Toolkit
From TTC: Mobile Advocacy Toolkit Working Meeting wiki
Mobiles-in-a-box is a collection of tools, tactics, how-to guides and case studies designed to help and advocacy and activist organisations to use mobile technology in their work.
Mobiles-in-a-box is designed to inspire you, to present possibilities for the use of mobile telephony in your work and to introduce you to some tools which may help you. It contains:
- Suggested tactics for using mobile phones to support advocacy
- Case studies
- Tools and services
- How-to guides to get you started with mobile advocacy
Contents |
[edit] What impact can using mobile phones make to advocacy?
Mobile phones Dynamic; mobile technology is speed, location based, instant,/simultaneous = Diverse = previously unconnected people, Viral effect Discreet = people don't know you're taking pictures, Direct = direct access to people and making their voices heard
Mobile phones have spread like wildfire through the developing world, revolutionising communications, particularly in rural areas.
Mobile phones provide individual users and communities with valuable access to a range of data services for personal and commercial purposes. They also allow them increased engagement in civil society and in the democratic processes of their countries. This engagement may take many forms: monitoring elections, receiving job alerts via SMS (text message), running small businesses, reporting illegal logging, accessing up-to-date market price information or providing an alternative form of media access. Mobile phones can also help users to participate in m-banking (mobile banking) and keep in touch with family and friends.
[edit] Ten things NGOs need to know about working with mobiles
- Many marginalised and disenfranchised people who had never had access to communications technology may now use mobile phones to talk, and to send and receive texts or data.
- Using mobile phones NGOs and independent advocates can reach people that they couldn't reach before.
- Because the mobile phone offers new ways to communicate, network, and exchange information, NGOs can use them to communicate with all their constituents in new ways.
- With mobile phones the communities served by NGOs and advocacy groups can provide information as well as receiving it. Information can be recorded and communicated in many ways including SMS, picture messages, telephone calls, photos or even video.
- Mobiles are useful advocacy tools but mobile technologies, economies and policies are diverse and change rapidly.
- A great deal of sensitive information can be stored and exchanged on a mobile device, so security and privacy are vital issues.
- The tools that are currently available are mostly very challenging to use and might require specialist technical support.
Privacy and Security
- Your mobile phone contains a great deal of sensitive information, so it's vital to think about security. To learn more about how to keep yourself and your data safe see the security information article.
- Your country's legal system may place constraints on your organisation's use of SMS messaging, for example requiring you to inform people what you may do with any data you collect from them or limiting the number of SMS messages you are able to send. To find out the legal situation in your country, contact the government body which deals with telecommunications.
- “Text spamming”, or the sending of unsolicited text messages, is illegal in some countries. Users have to ‘opt in’ either by text, via the internet or during a recruitment process, in order to receive SMS messages.
Technological Challenges
- Much of the advocacy work that is currently being done using mobile phones is groundbreaking, and lessons continue to be learned. There are many examples of failed mobile campaigns, most of which don't make the news, and a few successes. It is important to have reasonable expectations from the beginning.
- The specialised tools and software that are needed in order to do this sort of work with mobile phones are mostly very challenging to use and require technical support. To learn more about these tools and to find out about some online services which may be easier to use, see the guide to What types of tool are available?.
- If you are thinking of using mobile phones to conduct a survey you should bear in mind that the SMS format can be very restrictive because it offers no help or context to users who may be struggling to understand or interpret your questions. Answers to survey questions will have to be very short and formatted in a particular predetermined way in order for automated systems to cope with them.
- Interactive voice response systems which allow users to dial in for a menu of choices can be a great way of providing dynamic information to a large audience of non-literate people but are very technologically challenging to create and maintain.
Roaming Issues
- If your organisation wants to set up a mobile phone programme across more than one country users may find it expensive to call or send an SMS abroad. Check with all the mobile operators who operate in the region to see which can offer the most competitive rates.
Cost
- Setting up and maintaining a short code (a short, easy-to-remember telephone number usually 4 or 5 digits in length) for people to dial when accessing or subscribing to your organisation's services is often very expensive.
Audience Issues
- Mobile phone use is very different among different groups, for example young people often use SMS much more than older users. When designing a mobile advocacy programme you should tailor it to the appropriate audience or audiences.
- When developing programmes it's important to remember that mobile phones are often shared between users. Many people still access telecommunications services through shared phones or “Village Phone” schemes (shared phones are phones purchased and shared between friends and family members. Village Phones are mobiles purchased, mostly by women in rural areas (often via a small micro-finance loan), which can be used by members of the community to make calls for a small fee. In developing countries in particular, especially in rural areas, people who don't own phones may be unable to participate in mobile campaigns. This reinforces the need to consider mobiles as just one part of a wider strategy, to ensure that you also engage with people who don't have access to mobile phones.
- The literacy of mobile phone users should not be assumed. Some manufacturers have responded to the challenge of designing for non-literate or semi-literate users by developing mobile phones which respond to voice prompts in local languages.
