Background
Across the globe, mobile phones have become a key tool for those working for social change. Africa is cited as the fastest growing mobile phone market and South Africa in particular has mobile phones in the hands of over 80% of the population. Mobile phones can have an impact on economic development and social capital and in the health sector, in particular, can increase efficiency and access to services.
About Mobilisr
In an attempt to harness the power of mobile technology and make it easily available to civil society, a consortium of companies led by Cell-Life and Praekelt Foundation are collaborating to build an open source, high speed, high reliability, mobile messaging platform, called Mobilisr.
Mobilisr is designed to:
- Increase access to information
- Facilitate two-way communication between citizens and service providers
- Build the capacity of organizations
- Support mass messaging
Objectives
Praekelt Foundation and Cell-Life developed Mobilisr because a need existed in the NGO-market for an open source, high speed, high reliability messaging platform. The aim was to create a tool that was robust and powerful, but at the same time user-friendly for NPOs / NGOs who often do not have sophisticated communication and messaging tools to their disposal.
Features
Mobilisr offers the user a range of services, including:
- Bulk Messaging
- Interactive SMS
- Content and Database Management Services
- Campaign Building (including the ability to build complex WAP-sites)
Possible Uses
Mobilisr can be employed for:
- Human rights and election monitoring
- Emergency alerts
- Organizing and mobilization of task forces and protests
- Field data collection and surveys
- Interactive health care info requests
- Mobile education programs (e.g. Explaining acronyms)
- Coordinating fundraising efforts
- Subscription services (e.g. Daily "Positive living"- messages for people living with HIV)
Click here to read more about Mobilisr Partners and Pilot Projects