Global learning at the speed of a text message

In a rapidly changing, globalised world education can help young adults to understand life beyond their own national borders. Here, in our thirtieth guest blog post, Alex Monk, School Linking Officer at Plan UK, discusses how FrontlineSMS is being used to support a project called Plan-ed. This project links schools across the globe, and thus helps deepen young people’s understanding of our world today.

“The Plan-ed School Linking programme has been running since 2008 and connects young people aged between 7 - 14 in the UK with their counterparts in China, Kenya, Malawi, Senegal and Sierra Leone. Schools exchange pen-pal letters, e-mails, videos and local artifacts. The Linking programme also allows children to share examples of work on mutually relevant topics such as climate change, successful enterprise and Children’s Rights. This helps the young people involved to learn about others their age living in different areas of the world; to recognise their similarities and appreciate their differences.

The Plan-ed project uses a variety of communication methods to help linking schools stay in touch, including sending post, video conferencing, interaction through their website, and more recently text messaging. Over the past six months schools in Malawi, Sierra Leone and the UK have been using FrontlineSMS to communicate with their partner schools. The schools use FrontlineSMS to send texts confirming receipt of posted letters and material. They also exchange text messages about ideas for new projects, and to organise travel for teacher exchanges as part of the linking project, and even to wish each other happy holidays.

The videos here show Headteachers from two schools who have been linked together as part of this Plan-ed project.

Orphent Kawonga (Zombwe School in Malawi) and David Lodge (Countess Anne School in the UK) have been on teacher exchanges to each others schools, to help strengthen their link. Here they discuss the benefits of the use of FrontlineSMS to support their link projects.

Ophent from Zombwe school on School Linking and FrontlineSMS from Plan UK on Vimeo.

David Lodge, Headteacher Countess Anne School from Plan-ed on Vimeo.

The benefit of using FrontlineSMS for the schools involved is that they have a way to regularly stay in touch with each other, and keep a record of their communications. FrontlineSMS has proved particularly helpful in the schools in Malawi in which the internet is not easily accessible, and the post can take a while to get through. Sending and receiving text messages is a quick and convenient way to stay in touch that helps the teachers maintain momentum in the linking school project, thus building sustainable connections between the schools.

Moving forward teachers in Malawi, Sierra Leone and the UK will continue using FrontlineSMS to support their connections with their Link schools. In addition, Plan-ed hopes to explore further ways to utilise FrontlineSMS. For example we are investigating the idea of using FrontlineSMS for more operational purposes; to help Plan-ed’s country coordinators stay in touch with the schools more regularly. It really is a great help to have a piece of technology such as FrontlineSMS, which helps facilitate quick communication in otherwise hard to reach areas of the world.”

For more information on Plan-ed visit: http://www.planschoolslink.org/

Internship Opportunities: Do you have what it takes to be a FrontlineSMS Hero?

• Current opportunities: Community Project Assistant and Media Project Assistant (please note these internship opportunities will be based in London, UK)• New FrontlineSMS Heroes page to acknowledge our interns and volunteers

Many successful social change projects across the world rely on dedicated and passionate interns and volunteers. FrontlineSMS is privileged to have many individuals willing to contribute their time to our organisation, because they feel passionately about the work we do. As interest in FrontlineSMS grows, we continue to build our team – and capacity – and we’re now looking to fill two exciting new internship positions in our London office.

We are in need of two enthusiastic and self motivated individuals to take on the roles of Community Project Assistant and Media Project Assistant. The Community Project Assistant will be helping us to build our online resources, and strengthen our global community of FrontlineSMS users. The Media Project Assistant will be working on research for FrontlineSMS:Radio, and helping manage contacts and project timelines for re-design of the FrontlineSMS software. For more information on these roles, and how to apply visit our Jobs and Internships page.

As we advertise for these new positions we would like to take the opportunity to announce the launch of a new page on our website for FrontlineSMS Heroes; those committed interns and volunteers who provide invaluable help to FrontlineSMS. If you are thinking of applying for one of our internships you too could become a FrontlineSMS Hero!

