Voting, Democracy, and Civic Engagement

ACS CAN provides action alerts, event information, localized content and important legislative information via SMS/Text to individuals interested in cancer advocacy issues. Constituents are also urged to sign petitions via SMS Text.

Current projects include mobile messaging as part of a nation-wide bus tour focusing on access to quality healthcare. Visit www.acscan.org/bus for more information.

References / Past Projects

ACS CAN is the nation’s leading cancer advocacy organization that is working every day to make cancer issues a national priority.

ACS CAN empowers regular people to be part of the growing national movement that is fighting back against cancer.

ACS CAN, the non-profit, non-partisan sister advocacy organization of the American Cancer Society, is holding lawmakers accountable for their words and their actions.

From the BungeSMS website:

Bunge SMS is a mobile phone based service by Made in Kenya Network that combines the internet and mobile telephony with the aim of Empowering every Kenyan to influence Local Governance in their Constituencies.

You can report corruption and environmental degradation, influence constituency project choices and monitor development activities.

Send an SMS to 3454 and tell your Member of Parliamnet what he or she must do for YOU.

Demand your share of funds - such as:

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References / Past Projects

Bunge SMS is a mobile phone based campaign by Made in Kenya Network that combines the internet and mobile telephony with the aim of Empowering every Kenyan to influence Local Governance in their Constituencies.

The Bunge SMS campaign is also part of the testing of the Mobile Advocacy Toolkit developed by Tactical Technology collective in collaboration with Fahamu. The Toolkit was developed based on input members of the PanAfrican Mobile Activists Network (PAMONet).

The testing of the Mobile Advocacy Toolkit is conducted courtesy of financial support from Hivos and Fahamu.

PAMONet - the Pan African Mobile Activists Network - has a growing membership in ten African countries in East and Southern Africa and in Western Africa. PAMONet member organizations have been using mobile telephony for activism in relation to:

o Gender violence in Democratic Republic of Congo
o Environmental issues and tobacco control in Nigeria
o Monitoring human rights activities in Zambia

References / Past Projects

PAMONet - the Pan African Mobile Activists Network - is a network of civil society and technical experts from across Africa who are using mobile phone technology for social change.

The objectives of the network, as articulated by members:

o To provide a platform for the exchange of knowledge and experiences.
o To connect mobile telephony practitioners, developers, projects and products.
o To promote, facilitate and strengthen the use of mobile phones among practitioners and developers in creating positive social change.
o To raise awareness on available resources and the benefits of mobile activism.
o To ensure that interested individuals and organizations know when and how to use mobile technology in creating positive social change.
o To provide a platform for Pan-African solidarity incorporating capacity building, training and fundraising.
o To develop best practices and indicators in the implementation of mobile activism.
o To contribute to regional and continental policy on mobile technology distribution, cost and use.

PAMONet has a steering committee of seven members elected from various African countries and from all regions in Africa. Fahamu-Kenya coordinates the activities of the network from the Fahamu – Kenya office in Nairobi.

The network has a growing membership in ten African countries in East and Southern Africa and in Western Africa. PAMONet member organizations have been using mobile telephony for activism in relation to:

o Gender violence in Democratic Republic of Congo
o Environmental issues and tobacco control in Nigeria
o Monitoring human rights activities in Zambia

We are seeking new members interested in learning and sharing experiences in the use of mobile technologies for social activism. We are interested in organisations and individuals from all African countries, with particular interest in Botswana, Cameroon, Rwanda, Senegal, Egypt, Mali, Sierra Leone, Cote D’Ivoire, Namibia, Gabon, Morocco, Tunisia, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, Malawi, Djibouti and Somalia. To join the network, send an email to pamonet-list-subscribe@fahamu.org

World Vote Now hope to hold a "global human referendum" in which every person in the world will cast a vote. They are looking into the possibility of voting via mobile phone.

References / Past Projects

Read about World Vote Now on the MobileActive blog.

Kubatana uses a variety of technologies to communicate with Zimbabweans - SMS is one of them. We send out notifications of public events, inspiring quotations, selected comments from current and past articles and statements and we convert some of our web site content into thought-provoking 160 character messages.

References / Past Projects

The Kubatana Trust of Zimbabwe, incorporating the NGO Network Alliance Project (NNAP), aims to strengthen the use of email and Internet strategies in Zimbabwean NGOs and civil society organisations. Kubatana makes human rights and civic education information accessible from a centralised, electronic source.

Our web site archives over 10,300 documents about Zimbabwean civil society. We have an electronic network of over 350 NGOs and CSOs. Each Kubatana partner has what we call a “fact sheet” in our online directory. Our project has given many NGOs an Internet presence without them having to spend resources on a fully-fledged web site. Our regular electronic activism campaigns encourage Zimbabweans and other visitors to our web site to mobilise, lobby and advocate. Being involved lessens one’s feeling of despair while helping us to keep inspired.

