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Came across this article and thought it was kinda cool.

Steven Clift, who knows more than anyone I know about how countries around the world are experimenting with reinventing government in the electronic age, has a fascinating new post on his blog about a new service in England: the Prime Minister's office is inviting the public to petition him directly online. Right now, the top petition, with more than 1.4 million signatures, is urging Tony Blair to scrap a proposed vehicle tax. Clift adds:

I've been collecting string about Avaaz.org for a while now, but after I queried founders Ricken Patel and Tom Perriello (of ResPublica) and Paul Hilder, and they begged off on a pre-launch interview, I figured there was no hurry. But their site is now live (thanks Ruby for pinging me on that), so here's a first take.

Avaaz.org is using "The World in Action" as its tagline, and the first clue that this aims to be something different is the site, which comes in English, French, Korean, Chinese, Spanish and Portugese. The English version, however, is clearly NOT aimed at us Americans: it's got a photo of Tony Blair that reads "Even he is pulling out/Block the escalation in Iraq," and starts with this text: "George W Bush wants to pour more petrol on the fires burning in Iraq. But the new US Congress has the mandate to douse the flames. If they hear from all of us, they might find the guts to do it!" (Petrol is gasoline in British, by the way; and douse is to put out.)

"How big a change have cellphones made to Africa?" I shout the question at Isis Nyong'o, over the throbbing bassline of of a Kenyan ragga track. She tells me calmly: "It's had about the same effect as a democratic change of leadership."
These are the opening lines of a GREAT two day report done by Paul Mason BBCs Newsnight business correspondent in which Mason travels through Kenya (using mobile network coverage as a map) to explore the impact cell phones are having on this developing country. The result is an amazing report that continues tomorrow!

With one in three adults carrying a cellphone in Kenya, mobile telephony is having an economic and social impact whose is hard to grasp if you are used to living in a country with good roads, democracy and the internet.

In five years the number of mobiles in Kenya has grown from one million to 6.5 million - while the number of landlines remains at about 300,000, mostly in government offices...

Also read about a mobile payment solution called M-Pesa which will "make Africa a very much more liquid economy."

[read more here]

Make sure you check out the video as well.

RELATED PDF ARTICLES

http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/956

Technorati Tags: m-pesa, africa, kenya

On 1st January, kiwanja launched two new website services - an online mobile database and a gallery of images. The mobile database is a resource designed to provide information on mobile usage around the world. With a particular emphasis on social and environmental initiatives, articles and reports, it aims to assist academics, professionals and practitioners interested in ways mobile telephony is being used to enhance environmental, social, humanitarian, political and economic causes. The database launches with details of several dozen projects, articles and reports, and will be continually updated with past, present and future initiatives as they come online. Users are encouraged to help by submitting details of their own projects, and volunteers are encouraged to assist with general updating.

At the same time, a gallery of mobile-related images has also been launched on the site. Until now, high quality royalty-free images have been hard to find on the web. The mobile gallery aims to meet this need by providing NGOs and non-profits with royalty-free photographs for use in brochures, general literature, websites or project reports and proposals. The gallery launches with approximately forty initial images. Additional categories and countries will be added over the coming weeks.

Related

FrontlineSMS: Finally, an SMS Hub in a Box
http://www.personaldemocracy.com/node/770

Technorati Tags: kiwanja, mobile, sms, mobile gallery

For those of you itching to learn how SMS can help with helping voters to the polls on election day read on. During the recent Presidential Election in Venezuela nearly 8 million voters used SMS to find their polling station.
Citizens of Venezuela could enter information of where they lived and receive information on where there polling station is. I tried to do something similar during the Pat Lamarche gubernatorial race this past November.
The SMS application to handle enquiries from the 16 million registered voters to know which was their voting center was provided by Ogangi Corporation and was used by 7.8 million voters. The Consejo Nacional Electoral (CNE) also used SMS to tell with the 350,000 electoral witnesses where and when they should receive their training.
To use the service voters send in their personal ID (Cedula de Identidad), and receive an answer like this:

Name and Family Name, no es miembro de mesa y vota en ESC BAS RAFAEL ANTONIO GODOY de la parroquia DOMINGO PENALVER"

Electoral Witness received this message:

"Usted es miembro de mesa y debe capacitarse del 30 DE OCTUBRE AL 10 DE NOVIEMBRE en ESC BAS RAFAEL ANTONIO GODOY de la parroquia DOMINGO PEN"

The text in number was widely promoted by TV, broadcast radio and newspapers. "This is the first time SMS was used in an election in Venezuela with this level of Official Support and Promotion" said Santos. "The CNE is planing to keep the service operating permanently as a new comunication way in adition to their web site and freephone line" he said.

Technorati Tags: mobile, sms, chaves, new york, venezuela

Durban, KwaZulu Natal, South Africa – 6 December 2006 Rural women in KwaZulu Natal will be using mobile phones to report on violations of their human rights. The UmNyango Project, which is implementing this initiative, was established by Fahamu, a pan African organisation based in Cape Town, Nairobi, Dakar and Oxford. The UmNyango Project will use SMS technology for rural women and men to access information to and report incidences of violence against women and children, as well as violations of women’s right to land. This initiative will be tested out in Dondotha, KwaDlangezwa, KwaGcwensa, Limehill and Muden, and if successful, will be rolled out on a wider scale. As well as using text messaging, the project will be enable women in these areas to produce their own radio programmes which will be made available to local radio stations, as well as being distributed over the internet as ‘podcasts’. Adv. Anil Naidoo, Project Team Leader said: “We have successfully tested the use of SMS technology for rural women farmers in KwaZulu Natal to access agricultural extension information. There is every indication that this technology will also work for rural women reporting on human rights abuse, including domestic violence.” Fahamu, the organisation behind this initiative, has already won international awards for its ground-breaking use of new media to support the pan African campaign on the AU Protocol on the Rights of Women in Africa. “We are delighted to be implementing this project in association with the Centre for Public Participation, Community Law and Rural Development Centre, Domestic Violence Assistance Project, Indiba- Africa Development Alliance, Participatory Development Initiative and the Rural Women’s Movement,” said Fahamu’s Director, Dr Firoze Manji. The Project is funded by the Dutch International Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (Hivos). Clickatell, a company that provides global mobile messaging services, has donated free SMS credits so that relevant information on human rights may be transmitted to rural women and men. Patrick Lawson, managing director of Clickatell SA, said: “We are proud to be able to contribute to the promotion of women’s human rights’. The partners are hopeful that there will be sufficient interest from other donor agencies, government and the private sector to enable this initiative to continue in a more sustainable manner beyond May 2007.

Technorati Tags: africa, clickatell, fahamu, sms