This is what our intern, Adam, had to say about working with us:

“FrontlineSMS is an exciting and dynamic organisation. The diversity of projects which this small organisation is involved in makes working here fascinating.”

This is an exciting time to join FrontlineSMS, because our growing team is currently implementing a new strategy. In the coming year there are plans afoot to update the core software platform, expand our consultancy services to find new sustainable streams of income, and build up FrontlineSMS’s exciting range of sector specific sister organisations. If you would like to join FrontlineSMS and help us to take these plans forward then apply for an internship with us today!

Mapping Harassment on the Streets of Cairo

With many thanks to Tactical Technology Collective for letting us re-post this blog from their site. One of the major challenges with sexual harassment and tracking is the difficulty of collecting accurate data. A lack of reporting can provide limited numbers and make the problem seem smaller than it is. A group in Egypt called Harassmap is creating a movement using a mashup, Ushahidi, to provide a place for women and other victims of sexual harassment to report instances of harassment on the streets of Cairo. Using a number of methods to gather the information, people can submit reports via SMS [using FrontlineSMS], email and a web form.

Harassmap says: “This tool will give women a way to anonymously report incidences of sexual harassment as soon as they happen, using a simple text message from their mobile phone. By mapping these reports online, the entire system will act as an advocacy, prevention, and response tool, highlighting the severity and pervasiveness of the problem. The project will utilise FrontlineSMS and the Ushahidi Engine.”

This project combines several digital tools into a mashup in order to an advocate against harassment on the streets of Cairo. Cairo is notorious for the amount of sexual harassment that occurs.

The Harassmap team recently held a volunteer community outreach day, where volunteers came together to learn about harassment issues, how to respond to harassment, and what steps to take. In addition, Harassmap has provided a space to discuss these issues and how to respond to them.

In an interview co-founder Rebecca Chiao said that managing the project on a volunteer basis is a very difficult task. Rebecca says, “we don't have any money, so we have to be creative. We love working on a volunteer basis, but it also means we all have other commitments like jobs and families, so it takes a lot of effort from us all to coordinate our little bits of free time to work together and make things happen.”

“I'm actually surprisingly happy with the outcome so far,” Rebecca said. “I think I would have changed the amount of time I spent on trying to figure out how to legally register HarassMap in the beginning. It took maybe 3 or 4 months and the requirements were prohibitive. So we ended up deciding to run with volunteers and not have any funding.”

Recently, they released data from the website where they analyse some of the information they’ve collected and some interesting trends appeared. Victims are not limited to Egyptian females, but included males, foreign women, and children. Harassment locations varied from the neighbourhoods of Cairo, to private cars while driving and including educational institutions such as schools and universities. Reports were collected from these neighbourhoods, in order of submissions: Downtown, Dokki, Al-mohandseen, Nasr City, Zamalek, Giza and Maadi.

For the Harassmap team, it isn’t just about mapping harassment on the streets of Cairo, but also about engaging the community. In addition to the volunteer day, they have hosted a workshop where young people were invited to come share stories of harassment and violence. The workshop discussed the relationship of gender and storytelling. They have also hosted outreach days where volunteers descend on the streets and encourage people submit reports.

And Harassmap isn’t stopping to celebrate their initial successes. They have weathered the Egyptian Revolution in style, and are capitalising on the positive energy in the streets. “I'm excited about the discussions we're planning now with the public to decide how we can carry Harassmap forward after the revolution,” Rebecca said. “There's an exciting spirit now and people have seen what it's like to not have harassment as a problem. So we're excited to see how we can build on that.”

In addition to growing in Egypt, their future plans see Harassmap going worldwide. Rebecca says, “We're also going to globalize this year, to about 10 countries hopefully! Wish us luck!”

TOOLS USED: Ushahidi, FrontlineSMS, Facebook and Twitter

REACH: International. The story was picked up by bloggers and websites before being picked up by the international press.

COST: Most of the work was done pro-bono by tech partners, NiJel.

TIME: 100’s of hours

RESOURCES: We have 4 founding partners and our tech team - we're all volunteers. We also have about 100 other volunteers doing various things together.

