Participants in the roundtable drew from their own experiences and recent episodes in the mobile space to outline the ways in which mobile media can be used to tease out a greater degree of social participation by citizens. Here are a few examples of such innovative use of mobile media:

• health and educational uses, such as prevention of sexually transmitted diseases;
• political causes, such as organizing precinct turnout in an election;
• campaigns around consumer products, the environment and unions;
• charitable giving;
• citizen journalism through text, photos or video captured on mobile devices;
• artistic and creative uses of mobile communication;
• data collection in the field;
• financial transactions;
• entertainment programming that carries a message or call to action;
• religious and spiritual uses, from locating Mecca to requesting special prayers.

To assess the impact that mobile media are beginning to have on the civic landscape, it may be instructive to look at some of the ways that mobile devices are already being deployed to foster dialogue and social participation.

In the ongoing STOP AIDS Project, volunteers fan out across San Francisco with wireless Palm Treo smart phones containing a survey on sexual practices. Volunteers seek out men at bars, parks, gyms and elsewhere and engage them in conversation about their sexual habits and then transmit the survey results to the city’s Department of Public Health. Before the program began, field staff collected paper surveys, and the input process took months. STOP AIDS reduced the turn-around time for processing this public health information to two weeks. [3]

Barbara J. Cohn Berman, vice president of the Fund for the City of New York and founding director of the Center on Municipal Government Performance, described one of the oldest government-supported programs: ComNET, founded in 1998. The effort is designed to enable community organizations to report easily troublesome conditions on the street, such as broken street lights, abandoned cars and the like. The reports are sent to government agencies and organizations responsible for fixing the problems. [4]

“The goal was to demonstrate to governments that you could use measures that cut across agency lines and to encourage them to cooperate with one another,” Cohn Berman said. “It has resonated—we have a long list of people who want to take advantage of the program.” In one district, she said, residents complained about rusted lamp posts that were a blight on the neighborhood. The municipal agency told them the city was on a seven-year painting cycle for lamp posts and their area was not due to come up again for four years. The residents continued to press, offering to paint the lamp posts themselves, but the agency cited union problems as a barrier. The residents kept pressing the issue until the agency finally reversed itself. The group raised $1,000 and painted the posts themselves. “Now, the city is giving all kinds of community organizations paint to paint their lamp posts,” she said. “So persistence paid off. Both sides have to listen.” Mobile technology aided the effort by providing precise geographic coordinates and helping agency personnel conduct detailed surveys of affected areas.

Similarly, the ParkScan project launched by the Neighborhood Parks Council of San Francisco uses web-based technology to improve the maintenance and usability of the city’s community parks and playgrounds, enabling residents to track online how the issues they identified are being resolved. The council is waiting for the widespread rollout of municipal wireless, which would let residents file complaints directly from any of the hundreds of parks and playgrounds right when they notice a problem. [5]

Through its youth programs, the San Francisco-based Bay Area Video Coalition (BAVC) offers teenagers in low-income communities the training and support they need to find their creative voices, explore career choices and contribute to their communities. (In addition to its youth services programs, the BAVC also serves independent media makers and their stories.) Working with contingents of youths from two local high schools, BAVC helped to establish wireless towers to support video projects the students captured through their Nokia wi-fi mobile devices, said roundtable participant Ken Ikeda, executive director of BAVC.

BAVC launched a Digital Sister Cities initiative with the city of Paris to serve at-risk youths in Paris. The projects, conducted with the organization Reseau 2000 and the Institute for Next Generation Internet at San Francisco State University, included a mobile music video, a cultural exchange trip through which 12 youths from Paris visited the Bay Area and an ongoing series of programs around mobile media production and wi-fi applications. In addition, once San Francisco launches a municipal wireless service, BAVC will be working with the city government and Nokia to enable low-income high school students to tell stories relevant to their lives through the WiFiAnywhere program.

