Follow Up on Mobile Technology Twitter Conversation

Messages to the #SocEntChat hash tag trickled in all day.  the drizzle turned into a downpour Five minutes before the event was to sta, as users deluged their networks with tweets and re-tweets that the discussion was about to sta.  Like a flash flood, the group materialized, changed the world, and was gone.
 click the word cloud to see what was most talked about.
A total of 67 people joined us for the chat on the role of mobile technology in social change, and Twitter proved an excellent medium for harvesting the collective wisdom of our group of expes and practitioners.  Twitter’s imposition of a 140 character limit on each post forced an almost brutal degree of synthesis from our users, and the medium allowed anyone, regardless of invitation or location, to paicipate.
I've highlighted the questions and links to the resources discussed.  For a full transcript of the conversation, please see: http://www.squidoo.com/socentchatjuly09
 
QUESTIONS
 

• Q0 introduce ourselves, suggest questions, stay on topic, and stay cool.
• Q1: What are the Most Exciting Developments in the Mobile Tech for Social Change Space?
• Q2: What are the greatest challenges to all these amazing initiatives reaching scale/impact?
• Q3: What are examples of projects where the beneficiaries are pa of application design?
• Q4: With so many initiatives how can we foster collaboration in the mobile tech 4 good space, esp across continents?
• Q5: How can mobile innovations (esp in microfinance) internationally be transferred to the US?
• Q6: If you could invent a new mobile tech device or software for social good what would it b?

 
LINKS
 

• We met with ppl from Opportunity International yesterday, check out 'Electronic Wallet' http://tinyurl.com/c4ez39 
• Micro-volunteer opportunities via mobile phones http://www.theextraordinaries.org/
• We're having tons of success doing outreach for OrganicNation.tv on Twitter via @OrganicNation - it's a great tool
• http://netsquared.org/projectgallery/overview
• http://www.ideablob.com/posts/171 
• http://open-mobile.org
• http://bit.ly/16K159
• See also the coded-in-country initiative - relevant for mobile for dev: http://bit.ly/hOMap 
• ultrasound via mobile phone http://bit.ly/kFeLT 
• The Nigerian who staed mPedigree's profile is here (http://ashoka.org/bsimons) 
• http://bit.ly/5Z2B
• I frequently use VMS http://bit.ly/mKBPk as an opensource mobile web framework. Perfect for delivery on low budget 
• A few thoughts/best practices on building mobile apps for use in developing countries. http://is.gd/1kNBf 
• Mobile tech for social change community hosted by Vodafone http://bit.ly/uV8n1 
• Mobile Tech 4 Social Change camps and meetups (roll your own) http://bit.ly/3G8sUP tips, camps, get-togethers 
•  @mobileactive runs discussion list/ppl who have volunteered 4 & found mobile projects to work on there http://bit.ly/vUAEe 
• @kiwanja: Blog post on use of SMS to crowd-source out-of-stock drug info. in East Africa. http://is.gd/1kwSG (via @tomjd)
•  @ashoka_jenna: Lots of mobile phones, lots of waste. Cool company in US 2 sell/recycle old phones. http://bit.ly/PdqVl 
• See Project M using free PleaseCallMe (PCM) msgs to reach HIV patients in South Africa where infection >40% http://bit.ly/42dUnu 
• Katherine Fulton's TED lecture mentions several projects offering long term collaboration for people like us http://tr.im/qwku
• and also -- if you need open source mobile solutions 4 change, check out OMC tech: http://bit.ly/70HIj 
• thx everyone for the great chat! definitely some great ideas for my next http://www.ChangedByDesign.com blog post.
• Powering cell phones in rural areas is a major obstacle. US$8.00 for good solar panels is best I've found: http://tiny.cc/vWdsT. 
• @arudoyat here is an aicle on charging your cellphone with your bicycle :) http://tech.ashoka.org/node/4044 
• #opensource mobile ideas for change: http://bit.ly/70HIj #openmobile #socent via @mobileactive
• I am greatly impressed with (http://bit.ly/hXqLK) and use of #Twitter in this format...
•  @Tech4Dev: how mobiles are transforming global health in developing contexts, see these 51 case studies: http://is.gd/1kN9L 
• @swangela @SocialEah @cbennett10 this might be interesting as well: http://aiti.mit.edu/ RE: MIT Africa IT
• #4 local meetups centred around international orgs can help - e.g http://tinyurl.com/net2jozi - 1st meetup focusing on mobile - 
• Another great idea, like fair trade 4 the tech world: Coded-in-Country http://bit.ly/hOMap (via @Tech4Dev)
• @ACCION_USA: have you seen http://www.i-genius.org/home/. Just found it this week 
•  @SocialEah: @AshokaTweets: Q4: How about leveraging something like to http://www.i-genius.org/home/ to connect? 
• mobileactive: and also -- if you need open source mobile solutions 4 change, check out OMC tech: http://bit.ly/70HIj #openmob..
• is there a http://www.twibes.com/ for #m4change initaitives? 
• help out @memeshift - #socialinovation #storytelling #kickstaer project: http://bit.ly/m2IGu
•  21:39:24 +
• This is what technology can accomplish if it's put in service to the people." http://ow.ly/gjr7 
• @tomjd Re: Mobile voting. Just look to Estonia (yes, Estonia). http://is.gd/1kRcJ