A global network of people using mobile technology for social impact.
Picture this: it’s October 7, 2011, and a major hazard hits a highly vulnerable population resulting in a devastating disaster. The entire humanitarian response community mobilizes within 48 hours. Days later, the cell phone network is back up and dozens of SMS systems are activated by large and small organizations. Two or three of these systems use short codes thanks to rapid collaboration with the country’s national telecommunication companies. The other SMS systems all use long codes.
That picture concerns me, a lot. The technology community’s response to Haiti has demonstrated that using SMS to communicate with disaster affected communities can save lives, hundreds of lives. Humanitarian organizations and NGOs have all taken note and nothing will prevent them from setting up their own SMS systems in the near future. This wouldn’t worry me if coordination wasn’t already a major challenge in this space.
Let me elaborate on the above picture.
Picture further that one organization decides to send out regular SMS broadcasts to the disaster affected communities to improve their situational awareness and prevent panic. This is an important service during the first few days of a disaster. But imagine that this organization does not provide a way for users receiving this information to unsubscribe or to specify exactly what type of information they would like and for which locations. Next suppose that three NGOs set up long codes to do the same. Now imagine that two major organizations independently set up an alerts SMS system, asking individuals to text in their location and most urgent needs.
This is an information disaster in the making for communities in crisis.
So what are we going to do to prevent the above picture from turning into reality? The group Communicating with Disaster Affected Communities (CDAC) is probably best placed to support a coordinating role in this space. But before we even get to this, our own community should start drafting an “SMS Code of Conduct for Disaster Response” for ourselves. I can think of no better way to start the process by using distributed cognition (aka crowdsourcing). This blog post on lessons learned and best practices may be informative as well.
Here are a few ideas to begin with:
There are likely dozens more points we could add. So please feel free to do so in the comments section below. I will then create a more structured Google Doc out of your replies and send this out for further peer reviewing.
When Public Radio Exchange (PRX) developed the free Public Radio Player for the iPhone, the nonprofit hoped for 500,000 downloads. It now has 2.5 million. "I'm very happy with that number," says PRX executive director Jake Shapiro.
He should be. The PRX dev team has already cranked out two great iPhone apps, one for public radio in general and one for the popular show This American Life in particular. Both apps have positioned public radio as a major force when it comes to on-demand mobile applications.
Read the comments on this post
nate@arstechnica.com (Nate Anderson)Guest blogger Marie Bjerede is Vice President of Wireless Education Technology at Qualcomm, Inc., where she focuses on addressing the technical, economic, social, and systemic challenges to enabling every student to gain the advantages afforded those who have 24/7 mobile broadband access.
In most schools, cell phones are checked at the door -- or at best powered off during school hours in a tacit "don't ask, don't tell" understanding between students and administrators. This wide-spread technology ban is a response to real concerns: if kids have unfettered instant access to the Internet at school, how do we keep them safe, how do we keep out inappropriate content, how do we prevent real-time cyberbullying, how do we even keep their attention in class when competing with messaging, gaming, and surfing?
At the same time, though, there is a growing sense among education thought leaders and policy leaders that not only are cell phones here to stay but there seems to be interesting potential to use these small, connected computers that so many students already have. I've been insanely fortunate over the past year to work closely with Wireless Reach (Qualcomm's strategic social initiative) and real innovators in education who are finding that cell phones in classrooms don't have to be a danger or a distraction but, in fact, can help kids learn in some surprising ways.
During the 2007-2008 school year, Wireless Reach began funding Project K-Nect, a pilot project in rural North Carolina where high school students received supplemental algebra problem sets on smartphones (the phones were provided by the project). The outcomes are promising -- classes using the smartphones have consistently achieved significantly higher proficiency rates on their end of course exams.
Now, the population is small (on the order of 150 kids) and the make-up is essentially what researchers call a "convenience sample." It was selected from a population of kids that: largely qualified for free and reduced lunch; didn't have home Internet; and had low math proficiency. It was not balanced with a formally designed control group. There was self-selection on the part of the participating teachers -- they are extremely motivated -- but the results are consistent and startling. Overall, proficiency rates increased by 30 percent. In the best case, one class using the devices had 50 percent more kids finishing the year proficient than a class learning the same material from the same teacher during the same school year, but without the cell phones.
So what's so different about delivering problem sets on a cell phone instead of a textbook? The first obvious answer is that the cell phone version is multi-media. The Project K-Nect problem sets begin with a Flash video visually demonstrating the problem -- you could theorize that this context prepares the student to understand the subsequent text-based problem better. You could also theorize that watching a Flash animation is more engaging (or just plain fun) and so more likely to keep students' attention.