Ikeda also offered an example of mobile technology that lets people contribute to their community’s well-being. At University of California, San Diego, technologist Shannon Spanhake devised a pollution sensor that lets people instantly monitor the air quality around them and report the result via mobile device. The small, battery-powered device, called Squirrel, can be clasped to a belt or purse and sample pollutants with its on-chip sensor. It currently measures levels of carbon monoxide and ozone in the air but will also eventually be able to sample nitrogen oxide and sulphur dioxide, as well as measure temperature, barometric pressure and humidity. The results are fed through Bluetooth to the user’s cell phone, which periodically transmits the environmental data to a public database on the Web. [6] An earlier version, called Airbud, was soldered directly to a cell phone. Similarly, in early 2007 the National Alliance for Hispanic Health began offering a program that allows users in certain cities to text AIR and their zip code (e.g., AIR 90001) to receive hourly pollution reports for their area. [7]

A similar project called the Health and Environment Action Network, run by the National Alliance for Hispanic Health and the group Environmental Countdown, equips youth volunteers around the country with an “Eco-Pac” containing mobile pollution sensors, global positioning system (GPS) devices and video cameras. The youths then go out and take readings of air and water pollution, using the GPS devices to record their exact location. People then get real-time pollution data texted to their phones, helping to raise awareness about pollution levels in local communities. [8]

CASE STUDY

Computerized Neighborhood Environment Tracking (ComNETsm)

Origin

Focus group research about how the public judges local government performance has been conducted by the Center on Government Performance starting in 1995. One of the striking, consistent findings is that people judge government and cities by an array of commonly observed street conditions such as the presence or absence of litter, graffiti, potholes, rodents, working street lights, walkable sidewalks, broken benches, abandoned vehicles, dumping of refuse in vacant lots or on the roadways, visible traffic signs, etc. Usually, many different governmental agencies, public utilities, businesses and private individuals have responsibility for curing the problems (or causing them).

The need

Before ComNET, there were no mechanisms to bring all troubling street level information in one place so that they could be addressed economically and systematically. There were no government performance measures that crossed agency jurisdictions. While neighborhood residents and business people may report an individual problem, there was no way for government to learn of community-wide concerns and priorities. Community surveys, when undertaken before ComNET, required interested groups to create their own survey instrument and methodology, use paper and pencil to note findings, decipher often illegible penmanship, collate the notations and, if interest hadn’t waned by then, produce some type of report. These time-consuming efforts were often abandoned mid-way, even though the need and desire for community improvement was strong.

What ComNET is and What it Does

ComNET uses mobile technology to facilitate successful citizen engagement and community improvement. It introduces easily operated off-the-shelf handheld computers with synchronized digital cameras to community groups, along with route maps and just-in-time training so that they can quickly and accurately capture street level conditions in text and with a digital image, record, tabulate and review their findings, vet them to determine community priorities, refer problems to appropriate agencies in a variety of ways, produce reports, develop community action plans and monitor changes over time. Our customizable software that is loaded onto the handheld devices contains the specific street names for the survey area and the street features and problems of concern to each neighborhood. When data are uploaded to our web-enabled database, known as ComNET Connection, the names of the agencies and organizations responsible for ameliorating the problems are associated with each problem found. (People often don’t know who is responsible for what.) From that same database, local groups can produce clear reports including spreadsheets sorted by type of problem, location, and agency responsible. ComNET Connection also enables communities to produce one-page attractive bar and pie charts for use in presentations and reports. Reports may be transmitted to government and other organizations electronically if they have the capacity to receive them that way (not all governments have that capacity). The City of Des Moines, for example, is able to accept data collected by its neighborhood groups that are transmitted electronically directly into the City’s complaint system; work orders are then generated to address the problems.

Results

The organization found instant enthusiasm and interest in using ComNET in residential, commercial and industrial areas and among people of all ages and educational levels. ComNET started work in New York City and then found that visible street level conditions were significant to people in cities throughout this country and beyond. To date, ComNET has been introduced into 83 neighborhoods in the U.S.; 30 in areas outside New York, including Durham; Des Moines; Irving, TX; Seattle; Yonkers, NY; and Worcester, MA. It has inspired adaptations for parks in San Francisco and places in Connecticut, Philadelphia, Japan, Australia and the United Kingdom. People with no prior computer experience are able and willing to use the handhelds right away. Using the ComNET Connection database requires somewhat more computer sophistication, but we find that people learn fast and love its remote accessibility.

Responses from local government officials vary. Most recognize the good faith effort involved in this technology-driven, citizen-initiated civic engagement program. The reliable, verifiable data and appealing reports encourage government and the groups to have constructive discussions about the problems and issues raised. A whole range of actions have resulted from ComNET surveys including installation of pedestrian ramps; cleaning up of vacant, debris-strewn and vermin infested lots; removal of graffiti; replacement of missing sewer grates; repair of potholes, sidewalk trip hazards, broken fire hydrants, lampposts and benches and approval of a $6 million project to reconstruct a street.

