Posted by justinoberman on Jul 19, 2006
For those of you heavy readers in the mobile blogosphere you probably have already come across the news of Secret Deodorant#039s mobile campaign here in New York City in honor of the companies fiftieth anniversary which was yesterday.
Posted by Bonnie Bogle on Jul 04, 2006
The UN World Food Programme recently received a different kind of text message – a direct plea for help from a refugee in northern Kenya. The message said, “My name is Mohammed Sokor, writing to you from Dagahaley refugee camp in Dadaab. Dear sir, there is an alarming issue here. People are given too few kilogrammes of food. You must help.”
In an article from the UN Refugee Agency about the SMS, reporter Greg Barrow asks what the impact would be if in addition to giving refugees food, the World Food Programme also gave them a few mobile phones and the numbers of all star donors like Bono and Bill Gates. Mohammed’s text message has been making the rounds in the international press so I don’t doubt that similar messages could draw further attention to problems in refugee camps. But I think a greater impact could be made if an organization, like the One Campaign for example, sought out SMS messages like Mohammed’s from people in refugee camps in need of urgent help and sent them to their network. I bet many people who receive such a personal message will want to help, and if they can help by making a small donation from their mobile phone or sending the sms message on to their political representatives, it could spur action to help alleviate problems such as Mohammed’s.
You can read the entire UNHCR article here.
Posted by KatrinVerclas on Mar 15, 2006
From India: The "Justice for Jessica Lal" campaign is fueled by massive sms campaigns across the country.
In Mumbai, "TV news channel NDTV launched a "Fight for Jessica Lal" campaign to garner support for a fresh trail in the ‘Jessica Lal murder case’ where all the nine prime accused were "honoroubly" discharged by a Delhi sessions court this week. (Lal, a model, was filling in as a bartender in a posh south Delhi restaurant when she was shot in the wee hours of 30 April 1999 after she reportedly refused to serve liquor to Manu Sharma, the son of Haryana Excise Minister Vinod Sharma." Sharma was recently acquitted.
Posted by Bonnie Bogle on Jul 01, 2006
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Posted by Bonnie Bogle on Jul 01, 2006
In the latest edition in m-trends’ series on women in mobile, Rudy de Waele features Trixie Concepcion from TXT Power and Mobile Active. Trixie played a key role in spreading the infamous Hello Garci ringtone throughout the Philippines and helped make it the most well known political ringtone in the world. It's a great interview that you can't miss. Here’s an excerpt from the article:
While some of us are working and wondering what’s going to be the next new business model or next killer application in mobile technology, other people in different parts of the world are using the mobile phone to fight injustice. Trixie Concepcion of TXTPower, the group that popularized the Hello Garci protest ringtones in the Fillipines, is one of them. I think it’s essential for m-trends.org readers to know a bit more about her and her activities.
You can read the whole piece over at
m-trends.
Posted by Bonnie Bogle on Jun 30, 2006
Posted by KatrinVerclas on Dec 10, 2005
MobileActive held its first conference call for activists, exploring sms bulk messaging.
Thanks to Ben Rigby of Mobile Voter! Audio of the conversation is here. (thank you, Eric!)
Notes from the call -a Primer on Bulk SMS messaging (focused on the US, for the most part) are here on the MobileActive resource wiki.
Topics discussed included:
* what is bulk text messaging?
* how does it work through an SMS gateway and through an aggregator?
* what are the pros and cons of either method?
* what are other systems (FrontlineSMS, and others) and how do they work?
* what does it cost?
* what is the connection to applications such as CiviCRM (a constituency relationship management system) and Drupal?
Meanwhile, MobileActive Justin Oberman wrote a feature of Frontline SMS, a low-cost tool for small sms campaigns:
Posted by Bonnie Bogle on Jun 27, 2006
Earlier this month the Boston Police Department started sending out text messages and emails to tell residents about crimes happening in their neighborhoods. The goal isn’t to instill fear in residents; it’s to get them involved in solving crimes. Police think that this system will make it easier for people to send in leads on cases since they can do so quickly and electronically, and that it will put more people on the lookout for suspects when they’re most vulnerable – soon after they commit crimes. The alerts also keep people better informed on the specific crimes happening in their neighborhoods, enabling them to better protect themselves. Most people are more inclined to lock their car doors if they know that two cars have been stolen within a few minutes of where they park.
Crime alert systems that use SMS and email messages are becoming more common. Citizen Observer, the company that runs Boston’s system, works with police departments in more than 300 U.S. and Canadian towns and cities. Singapore police have been sending out SMS alerts on local crimes for more than a year, and subscribers receive SMS messages like the following that tell them about local crimes and what they can do to help:
Posted by tonyo on Jun 24, 2006
On Monday, June 26, people's organizations and prominent individuals will file an impeachment complaint against Mrs. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo for crimes that include foisting a de facto dictatorship, curtailment of civil liberties, the mass killing of activists and other acts that aimed to cover-up her tracks in the fraud she committed in the 2004 elections.
A vigil has been arranged jointly by the mass movement outside Congress and the congressional opposition so that the said impeachment complaint would be filed ahead of any sham impeachment complaint that may be lodged by allies of Mrs. Arroyo. (Last year, a lawyer was the first to file such a complaint, but it was so weak the opposition had to amend it. Congress rejected the amendments and voted on the basis of the lawyer's week complaint. Nobody wishes the lawyer to mke a repeat.)
Mobile phones are endlessly buzzing, in an effort to mobilize thousands, if not tens of thousands, to form a human barricade just outside Congress. The barricade would start in the form of a vigil starting tonight, and ends with the filing of the impeachment complaint at the opening of Congress' office hours at 8:00 am tomorrow.
Posted by Bonnie Bogle on Jun 06, 2006
With the expansion of cell phone access and text messaging use, it was only a matter of time before it started – the SMS joke. And not surprisingly, few subjects are poked fun at more than local politics and of course the politicians.
"Da Vinci Code to be totally banned in the Philippines. GMA [Gloria Macapagal Arroyo] has been informed by Dan Brown that she is a direct descendant of Judas."
That’s one of the many SMS jokes being circulated throughout the Philippines making fun of the current president and her restrictive policies, among other things. Tonyo Cruz from TXTPower, and a MobileActive, passed on a bunch of the jokes that he’s seen sent around the country. You can read them all at the bottom of this post – thanks Tonyo!
The Philippines has been ahead of the curve in using cell phones for activism (remember the 2001 revolution and the Hello Garci ring tones), but SMS political jokes are spreading to other countries too. In Tamil Nadu, India, residents are sending out SMS jokes to make fun of the candidates from a recent election and their policies. One message circulating the region is an image of a candidate crying – supposedly showing her dismay at her party’s poor performance in the election. Another criticizes one party’s idea to give out “freebies,” saying that these practices will hurt businesses and make people lazy.