Another difference is that digital content is personalized. In this case, that just means that different students get the same problem (how long will it take a space ship to catch up with a space probe?) but with different numbers plugged in (the velocity might be given as 40,000 mph for one student and 37,500 mph for another). The result is that students can't simply compare answers - they need to compare solutions. "How did you get that" replaces "what did you get?"
A third difference is that, unlike the traditional practice where each student works on textbook problems in isolation, the learning environment in Project K-Nect is participative. Students are asked to record their solutions on a shared blog and are encouraged to both post and comment. Over time, a learning community has emerged that crosses classrooms and schools and adds the kind of human interaction that an isolated, individual drill (be it textbook or digital) lacks and that a single teacher is unlikely to have the bandwidth to provide to each student.
A final observation is that having a digitally mediated component to the learning environment can be surprisingly inclusive. As teachers in Project K-Nect began to experiment with using the blogs and instant messaging for discussing math in the classroom, an unexpected (to us) dynamic emerged. It turns out that many kids who don't like speaking up in class are completely comfortable speaking up online. Students who don't like to raise their hands use the devices to ask questions or participate in collaborative problem solving. There appears to be something democratizing about having a "back channel" as part of the learning environment.
So far all these distinctions are not unique to cell phones but common to any personal computing solution. A WiFi-equipped netbook at every desk could readily provide the same kind of differentiation from a lecture-and-textbook based traditional classroom. But taking the next step from computer labs or laptops at school to a personal, connected device changes the game. Beyond just computing in the classroom, cell phones give the students in Project K-Nect access to the Internet and their learning communities 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, whether they are at school, at home, on the bus, at after-school activities, or in the case of one chronically ill student, at the hospital.
Back when I was in school, I remember math learning went something like this:
Because the students in Project K-Nect have 24/7 mobile broadband, that dynamic has changed for them. When a student sits down to work on problems and gets stuck, she can post a question or just a general plea for help to the shared blog. Soon, several classmates will reply with help and encouragement. Students who might otherwise give up can get just-in-time support to help them be successful while the students who are providing the help get the reinforcement and deeper understanding that comes from teaching.
Teachers from the pilot also tell me that their instruction has changed since they started using cell phones in class. I had a chance to see one teacher give her students a simple bingo game to play on the phone that involved solving a number of algebra problems. She told me that her kids had far more patience for, and interest in, working problems as quickly and accurately as possible when it was part of a digital game rather than performing the same drill using worksheets.
I've seen another teacher use Poll Everywhere software with the students to check on their understanding during a lecture. The teacher posed a math problem, the students texted their replies to the Poll Everywhere site, and a pie chart showing the distribution of answers was instantly projected at the front of the class, giving the teacher a chance to clear up any misconceptions before moving on.
Much of the teaching has also shifted to problem-based learning. I was fascinated to see an example of this on one visit. The students worked in groups to develop a public service announcement describing the dangers of compound interest and credit card debt. They then made a video of their commercial using their cell phones and posted it to the shared blog. Not only did they learn by discussing and debating as a team how best to communicate compound interest, but they then had the resulting video to refer to when it came time to review for the test. In fact, they had everyone's videos at their fingertips via their cell phone browsers. If one team's explanation didn't kindle the "aha" moment, another one just might. Once again, the connected learning community had a significant and unanticipated impact on these students.
As for the issues of safety and appropriate use of the Internet, each student in the pilot has signed an acceptable use policy outlining their responsibilities as cell phone users at school. Soti's MobiControl software, which allows the teachers to interact with each student's cell phone, also allows them to monitor use and apply standard classroom discipline techniques for inappropriate behavior in the virtual world -- just as they manage behavior in physical hallways and on campus grounds. Not surprisingly, after some initial testing of the boundaries, a culture of responsible use quickly evolved among the students.
Finally, what about messaging, gaming, and surfing in class? In the Project K-Nect classrooms, students don't use these to play virtual hooky, but they do use them regularly for learning. In the classrooms I've had a chance to see, the students are far too busy participating to tune out. Of all the expected and unexpected outcomes of this project, I find the way that cell phones have facilitated the social aspects of learning to be one of the most intriguing.
Guest blogger Marie Bjerede is Vice President of Wireless Education Technology at Qualcomm, Inc., where she focuses on addressing the technical, economic, social, and systemic challenges to enabling every student to gain the advantages afforded those who have 24/7 mobile broadband access.