- Obtaining the phone numbers of target audiences can be one of the biggest challenges NGOs face when trying to use mobiles in their work. People may be reluctant or suspicious when asked to provide their phone numbers and a lack of trust between parties can mean an early end to mobile-based projects.
Language and font issues
- Ensure that your target audiences are able to read SMS messages that you send them. If your audience speaks a minority language the font for that language may not be installed on your phone. Installing minority language support on phones is not trivial and usually has to be done by an official repair centre rather than by the user.
- If you are delivering information, you may need to offer it in more than one language.
[edit] Further challenges
[edit] Mobile operating systems
The mobile phone operating system is the software that makes your phone work. Two operating systems run more than 95 percent of the world’s computers, but dozens of systems are behind the 2.5 billion mobile phones in circulation.
The benefits of open source software which have led to innovation in the traditional computing environment don't apply to mobile platforms because the hardware isn't accessible to software developers. Mobile phone software and applications are developed to order for the mobile operators who pass only the functions on to the consumers.
This is the opposite of the web development environment. In the web context innovations develop at a rapid pace because it's easy to experiment, make mistakes and 'play' with technologies by demonstrating on a small scale that an idea or programme works.
This closed platform presents challenges for those in the not-for-profit sector wishing to develop mobile applications that are adapted for those who may need to use their phones in different ways, for example by making the phone interface locally relevant (providing different languages and/or fonts) or by producing applications that are appropriate for disabled users (such as visually-impaired people or people with tremors).
This situation is changing with the advent of the Google Android system and the Open Moko which is billed as the “World's First Integrated Open Source Mobile Communications Platform”. However it is unclear whether the Google system will be compatible with older phones. One of the most important operating systems, Symbian, is also in the process of converting to open source.
[edit] Big business
Those hoping to set up programmes using mobile technologies are obliged to do so via the global mobile industry which provides carriers and aggregation services.
- Pricing structures are complex and vary from country to country. For example in some regions SMS messages are more expensive than voice communication, which has made them a less popular way of communicating. Sometimes data has to be sent via the country where the service provider is based, which is also expensive.
- The challenges of cross-border messaging and roaming: an organisation wishing to set up a trans-national messaging programme must attempt to ensure that the service is reasonably priced in all target countries.
- Privacy: NGOs and activists doing work which is politically sensitive must try to make sure that their data, conversations and messages stay private.
[edit] The political landscape
The political situation in a country or region has an impact on the development of programmes and tools using mobile technologies.
[edit] Human rights issues
It is worth taking into account the political and labour rights issues related to handset manufacture. A recent report detailed the poor working conditions in the factories of the five largest mobile telephone companies: Nokia, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson and LG. Workers in factories producing parts for Nokia and Motorola work without proper protection and are exposed to chemicals that cause chronic illnesses and serious physical harm. http://www.somo.nl/html/paginas/nieuws_item.php?id=323
[edit] Environmental issues
As with any electronic device there are environmental issues related to the entire life cycle of the mobile phone. The mining of coltan (a mineral essential for mobile manufacturing) is associated with human rights violations in the Democratic Republic of Congo http://www.cellular-news.com/coltan/. The dumping of e-waste such as old mobile phone batteries in developing countries is also a problem. http://www.unep.org/Documents.Multilingual/Default.asp?DocumentID=495&ArticleID=5433&l=en
[edit] Tactics
Some suggestions for the most useful ways in which you can use mobile phones to support your work. These tactics are grouped in the following sections;
- Enabling participation Helping people engage more fully in civil society by giving them information, human rights and environmental monitoring using SMS; giving feedback and opinions to decision-makers.
- Fund-raising Using mobile phones to raise money for your organisation through SMS campaigns and the use of mobile payments.
- People's media Using the multimedia capacity of mobiles to create content and to report using blogs and/or images.
- Coordinating and mobilising Using mobile phones to organise meetings, to put out calls to action and to communicate in emergencies.
Our discussion of each subject includes information on related security issues, about possible pitfalls you should consider in planning your work and about the tools you can use. We also include instructive and inspiring case studies from around the world.
[edit] Tools
An introduction to a few of the different kinds of tools that are available for use in mobile advocacy.
[edit] Getting started
We have also included some How-tos for organisations wishing to get started with mobile telephony projects.
[edit] Other introductory guides
The toolkit also contains introductory guides to the following subjects;
- Security shows you how to use mobile technologies safely and securely; how to protect data (your own and that of your organisation) and how to ensure that services provided by your organisation are safe and secure for users.
- Budgeting for mobile advocacy shows you how to budget effectively for a mobile phone advocacy project.
- Resources you will need shows you how to scale your mobile advocacy efforts to the resources your organisation has available.
- The challenges of mobile advocacy will introduce you to some of the challenges you should be aware of, and some possible solutions.
- What types of tool are available? will show you some of the tools and services that are available for use in mobile phone advocacy.
[edit] Resources
We've also included links to other resources, tools, services and documentation which are not included in the toolkit.