There is no doubt that the handheld computers enabled this program to become what is it today—a growing force in linking citizens with their government to produce information they both can trust and to engage in constructive communications and community improvements.

The organization observed some major changes in the prevailing culture and attitudes from the perspectives of both the public and government towards one another in the course of using ComNET. As people learn what is and isn’t government’s responsibility, dissatisfaction is often replaced with understanding. When conditions are remedied by government, negativism is replaced with appreciation. As community groups learn what is and isn’t immediately possible, they make their own choice to either accept the situation, seek alternative solutions including undertaking some repairs themselves such as painting decrepit lampposts, or act to change government’s priorities.

ComNET and Youth

ComNET is a very powerful civic engagement and educational tool for young people. ComNET works with schools, nonprofits and community organizations that provide afterschool and summer youth programs for youngsters ranging in age from 11-19. “ComNETing” as some of them call it, provides them with a means to improve their neighborhoods while also giving them real life experience working in teams, learning about government structure and functions, producing and making presentations, developing advocacy strategies, learning the importance of attending to detail and seeing the big picture, working with math, databases, interpreting data and more.

Why is ComNET in such demand?

• People relate to ComNET because everyone sees or experiences the streets; therefore conditions on city streets become a widely accepted proxy for government effectiveness. Focus group participants made it clear that when people encounter dangerous or unsightly problems on the streets, they feel that government is not working well.
• People like technology when it is easy to use. ComNET users agree that it is and the organization incorporates user feedback to keep improving the process.
• Community groups like having control over the data and reports of their findings (each has its own account in ComNET Connection). 
• People appreciate that they do not have to seek out and develop the technology and figure out how to use it. The organization provides them with what they need, when they need it.
• Communities and government readily recognize that ComNET’s reports are a far improvement from paper surveys and random complaints.
• ComNET is an unemotional way to refer problems to government. It provides incontrovertible facts and pictures about street level conditions.
• With ComNET data, government can respond more efficiently, addressing multiple problems in the same neighborhood.
• ComNET helps bridge those gaps of communication and understanding between government and the public.
  

ComNET was developed and is supported by grants from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. Participating organizations and governments are charged a fee; however ComNET is not self-supporting and requires philanthropic support.

Prepared by Barbara Cohn Berman

Political uses of mobile media

Mobile media have also been making waves on the political front. In 2004 Tad Hirsch of MIT’s Media Lab and John Henry of the Institute for Applied Autonomy unveiled TXTmob, a text message broadcast system for mobile devices. The service was designed with flexible, configurable settings to allow people to create on-the-fly groups around any event or cause. During the 2004 Republican National Convention, participants used TXTmob to create several flash mob-style actions. As Hirsch and Henry related:

The largest of these was the “a31 street party,” which had 509 members. Organizers notified participants of the time and place minutes before the planned action. TXTmob was subsequently used to coordinate actions by the mob, as evidenced by this series of messages:

• A31 party mtg at 2 spots NW corner of Stuyvesant park, 2nd & 16th and SE corner of Union Sq
• a31 party Penned in b/w irving and 16th. more in next message
• a31 party disperse immediately

Organizers also established “comms” networks—highly structured information dissemination mechanisms aimed at providing reliable information from trusted sources to activists in the street. Both DNC and RNC protest organizers established fairly strict communications protocols. For example, the NYC Comms Collective (NYCC) relied on a network of bicycle-riding lookouts that maintained constant communication via cell phone and 2-way radio. Information was relayed to NYCCC operatives at a secure location, who then broadcast to the 901 registered members of the NYCC mob. Only messages that came from NYCC members or from other trusted sources were broadcast. Messaging was used primarily for sharing actionable information, such as march status, locations of police barricades, and arrest information:

• Police moving fast Westbound on 23 St toward the bike bloc
• War Resisters League March is at Fulton and Church aprox 250 ppl, will leave shortly
• Run against Bush in progress (just went through times sq). media march starts at 7, 52nd and broadway [9]

Mobile devices have been put to effective use in a wide range of well-publicized situations on the international stage. During the 2000 presidential election in Ghana, people used their cell phones to report eyewitness accounts of intimidation at polling stations to local radio stations, helping to squelch the thuggery. [10]

