and parcel of election campaigns in countries around the world -- from Spain to Kenya to the Phillipines, from Argentina to the Ukraine. It is has taken until this year's presidential election, however, for political contenders the United States to catch up.
When most mainstream media report on Kenya's upcoming elections, they focus on the perspectives of people in cities or urban areas. However, since this October citizen journalists using cell phones have reported on news and political perspectives from rural Kenyan communities. A new collaboration between Media Focus on Africa and the Arid Lands Information Network (ALIN) gives mobile phones to "Community Information Volunteers" to use as a reporting tool.
The BBC is reporting how the king of Spain's recent undiplomatic outburst at the Venezuelan president has become a ringtone hit across Spain. An estimated 500,000 people have downloaded the insult featuring the words "Why don't you shut up?", generating a reported 1.5m euros ($2 million). King Juan Carlos asked Hugo Chavez to "shut up" at a summit in Chile after Chavez said that Spain's ex-PM Jose Maria Aznar was a "fascist". In Venezuela, a group of students who oppose Mr Chavez's government have also been downloading the ringtone. Companies selling the ringtones have avoided legal problems concerning breach of the king's image rights by using an actor to voice the line.
Bloggers, activists and organizers in Pakistan are using SMS - short test messages - to coordinate protests and send updates on the political situation since Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf imposed martial law on November 3. Only 12% of Pakistanis have access to the internet and therefore mobile phones are a particularly useful communication tool in the current media blackout, imposed since emergency rule was imposed. Bloggers in Pakistan report that November 3 had the "highest number" of SMS messages sent -- an average of about 10 per mobile phone.
The government of Togo has banned the use of SMS by the Rally of the Togolese People (RPT), the Togolese ruling political party, reports Highway Africa News Agency. The High Authority for Audiovisual Communications (HAAC), a press regulation body, has prohibited the messages because voters viewed the SMS as intimidation, calling them "unfair propaganda" and an "illicit practice."
According to the News Agency, voters had complained about unsolicited SMS messages received from the RPT in view of the upcoming legislative election on this Sunday, October 14. Supposedly, part of the message read, "To maintain the current dynamics of reconciliation and economic growth and social stability, vote RPT." The HAAC "has asked the country's political parties to follow the law or face the wrath of the law."