LEVEL OF DIFFICULTY: 4 out of 5. Using Ushahidi as a platform and building around it a community can be very difficult. Utilising Facebook and Twitter to build support around the initiative are basic tools, but require time and effort.

Pictures courtesy of the Harassmap website.

For more information on the Tactical Technology Collective, who originally posted this piece on their blog, visit their website: http://www.informationactivism.org

User support remains priority as FrontlineSMS team grows

FrontlineSMS has recently appointed Florence Scialom into the role of Community Support Coordinator, to focus on connecting and supporting the dynamic global community of those using our software. Here, Florence shares what drew her to work at FrontlineSMS, and outlines the plans she has for her new role.

“Inevitably, many small and innovative start-ups are at first strongly tied to the identity of their founder. When I first heard of FrontlineSMS, in late 2009, it was to me synonymous with Ken Banks. Ken wrote the original software back in 2005, and then established FrontlineSMS as a project under the umbrella of kiwanja.net.

When Ken explains the creation of FrontlineSMS, he provides some refreshingly open insights about how to innovate successfully. He not only admits, but celebrates the fact that he does not have all the answers about the potential of FrontlineSMS, and the ways it can be used. Ken created FrontlineSMS to serve the needs of non-profit organisations that require interactive communication on a mass scale in areas without internet access. He reasoned that if this tool could be helpful, people would find their own ways to use it.

And use it they have. Downloads of the software are now pushing the 13,000 mark, and people are making use of it in every continent; for election monitoring, health information, market price updates and much, much more. FrontlineSMS is an appropriate technology purposefully aimed at the grassroots non-profit community. Yet it does not dictate to that community what the technology should be used for. This approach is one of the reasons why many non-profit projects across the world are making use of the tool. It was also this user focused ethos that attracted me to working at FrontlineSMS.

The FrontlineSMS story has evolved rapidly in the year and a half that has passed since I first encountered it. FrontlineSMS itself has long been a familiar organisation to many working in mobile for social change space, but it is now reaching an increasingly wide audience through the hard work of our expanded team. There are now nine members of FrontlineSMS staff based across the UK, the US and Kenya, and the team are taking Ken’s original vision in new and exciting directions. In the coming year there are plans afoot to update the core software platform, expand our consultancy services to find new sustainable streams of income, and build up FrontlineSMS’s exciting range of sector specific sister organisations.

Amongst all this change the FrontlineSMS team is fully aware that it’s vital to maintain a focus on the user community; those using our software on the ground that have made FrontlineSMS a success story thus far. This is where my new role as Community Support Coordinator fits in.

There is already a strong base of support available for FrontlineSMS users, including our community forum and many user resources. I would like to approach supporting users in a way that acknowledges that there is a wealth of knowledge and experience in the community itself. For example, I will be asking users to become ‘FrontlineSMS Heroes’ by volunteering to provide support to each other on our user forum. I plan to build the community by engaging users to become more interactive and supportive of each other.

I will also be working to solicit more guest blog posts and in depth case studies from users. Offering FrontlineSMS as a free, open source download has proved a successful way to help many non-profits, but it is accompanied by challenges. There are certainly many cases of the software having a positive impact on people’s lives which the FrontlineSMS team and other users are thus far unaware of. I am looking forward to exploring new use cases, and helping to represent the variety of ways the software can be used to the wider community.

FrontlineSMS has a broad and rich user community. I have mentioned just a few of the ways I plan to support this community, and I am looking forward to building on this through relationships with the innovative and inspiring FrontlineSMS users across the world."

If you would like to get in touch with Florence about contributing a guest blog post or case study, or just generally to introduce yourself she would be happy to hear from you at florence@frontlinesms.com

The Economist: Mobile Services in Poor Countries: Not Just Talk

Classifying mobile services in poor countries is not an exact science. Richard Heeks, director of the Centre of Development Informatics at the University of Manchester, sorts them by their impact on development. One category is services that “connect the excluded”. In their simplest form they provide information to those who would otherwise be out of the loop.

