nGOmobile winners
April 17th, 2008
Africa, text messaging
A little while ago, Ken Banks and Kiwanja.net announced the winners of the first nGOmobile competition, designed to illustrate how grassroots use of mobile communincation (particularly SMS/text messaging) can be applied in creative and powerful ways. You can find details on the winners in the announcement here.
Or, check out the press release
In Kenya, the Centre for Training and Integrated Research for ASAL Development
(CETRAD) will begin using SMS to work with local communities to promote the
protection and sustainable use of environmental resources.In Uganda, NETWAS will launch an SMS-based service for rural communities allowing
them to ask a range of water-based questions on topics such as sanitation, hygiene,
water harvesting and water technologies.In Mexico, The Equilibrium Fund will deploy a range of SMS services to help rural
Central American and Mexican communities solve problems of deforestation,
poverty, malnutrition, unemployment and the marginalisation of women.In Azerbaijan, Digital Development will begin helping grassroots and politically
excluded people understand their human and legal rights, and to engage them
further in the political process, through their mobile phones.
Each of the winner’s models contains a plan to leverage the flexibility and interactivity of the medium in a way that extends beyond pushing bulk SMS messages to otherwise passive receivers. The Uganda and Kenya models deepen the two-way interactions between the NGOs and their communities; in the Mexico case, the NGO will host a system that will allow small Maya Nut producers to coordinate with customers. In Azerbaijan, the messages start as get-out-and-vote reminders, but participants are encouraged to forward the messages to 5 of their friends/family, creating potentially powerful network effects.
It would be great to see updates from some of these winners as the projects go live.