In most schools, cell phones are checked at the door -- or at best powered off during school hours in a tacit "don't ask, don't tell" understanding between students and administrators. This wide-spread technology ban is a response to real concerns: if kids have unfettered instant access to the Internet at school, how do we keep them safe, how do we keep out inappropriate content, how do we prevent real-time cyberbullying, how do we even keep their attention in class when competing with messaging, gaming, and surfing?
At the same time, though, there is a growing sense among education thought leaders and policy leaders that not only are cell phones here to stay but there seems to be interesting potential to use these small, connected computers that so many students already have. I've been insanely fortunate over the past year to work closely with Wireless Reach (Qualcomm's strategic social initiative) and real innovators in education who are finding that cell phones in classrooms don't have to be a danger or a distraction but, in fact, can help kids learn in some surprising ways.
During the 2007-2008 school year, Wireless Reach began funding Project K-Nect, a pilot project in rural North Carolina where high school students received supplemental algebra problem sets on smartphones (the phones were provided by the project). The outcomes are promising -- classes using the smartphones have consistently achieved significantly higher proficiency rates on their end of course exams.
Now, the population is small (on the order of 150 kids) and the make-up is essentially what researchers call a "convenience sample." It was selected from a population of kids that: largely qualified for free and reduced lunch; didn't have home Internet; and had low math proficiency. It was not balanced with a formally designed control group. There was self-selection on the part of the participating teachers -- they are extremely motivated -- but the results are consistent and startling. Overall, proficiency rates increased by 30 percent. In the best case, one class using the devices had 50 percent more kids finishing the year proficient than a class learning the same material from the same teacher during the same school year, but without the cell phones.
So what's so different about delivering problem sets on a cell phone instead of a textbook? The first obvious answer is that the cell phone version is multi-media. The Project K-Nect problem sets begin with a Flash video visually demonstrating the problem -- you could theorize that this context prepares the student to understand the subsequent text-based problem better. You could also theorize that watching a Flash animation is more engaging (or just plain fun) and so more likely to keep students' attention.
Another difference is that digital content is personalized. In this case, that just means that different students get the same problem (how long will it take a space ship to catch up with a space probe?) but with different numbers plugged in (the velocity might be given as 40,000 mph for one student and 37,500 mph for another). The result is that students can't simply compare answers - they need to compare solutions. "How did you get that" replaces "what did you get?"
A third difference is that, unlike the traditional practice where each student works on textbook problems in isolation, the learning environment in Project K-Nect is participative. Students are asked to record their solutions on a shared blog and are encouraged to both post and comment. Over time, a learning community has emerged that crosses classrooms and schools and adds the kind of human interaction that an isolated, individual drill (be it textbook or digital) lacks and that a single teacher is unlikely to have the bandwidth to provide to each student.
A final observation is that having a digitally mediated component to the learning environment can be surprisingly inclusive. As teachers in Project K-Nect began to experiment with using the blogs and instant messaging for discussing math in the classroom, an unexpected (to us) dynamic emerged. It turns out that many kids who don't like speaking up in class are completely comfortable speaking up online. Students who don't like to raise their hands use the devices to ask questions or participate in collaborative problem solving. There appears to be something democratizing about having a "back channel" as part of the learning environment.
So far all these distinctions are not unique to cell phones but common to any personal computing solution. A WiFi-equipped netbook at every desk could readily provide the same kind of differentiation from a lecture-and-textbook based traditional classroom. But taking the next step from computer labs or laptops at school to a personal, connected device changes the game. Beyond just computing in the classroom, cell phones give the students in Project K-Nect access to the Internet and their learning communities 24 hours a day and 7 days a week, whether they are at school, at home, on the bus, at after-school activities, or in the case of one chronically ill student, at the hospital.
Back when I was in school, I remember math learning went something like this:
Because the students in Project K-Nect have 24/7 mobile broadband, that dynamic has changed for them. When a student sits down to work on problems and gets stuck, she can post a question or just a general plea for help to the shared blog. Soon, several classmates will reply with help and encouragement. Students who might otherwise give up can get just-in-time support to help them be successful while the students who are providing the help get the reinforcement and deeper understanding that comes from teaching.
Teachers from the pilot also tell me that their instruction has changed since they started using cell phones in class. I had a chance to see one teacher give her students a simple bingo game to play on the phone that involved solving a number of algebra problems. She told me that her kids had far more patience for, and interest in, working problems as quickly and accurately as possible when it was part of a digital game rather than performing the same drill using worksheets.
