Distribute information
From Shareideas
Sharing information is critical to organizations in carrying out their work and delivering on their missions. How can mobile communications facilitate the fast and effective collection and delivery of information? See the examples below:
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How to guides
Where can it help?
Educate people
Mobile phones can be used to educate specific audiences about your work, or to further your mission through delivering educational content. Take, for example, ISIS, Inc., a nonprofit organization in the U.S. that has developed a means by which young people can text a simple message to a number to obtain information regarding sensitive reproductive health issues.
Similarly, in Kenya, Mobile for Good, a social franchise, enables subscribers to its community news service to access vital health information related to HIV/AIDs, breast cancer, diabetes, and nutrition.
Case Studies
- Bridgeit: Using Mobile Technology to Improve Educational Opportunities
- Collaborative nature inquiry with smart phones
- Lifelines India: Supporting Rural Teachers
- MobilED audio wiki in classroom
- Mobile Technology Assists with Life Skills Education
- Mobile for Good: Connecting People to Information About Jobs and Health
- Providing HIV/AIDS Education Through Mobile Games
- Providing Youth with Access to Reproductive Health Information
- Students use videophones to document environmental issues
Disseminate information
Mobile phones are one of the fastest ways available today to deliver news to people. There are several limitations of using mobile phone as a news service, but in the case of emergencies, mobile technology has shown to be very efficient way to reach people.
To get in touch with the people fast, you naturally need a database of their phone numbers. To obtain such information, you might ask people to submit their mobile phone numbers on your organization's website, or in writing at special events or in mail solicitations. It's always good practice to tell people exactly how you intend to use the information you collect.
For example, World Wildlife Fund-Finland keeps a mobile phone register of volunteers willing to help out in the event of oil accident in the Baltic Sea. With the mobile phone numbers, the organization can mobilize thousands of people to take action quickly to avert a major natural disaster.
Similarly, some Government’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs have collected country specific mobile phone registers to reach in the event of an emergency in a country in which their citizens are living or visiting.
Case Studies
- Citizens Use SMS to Monitor Nigeria's Presidential Election
- Communities use mobile phones to webcast their daily experience
- Mobile for Good: Connecting People to Information About Jobs and Health
- Mobilizing Volunteers to Respond to Oil Disasters in the Baltic Sea
- Reporting Child Rights Violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Texting It In: Monitoring Elections With Mobile Phones
- US Youth Use Text Messages in Get-out-the-Vote Campaign
- Warana Unwired: Connecting Farmers in India to Vital Information
- Wildlife Conservation: The Elephant and the Text Message
Document social / environmental issues
Mobile phones can be extremely useful to organizations in documenting social and environmental issues and sharing that information with staff, field/headquarter offices, members, policy makers, the general public, and media.
In the Democratic Republic of Congo, for example, Ajedi-ka, a national NGO, relies on a grassroots network of designated individuals to report child rights violations via cell phone. This information is then used to conduct follow up and to inform international policy-makers, including the UN Security Council, about violations against children in the country. And in South Africa, Fauna & Flora International and ResourceAfrica teamed up to develop an SMS system to warn local communities of wild animals that may be dangerously close.
Case Studies
- Citizens Use SMS to Monitor Nigeria's Presidential Election
- Fighting Avian Flu with Mobile Phones in Indonesia
- Reporting Child Rights Violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo
- Texting It In: Monitoring Elections With Mobile Phones
- Wildlife Conservation: The Elephant and the Text Message
Share documents
Looking to share documents with your team members, staff, members, and supporters? See the how to guide for useful mobile communications tools.
Use photos/video
Digital cameras and mobile phones with cameras have changed photography forever. The ability to immediately view and delete images from digital camera makes them quite different from film cameras. You may also store and edit digital images in your camera, or later on your PC.
Digtal cameras are outselling film cameras. Digital cameras often come with video and/or audio recording capability. Many mobile phones include a digital camera. If equipped with wireless network capability, sharing media on the spot becomes much faster and easier. Take a picture, shoot a video, record an audio file, and send them via mobile network to those who are interested.
Resources
