Mobile media technologies provide new tools for civic organizers, political candidates, activists and ordinary citizens to reach out to others and galvanize community action on a wide range of issues.

“Mobile serves as an invaluable awareness tool,” said Theda Sandiford, a marketing consultant whose clients include Phat Fashions, Asylum Records and Rush Communications. Once mobile users become aware about an issue or campaign, they can take action by donating money, volunteering time or spreading the message to their peers.

Sandiford pointed to the November 2007 launch of a site on the Treemo platform devoted to informing the public about blood diamonds. Treemo is a Seattle-based online and mobile community geared to socially conscious users who share video, audio, photos and text, either by posting to the Web or by sending content to a friend’s phone. The Diamond Empowerment Fund website (tagline: “Helping Africans Help Africa”) at def.treemo.com was created following a tour of South Africa and Botswana by Russell Simmons, the entrepreneur, activist and co-founder of the music label Def Jam. A film crew led by award-winning director Selwyn Hinds met with young Africans and captured their stories in six short video clips. [39] Using mobile devices, people can join the community, post comments, share their own videos, embed digital stories on their MySpace or Facebook pages and more.

Another network with a civic engagement focus, ShareIdeas.org, is “an online community and a wiki for sharing ideas on how to use mobile communications for social and environmental benefits,” its website says. [40] The site, inspired by the CEO of a Nigerian organization who wanted to help nurture a new generation of African leaders, offers tutorials on how to use mobile technology to collect field data, distribute information, manage finances, manage an organization, respond to emergencies, take and share photos and video on mobile phones and so on.

Deb Levine, executive director and founder of Internet Sexuality Information Services (ISIS), outlined the nonprofit group’s SexINFO project conducted with the San Francisco Department of Public Health. In April 2006 SexINFO was launched to provide local youths with information and advice about STDs, HIV, birth control, sexual health services and related topics after an upswing in gonorrhea and chlamydia rates, especially among African-Americans between the ages of 18 and 25. Through text messaging, the SexINFO service provides instant answers to questions (“How do you know if you have an STD? Text SEXINFO to (917) 957 4280”) as well as access to counselors (“Press ‘E5’ if u need 2 talk now”). [41]

The project came about after the city’s health department asked Levine’s group to set up a website. “There are enough sites out there with rich, wonderful information,” Levine said. “I stood outside of Mission High School one day, and every young person coming out was on their cell phone, talking or texting. So we went back to the Department of Public Health and said, instead of websites, think about cell phones.”

In a 2007 study of mobile habits among low-income urban youths, ISIS discovered that the young people were using their cell phones to talk and to text-message friends. Surprisingly, two-thirds of them were also using their phones to surf the Web. They were not using cell phones to search, however, and conversations in subsequent focus groups found that they would use their devices to retrieve health information when the circumstances arose. “They consider their cell phones a private way to receive information,” Levine said. “They only wanted private health information when they asked for it, not when we wanted to send it.”

ISIS, in partnership with a Planned Parenthood affiliate in Southern California, offers a hotline where mobile users can ask questions of live volunteers about health issues or sexual practices via instant messaging or text messaging. The groups are hoping to roll out the service nationwide with a GPS technology component.

Ben Rigby of Mobile Voter outlined the efforts of the nonpartisan organization Mobile Voter to spur young people to vote in the 2006 elections through the use of text messaging. Working with 200 groups, Mobile Voter launched TXTVOTER ’06, a social networking campaign in which an individual or organization could create a unique keyword and then encourage their friends to text the keyword. The text message resulted in the person receiving a voter registration form in the mail. [42] “We thought it was a good plan, given that the call to action originated with a trusted source,” Rigby said.

It turned out, however, that many people didn’t use the system until two weeks before the voter registration deadline, given that the issue was not top of mind. By the time the response rate shot up to as high as 46 percent in the final two weeks, it was generally too late to mail out forms. “The incentive was not there until too late in the game,” he said. “We learned that, unless the law changes to allow digital signatures, we can't offer a mobile voter-registration application when it's most timely and relevant, and in mobile, that's a death knell.”

A related and simultaneous project to get out the vote via text message, however, achieved good results. Together with Working Assets, the Public Interest Research Group (PIRG), and a research team from the University of Michigan, Mobile Voter sent out text message reminders to vote on the day before Election Day in November 2006. These reminders were sent to over 4,000 mobile phone numbers chosen at random from a pool of over 8,000 mostly young people who had completed voter registration applications. Afterward, participants were matched to voter records to determine if they had voted in the election, and a sample was surveyed to gauge their reaction to the messages. Across the board, text message reminders increased the likelihood of an individual voting by 4.2 percentage points. At just $1.56 per additional vote generated, text messaging was extremely cost effective.