California Activist Coalition It's OUR Healthcare conducted an SMS campaign broadcasting text messages on a public screen. The campaign was designed in response to California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger's health care proposal, which IOH says, disregards issues of affordability, deductibles and coverage.

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References / Past Projects

The It's OUR Healthcare! campaign is a coalition of consumer advocates, seniors, health advocates, communities of faith, and labor united to ensure that the people of California’s voice is heard in the debate over healthcare reform.

We are using a Nokia N93i phone to capture content that is feeding into Sri Lanka’s first citizen journalism YouTube channel, the Vikalpa YouTube Video Channel. The channel will be formally launched in the near future with more content added online.

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References / Past Projects

The Centre for Policy Alternatives (CPA) was formed in the firm belief that there is an urgent need to strengthen institution- and capacity-building for good governance and conflict transformation in Sri Lanka and that non-partisan civil society groups have an important and constructive contribution to make to this process.

The primary role envisaged for the Centre in the field of public policy is a pro-active and interventionary one, aimed at the dissemination and advocacy of policy alternatives for non-violent conflict resolution and democratic governance. Accordingly, the work of the Centre involves a major research component through which the policy alternatives advocated are identified and developed. 

The Voices of Africa project has "mobile reporters" use mobiles to tell stories from their respective countries. From the website:

Thanks to tremendous progress achieved by the General Packet Radio System (GPRS), the wireless communication protocol, it is now possible for Africans to send articles and images (still and moving) about events taking place in their countries without using a computer and without having traditional internet connection. Under those circumstances, the bigger the number of people expressing their opinions through that technology, the stronger becomes democracy, and the more valuable is the contribution to good governance efforts in Africa.

References / Past Projects

Africa Interactive is an online media company running and an international, interactive and multimedia platform, with a particular focus on Africa. The website www.africanews.com is one of our activities. Our Dutch website is www.afrikanieuws.nl

AfricaNews is the most compelling interactive Africa community, sharing news, photos, weblogs, videos, mobile reports and the untold stories by African people. With a focus on Business, Microfinance, Society, Culture, Travel, Nature, Music and Sport.

The aim of Africa Interactive is to inform each and every person having some interest in Africa about the multiple facets of that continent. We offer a podium to everyone willing to post his/her own stories on our website. Webloggers, writers, (citizen) journalists, photographers, filmmakers: every body is welcome.

YouthNoise partnered with Virgin Mobile to produce a text novella about homeless tenns.

From www.youthnoise.com/novella

"Ghost Town" was the first interactive text novella from Virgin Mobile and YouthNoise, presented originally in text message format, with each message as a separate chapter and scene. It's the gripping story of a teenage football player named Ghost who is hiding a dark secret--he's homeless. This secret will shock his classmates as he tries to manage the ins and outs of high school, an uncertain future, and just trying to stay alive.

References / Past Projects

YN is a social networking joint for people who like to connect based on deeper interests than Paris Hilton's wardrobe and get engaged within a cause. Find a cause, search for friends (we're all under 26 btw, kinda like a reverse hand-stamp at Bar 911), and get involved. Want to free Tibet? Got a thing for human rights? Whatever your cause, network it here.

The Student PIRGs’ New Voters Project and Working Assets, in cooperation with researchers from the University of Michigan and Princeton University, recently released a study demonstrating the effectiveness of using text / SMS messages to mobile phones to mobilize young voters in the November 2006 elections. The study found that text message reminders to new voters increased an individual’s likelihood of voting by 4.2 percentage points.

You can access the study here.

References / Past Projects

The New Voters Project is a nonpartisan effort to register young people and get them to the polls on Election Day. Since launching the New Voters Project in late 2003, we have been doing this work for two reasons. First, we believe democracy is strongest when citizens participate and for too long, young people haven't been full participants. Second, we believe the best way to get political leaders to pay attention to young people and their issues is to demonstrate that young people are a viable constituency that can be mobilized using tried and true techniques.

Voto Latino has used SMS messaging in voter registration campaigns. They have also worked with Mobile Voter. You can read more about Voto Latino on the MobileActive blog here.

References / Past Projects

Founded in 2004, Voto Latino works to promote an enfranchised America by leveraging celebrity voices, the latest technology and youth themselves to promote positive change.

From www.votolatino.org:

Voto Latino is powered by YOU. Join us as we seek to make history in the
2008 presidential election. With over 46 million Latinos strong in the US and 60% under the age of 30, young American Latinos hold the power to change
the elections in 2008 and carve out a new American history.

