Mobile phones are approaching ubiquity in Pakistan. Allowing low cost access to community members across class, linguistic and geographical boundaries, the mobile phone can be an effective tool to communicate with ordinary people in Pakistan, as well as to learn from them, and even collaborate with them. This guide provides a research-driven and practical guide for using SMS to do so. It is intended for both Pakistani and international institutions, whether in government, civil society or the humanitarian sector. It represents the findings of its authors only, and, it is hoped, is the first draft of a collaborative document, to which many of its readers might contribute.
This document is intended to provide an understanding both of the range of technical options available for SMS-based communications, and of the ways in which campaigns should be conceived and executed in light of the scope and character of both SMS use and phone use in Pakistan.
It also makes the argument that SMS provides an opportunity to do more with mobilebased communications than simple announcements and polling, useful activities though they are. It argues that the conversational nature of SMS, in Pakistan and elsewhere, allows
