Technology in use today
Changemakers is very interested in mobile technologies and how they can be used for social change. We have been exploring the use of mobile devices as a way of interacting with our online competitions, both for outreach purposes and for direct interatction with our site.
We have started using SMS in Africa for inbound outreach purposes, and are looking at further ways to use this technology, and others, such as voice to text and voice to web, to allow for further interaction with our site. We have built some exciting partnerships, and we would be very interested in hearing about other experiences in this field.
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Changemakers implemented a communication strategy and as a "discovery tool" for social innovations in agriculture/rural development and education in six countries in Africa (Mali, Senegal, Ghana, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda) based on text mesages (SMS). We are working closely with Ken Banks and are using the software he developed called FronlineSMS as a communications platform.
This software was designed for the citizen sector and a download can be requested free of charge from FrontlineSMS, here.
Hello!
My name is Lisa Cespedes, and I am an intern with e-agriculture.org: http://www.e-agriculture.org/
In November 2008 e-agriculture hosted an online forum where participants from many countries provided great examples of how mobiles are being used or could be used to enhance agricultural development in poor rural areas.
The forum is still up if anybody is interested: http://ow.ly/9PFL
Also, the same topic was the focus of a similar forum in Spanish which took place during April, 2009: http://ow.ly/9PGz
But if you don't have time to go through the forum, these is the policy brief that resulted from the forum: e-ag'sTelephony in Rural Areas Policy Briefs in English: http://ow.ly/9PJm Spanish: http://ow.ly/9PK6 & French: http://ow.ly/9PL4
I conducted 4 interviews in Spanish with experts on the subject: http://bit.ly/14IvAR, http://bit.ly/w2fkZ, http://bit.ly/eSpku, http://bit.ly/fe3GF
I am looking forward to learn from all of you here.
Thanks for creating this group,
Best,
Lisa
Roberto -- is there any literature out there on your work implementing this communications strategy? I'd love to take a look.
Best,
Paul
I would be interested in participating in this. In rural Kenya, were people have to walk 5-20 km to access a bank, mobile banking can be an instant solution. I am specifically crying for the rural women here who spend so much time accessing banking services in urban centres while at the same time, expected to perform other house chores in good time.
Are you finding that many people you work with in Kenya are using mobiles for more than phone calls (i.e. banking, news, music, photos, etc.)?
Thanks for sharing your interest, and particularly the problem you highlight around rural women accessing banking services. I can't think of any examples off hand, but you might want to scan the entries (or at least the finalists) from the "Banking for Social Change" comeptition: http://www.changemakers.com/en-us/node/8438/finalists. Its at least a start in terms of this conversation, though I agree that this is a challenge we haven't seen addressed yet.
Are there other projects/services elsewhere that have figured this out, or other folks who have worked in addressing this need?
Hi Chrstine, thanks a lot for youe comment. This is actually an issue affecting many people in Latin America and specially in countries with a high % of a population living in rural areas. Take a look at this entry from the Citi Compeition, it is a great solution!
http://www.changemakers.net/en-us/node/12720
You should also check out/invite Ushahidi.com to this effort. They are pioneering innovative ways of using mobile phones in Africa for crowd sourcing information.
I think the two platforms will run side by side for at least a couple of years. Theres some infrastructre that needs to either talk to each other or meet.
It seems that SMS - because of its ubiquity, low cost, and low barrier to use and adoption - is going to be the primary interface for interaction between social change online activity and people on the ground.
It will not be the other way around, where the technology will suddenly improve to catch up with the online platforms. We need to redesign our web-based interactions, and reduce them to the core or essence of what action we want people to take, give them a value that is high enough for folks to want to participate, and build around that.
I think the guys at www.inveneo.org do a good job at this.
Inveneo is doing this kind of work on the ground right now. Innovative, yet realistic.