Young American Latinos blazed the path to historic marches last Spring
-- let's not be silenced at the polls where the true power lies.Become a Voto Latino member, share your views, ask questions about the electoral process
- get informed.

Learning about the issues, the candidates and the process has never been
more important. Remember - elected officials work for YOU!

We're just getting started. Keep coming back and see when Voto Latino and
its Artist Coalition is coming to your city.

Boost Mobile RockCorps, a subsidiary of Sprint Nextel, encourages teenage volunteerism by giving them tickets to rock concerts after the completion of volunteer hours.

You can also read about BoostMobile here on the MobileActive blog.

References / Past Projects

Boost Mobile and RockCorps have partnered to spread a national youth movement: Boost Mobile RockCorps. The movement encourages volunteerism in young people. It was created to effect social change and act as a bridge between communities in need and the young people who want to make them better. Every volunteer who gives 4 hours of service, receives a ticket to a concert featuring the hottest artists today. Boost Mobile RockCorps introduces youth to service opportunities in their own neighborhood starting them on a lifelong commitment to civic engagement and service.

Established in 2002, RockCorps evolved from a concept executed by the Greenbucks Foundation that began in 1995.

Boost Mobile RockCorps (BMRC) launched in the summer of 2005. Since then our "Around the Way Revolution" has motivated 16,000+ young people throughout the U.S. to get involved, connect with their community and become a part of a youth movement for social change.

In 2007 we are even bigger. Los Angeles, Oakland, Miami, Atlanta, Houston, Chicago, Minneapolis, Detroit, Portland, Baltimore, Philadelphia,Washington DC and New York. 175+ volunteer projects. Concerts at the Kodak Theatre, the Fox Theatre, Radio City Music Hall and points in between.

Founded in 2004, Mobile Voter is a non-profit non-partisan organization (501c.3) seeking to facilitate the process of civic participation via web and mobile technologies. Over the past two years, Mobile Voter has conducted innovative youth-focused voter registration campaigns making extensive use of text messaging (also known as "SMS") as a facilitating technology.

References / Past Projects

In 2006, Mobile Voter's, TXTVOTER '06 campaign registered tens of thousands of young voters across the country. The multi-pronged campaign leveraged the ubiquity of text messaging, a unique peer-to-peer registration model, and the organizational might of existing grassroots organizations. Over 200 groups worked with Mobile Voter to register and mobilize their constituencies. TXTVOTER '06 was funded by grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts (coordinated by Young Voter Strategies) and the MacArthur Foundation.

In 2007, Mobile Voter is working on a book with Rock the Vote entitled "Mobilizing Generation2.0: Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Engage, and Activate Youth." It will be published by Wiley Press in 2008.

With support from the Pew Charitable Trusts, the George Washington Graduate School of Political Management, Young Voter Strategies, and the MacArthur Foundation, Mobile Voter's TXTVOTER '06 campaign sought to register 55,000 young voters in advance of the 2006 election.

The multi-pronged campaign leveraged the ubiquity of mobile phones, a unique peer-to-peer registration model, and the power of existing grassroots organizations. We worked with over 200 groups to register and mobilize their constituencies. We also partnered with Working Assets to implement an online voter registration tool called GoVote.org.

At final tally, over 70,000 people used our voter registration tools and services. We estimate that 47,600 of these people will end up on the voter rolls (historically, for various reasons, 32% of people who use web-based voter registration tools do not complete the process). Our results show that our web-based voter registration tools were more effective than our text-based tools in reaching and registering voters.

From Wikipedia: 

TXTPower is a consumer advocacy group in the Philippines composed of mobile phone users.

References / Past Projects

From Wikipedia: 

It recently rose to international fame due to the "Hello Garci" ringtones that the group hosted on their website. The ringtone contained parts of the controversial "Hello Garci" conversations between Philippine President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and Elections Commissioner Virgilio "Garci" Garcillano. Due to the high demand for the ringtone as a form of protest, the TXTPower website lodged more than 500,000 hits and downloads in one month (June 17-July 17, 2005).

Formed in 2001, TXTPower has figured in high-profile campaigns against abuses of Philippine mobile phone service providers, against state intrusions to the privacy of communications and against proposed new taxes to be slapped on mobile phone use, specifically on texting or SMS.

We have just concluded the successful implementation of a mobile election monitoring system using short message service (SMS) to gather information from ordinary citizens in the just-concluded Nigerian elections (See http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/6570919.stm for further details). The text messages serve as data on the conduct of the election and our aim was to spot and document election fraud. This system allows citizens to report on what happened wherever they voted without fear of intimidation. It is non-obtrusive to manipulation by governments or the dominant party as NMEM collates and publishes what the people say via SMS.

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References / Past Projects