The sound of the crowd, texting

A... promising category is “crowdvoicing”. Ushahidi, founded by a group of activists in Kenya, is among its pioneers. After the country’s disputed elections in 2008, Ushahidi (which means “testimony” in Swahili) mapped reports about violence, most of them text messages, on a website. Now the organisation offers software and even a web-based service to monitor anything from elections to natural disasters. Similarly, text-messaging software called FrontlineSMS collects and broadcasts information.

This is an extract from an article in the Economist. Read the full article on The Economist website.

NEW - Crowdsourced Device Database: By the community, for the community

We're delighted to announce a major new resource for those using our software: an online database identifying which handsets and modems that are compatible with FrontlineSMS! We think this will be a huge step forward for our users. 

Our new database currently includes information on 10 devices, both modems and handsets that have been tested for their compatibility with FrontlineSMS. Over time, we'll build up data on phone and modem availability and compatibility all over the world, so that it's as easy as it should be to get up and running.

But we need you to help build it! Please share your own experiences - both successes and challenges - with sourcing and using different devices. The more detailed information you give, the more useful the database will be for others. We'll also be adding data from a few new sources, including the anonymised statistics sent back by our users, which since version 1.6.14.1  included information on the device connected to FrontlineSMS; the very useful thread we'd already created on the user support community; and the user survey we've just completed.

To access the data base and to add information on your own experience of using FrontlineSMS with different devices please visit: http://devdb.heroku.com/pub. When you submit an entry we will review it and add it onto the device database within one week.

The database itself is a prototype - but we wanted to get it up and out so that you could use it as soon as possible. Within the database there is an individual report for each device which has been tested. Please bear in mind that this is a list of phones and modems you connect to the computer running FrontlineSMS. (The people you send messages to, and receive messages from, can have ANY phone). In each device report you can see the mobile network operator (mno), the platform, and the version of FrontlineSMS on which the device has been tested. You can also see the functionalities the device has been tested for by hovering your mouse over the envelope symbols. If anyone has suggestions for improvements and would be interested in volunteering time to work on it with us, then do get in touch at info@frontlinesms.com.

Huge thanks are due to Adam White, Alex Anderson, and Morgan Belkadi for building the database and getting it online!

Vote, Pray, Advocate: 2011 SMS Resolutions in Zimababwe

Freedom of information is often said to be heavily restricted in Zimbabwe. Kubatana is an organisation which aims to strengthen use of email and Internet in Zimbabwean NGOs and civil society organisations, in order to support human rights and access to information. They find many innovative ways to get information out, and to allow Zimbabwean citizens to share their views. We are proud to call Kubatana one of the longest standing users of FrontlineSMS, first using our software back in 2005. At the start of 2011 Kubatana’s latest use of FrontlineSMS demonstrates how text messaging can allow people to share their views and hopes for the future in Zimbabwe.

On 5^th January Kubatana used FrontlineSMS to ask their email and SMS subscribers “What’s your resolution about how you’ll get involved in making change happen in 2011?” By the end of the day they had received 70+ responses. The most popular response from initial subscribers was that they would vote. This, of course, assumes there will be elections this year – nothing’s been officially announced, but rumours are suggesting an election for mid-year. Prayer was the next most popular response, with many subscribers saying they would pray for change this year (some of them said they are going to pray and vote). Other messages sent included plans for activities such as advocating for change, sharing information and standing up for human rights.

By the following week Kubatana had received another 150+ responses from subscribers about their resolutions for how they’ll make change in 2011. Vote, pray and advocate continue to be the most popular responses.

Many thanks to Kubatana for sharing this use of FrontlineSMS with us. Read some of the SMS resolutions Kubatana received below, and read more on Kubatana's blog.

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Will put the best of my ability in all I have to do. Will participate in national issues in which my participation is required.

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Advocate for peace building in preparation for elections thank u same to u

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2010 was a bit challenging year    if the Gvt can improve our living and salaries we feel better.

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CHANGE MUST COME NOT NOW BUT YESTERDAY.WE MUST NOT BE INTIMIDATED BY STONE THROWERS BEHIND GLASS HOUSE.IF WE DON’T WORK FOR CHANGE ITS OUR GRAVE WE ARE DIGGING

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To educate ALL ELIGIBLE people to register to vote and that it is their vote that wl speak for the FINAL AND DECISIVE time!

