Going Mobile for Change

When you look at your cell phone, what do you see? More important, what do you think about?

Text messaging (or SMS), especially among teens and young adults is part of the bigger picture. Using the phone as a camera is becoming popular as well (I've seen references that 44% of people use their mobile as their primary camera). And with virtually all mobiles being SMS-capable and web-enabled by 2009 (it's about 94% and 41% now), the question becomes how these technologies might contribute to positive social and health change.

Since ways of interacting with and among social networks for public health and social change has reignited my imagination, I have been looking at how other people have been using mobile phones for things other than consumer marketing and entertainment. One belief I do have is that mobile phones are one of the most, if not most, important everyday gadgets that almost everyone has access to [and in most of the world, cell phone use is leapfrogging hard lines]. NOT exploring their use is a form of social marketing and health communications malpractice.

Here are a few places I've discovered that have stimulated my thinking in this area.

A post at SmartMobs notes a UK study documenting the many other uses people find for their mobile phones including citizen journalism and increasing personal safety at night. Mobumentaries - people using their phones to create mini-movies documenting their lives.

Thoughts about mobile technologies and social change movements that were also covered here: The combination of MySpace and cell phones, along with some old fashioned fliers, were credited with organizing the large student protests against the proposed immigration bill in March. Just imagine if while at the marches, students posted photos, videos, and text messages to a social networking website or to the website of a group organizing against the bill, and they also sent these messages to all their online friends.

A literature review of mobile technologies and learning at Futurelab: Mobile technologies are a familiar part of the lives of most teachers and students in the UK today. We take it for granted that we can talk to other people at any time, from wherever we may be; we are beginning to see it as normal that we can access information, take photographs, record our thoughts with one device, and that we can share these with our friends, colleagues or the wider world. Newer developments in mobile phone technology are also beginning to offer the potential for rich multimedia experiences and for location-specific resources.

The University of Sydney, Australia will be hosting an international conference on social and cultural aspects of mobile phones, convergent media, and wireless technologies 2-4 July 2007. Having become an important technology for voice and text communication in the daily lives of billions of people, mobiles are now recognised as central not only for communications but also for contemporary transformations in cultural and social practices, and in new developments in computing, media, telecommunications, Internet, and entertainment.

From a more commercial perspective, here's an introduction to, and overview of, the Mobile Marketing movement; and keep up with events in the field at the Mobile Marketing Association site. Also see these links to examples of three commercial mobile marketing campaigns, including one for McDonald's.

Nedra's also been talking about cell phones and social marketing at Spare Change. One of the pioneers in using the technology at the local level has been the San Francisco Department of Public Health and their SexInfo text messaging system for sexual health. The use of mobile technologies for obesity management has also received a lot of empirical attention.

And some blogs that focus on mobile applications for education, engagement and behavior change you may want to check in with periodically are Mobile Learning, Mobile Active, and Captology Notebook where they are compiling examples of mobile persuasion technologies in their Boomer Mobile Health Project. The Stanford University Persuasive Technology Lab is also hosting a conference on mobile persuasion this Fall.

And for a glimpse of the (near) future, tonight (Sunday) Cingular and Sprint wireless customers can watch the Emmy's live via GoTV.  {Sigh} I won't be upgrading my mobile until the end of the year (Verizon incentive policy for replacements), so in the meantime I'm experimenting with Google's SMS service and Yahoo! mobile alerts...and looking for a few peers who aren't too old to try new tricks and experiment with some new ideas. One of my favorites is mobile-enabled walksheds.

m(mobile)-Change. The next time you look at your phone.

technorati tags: Behavior_Change, Cell_Phones, Health_Communication, Mobile, SMS, Social_Change, Social_Marketing

Comments

[lisa]

Very nice article every one has to read this, even i'm a big freak of gsm phones. i like to use my mobile as mini camera because every time we'l not carry the camera.

cheers,
lisa.