I've seen another teacher use Poll Everywhere software with the students to check on their understanding during a lecture. The teacher posed a math problem, the students texted their replies to the Poll Everywhere site, and a pie chart showing the distribution of answers was instantly projected at the front of the class, giving the teacher a chance to clear up any misconceptions before moving on.
Much of the teaching has also shifted to problem-based learning. I was fascinated to see an example of this on one visit. The students worked in groups to develop a public service announcement describing the dangers of compound interest and credit card debt. They then made a video of their commercial using their cell phones and posted it to the shared blog. Not only did they learn by discussing and debating as a team how best to communicate compound interest, but they then had the resulting video to refer to when it came time to review for the test. In fact, they had everyone's videos at their fingertips via their cell phone browsers. If one team's explanation didn't kindle the "aha" moment, another one just might. Once again, the connected learning community had a significant and unanticipated impact on these students.
As for the issues of safety and appropriate use of the Internet, each student in the pilot has signed an acceptable use policy outlining their responsibilities as cell phone users at school. Soti's MobiControl software, which allows the teachers to interact with each student's cell phone, also allows them to monitor use and apply standard classroom discipline techniques for inappropriate behavior in the virtual world -- just as they manage behavior in physical hallways and on campus grounds. Not surprisingly, after some initial testing of the boundaries, a culture of responsible use quickly evolved among the students.
Finally, what about messaging, gaming, and surfing in class? In the Project K-Nect classrooms, students don't use these to play virtual hooky, but they do use them regularly for learning. In the classrooms I've had a chance to see, the students are far too busy participating to tune out. Of all the expected and unexpected outcomes of this project, I find the way that cell phones have facilitated the social aspects of learning to be one of the most intriguing.
By Giovanna Monteverde
Senior Project Manager for Latin America, InterMedia
3 March 2010
(Bogota, Colombia)-- In the last three years, the Colombian capital has seen the emergence of an informal street market for mobile phone minutes. At nearly every corner or shopping mall, you can see vendors selling mobile minutes alongside their typical offerings of cigarettes, candies and chips. This informal market has allowed many more people, especially from low-income neighborhoods, to have access to and use mobile phones when they are needed.
I have been to nearly every major city in Latin America recently, and this is the only place where I have seen such a system operating. It seemed to begin about three or four years ago when mobile phone plans became very accessible. Urban legend has it that a customer once asked a street vendor if he could use the vendor’s mobile phone because he needed to make an urgent phone call. The customer offered to pay the street vendor, who agreed to lend the customer his phone and sell him the mobile phone minutes. After that, the vendor decided to keep reselling his mobile phone minutes. He was so successful that other street sellers got into the act. Small stores and businesses also are offering this service. (Click here to view the Urban Colombia Communication Profile)
Vendors Adapt to a Competitive Mobile Market
What the vendor or store charges for their mobile phone minutes depends on the neighborhood. In upscale neighborhoods, one minute seems to cost from 300 to 500 Colombian Pesos (about $ 0.14 to $0.30 per minute). In middle-class neighborhoods, one minute can cost from 200 Colombian Pesos to 350 Pesos (approximately $0.10 to $0.16 per minute) and in low- income neighborhoods, one minute can cost 150 Colombian Pesos (about $ 0.09 per minute).
The street market for minutes has evolved amid a fairly competitive mobile phone sector. The leading providers in Bogota are COMCEL, TIGO and MOVISTAR, with leader COMCEL claiming about 60 percent of the market. Call prices vary depending on whether the caller and receiver use the same service or not. For example, if one person has COMCEL and wants to call another person who uses COMCEL, the caller will have to pay about 130 Colombian Pesos per minute ($ 0.07). But if the other person subscribes to TIGO or MOVISTAR, the caller will pay 320 Colombian Pesos per minute ($ 0.19).
Street vendors are aware of this and subscribe to different mobile phone providers to maximize their income. Before giving a mobile phone to a customer, a street vendor will ask what provider corresponds to the number the customer will dial. The vendor will give the client a specific mobile phone, depending on the provider. Increasingly, vendors will simply keep one mobile phone and use multiple SIM cards in it from the various providers as needed.
Customers also have negotiating power over street prices for minutes. For example, in front of one of the most fashionable shopping centers, there are usually five to 10 street vendors selling minutes. There is so much competition that some of them are ready to cut prices on the spot to attract a client. Customers learn that they can negotiate the price with the street vendors.