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My x is the right change

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A change shall come by  putting words into action

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Pray for good health and we will pull through

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Make everyone to vote to make change

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I will pray for the nation especially the Leadership

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Firstly to continue to pray & i am encouraging young people to get ID’s & register to vote for their future.

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Change is also my 1st resolution among others.

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SAME TO YOU. MY RESOLUTIOM ABOUT BEING INVOLVED IN MAKING CHANGE HAPPEN IN 2011 IS TO PUT MY (X) IN THE RIGHT BOX CAME ELLECTION.

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2011: To aim for success leading to great success (greatness without limits).

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2 in courage as many pple as I can 2 go and vote for total CHANGE and make them 2 be strong 4 there rights!!!.

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I will fill happy this year. I need to work as a one part kuti tikunde. this year i want to drive new minsters thank you happy new year

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If elections do take place my vote will help change. is this wiki-leaks thing true?

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kubatana!  happy  2011  hop wil  b  able 2  make a  beta  zimbabwe  this  yr

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I am going to make my voice heard through voting

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Nothing much waiting 4 the election time.

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2011 my vote will count it will call for change. Count it will towards a new political order. My vote will speak

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I resolved: to preach against violence     to encourage people to be registered voters  and to stand for just at any given opportunity.

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How can i make a change while i am jobless livng in country without a pasport

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Am going to vote for the changing party if there are elections.Prayer is the GREAT CHANGER.

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Start a child rights club in my community.fund raising for sports equipment&run a children’s talkshow

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PUSH TOWARDS DEMOCRATIC PROCESSES THROUGH PUSHING ON VIOLNCE, ELECTION CONDUCIVE, IMPORTANCE OF ELECTIONS

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Its now 2011, time for the new constitution and violence free election. I resolv 2 campaign for self defence of one’s statutory rights to achieve change.

Daily Nation: Next on Google Maps: Hospitals, roads and kiosks of Korogocho slum

After mapping various key locations and landmarks in the country, Google is now mapping Korogocho, one of Nairobi’s informal settlements.

The mapping of Korogocho, an area with about 200,000 people, is meant to make it easier to identify streets, key structures and landmarks that were previously not mapped onto Google Maps.

“One of the things we spend a lot of time thinking about at Google is how we can make the world’s information more accessible and useful to people all over the globe. This includes providing rich local geographic data because a huge number of search queries have a geographic component,” said Joe Mucheru, Google’s sub-Saharan Africa leader.

The mapping is done through Google Map Maker, a tool that allows people to help create a map by adding or editing features such as roads, businesses, parks, schools...

Health facilities

“The aim of the mapping is to link the Korogocho community to health facilities and local community radio stations like Koch FM. This ensures that when there are health problems in the area, people can send text messages to the station; the station then gets in touch with health experts to advise people on what to do,” said Leonard Njeru, one of the volunteer cartographers.

The text messaging platform is provided by FrontlineSMS, a free service that allows one to send messages to large groups of people and enables instantaneous two-way communication.

“After mapping, the information is put in the system; it is hoped that it can move to a level where it can train community health workers,” said Mr Njeru, who is also a co-founder of Koch FM, one of the community-based radio stations operating in Korogocho, adding that the mapping also enables easier access to the area as it shows directions and distance.

The mapping of Korogocho follows the earlier mapping of other major towns on Google Maps.

Read more of this post by Michael Ouma on the Daily Nation blog.

NDItech: On the Front Lines with FrontlineSMS

NDItech has recently been doing a lot with FrontlineSMS. Via their blog they share thoughts on experiences using the software: Given its heritage it's not surprising that FrontlineSMS really nails our mantra of "appropriate technology" in a number of ways.

• It doesn't have a steep learning curve. Our partners in Eastern Europe downloaded and got it working on their own before I even got to show it to them.
• It runs on very common technology
• It communicates with people where they are: text messaging. Across Africa, as we've mentioned, mobile phones are far and away the best way to reach people.