CASE STUDY

SexINFO: A Pilot SMS Mobile Project for Urban Youth

Text SexINFO to 61827

The Problem

In early 2005, Internet Sexuality Information Services, Inc. (ISIS), a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, was approached by the San Francisco Department of Public Health, STD Prevention and Control branch (SF DPH), to find a way to technologically address rising trends of STD rates in the City, particularly among African-American youth.

The Initial Response

There are already many accurate and comprehensive websites containing HIV prevention, STD prevention and other reproductive health information, so ISIS went back to SF DPH and suggested going the SMS text messaging route instead of a traditional website. ISIS staff had observed anecdotally that anywhere the ISIS staff saw young people they were "at" their mobile phone keyboards texting their friends. Staff then held two focus groups with urban, African-American youth to discover how and when they were using their phones, and the general acceptability of cell phones for delivering sexual health information.

Focus-groups participants had access to unlimited text messaging on their phones (via MetroPCS service) and considered receiving text messages about sexual health to be a private and valuable service as long as they initiated the messaging (opt-in). After convening the focus groups, ISIS gathered a community advisory board (CAB) of staff from SF DPH, public clinics serving African-American youth, high school health programs, juvenile probation department, and clergy from a large African-American congregation. The CAB met quarterly to advise and provide guidance on program acceptability and content.

SexINFO - The Service

Since 80 percent of focus group participants had MetroPCS (a low-cost month-by-month service), ISIS first approached the corporation to partner with ISIS and SF DPH to provide the sexual health service free of charge to MetroPCS users. However, concerns that this proposal would overtax MetroPCS's service led ISIS to seek an alternative service provider

Eventually a referral to HipCricket, a marketing company in Australia using mobile technology to create campaigns and solutions for major broadcasters and brands, solved the problem. HipCricket figured out that MetroPCS did not participate in the same networks as the other major carriers—that is, they did not broadcast any messages using short codes. HipCricket then set up ISIS' short code for SexINFO, and registered a 10-digit phone number for MetroPCS users.

The organization launched SexINFO in April 2006 as an "opt-in" menu of services. Youths could text the word "SEXINFO" to 61827 or 917-957-4280 (for MetroPCS users) and then received a "phone tree" or menu with 11 codes instructing them to text, for example, "B2 if ur condom broke," "D4 to find out about HIV," or "F8 if ur not sure u want to have sex." After texting B2, they would receive another text with a basic fact, then two local referrals—"U may b at risk 4 STDs+HIV women can also b pregnant SouthEast Keith@Armstrong 671-7000 M-F8-5,W8-12.City Clinic 356 7th St 487-5500 MWF 8-4 TuTh 1-4." There is a companion website, www.sexinfosf.org, where parents and others can see the messages online.

Marketing

ISIS worked with SF DPH's Youth United Through Health Education (YUTHE) program to develop and test materials to promote SexINFO. Posters, business-sized palm cards, and bus shelter ads were placed in strategic locations in the San Francisco neighborhoods populated by African-American youth. Outreach workers distributed palm cards on the street and in schools. Banner ads ran on Yahoo! targeted to youth aged 18-24 for two weeks. Multiple news publications including local and national TV and radio, the San Francisco Chronicle and USA Today picked up a media press release.

Usage Statistics & Usability Testing

In the first 25 weeks of service (April through October 2006), there were more than 4,500 inquiries to the short code; 2,500 (55 percent) of those inquiries led to access to more information and referrals. The top three messages accessed were:

1. "what 2 do if ur condom broke,"
2. "2 find out about STDs,"
3. "if u think ur pregnant."

For the next 25 weeks (November-April 2007), there were 2,344 inquiries, with only 464 (19 percent) leading to the second level of the menu with more information and referrals. And from May 2007 through end of October 2007, there were only 432 inquiries, with 261 (60 percent) leading to more information and referrals. 

In March 2007, ISIS conducted usability testing via one-on-one interviews with 12 youth aged 16 to 22 recruited on the street. During the interviews, participants were given one of SexINFO's promotional cards and then asked to interact with the service. Interviewers observed and taped users while they interacted with the service and then asked participants about their experience.

Summary of Usability Testing

• Several users had difficulty sending the first message (text sexinfo to 61827),
• Overall, the service was well received,
• Users were concerned about cost (is it free?),
• Most users understood the instructions in the first reply or message, but did not notice the Q5 for more questions (they got the first four questions, but not the next seven).

