From MobileActive Wiki

Written by Elizabeth Keren

Case Studies

Voices of Africa

Voices of Africa is a web site that invites mobile citizen journalists to report on different events and news from around Africa. Voices of Africa was launched in May 2007 with the support of the Africa Interactive Media Foundation. The choice to focus on mobile reporting and information gathering was because only a small number of Africans have Internet access. By utilizing General Packet Radio System (GPRS), the wireless communication protocol in Africa, the goal is to eventually have Africans from all over the continent send video and still images to the Voices of Africa website. Currently Voices of Africa has hired citizens in five countries to teach and equip locals with the tools necessary to become mobile citizen journalists for their respective countries. While the ultimate goal is to have every African country involved, currently there are reports coming in from five major African countries; Kenya, South Africa, Mozambique, Ghana, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. The equipment used for the project is basic; a cell phone with GPRS and a small folding keyboard that plugs into the cell phone to make text message writing quicker and easier. Because they have some funding, Voices of Africa was able to install special software in a secure server, which transfers mobile media to the Voices of Africa interactive website for publication. Once online, those stories and images are meant to trigger reactions from users and community members.

MoBlog Ukraine

MoBlog Ukraine encourages Ukrainian citizens to report their own stories to a web blog by sending a photo, video, or text message to a specified email address. Ukrainians are encouraged to use their own cell phone with SMS or MMS service to send reports and media to the mobile blog. By setting up a service that works with basic cell phones and their plans, it encourages and allows for more citizens to participate in mobile blogging.

Melbourne IndyMedia

Melbourne IndyMedia is a grassroots website that publishes reports on radical views and analysis of current events throughout Australia. Melbourne IndyMedia uses PIMP (Phone IndyMedia Patch System) as their mobile blogging service. PIMP allows Australian citizens to call in reports uses any type of phone system (cell phones or landlines). Melbourne’s IndyMedia website’s states a philosophy that “everyone is a witness, everyone is a journalist,” thus the PIMP system allows for greater access to everyday citizens and their stories.

Creating Community Connections

Creating Community Connections is a website for citizen journalism reporting from around the city of Chicago. Citizens of Chicago are encouraged to send reports to the website site related to community issues and in order to better develop create community connections within the city. While Chicagoans can submit stories via the web, they can also use their mobile phones. A new resource on the site allows people to submit stories by way of mobile phones using a web resource called Jaxtr. The hope is that the mobile blogging option will allow the citizens who do not have Internet access, but do have cell phones to be able to participate in reporting.

Yoperiodista

Yoperiodista A Spanish newspaper called El Pais has dedicated a section to citizen journalism. Citizens are encouraged to send their photos and videos to the paper using MMS messaging on their cell phones.

Now Public

NowPublic is a Vancouver based worldwide citizen journalism site where anyone can publish news stories via their mobile phone. NowPublic uses an email addresss so that anyone with SMS or MMS on their phone can use it to send a text, photo, or video directly to NowPublic. Citizens can also request coverage of events that they are interested in learning more about. NowPublic also takes advantage of text message alert systems with citizen media. NowPublic allows citizens to subscribe to a text alert system where citizens can share their phone numbers with NowPublic and when breaking news is occurring in their local community, they can receive a text message about covering the news story itself.

Project to Watch

Mobile Voices

Mobile Voices is a state-up grassroots project concerning immigrants in Los Angeles California. While the web site is currently in the initial phases of the project, the overarching concept is to allow first generation immigrants in Los Angeles to use their cell phones to share their stories and community news on an Internet-based site.