In the vast swaths of the world where only elites are on the internet, this is a great way to build connections between organizations and their members, whether civil society groups, political parties, or other groups.

We're using Frontline in Haiti, where Katherine is involved with getting local "Information Centers" connected with their constituents via FrontlineSMS.

But it's also valuable in other situations: where there may be internet access, but it's heavily filtered, censored, monitored or otherwise controlled by the government. SMS texts can be monitored as well, of course, but it can be easier to fly under the radar if your volume is not too high or you're not using sensitive keywords.

The great flexibility of FrontlineSMS makes it easier to recover from blocking, too. If all you need is a normal phone, changing numbers - and making the censors find you again - can be as easy as swapping SIM cards.

Read more on the NDItech blog.

We Magazine: Technology for Transparency – SMS Helping Protect Children Against Violence

Here Linda Raftree, of Plan International, is interviewed about a project which uses FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi to improve reporting on violence against children in Benin and Togo:

The Violence Against Children (VAC) project is an initiative co-implemented by PLAN and Save the Children in West Africa and takes place over 4 years (2008-2011) in seven countries: Togo, Ghana, Benin, Guinea, Mali, Côte d’Ivoire and Gambia. The VAC project trains and engages children and youth themselves as advocates and agents of change to end violence, together with adult community allies. A comprehensive UN report proposes recommendations for action to prevent and respond to violence against children around the world. Earlier this year, the project explored the idea of setting up a text message based system [using FrontlineSMS] that will collect and map out [via Ushahidi] reports of violence against children in communities in Benin and Togo.

...It started off really as a youth project funded by our office in Finland and an effort to break down the UN recommendations from the Violence against Children (VAC) study into a more mainstream language. The idea was to make specific areas of the study more palatable to the general population. The original VAC study was conducted over about 3 years in consultation with hundreds of children, and the goal of the broader VAC project is to increase awareness amongst children and adults, to get them to learn about the effects of violence and how to prevent it and to share the knowledge with their peers. We (Plan) organized a conference in Kenya on social change through new media in December 2008, where my colleague Anastasie Koudoh in Dakar heard of FrontlineSMS and Ushahidi. She started wondering whether such a system could be set up to track violence via cell phone messages...

Read the full interview on the We Magazine website

Jobs@FrontlineSMS: Media Project Manager and New Jobs Page!

New FrontlineSMS jobs page!

Current opportunity: Media Project Manager!

In order to share the exciting opportunities we have to work with us at FrontlineSMS, we now have new jobs page here on our website to keep you all updated on the ways you can become a part of our lively and growing team! This page will show all paid and unpaid roles available at FrontlineSMS, both in the core team and in our sister projects. The location of our vacancies will vary; we currently have staff based in the UK, the US and Kenya.

Media Project Manager position - recruiting now!

FrontlineSMS is currently looking for an enthusiastic self-starter, with an interest in international development and /or media to fill the internship role of Media Project Manager, based in our London offices. The post holder will be responsible for project managing one of our sister organisations, FrontlineSMS: Radio, during its exciting trial stages and beyond. One of the most visible parts of FrontlineSMS  is our growing community of sister organisations: separate projects which fall under the FrontlineSMS umbrella who are developing sector-specific plug-ins to do new and incredibly exciting things. FrontlineSMS:Radio is one of these projects, which will develop a new software module (or plug-in) designed specifically to help community radio stations in the developing world interact more dynamically with their audiences.

The Media Project Manager will also be involved in the work of the FrontlineSMS core team, helping to organise internal and external communications in preparation for the launch of new FrontlineSMS 2.0 software.  We are looking for a candidate who can ensure effective coordination of multiple stakeholder groups and balance software development timelines with the demands of implementing projects on the ground. To find out more about this role visit the jobs page here, where you will find a link to the full job description.

This is what our outgoing intern, Adam, had to say about working with us:

“FrontlineSMS is an exciting and dynamic organization. The diversity of the skills and projects of this small organisation makes working here fascinating, while the uniqueness of the projects makes the work very important”.

And keep a regular eye on our jobs page for more exciting opportunities coming soon!

