I'm at the Mobile Tech 4 Social Change barcamp. Here are some notes on what's going on:
The keynote is by Harvard's Ethan Zuckerman. Via Skype. We won-the mobile phone is the most powerful tool for democracy in the developing world.
Driven by U.S. phones and tariffs catching up to Japan and also Kenya-where you do your banking and possibly job.
Opportunities for activists: mobile phones make it easy to mobilize. Three years ago 5,000 people wore black and stood outside the U.S. embassy-and no one knows who organized it. Now seeing government shut down SMS part of network: Cambodia before elections, for three years in Ethiopia. Chinese government is now sending out SMS to tell people not to go to protests.
These protests work because they manifest our social networks. People protest as their friend invited them, not because organizer invited 20k people.
Not the only tool: in Africa the best tool is FM radio. Real power is combining mobile with it. In Ghana, people who see electoral fraud and call talk radio via mobile-data is then public and electoral commission must investigate. In Congo, people can submit questions to government officials on radio show via SMS. For instance, women text in and ask if soldiers are allowed to command their houses-and Defence Minister can say 'no' and whole country here's answer.
Frequently found that users don't have same behaviour as designers. Nokia has wasted a lot of time giving N95s to create citiZen journalists-who them don't use the phone or can't get interviews using a phone.
Interesting project: Ushahidi. Crowdsource crisis info. Worked really well in Kenya, but struggling in Congo as people don't have similar technological sophistication. Also did not have anyone actually run the project in the DMC-were using server from South Africa.
I led a session on Mobile 4 Health. I didn't get to write down too much, but here are some thoughts:
For health: need to check out what google is doing via SMS in Kenya. Free calls amongst doctors in Ethiopia.
Need to look at Rwanda for innovative health care. MTN for phone coverage-3G. Fiber across Kigali! University of Washington for weight loss flower (PDF).
UPDATE: Here are links to a bunch of related medical studies:
- SEXINFO: A Sexual Health Text Messaging Service for San Franscisco Youth
- Mobile phone text messaging cna help young people manage asthma
- College smoking cessation using cell phone text messaging
- Do you smoke after txt? (pdf)
- Participatory design of a text messaging scheduling system to support young people with diabetes
- Patients' Engagement with "Sweet Talk" - A Text Messaging Support System for Young People with Diabetes