Mobile Operators Are Forced to Adapt
Growth in the informal mobile phone market has been fueled by declining prices for mobile phone plans in general, and the increasing popularity of pre-paid plans in particular. In the past year or so, mobile phone plans prices have decreased 30 to 40 percent on average, according to officials at COMCEL and MOVISTAR. Pre-paid plans are now the most popular mobile phone plans in Bogota, with the key advantage that users do not have to pay for incoming calls as they do with subscription plans. Pre-paid customers can also go to any store and buy a loaded mobile phone card or they can buy minute credits online.
Many pre-paid plan users in Bogota do not have calling minutes on their mobile phones; rather. They use their mobile phones mostly to receive phone calls. If they want to make a phone call, they look for a street vendor or store that sells mobile phone minutes. The importance of these mobile phone sellers will grow as pre-paid mobile phones increase.
The government has apparently tried without success to stop this informal phone minutes market because the mobile phone providers complained about it. Mobile phone providers, meanwhile, have countered the trend by developing new strategies to motivate customers to change from pre-paid to post-paid plans by slashing prices and offering more free minutes and SMS services if customers switch from pre-paid. However, post-paid plans still require a fixed-term contract and a specific number for that contract; pre-paid customers can simply change to another mobile phone provider by changing the SIM card without having to change their numbers.
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intermediaThe Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism (PEJ) released a important new report this week, Understanding the Participatory News Consumer. It presents many insights on how Americans stay informed, and highlights the fact that many of us are already accessing news on our mobile phones.
For those considering producing news for mobile phones, or debating whether or not to venture in the news-on-the-go space, here are the key points from the extensive report.
Mobile News SpreadsA quarter of all American adults are reading news content on their mobile phones. This is only likely to grow, and hopefully it will convince news organizations to offer their content to mobile users. The report notes that, "some 80% of American adults surveyed own cell phones; 37% of them go online on their phones. Out of those who have mobile internet, 88% get some form of news on their cell phones. This is 33% of adult cell phone owners, and 26% of the general population."
On-the-go news consumers -- meaning those reading news on their mobiles -- are highly active on their mobile phones. They use social media services, send text messages, take pictures and instant message, among other activities. Mobile news producers should consider facilitating some of these other activities on their platforms in order to engage these savvy news consumers. From the report:
Not surprisingly, on-the-go news consumers maximize their cell phone use. They are 67% more likely than other cell phone users to text message, more than twice as likely to take pictures with their phones, and four times as likely to use their phones to instant message. They are also especially heavy internet users--80% of this on-the-go group are online on a given day, compared with just 67% of other internet users--and they engage in activities such as blogging (20% v. 11%), using social networking sites (73% v. 48%), and using status update sites like Twitter (29% v. 14%) at significantly higher rates than other internet users.
Users are increasingly using multiple platforms to get their news. Among the general population, consumers are using multiple platforms, such as newspapers, television, radio, internet, and mobile phones to get news content. On-the-go consumers use a variety of news sources online, with 16 percent saying they regularly access more than six news websites for news and information. This shows there is demand for mobile content, and that mobile news production will be highly competitive. From the report:
When asked about their routines for getting news on a typical day, and specifically which news platforms individuals turn to daily, the results are striking. Almost all American adults (99%) say that on a typical day, they get news from at least one news platform (local or national newspapers, local or national television news broadcasts, radio, or the internet), including 92% who follow the news on multiple platforms on a typical day. Some 46% of Americans use between four and six of the media platforms cited in the bullets above on any given day. Another 46% use two or three platforms and 7% use just one platform. The notion that people have a primary news source, one place where they go for most of their news, in other words, is increasingly obsolete.
Users increasingly share, comment on, and contribute to news and reporting. On-the-go news consumers are especially active on social networking platforms, and are more likely than others to participate in news production and dissemination. As a result, the development of interactive content -- along with the creation of tools that allow users to easily share content -- should be foremost in the mind of mobile news producers.
From the report:
Of those who get news online, 75% got news forwarded to them through email or posts on social networking sites. Of the same users, 50% sent they passed along email links to news stories or video content. In particular, on-the-go news consumers and close followers of news were much more likely to send links in their emails than online news consumers in general. 28% of internet users were also found to have customized their browser home page to include favorite sources of news. 36% of internet users said that having interactive content like charts, quizzes, graphics, and maps they could manipulate themselves was an important part of choosing which news websites they visited. Some 37% of internet users have actively contributed to the creation, commentary, or dissemination of news. This number includes users commenting on blogs and news sites, posting links and thoughts about news on social media, tagging or categorizing content online, or contributing opinion or multimedia content to news sites.