The Guardian: Technology's role in fighting poverty is still ripe for discussion

If I were to make one key observation, I'd say that the "D" in ICT4D (Information and Communication Technologies for Development) resembled more "debate" than "development" during 2010. The ICT4D field has always been ripe for fierce discussion – perhaps a sign that all is not well, or that the discipline continues to mature, or that the rampant advance of technology continues to catch practitioners and academics off-guard. Where, for example, does the advance of the iPad fit into ICT4D, if at all? I've witnessed debate around the promise of high-speed internet since the landing of the new cable off the east coast of Africa almost 18 months ago. There was much hype and excitement when the connection was made – yet the promise of faster, cheaper broadband is yet to reach the masses. It was always going to be a battle of expectation versus reality, and maybe 2011 will be the year that accelerated progress is finally made.

Read more of this article by FrontlineSMS's Ken Banks on The Guardian website.

FrontlineSMS:Medic becomes Medic Mobile

FrontlineSMS:Medic is now Medic Mobile. From the start, FrontlineSMS:Medic implemented and extended FrontlineSMS to bridge gaps in healthcare delivery systems. After a successful pilot, the FrontlineSMS software and community acted as a launchpad for an organization that uses open source software to support health services across the globe. The launch of a new name, Medic Mobile, reflects the growth and trajectory of that organization. Medic Mobile will continue to be one of the most emphatic champions of FrontlineSMS – contributing code, user experiences, and peer-reviewed research back to the community. Here, Isaac Holeman and Josh Nesbit, co-Founders of FrontlineSMS:Medic, walk us through the history of the project, and where they see Medic Mobile heading in the future.

The FrontlineSMS:Medic Story

Inception

FrontlineSMS:Medic was preceded by two independent projects, Mobiles in Malawi and MobilizeMRS. Josh Nesbit initiated Mobiles in Malawi in the summer of 2007, working at a rural Malawian hospital that serves 250,000 patients spread 100 miles in every direction. To reach remote patients, the hospital trained volunteer community health workers (CHWs) like Dickson Mtanga, a subsistence farmer. Dickson had to walk 35 miles to submit hand-written reports on 25 HIV-positive patients in his community. The hospital needed a simple means of communication, and in the summer of 2008 Josh returned to the hospital with mobile phones and a laptop running FrontlineSMS to provide it.

MobilizeMRS was born with a focus on electronic medical records, and the notion that the technology could be extended to engage CHWs in structured data collection. Isaac Holeman discovered Mobiles in Malawi and contacted Josh online, and in late 2008 they decided to join forces. Isaac brought the key characteristics of MobilizeMRS with him – a commitment to extending OpenMRS, the initiative to formalize their projects as a venture, insistence that the venture should have a distinct brand and leadership authority, and commitment to developing innovative software.

In February of 2009, Josh, Isaac, and a group of students from Stanford and Lewis & Clark founded FrontlineSMS:Medic together. The mission was to help health workers communicate, coordinate patient care, and provide diagnostics using low-cost, appropriate technology.

Impact

In six months, the pilot in Malawi using FrontlineSMS saved hospital staff 1200 hours of follow-up time and over $3,000 in motorbike fuel. Over 100 patients started tuberculosis treatment after their symptoms were noticed by CHWs and reported by text message. The SMS network brought the Home-Based Care unit to the homes of 130 patients who would not have otherwise received care, and texting saved 21 antiretroviral therapy (ART) monitors 900 hours of travel time, eliminating the need to hand deliver paper reports. You can read more about this pilot in the Journal of Technology and Health Care publication.

After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, Josh reached out to FrontlineSMS users on the ground and connected with mobile operators. Soon after, FrontlineSMS:Medic helped coordinate The 4636 Project, an effort to create an emergency communications channel. Working with the Office of Innovation at the US Department of State, technology providers, Digicel, and Voila, a system was created to process text messages expressing urgent needs from the ground. Using crowd-sourced translation, categorization, and geo-tagging, reports were created for first responders within 5 minutes of receiving an SMS. Over 80,000 messages were received in the first five weeks of operation, focusing relief efforts for thousands of Haitians.

