Wednesday 1 April 2009

eCampaigning forum: Mobile in Kenya

Presentation by Tonee - Studied international relations. Afterwards worked for the UN and then at a radio station Kiss FM - taking in feedback from people. Then went on to work in TV - a lot of the campaigns/stories were campaig-based, issue-based.

Wazimba youth foundation

Tonee nad his friend decided to give people at universtities opportunity to talk about issues that affect them. The turnout was amazing (sometimes 1,300 people) Mixed it up with entertainment. A lot of people had a lot of things to say but they didn't know how to get involved.

They decided to get people video, audio and text for free.

- Mobile phones expensive therefore people had to get their value out of it
- Bluetooth is the way to create social networks for free.
- 65% of all handsets in Kenya have Bluetooth and people know how to use it

Nocon is a Bluetooth app created to receive info

They've planted a bluetooth devices into a little tree, put it at the bus stop station. While people wait for the bus they receive an SMS which can be a fun video.
At the end of the video people are asked to download the app which says that they can get more of those kinds of video there. They also have access to social info (price of maize). Example of campaign - after funny videos - text a name of politician - choose option - what he's done for you, what he's done for the country, for everybody. last question - would you vote for him? people respond.

What happened to the responses? - we reached 2.8 million - have told politicians what people have said.

How did the bluetooth thing get programmed? nocon translates info from the net and transmitts via Bluetooth. They used magic bluehack to transmit via the SMS card in the pot at the bus station.

Kenya has the highest mobile phone penetration. many phones are 3G phones. People buy phones

Social mobile for young people

Hapo - application which means that money can be trasferred via mobile. Possibility to fundraise - someone sends a message that they need something, they map it, they raise funds via SMS and then they transfer that money to the end user - 2.5 million shillings raised and distributed. Accountability - they would receive a message back showing that they knew where the are. Follow-up phonecall to hear how they were doing. When they pick up the money they need to show identification. They think people were legitimate displaced people.

promoting the SMS phonenumber via community radio

ushahidi - mapping of where conflict breaks up during unrest after Kenyan elections..

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