Other Mobile StudiesThis survey comes on the heels of a FCC broadband survey that cataloged U.S. consumers' use of mobile technology. While that survey was not focused on news consumption, it showed that 86 percent of American adults own cell phones, and 30 percent of cell phone owners use the mobile web.
Another survey, the Mobile Intent Index from PR agency Rudder Finn, found that 60 percent of mobile web users are using news websites, and 95 percent of mobile web users use their mobile phones to "keep informed."
Unfortunately, all three of these surveys are only relevent to the U.S. International data is harder to get a hold of, although the soon-to-launch Audiencescapes project holds much promise. The project is being developed by InterMedia, a non-profit research, evaluation and consulting organization. It will present data showing to what extent individuals in countries around the world have access to and use communication technologies and how they consume media. For the impatient, a beta version is currently available.
Prabhas PokharelAfter January’s devastating earthquake in Haiti, text donations costing anywhere from $5 to $10 per message raised over $41 million dollars for the cause. This weekend’s 8.8 earthquake in Chile may have caused less destruction in comparison to the Haitian quake, but hundreds of lives were lost, neighborhoods were destroyed, and help is needed.
With the success of the mobile donation campaigns for Haiti, Chile fundraisers are turning to mobile marketing and asking once again for the support of the world via SMS. Within hours of the Magnitude 8.8 earthquake in Chile, Mobile Accord’s mGive division was asked by several of its nonprofit clients to launch text donation campaigns to aid the victims of the earthquake.
Again, the Mobile Giving Foundation has stepped in to organize ways to donate to various reputable foundations to help Chile’s people. And, hoping to repeat the success of the last fundraising campaign, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless are providing free text messages in support of the effort.
“We’re facing an emergency unlike anything else in Chile’s history,” said Chilean President Michele Bachelet to The Christian Science Monitor on Sunday, adding that Chile faces “a catastrophe of such unthinkable magnitude that it will require a giant effort to recover.” Mobile donations will help the country recover, but it isn’t clear if the success of Haiti’s mobile fundraising campaign can be repeated, especially so soon after the outpouring of support through the nation.
If you want to donate to Chile using your phone, here are some verified ways you can help:
• Text “CHILE” to 20222 to donate $10 on behalf of World Vision.
• Text “CHILE” to 52000 to donate $10 on behalf of the Salvation Army
• Text “SAVE” to 20222 to donate $10 on behalf of Save the Children Federation, Inc.
• Text “CHILE” to 85944 to donate $10 on behalf of International Medical Corp.
• Text “4CHILE” to 50555 to donate $10 on behalf of Convoy of Hope
• Text “CHILE” to 50555 to donate $10 on behalf of Friends of the World Program
• Text “REBUILD” to 50555 to donate $10 on behalf of Friends of the Operation USA
Internet on Mobiles: Evolution of Usability and User Experience (pdf)
Dissertation for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy presented at Helsinki University of Technology (Espoo, Finland) on 11 December 2009.
The mobile Internet is no longer a new phenomenon; the first mobile devices supporting web access were introduced over 10 years ago. During the past ten years technology and business infrastructure have evolved and the number of mobile Internet users has increased all over the world. Service user interface, technology and business infrastructure have built a framework for service adaptation: they can act as enablers or as barriers. Users evaluate how the new technology adds value to their life based on multiple factors.
This dissertation has its focus in the area of human-computer interaction research and practices. The overall goal of my research has been to improve the usability and the user experience of mobile Internet services. My research has sought answers to questions relevant in service development process. Questions have varied during the years, the main question being: How to design and create mobile Internet services that people can use and want to use? I have sought answers mostly from a human factors perspective, but have also taken the elements form technology and business infrastructure into consideration. In order to answer the questions raised in service development projects, we have investigated the mobile Internet services in the laboratory and in the field. My research has been conducted in various countries in 3 continents: Asia, Europe and North America. These studies revealed differences in mobile Internet use in different countries and between user groups. Studies in this dissertation were conducted between years 1998 and 2007 and show how questions and research methods have evolved during the time.
Good service creation requires that all three factors: technology, business infrastructure and users are taken in consideration. When using knowledge on users in decision making, it is important to understand that the different phases of the service development cycle require the different kind of information on users. It is not enough to know about the users, the knowledge about users has to be transferred into decisions.
