Last week saw me start out at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and finish up at an event focusing on the use of text messaging in the non-profit sector in London. It was a busy week but two new resources were the end result. Pictures. If you didn’t make it to Mobile World Congress then here’s … Continue reading In words and pictures: Two mobile resources
Tag: SMS
The future of mobile messaging
I often get emails from research companies or publishers trying to sell me things. Most aren’t relevant, remotely interesting or affordable. One this morning, from Portio Research, caught my eye. It’s still not affordable (at least not for us), but it did come with ten great report ‘teasers’. And all of them interesting and relevant. … Continue reading The future of mobile messaging
Mountain meets mobile
In the twenty-first in our series of FrontlineSMS guest posts, Laura Hartstone – one of the organisers behind the “3 Peaks 3 Weeks” Challenge – updates us on their recent use of FrontlineSMS to provide daily climbing SMS updates to supporters around the world “Keeping in touch with family and friends while in Africa can … Continue reading Mountain meets mobile
Freedom Fone promotes information-for-all
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 … Continue reading Freedom Fone promotes information-for-all
SMS joins battle against human trafficking
January 2010 is National Slavery & Human Trafficking Prevention Month. In this, the nineteenth in our series of FrontlineSMS guest posts, Aashika Damodar – Founder of Survivors Connect – gives some background and context on the challenges of fighting human trafficking, and talks about the impact FrontlineSMS has had on their anti-trafficking efforts “The telephone is … Continue reading SMS joins battle against human trafficking
Information into action: Africa and beyond
Two organisations I’ve had the pleasure of working with – Tactical Tech and Fahamu – have independently announced the release of a film and a book which cover different aspects of non-profit digital activism. Both are well worth a look. Info-activism.org – a Tactical Tech initiative – explores how rights advocates “use information and digital … Continue reading Information into action: Africa and beyond
Mountain-top texting for charity
In the seventeenth in our series of FrontlineSMS guest posts, Laura Hartstone – one of the organisers behind the “3 Peaks 3 Weeks” Challenge – talks about their plans to use FrontlineSMS to provide daily climbing updates to supporters around the world via SMS The 3 Peaks 3 Weeks Challenge is an annual all-female climbing … Continue reading Mountain-top texting for charity
An SMS “kickstart” for Kenyan farmers
In this, the fifteenth in our series of FrontlineSMS guest posts, Rita Kiloo – Customer Care Executive at KickStart in Kenya – describes how their use of the software enables them to extend and improve their outreach efforts among rural farmers in the country “KickStart’s mission is to help millions of people out of poverty. … Continue reading An SMS “kickstart” for Kenyan farmers
Keeping up the heat on climate change
As part of this years International Day of Climate Action on October 24th, 350.org – with support from Tactical Technology Collective – are planning a new and innovative text messaging campaign designed to mobilise citizens around the world “Project MOBiLIZE” will use decentralised, country-specific FrontlineSMS servers to deliver targeted messaging blasts to 350.org supporters in … Continue reading Keeping up the heat on climate change
SMS registration for Maker Faire Africa
Attendees of next month’s Maker Faire Africa will be able to register their attendance by text message, thanks to a clever hack by Henry Barnor and Henry Addo, two Ghanaian developers. In the true spirit of Maker Faire, the two Henry’s have built the system using a phone with a Zain SIM card connected to … Continue reading SMS registration for Maker Faire Africa
Grameen’s AppLab comes of age
Today is a very exciting day for many colleagues in Uganda, a day which sees the launch of a suite of new services from Grameen’s AppLab project. I was fortunate enough to be involved in the very early stages of the initiative, spending a month on the ground studying a mixture of geography, culture, challenges, … Continue reading Grameen’s AppLab comes of age
Mobile meets plough in Cambodia
In this, the tenth in our series of FrontlineSMS guest posts, Dr. Robert Fitzgerald – Associate Dean of Research at the University of Canberra in Australia – explains their use of the software to provide agricultural data to farmers in Cambodia, and their plans to expand the service over the coming months Background “For the … Continue reading Mobile meets plough in Cambodia
The making of an SMS icon
Running social mobile tools through the global branding machine might not seem like an obvious thing to do, but done right it can lead to some surprising – and unexpected – results. This is our story. “Branding was the last thing on our minds. It was October 2007 and we were knee-deep building out the … Continue reading The making of an SMS icon
Farmer to farmer. Phone to phone.
In this – the fifth in our series of FrontlineSMS guest posts – Gary Garriott, Innovation Program Officer in the “Digital Futures for Development Program” at Winrock International, talks about their implementation of FrontlineSMS as part of a wider agriculture-based initiative in El Salvador Background “Winrock International is a social enterprise which describes itself as … Continue reading Farmer to farmer. Phone to phone.
@twitter meets @frontlinesms
@jack – inventor, Founder and Chairman of Twitter – meets up with @kiwanja – developer of FrontlineSMS – at the “Symposium on Technologies for Social Action” (e-STAS) conference in Malaga last week, where they both spoke about elements of citizen empowerment. In their quest for globally-available, affordable (free!) text messaging, the Twitter folk are not … Continue reading @twitter meets @frontlinesms