Net Tuesdays or Net2 Local gatherings provide a chance to connect locally with all those interested in the intersection of social technologies and social change. There are new groups forming every week: Join in!
This month's Net2ThinkTank questions was:
How Can Nonprofits and NGOs Use Mobile Phones and SMS for Social Change?
Ken Banks of Kiwanja.net, submitted the post, Social Mobile and the Long Tail. You can listen to Ken Banks' presentation at Net Tuesday San Francisco and David Collins' interview with Ken on the NetSquared Podcast.
Sokari at Kabissa posted about Ken this month in the post, Ken Banks at the Mobile World Congress
You also might want to read the Pan African Mobile Activist Network (PAMOMNet)'s notes from The Mobile World Congress.
Katrin Verclas and Corey Ramey at MobileActive submitted a multitude of useful posts covering a range of ways nonprofits and NGOs can use mobile technology for their work:
General links for mobile phones and NGOs
Cellphones: The Mobile Frontier for NGOs
Mobile Phones and Social Activism - An Ethan Zuckerman White Paper
MobileActive directory of NGOs using mobile phones
NGOs using mobiles for advocacy
Turning Shopping into Advocacy via a Mobile Phone
SMS Support Network: Connecting People with HIV/AIDS in Mexico
Mobile Phones in Mass Organizing: A MobileActive White Paper
SMS Campaign to Fight Violence Against Women
Update on California Health Care SMS Campaign
The potential of cell phones to combat AIDS: Interview with Zinhle Thabethe and Krista Dong, iTeach South Africa
Mobiles in Service Delivery: Homelessness and HIV/AIDS
Using Mobile Phones to Advance Human Rights
Mobile Helplines and Info Services
Asian-Language Hotline Brings Housing Foreclosure Info to a Mobile Near You
A Mobile Language Line for Domestic Violence Victims
SOS SMS: A Text Helpline for Philippine Workers
Ask about Sex via Text: Teenagers 'Learn About Living' in Nigeria
MobileActive Video: SMS News For Low-Income Communities in Brazil
"Please Call Me" Messages with HIV Info: Mobile Social Marketing in South Africa
Texting for HIV Testing in South Africa
Tracking Greenhouse Gases on your Mobile
MobileActive07 Preview! Mobiles as Alternative Media in Zimbabwe
Human Trafficking Hotline: Mobile Phones in the Fight Against Slavery
Mobiles and Fundraising
Is mobile giving about to take off in the United States?
Watch Football, Text in and Donate to Fight Childhood Obesity
Is mobile fundraising the next frontier for charities?
NGOs using ringtones
Celebrate The Day of Love with Mating Call Ringtones
Why are ringtones-for-good so hot?
Endangered Species Ringtones
Citizen Journalism and Mobile Phones
Super Tuesday: Getting Out the Youth Vote with Citizen Journalism
Groundviews Mobile - Citizen Journalism from Sri Lanka on the Go
At Election Time It's Mobile Phone Journalism in Kenya
If I missed your post, add it in the comments of this post, or post about it on the NetSquared Blog.
I'll post the next Net2ThinkTank question on Friday, March 7th. If you have a suggestion for a question, email me at bbravo@techsoup.org
Adding Text to Change
Great Article, I would love to add Text to Change, www.texttochange.com to the list. TTC is working on HIV/AIDS education vai mobile telephones in Uganda.
Kind Regards,
Hajo van Beijma
Text to Change
Mobile advocacy toolkit wiki
Hi there
Thanks for a great resource!
I'd love to add the Tactical Tech Mobile Advocacy Toolkit to this list. The site I've linked to is a development wiki for the full toolkit which will be released in the summer in English and French.
The toolkit is aimed at advocates and campaigners in the global South - and particularly in Africa - to help them use mobiles and telephony in their work.
If anyone would like more information on the toolkit please feel to email mobiles at tacticaltech.org.
Mobile advocacy toolkit wiki
Hi there
Thanks for a great resource!
I'd love to add the Tactical Tech Mobile Advocacy Toolkit to this list. The site I've linked to is a development wiki for the full toolkit which will be released in the summer in English and French.
The toolkit is aimed at advocates and campaigners in the global South - and particularly in Africa - to help them use mobiles and telephony in their work.
If anyone would like more information on the toolkit please feel to email mobiles at tacticaltech.org.
A belated addition
The recent Mobile World Congress (held every year in Barcelona) coincided with the "How Can Nonprofits and NGOs Use Mobile Phones and SMS for Social Change?" NetSquared ThinkTank question.
I fully intended to throw my five pence worth in, especially as I was blogging for the 65K strong internal audience of a major mobile technology firm, but with so many other deadlines that week, this was one I missed... Well, the post is now up on Tools, Thoughts and Things one can Do with a little Time and Hardly any Resources - Specifically here.
Looking forward to the next ThinkTank round.
Expanded Blog entry
Hi Britt
Thanks for the links, and the useful post!
There's an expanded version of the "Social Mobile and the Long Tail" entry you mention, available at http://www.kiwanja.net/miscellaneous/kiwanja-Social-Mobile-Long-Tail.pdf for anyone who's interested (PDF, 500Kb).
Ken