The service has to be easy to use so that people can use it. This is related to usability. Usability is a very important factor in service adoption, but it is not enough. The service has to have relevant content from user perspective. The content is the reason why people want to use the service. In addition to the content and the ease of use, people evaluate the goodness of the service based on many other aspects: the cost, the availability and the reliability of the system for example. A good service is worth trying and after the first experience, is it worth using. These aspects are considered to influence the ‘user experience’ of the system. In this work I use lexical analysis to evaluate how the words “usability” and “user experience” are used in mobile HCI conference papers during the past 10 years. The use of both words has increased during the period and reflects the evolution of research questions and methodology over time.
Related to her thesis, is her article “Mobile internet: Past, Present, and the future“.
The Mobile Internet is no longer a new phenomenon; the first mobile devices supporting Web access were introduced over 10 years ago. During the past 10 years many user studies have been conducted that have generated insights into mobile Internet use. The number of mobile Internet users has increased and the focus of the studies has switched from the user interface to user experiences. Mobile phones are regarded as personal devices: the current possibility of gathering more contextual information and linking that to the Internet cre- ates totally new challenges for user experience and design.
Early warning does not happen every day. So when hazards occur, it is important that the experience is analyzed so that future responses can be enhanced. Here is a report on how warnings worked (or did not) on the Pacific Coast of Australia in relation to the tsunami generated by the Chilean earthquake of Saturday. It is a pity that the potential of cell broadcasting that can be targeted to low-lying areas that are in danger, without knowing any of the numbers of the mobile phones belonging to the people physically present and without congestion.
The Gold Coast authorities used SMS for 10,000 people. How did they know these were the phones belonging to the people in the high-risk areas? Is it not common that people who are found on beaches, do not necessarily live nearby? So how did they pick the 10000 numbers? And how come they missed the head of the local disaster management group?
“Not everyone keeps their radio on.
“We need a system to make sure the low ground gets priority warning.”
Dr Wilson said a siren system, doorknocking and use of modern media such as Facebook were needed.
Emergency Management Queensland regional director Eddie Bennet said 10,000 text messages were sent to residents in seven suburbs identified as at greatest risk of flooding.
He said a blanket text message to the whole Gold Coast was not deemed as necessary.
The message that was sent directed Lakeview, Boykambil, Woongoolba, Currumbin, Cabbage Tree, Budds Beach and Paradise Point residents to seek further advice.
Mr Bennet said he believed the state’s first formal emergency alert had been successful.
“There was absolutely no confusion. There was a sound reason for this and valid purpose for sending them out.”
Local Disaster Management Group deputy chairman Councillor Ted Shepherd was not aware the texts had been sent and said he believed the level of threat did not warrant the service.
“It attracts too many spectators,” he said.
Kubatana.net – a Zimbabwean NGO who work to strengthen the use of email, mobile and the Internet among local NGOs and civil society organisations – were the very first FrontlineSMS user way back in October 2005. This initial contact lead us to work together on an early prototype of “Dialup Radio”, an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) service they’re now about to fully launch as “Freedom Fone”. As the service nears release, Amy Saunderson-Meyer – Media and Information Officer at Kubatana – talks about the tool and how they see it helping civil society in Zimbabwe and beyond.
“Bottom of the Pyramid (BoP) strategies are viewed in many contemporary business circles as the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. BoP refers to the 2.6 billion people who live below the $2 a day breadline and many business strategists argue that if targeted correctly, these consumers can offer businesses a main line into one of the fastest growing markets. Even if the price of products and services has to be reduced, profits can be made up and surpassed in volumes sold.
A more neutral view of BoP strategies is that they are not simply a means to make millions, but a pragmatic appreciation that through commercial profit making activities, sustainable solutions can be developed that help alleviate poverty. With thought, the poor can be incorporated into the system in a mutually beneficial manner – not only as consumers but also as producers, partners, entrepreneurs and innovators.
Freedom Fone’s BoP strategy focuses on building and promoting an open source software platform for information sharing that is intuitive, cost-conscious, internet independent and ultimately targets all kinds of phone users. Deployers of the Freedom Fone platform can be small or large NGO’s or service organizations – even individual information activists. The goal is to broaden the base of audio information providers and facilitate the development of two-way communications with communities which have traditionally been underprivileged, marginalized and sometimes even stigmatized.
The Freedom Fone platform can be used to assist with education, learning, healthcare and medical support for chronic diseases like HIV/Aids, TB and malaria. Voice menus conveniently provide information on demand services, making them a useful additional channel for community radio stations and emergency response initiatives. It can be used to provide information on the full spectrum of issues including sanitation, the environment, agriculture, fishing, business, finance, marketing, community, arts and culture news. Its ‘leave-a-message’ and SMS functionality can be leveraged for citizen journalism.
