San Francisco Green Festival 2007

MobileActive.org is an all-volunteer community of people and organizations using mobile phones for social impact. We are committed to increasing the effectiveness of NGOs around the world who recognize that the 3.5 billion mobile phones provide unprecedented opportunities for organizing, communications, and service and information delivery.

We work together to create the resources NGOs need to effectively use mobile phones in their work: locally relevant content and services, support and learning opportunities, and networks that help MobileActives connect to each other. With these things on hand, tens of thousands of NGOs will be in a better position to enrich and serve their communities.

The MobileActive.org community includes grassroots activists, NGO staff, intermediary organizations, content and service providers, and organizations who fund mobile technology projects.

Our goals:

1. Expand access to knowledge, ideas and experiences about the use of mobile technology to make the world a better place;
2. Reduce learning costs for deploying mobile technology for civil society organizations;
3. Accelerate the use of effective strategies and tactics of mobile use for NGOs;
4. Provide a comprehensive platform for building partnerships, and for facilitating access to technology and funding.

Here is what you'll find at MobileActive.org:

• A growing international network of more than 3,000 highly skilled practitioners, technologists, campaigners and strategists who are actively collaborating and sharing information, innovative strategies and tools;
• An international conference of practitioners sharing knowledge and developing best practices and case studies;A blog about innovative mobile uses for the greater good, and the visionary people implementing them;
• A database of vendors, tools, and NGO projects focused on mobile innovation;
• Strategy Guides and How-To Materials for NGOs and civil society practitioners wanting to use mobile phones in their work.

MobileActive is committed to expanding the knowledge and experiences about the use of mobile phones and to accelerating the use of effective strategies and tactics while reducing the learning costs for organizations.

The Time is Right for Mobile Activism: 3.5 Billion Mobiles Phones..and counting

Mobile phones are proliferating at astounding rates across socio-economic and cultural boundaries, revolutionizing the way we organize ourselves and do business. With more than 3.5 billion mobile phones estimated in 2008, they are found in every corner of the world, used by people to communicate with each other, and access and deliver information and services.

These trends are highly promising for NGOs and civil society organizations that can now engage people on issues that matter most through always-on, always-on-hand devices.

Examples of innovative campaigns and projects abound. Democracy organizations have used mobile phones to swing elections through innovative get-out-the-vote activities, ensured impartial voting through poll monitoring via SMS, developed ground-breaking new information services with vital civic or health information, documented abuses of political prisoners, and lobbied legislators to pass environmental laws.

Mobile phones have been used to mobilize hundreds of thousands of peaceful demonstrators in countries across the world with text messages and brilliant political ringtones. They are being used in environmental campaigns in Argentina, and to advocate for an independent judiciary in India, for support of emigrant and migrant communities in the Philippines, and for disease detection and prevention in Rwanda. Mobile phone services provide sexual health information in the UK, Nigeria, Australia, and the United States, and deliver aids drugs and services in South Africa. Mobiles are used to track financial transaction in microfinance groups in India, and are used to document and monitor fair trade practices in Mexico.

Mobile innovations abound with this new tool for use in social change work.

The global MobileActive community aggregates and builds upon the lessons learned from the pioneers in this field for the benefit of civil society organizations.

Join us and get involved. Welcome to MobileActive.org!