Short Term Enhancements

In October 2007, ISIS made the following simple changes to the service:

1) Changed the initial menu when you text "SexINFO" to 61827 to be
more user friendly:
* One page menu with four choices,
* Choices are single digit (instead of A1, just 1),
* Clarified instructions (instead of Reply w/code for answers, just Txt 1 if ur condom broke)
* Added a "send to a friend” message within menu, and
* Added info that clarified cost (stnd. msg. rate).

2) Added simple changes to second "tier" information (after initial menu):
* All clinic phone numbers are now easily dialable via ten-digit callback number, and
* Changed some shortened language to be more clear to users (addresses, clinic names).

For the next three weeks of service, marketing efforts increased significantly (PSAs on MTV and BET as well as a viral YouTube video). There were 204 inquiries in these 3 weeks, with 199 or 97.5% leading users to the second level of information and referrals.

Long Term Plans

The organization is working with partners (the Full Circle Fund, and tentatively the Kaiser Family Foundation, BET, and Univision) to take SexINFO out of the pilot phase and launch a national mobile multimedia campaign.  It is also looking for mobile partners who understand the value of this service and are not afraid of providing sexual and reproductive health information to urban youth.

The group is strategizing about "stickiness" of the service—what will bring youth back multiple times, as well as the best ways to deliver the information in an effective "edutainment" format. ISIS is also re-designing the website to include images from the print and video marketing materials and to build in XML instead of HTML so as to be able to expand as mobile technology reaches more mainstream audiences.

Prepared by Deb Levine

Elements of a successful mobile campaign

What, then, are the hallmarks of a successful mobile campaign around civic engagement? Jed Alpert of Mobile Commons, listed three key uses:

• as a recruitment tool for new members;
• as a tool to spur existing constituencies to take specific actions;
• as a reliable and trusted tool for people to gather information about an issue or subject.

“Ultimately, we’re all in the response rate business,” he said. “This isn’t very different from what marketing people have been doing for decades, sending out letters with a narrative storyline about an issue or cause.”

As one example, he pointed to the Matthew Shepard Act passed by both houses of Congress in 2007 but opposed by President Bush. The bill, named after the gay college student who was tied to a fence and beaten to death in Wyoming in 1998, would expand the definition of hate crimes to include the victim’s sexual orientation, gender identity, gender or disability. A mobile campaign by the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) prompted 30,000 people to opt into a database that alerted them how to contact their congressional representative before a vote on the bill. Some 2,500 to 3,000 of them followed through with calls or emails, helping the legislation to pass.

Alpert and Katrin Verclas both observed that the impact of a mobile campaign can be even greater at the local level, where 10 phone calls to city council members could swing a vote on an issue because they typically receive so few calls.

Another example of mobile civic engagement took place in 2007 in California. As Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s health care reform proposal was being heard in the state legislature, hundreds of activists on the state capitol grounds were joined by thousands of citizens who texted their messages, which were displayed on a large screen set up outside the capitol building. “Anyone watching on the Web and seeing their message flash on the jumbotron felt like they were part of the proceedings,” Alpert said. It also supplied the event’s organizer, It’s Our Healthcare, with hundreds of additional names for its database of health care advocates. [43] “Mobile is good at providing metrics and measuring the effectiveness of campaigns,” he added. “It lets every organization have their own private Nielsen service.”

There may be cases where mobile has a deeper impact on a community and its residents that extends beyond the immediacy of short-term campaigns by activist groups.

Leslie Rule described a GPS-enabled project that KQED’s Digital Storytelling Initiative conducted with Oakland High School students in 2004. Students went into their communities to capture stories about social justice, focusing on neighborhood violence, environmental concerns and ethnic issues. They then came back into the classroom and, using Google Earth and GPS-enabled handhelds, created 90-second digital stories tied to longitude and latitude coordinates. Users equipped with mobile devices and special software could then experience the stories while standing at specific locales. [44]

“Asthma rates were seven times higher in communities with freeways running through them. No grocery stores in a neighborhood meant people ate at fast food restaurants, leading to an increase in obesity,” Rule said. The resulting stories were screened by the community in a local school and online. “The finding was that, yes, this did engage them and gave them a meaningful way to share and reflect on their stories. We probably made a difference to those kids, to their parents, to the community members who went through that walk. And maybe the next time there’s a proposal to put a freeway through the middle of a community, they’ll stand up and say no.”