Mobile media may have made a decisive difference in Spain’s national election in March 2004 that followed the tragic al Qaeda Madrid train bombings. Following the governing Popular Party’s initial statements that the bombing may have been done not by Islamic terrorists but rather by Spanish separatists, “massive protests…materialized due to the unique, spontaneous organizing power of text messaging and email,” according to a recent report:

Millions of text messages and emails were sent, some pro and some anti the government. On the day before the elections, text messaging was at 20% higher than it would be normally. On Election Day, 40% higher. And, in a surge of voting that went up to 77% voter turnout, the Popular Party—which was widely expected to win the election—lost decisively, after which the International Herald Tribune headlines wrote ‘Cell phones may have tipped the scales in Spanish election.’ [11]

Text messaging appears to be one of the few effective forms of political expression to challenge the tightly controlled government of Iran. President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was incensed when an anonymous, widely distributed text message made it to his personal mobile phone suggesting he didn't bathe enough, according to a report. [12]

In the Philippines, mobile action around political campaigns has become commonplace. In 2005, an entire election was deeply affected by a political zinger of a ringtone implying that the incumbent was guilty of vote rigging. It was downloaded by more than 1 million people. [13] In 2006, Philippines President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo became the target of a text messaging campaign by opposition protestors alerted by text messages. [14] Those protests carried over into 2007.

In May 2006, volunteer monitors in Montenegro used short message system (SMS), a form of text messaging, as their main election reporting tool. In August 2007, 500 election observers at polling stations throughout Sierra Leone used SMS on the mobile phones to report any irregularities in the country’s national election. [15]

Here in the United States, all the major campaigns for the 2008 presidential election are outfitted with mobile capabilities. On the night of the Iowa caucuses on January 3, 2008, the swell of voters supporting Sen. Barack Obama “was largely attributable to his Iowa ground troops—young volunteers armed with cell phones, wireless Web connections and warm coats who out-organized the veteran Clinton campaign in turning out their respective voters. Obama was the first candidate to introduce text messaging as a campaign tool,” eWeek reported. [16] Obama sent out a text message to his supporters before he came down to give his Iowa victory speech. During the 2008 primaries and caucuses, text messaging became a widely used tool for campaigns’ get-out-the-vote efforts. Supporters of the Obama campaign could text “hope” followed by a five-digit number and then enter their zip code. In return, they were told when the next rally was scheduled for, where the nearest caucus or polling station was located and how to volunteer in the campaign. Not to be outdone, Hillary Clinton’s campaign relied on its army of cell phone users to make 2 million calls in the weekend before the California primary.

During 2006, rallies in dozens of cities protested proposals to build a 700-mile fence between Mexico and the United States. Though the larger protests were organized in the traditional manner—through unions, churches, Latino organizations and Spanish language radio—there were also hundreds of smaller protest actions that took place without the apparent involvement of any central organization. The smaller events, involving tens of thousands of mostly high school students in cities across the nation, were driven by Internet social networks and mobile text messaging. For example, the Associated Press reported, “In Las Vegas, police and school officials said at least 3,000 students, drawn together by text messages and cell phone calls, left high schools, middle schools and a community college after the morning bell.” [17]

Mobile media’s ability to impact political causes is becoming more apparent by the day. In August 2007, pro-Tibet protestors used the Internet and mobile devices to elude Chinese censors. Students for a Free Tibet sent live cell phone videos of them rappelling down the Great Wall of China and unfurling a banner that read, “One World, One Dream, Free Tibet 2008.” The footage was sent using Internet software Skype, assembled in New York and posted to YouTube, giving the protesters an immediate global forum for their cause. [18]

In September 2007, word of the street protests by monks in Myanmar (the former Burma), and the government’s subsequent crackdown, was suppressed inside the country and initially downplayed abroad because of the foreign media’s inability to transmit footage or images under the ruling military junta’s crackdown. Despite those efforts, the Wall Street Journal reported, citizen journalists armed with cell phones managed to beam news of the protests and the government’s harsh response to the world. “Citizen witnesses are using cell phones and the Internet to beam out images of bloodied monks and street fires, subverting the Myanmar government's efforts to control media coverage and present a sanitized version of the uprising,” the paper reported. [19]

Mobile information services for the public good

Along with participating in political causes, people have begun using mobile devices as part of their daily routines. Organizers of environmental, union and consumer product campaigns have begun leveraging mobile technologies to give their members and kindred spirits the power to access information on demand—and to act on it.