In less than one year, FrontlineSMS:Medic expanded from 75 to 1,500 end users linked to clinics serving approximately 3.5 million patients. Growing from the first pilot at a single hospital in Malawi, they established programs in 40% of Malawi’s district hospitals and implemented projects in nine other countries, including Honduras, Haiti, Uganda, Mali, Kenya, South Africa, Cameroon, India and Bangladesh.

A growing toolkit

In 2010, the FrontlineSMS:Medic team expanded and began creating new mobile tools. Software developers built on the FrontlineSMS platform to create a lightweight patient records system, PatientView, and a text-based information collection module, TextForms.

Developed by volunteers in less than two days, the initial 4636 system combined a number of technology platforms. Most recently, FrontlineSMS:Medic developers worked on a messaging module for OpenMRS, a project that had been in the works since the MobilizeMRS days prior to FrontlineSMS:Medic. It became clear to the team that building upon and implementing various open source tools was the best way to serve users and achieve impact.

Next Steps

FrontlineSMS acts as a catalyst for new projects – incubating ideas, teams, and software for legal systems, education, financial services, radio, and other fields. The model replicates FrontlineSMS:Medic’s sector-specific approach and builds on a community of users innovating every day

Medic Mobile continues FrontlineSMS:Medic’s team, values, and mission – using mobile tools to create connected, coordinated health systems that save more lives.

Plan International case study: helping children report abuse in Benin

We're delighted to announce the publication of the first in our series of in-depth case studies of FrontlineSMS implementations, from Plan International, documenting their work in Benin to develop and pilot a Violence Against Children SMS helpline. Linda Raftree, who many of you will know as @meowtree on Twitter, has written extensively about the programme on her blog, but the case study tries to pull out a bit more of the institutional processes and the technical pitfalls they overcame in the process.

About the programme

In early 2009, Plan was working to strengthen both local and national reporting of trafficking and violence in Benin, West Africa. They were looking for a way to lower children’s and community members’ barriers to reporting, including the risk of reprisals and stigma, communications challenges, and access to places where violence could be reported. The Plan team theorised that collecting reports via SMS, which is anonymous and low-cost, would encourage reporting and allow for a better understanding of the nature and the quantity of violence that was happening.

This in turn could be used to raise awareness around the severity of the problem, advocate for the necessary resources to prevent it, and develop better and more targeted response and follow-up mechanisms. The ability to visualise the data on a map could also have an impact on decision makers and might be a tool that children and youth could use to generate dialogue and advocate an end to cultural practices that allow for violence against them.

The case study covers the training and piloting process, combining Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS, results and key learning to date, and some of the challenges they faced - such as finding appropriate modems, and getting people to SMS, rather than calling, the helpline number.

Seeking new case studies

We hope to produce many such case studies, which are aimed at staff looking to implement SMS or FrontlineSMS in their work, but also can be passed on to managers and donors to help them understand the concepts and challenges involved - if you would like to be one of them, get in touch!

To read more about the programme, download the case study here: Plan International VAC case study, [pdf 1MB].

Announcing the "Mobile Message"

Over the past year or so, it's become increasingly clear to us that we need to take the "mobile message" out of its technology silo and make it more available - and accessible - to a wider audience. This was the thinking behind our regular series on PC World, and is the thinking behind a new series we're launching today in collaboration with National Geographic.

The "Mobile Message" is aimed at a broad audience, but most importantly people who would never likely visit a mobile-specific site. Recent talks at Communicate - aimed at conservationists - and Nat Geo Live! - aimed at the general public - have convinced us even more that we need to stop just talking among ourselves and take the message out to more mainstream, broader audiences.

According to the first "Mobile Message" posted today:

"Over the next few months we will delve into the human stories behind the growth of mobile technology in the developing world. We'll take a closer look at the background and thinking behind FrontlineSMS, and hear from a number of users applying it to very real social and environmental problems in their communities. We will also hear thoughts and insights from other key mobile innovators in the field, from anthropologists to technologists to local innovators."

You can read the rest of the introductory post on the National Geographic website here.