Essentially Freedom Fone is a simple but novel medium for addressing social development. The currency we are working with is knowledge, the tool we are using is the mobile phone and the mobile function we primarily leverage is audio, through Interactive Voice Response (IVR).
Freedom Fone has focused on knowledge sharing because in a globalized information age, access to relevant information is pivotal to development and vital for survival. Content is king and knowledge is power! However the people who need information the most are often the ones at the bottom of the pyramid, and they tend to remain on the fringes of our society. For instance, in developing countries, information flow is often blocked by restricted infrastructure, lack of resources and limited unreliable access to computers, email and internet. Other factors such as language barriers and low literacy levels exist, and in certain developing countries this information alienation is further compounded by restrictive and authoritarian governments.
Freedom Fone has focused on the mobile phone as the medium of communication because according to a UN report, 60% of the world’s population has mobile phones. By 2009 there were already over 4.5 billion mobile phone subscriptions in circulation and developing countries account for over two thirds of these mobile phones. In contrast only 25% of the world’s population has internet access and in Africa there is only a 6.8% internet penetration rate. Thus the wide use of mobile phones bridges the chasm between the haves and the have nots. Their use cuts across the ‘digital divide’ and they have the potential to act as information access equalizers. For example, in Zimbabwe, barely 5% of Zimbabweans have access to the internet but there are over 3 million mobile phones contracts in a country of 11 million, which represents a penetration rate of roughly 27%. In South Africa – which offers a good indication of future development patterns in Africa – only 7% of the population has internet access, but there are approximately 36 million active cell phone users, which is roughly 80% of the population.
To address the limited access to and the high cost of internet connectivity in many developing countries, Freedom Fone has been designed so that it does not require any access to the internet to function. The Freedom Fone server can be connected to mobile phone SIM cards, landlines and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) numbers. Callers can phone in from a landline, basic mobile phone, or soft phone like Skype. If uninterrupted power is provided, the system can be available to callers 24 hours a day, providing a valuable information on demand channel, as well as a vehicle through which the public can contribute information or queries 24/7.
A number of Freedom Fone’s core features focus on interactive voice menus and callback functionality. By consciously marrying the mobile phone with IVR, Freedom Fone extends this previously business-oriented tool, into the arena of social development and social media. By simplifying the user interface and minimizing the technical alternatives, we predict that information providers will find building voice menu-based information services intuitive rather than intimidating and cost-effective rather than costly.
Providing an alternative to the limitations imposed by the 160 characters allowed in an SMS is likely to be liberating. Freedom Fone provides a do-it-yourself platform for increased two way communication, facilitating the contribution of rich audio files by both the operator and caller. Its audio orientation offers similarities with radio programming – however there are dramatic differences in the start up costs, required technical know-how and government regulation. It is interactive as it enables end users to become information providers by contributing questions, audio content and feedback in response to the voice menus. Audio files also have the enormous benefit of surpassing the issues of literacy, going beyond language differences, as people can create and manage information in their own dialect. For deployments in Africa, audio is also strongly aligned with the oral traditions of story-telling.
Importantly, Freedom Fone has been designed to run on and with low-powered equipment to facilitate its deployment using solar power.
As Freedom Fone services the BoP, it is essential that deployments offer affordable, cost-effective access to information. Sadly, in Zimbabwe the cost of local mobile calls is $0.25 per minute making call-in costs a major challenge for local deployment. The same hurdle does not exist for deployments in East Africa where competition exists between mobile network providers and call costs are minimal. In countries where Voice over IP (VoIP) is legal further opportunities pertain, as VoIP cuts costs and facilitates scalability.
The Freedom Fone platform offers the potential for cost recovery through advertising which can be incorporated into the voice menus as short audio clips. Another option are premium numbers which can be negotiated with mobile network operators. In time we hope to source funding to build features that facilitate micro-payments for accessing voice menu content or receiving SMS updates.
Freedom Fone aims to put information in the hands of the public by simplifying and popularizing information outreach via IVR and SMS. It is a tool for content creation, by the people for the people. It shifts BoP solutions beyond profits, by giving the punch of informative power to the people”.
Amy Saunderson-Meyer
Media and Information Officer
The Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe and Freedom Fone
www.freedomfone.org
Advirtek
student
Ben Freda Consulting
BizMeds