Jed Alpert, co-founder and chief executive officer of Mobile Commons, pointed to FishMS, a text service in South Africa that was set up to help consumers choose seafood with the least adverse impact on the environment. A conscientious consumer could text in the name of the fish and get a color-coded response on the status of local seafood species. The World Wildife Fund reported:

Species marked with a green fish can generally be eaten with a clear conscience because their population numbers are healthy. Orange means they're legal to sell, but if you have a choice you should opt for one of the ‘green’ species. Species marked in red are illegal to buy or sell in South Africa. [20]

During the program, Alpert said, 700 to 800 people a day were participating, using their mobile phones as a remote control to pull down consumer information. “You can easily imagine lots of different ways in which mobile can be used in conjunction with other media as an engagement and education tool,” he said.

In a similar vein, the Natural Resources Defense Council will soon launch a program that allows people to text in the name of a product and receive information about whether it is environmentally sound. Even if the user does not have an Internet-enabled phone, she can type in a keyword and receive a list of environmentally sound products in that category.

Increasingly, this kind of mobile-powered info-grazing is congealing into ad hoc support communities based on a range of shared interests. Katrin Verclas, co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org, pointed to a mobile support group in Mexico among poor people who are HIV positive. By using SMS, the users traded tips about medical treatments and transportation, gave each other emotional support, and shared other helpful information. “It was astonishing, it blew the social services providers’ minds,” she said. “This was the most SMS-heavy subgroup they'd ever seen there. And it was due to the fact that this was not an abstract concept. It was behavior that was very relevant to these people’s lives.”

Charities and nonprofits also stand to benefit from the rise of the always-on generation. Ariel Rosen, head of Pro-Social Initiatives at Virgin Mobile USA, told the Roundtable of a charitable giving campaign that Virgin Mobile held on behalf of several charities. The response rate for the campaign was 4 percent through the use of SMS text messages, many times higher than the standard response rate using conventional methods such as direct mail and phone solicitations. The immediacy of mobile—the instantaneous nature of text messaging—cannot be underestimated in such efforts, Rosen said. “The ability to reply and interact in the moment is key.” Indeed, it’s estimated that most text messages are opened within 15 minutes to an hour, whereas email is usually opened within 24 to 48 hours. [21]

When U2 performed at the Live8 concert in England and later in the United States on their Vertigo tour in 2005, lead singer Bono used text messaging to recruit fans to sign up immediately for the anti-poverty and AIDS organization One, which he chairs. As described by Backstage Magazine [22]:

About an hour into a typical show on U2's Vertigo tour, Bono tells the crowd to hold up their mobile phones, in what has become the modern-day equivalent of flicking on a lighter. Instantly, thousands of blue-tinted screens illuminate the darkness as he marvels at the spectacle. ‘Is that a 21st-century moment or what?’ Bono asks.

Soon the video screen atop the stage flashes a five-digit number above the word ‘UNITE.’ ‘Time to do a magic trick,’ he says. ’These little devices–these cell phones–they can do all sorts of things.’ Then the band launches into the song ‘One,’ and Bono encourages the audience to use their phones to send a text message (also known as an SMS) to the one.org Web site, a sort of digital petition voicing support for poverty relief in Africa. Later, during the encore, the names of all who did so are scrolled on the same screen, and each receive a message of thanks from Bono on their phones.” [23]

Soon U2 would generate about 10,000 mobile responses a night, and generated over 800,000 responses during the entire Vertigo tour, and over 2.3 million US users subscribed to the One Campaign over 12 months through text messaging. [24]

The power of immediacy can be put to an extraordinary range of uses. Ben Rigby, founder and co-executive director of Mobile Voter, outlined an idea for a mobile phone application that ties into a website database and tracks a user’s location through GPS. “I could provide a website where people could sign up to volunteer 30-minute chunks of their free time for certain causes. I could then take that data and match it up with nonprofits or causes that can make use of their free time within three blocks of the user’s location. Instead of waiting for a bus, imagine being able to allocate your free time to volunteer organizations that you’d like to help.”

The technology is already here. The social network Meetro is a location-aware instant messaging application that will notify you if someone on your contact list signs into the network within a few blocks of where you’re standing without giving away your physical address. [25] 

In November 2007, after a container ship crashed into the San Francisco Bay Bridge and caused a 54,000-gallon oil spill, residents relied chiefly on text messaging to launch cleanup efforts on local beaches, with volunteers donning homemade Hazmat suits. “We’re seeing mobile becoming a key component of disaster response,” David E. Lee said. “When an earthquake hits, mobile networks can be used to direct people to avoid certain areas or tell them not to cross the Bay Bridge. It’s like a reverse 911.”

