Article
Back in September 2007, protesters from many parts of the United States poured into the small town of Jena, Louisiana, to express their anger over the over-zealous prosecution (as they saw it) of six young African-Americans on charges of assault. Mobile-phone text messages played an important role in pulling in the crowd. But for pioneers of mobile telephony and texts as tools of protest and dissent, simply summoning people to demonstrations – a technique first deployed in the Philippines as long ago as 2001 – is old hat. The search is on for ever more creative ways to use this ubiquitous device. This Economist article reports on the use of mobiles in civic engagement around the world.