Internet, Email & Telephones > Email & Communication Services, Getting Connected
Networks > Access From Outside

Mobile 2.0 - the applications

By Lasa Information Systems Team

In the second part of our guide around the maze of mobile 2.0 we continue to look at the “killer applications” or tools driving the use of mobile phones – and how non-profits can apply them to their work.

The mobile phone industry is one that is bucking the current economic downturn. With the number of people now using mobile phones there are a large number of applications popping up that could be used by voluntary and community groups.

Campaigning and Advocacy

SMS text-messaging

SMS has proved a powerful tool for quickly mobilising support around social change, such as Kubatana.net (Zimbabwe) and Ushahidi (Kenya).  In the UK and Ireland SMS services have focused on youth issues – crime, sexual health and drugs, fund-raising and news and travel alerts;

Mobile phone SMS schemes have proved an effective way of engaging young people with projects providing advice and guidance on wide range of youth issues such as health, crime, and drugs.

In London a wave of knife crime violence has claimed the lives of scores of teenagers.  In response, a plan to use SMS to combat youth knife crime is being trialled in three schools in Tower Hamlets, east London. The text pilot enables youngsters to anonymously report classmates or other youths they suspect of carrying knives to anti-crime charity Crimestoppers UK.  If successful, the plan is for the service to be rolled out to schools across the capital and potentially even nationwide.

In the north of England, County Durham Primary Care Trust and Darlington Primary Care Trust have set up a confidential mobile textback service providing sexual health information for young people.  The service is tailored for girls and boys.

Using Frontline SMS, Kubatana set up an sms election service for subscribers to receive up to date election information and results.  Kubatana have also been running a campaign “What would you like a free Zimbabwe to look like?” 

A combination of SMS and email were used in the initiative, with text messages such as “Kubatana! No senate results as at 5.20 pm. What changes do YOU want in a free Zim? Lets inspire each other. Want to know what others say? SMS us your email addr” sent out to their mobile subscriber lists.  FrontlineSMS was used to blast the messages out, and then used collect responses which were then distributed via an electronic newsletter and on the Kubatana Community Blog Frontline SMS. 

Ushahidi maps reports of the post election crisis in Kenya.  Incidents can be submitted directly to the site by SMS.

Fundraising

Making a donation is as easy as texting the word ‘AID’ to 57500 and €2.50 worth of your mobile phone credit will go towards helping disaster relief efforts in China, and Burma (Myanmar) through four Irish charities.  TXT-Aid was recently launched in Ireland and will run for two weeks.

Travel Alerts

Transport for London provides a free SMS alert service for London travellers.  The AA traffic alerts provides a national alert service for road users – text messages cost 50p each to receive.

Promotion

San-Francisco based company Reactee has launched a line of t-shirts that "Text Back" to help promote causes.  At the Reactee web site users create shirts with their own personalised message such as "Stop Global Warming" and choose a unique keyword that appears on the shirt. People who see the shirt can then respond to it by texting the keyword to an SMS short code provided by Reactee at which point they receive a custom text message response created by the user.

Accessibility

The RNID’s TalkByText Mobile edition allows deaf people to send SMS text messages from their mobile phone to a PC, doing away with the need for organisations to maintain expensive TextPhones.  RNID’s software is compatible with Nokia mobile phones

Mobile Social Networking

Non-profits and causes have been quick to recognise the potential of mobile social networking, with Facebook, MySpace and Bebo all being used to promote and advocate social causes.

Causes

Facebook’s Causes application, "connects thousands of people with common interests in humanitarian efforts".  You can browse through social causes which include relief efforts, environmental causes, political causes, educational efforts, and more.   The Red Cross's Causes Page helps raise money and awareness for the relief efforts in China. There is also a similar service on MySpace called Impact, which is more like a portal for non-profits group activity, featuring news, videos and events.

The UK Government has also launched a new £3m advertising campaign against youth violence.  The campaign ads – designed by teenagers - show the dangers of carrying a knife by featuring graphic images of real injuries inflicted by knives.  The ads have been designed for a variety of channels including mobile phones and social networking sites like Bebo.

Micro-blogging

Micro-blogging is a form of blogging that allows users to write brief text updates (usually 140 characters) and publish them, either to be viewed by anyone or subscribers.  Many non-profits are using micro-blogging services like Twitter or Jaiku to update their friends or colleagues with ‘news headlines’ or ‘news flashes’ – these could be calls for emergency aid and assistance.) and Twitter to

Citizen journalism

Citizen journalism or “user-generated” content has become a powerful way of quickly spreading breaking news stories - the London bombings of 2005, the China earthquake and the Myanmar cyclone of 2008 – and influencing opinion.

One of the best known is CNN's iReport which promises unedited, unfiltered news.  Last May 2008, CNN featured 915 user reports drawn from more than 10,000 submissions and both numbers are expected to grow.

South Korea’s Ohmynews (which started life in 2000, pioneered the concept of citizen journalism.

The BBC, Sky News and ITN  all accept “user-generated” content under a variety of royalty-free, non-exclusive licences.

Media sharing

These tools bridge the mobile phone and the web, allowing you to connect, share and publish content with friends and online communities through their phones. 

Tools like Itsmy.com, Shozu and Kadoink offer the possibility that organisations could exploit these channels to share their movies, photos and other stories to mobile audiences.

Other favourites include Youtube, JuiceCaster and vpod.tv.

Location Based Services

Location based services (LBS) are able to pinpoint your location and direct you to nearby services – such as a Post Office or train station or specific address.

Nokia Maps 2.0 is one of the most popular GPS navigation systems for mobiles.  It also offers guides for drivers, multimedia city guides and satellite images.  Google Maps and Yahoo! Maps have also mobilised their map services for mobile phones and allow users to find local points of interest.

A more social version of LBS enables you or a friend to pinpoint each other’s location, find local events and listings, and even make recommendations of things you might like in your area.  Fire up your mobile browser and check out Rummble, buddyping, loopt or Buzzd.

Future Trends in Mobile 2.0

The next wave in the evolution of the mobile web is likely to see innovation in the following areas:

Mobile banking:  M-banking is helping people on low incomes or in rural areas to access banking and trading services.

Transactions:  The ultimate in always available convenience, it’s already here and booming with mobile web versions of Amazon, Ebay, iTunes and McDonalds.

Health:  Health services will increasingly engage with mobile platforms – from appointment booking, reporting symptoms to monitoring health.  Mobile health services are already spreading through remote areas of east Africa.

Conclusion

According to financial analysts, worldwide spending on mobile phones continues to buck the economic downturn – mostly driven by a combination of cheap hand sets, affordable tariffs, and the iPhone media frenzy.  By contrast PC makers and retailers are facing hard times with desktop machines seen by consumers as expensive, complex and difficult to maintain.

Mobile use of web services is also increasing – particularly social networking, text services, location based services, transactions and multi-media messaging with video.  These all have non-profit applications and organisations need to look closely at the best tools to help them campaign, advocate, and connect with supporters.