One can think of innumerable additional ways in which political figures, nongovernmental agencies or social organizations might use mobile to deliver relevant, timely information and to spur people to take action. On a contentious vote on the Iraq war, a congressional representative might let constituents sign up to receive a mobile alert announcing the final vote tally. A “green” organization might let users choose from a checklist about their personal consumption habits and then receive a text message telling them their carbon footprint.

Jeffrey Abramson of Brandeis University identified a common strand running through many of the stories related by roundtable participants: our newfound ability to reach out to people in the moment. The disparate examples of organizations and individuals being able to build social capital, to empower citizens in novel ways through the use of mobile, come down to location sensitivity and timeliness. “With the coming migration of community causes onto mobile devices—where we’re able to reach people in real time out in the field—it appears we are ready to raid and seize the temporal,” he declared.

Creative uses of mobile media

Still underappreciated are the prospects for mobile media to become a powerful presence in the artistic community. Jon Funabiki, professor of journalism at San Francisco State University, pointed to the “media Exprimo” project, a government-funded project in Japan to stimulate uses of cell phones for community purposes. One outcome was a form of serial haiku, or collaborative poetry, to which hundreds of people contributed.[26]

One inspiring use of mobile technology was born in Toronto's Kensington Market in 2003 and has since spread to Vancouver, Montreal, Dublin, Edinburgh, San Jose and São Paulo. [murmur] is an interactive storytelling project that uses mobile technology to capture and tell oral histories about local neighborhoods. The project’s website relates:

[murmur] is a documentary oral history project that records stories and memories told about specific geographic locations. We collect and make accessible people's personal histories and anecdotes about the places in their neighborhoods that are important to them. In each of these locations we install a [murmur] sign with a telephone number on it that anyone can call with a mobile phone to listen to that story while standing in that exact spot, and engaging in the physical experience of being right where the story takes place. Some stories suggest that the listener walk around, following a certain path through a place, while others allow a person to wander with both their feet and their gaze.

The stories we record range from personal recollections to more “historic" stories, or sometimes both—but always are told from a personal point of view, as if the storyteller is just out for a stroll and was casually talking about their neighbourhood to a friend.

It's history from the ground up, told by the voices that are often overlooked when the stories of cities are told. We know about the skyscrapers, sports stadiums and landmarks, but [murmur] looks for the intimate, neighbourhood-level voices that tell the day-to-day stories that make up a city. [27]

In October 2005 KQED, San Francisco’s public television station, hosted the launch of the ‘Scape the Hood mediascape, an experiment that overlaid a digital landscape on the physical world. Using GPS-enabled mobile devices and software developed by HP Labs, participants walked the streets of the city’s Mission District and listened to the stories told by local people about the history and culture of the neighborhood. As the user moved through the physical world, she trigged digital media—such as images, text, sounds, audio and video—in response to physical events such as location, proximity, time and movement. For instance, someone told the story of the former American Can Company building, which had been transformed into Project Artaud, a dynamic live/work space for artists. [28]

Other instances of creative uses of mobile technology abound. A British mobile carrier lets you point your cell phone to the sky to identify constellations. In China, as many as 100,000 people turn out in the streets of an urban center with their mobile devices to participate in a “treasure hunt” as part of a massive multiplayer online game.

Mike Sundermeyer, vice president of experience design at Adobe, cited the inventive use of GPS-enabled text messaging that lets people play Pong on the sides of office buildings in cities such as Berlin and Paris.[29] Sundermeyer wondered aloud, What if the same technology could be harnessed to enable civic participation? He recalled watching the electronic display at Google headquarters that flashed the search terms people were entering from around the globe. “It gave a sense of what the world was thinking about at that moment,” he said. “What if San Francisco City Hall had a giant projector and anyone with a mobile device could come along and post their aspirations of what the city should do? It would become the equivalent of the soapbox in the town square.”

A more practical use of mobile technology is beginning to occur in low-income areas where carrying around a lot of cash is a risky proposition. David E. Lee of the Chinese American Voters Education Committee cited the use of mobile devices as a transaction mechanism, with an increasing number of services and retail store accepting payments via cell phones.