Using Mobile Phones for Action
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Mobile technology is being used by citizens all over the world as the most affordable and massively adopted piece of technology. How can we harness this technology for advancing human rights and civil society participation? This dialogue is a space to share and discuss many ideas for "Using Mobile Phones for Action."

Table of Contents

The following table of contents was developed to make the dialogue easier to navigate. Important themes and different discussions have been highlighted for archival purposes and for new users. The preferred method of viewing the comments is with "Thread list - expanded" option, which is explained here.

A list of resources and videos featured in this dialogue can be found here.

[Photo: from the Private Sector Development blog]

Using Mobiles

SMS (Short Message Service)

Resources

Intro

Mobile technology is being used by citizens all over the world as the most affordable and massively adopted piece of technology. How can we harness this technology for advancing human rights and civil society participation?

Our outstanding resource practitioners for the November-December tactical discussion shared and discussed many ideas for "Using Mobile Phones for Action". You can still contribute your ideas, questions and experiences!

Evans Wafula Ken Banks Ellene Sana

 

 

Natasha Dokovska Noel Large Katrin Verclas
Clockwise from top: Evans Wafula (Kenya) Ken Banks (UK), Ellene Sana (Philippines), Natasha Dokovska (Macedonia), Noel Large (Northern Ireland) and Katrin Verclas (United States).

Philippe Duhamel - in his interTactica blog - Harnessing new technology for new tactics provides some great examples to get our creative ideas flowing.

  • Sending out an SMS -- Supporting human rights work and activism with text messaging, or SMS - Short Messaging Service - functionality
  • Organizing demonstrations -- Such as the Orange Revolution in Ukraine
  • Coup de text -- Like ousting a president, it happened in the Philippines
  • Protest Ringtones -- Highlighting corruption, it's being used in the Philippines

Links from the dicussion:

npearson's picture

SOS SMS Helpline

 

Hi Ellene,

Thanks so much sharing this in the discussion. Please share more about how both the mechanics of the SOS SMS system works but why the use of mobile phones for this purpose has been important for Overseas Contract Workers (OCWs). I think it's especially this connection that might spark ideas for other to consider ways that such such a helpline could be used. I was thinking especially about how this tactic might be used for women and children in domestic violence situations.

Do you know the OCWs that connect with you or do these people just learn about your SOS SMS helpline through other kinds of promotions? If so, how do you get the word out to people?

Nancy Pearson, New Tactics Program Manager

Nancy Pearson, New Tactics in Human Rights Program Manager