Original mobile technologies

Led by Josh and Jordan

Mobile in this context: anything a “dumb” phone has - calling - SMS - radio combined with internet

Why Mobile is awesome - don’t have to install an app - SMS is instant - SMS open rate is very high - Note that you shouldn’t

Why Mobile sucks - costs per message (sometimes - interface: text messages are short and have difficult data formatting - tools for developing are not up to par with the rest of modern web development

Josh has worked on projects of various sizes - sending SMS to thousands of users - smaller projects setting up community radio - automated SMS services

Questions - We have a current system. How can we use it better? - What is the best way to use mobile for our projects? - Who should we target using SMS messaging? - What are the most effective kinds of things to share? - Never used SMS to reach out to our audiences, but we want to try it, particularly for monolingual Spanish speakers? - What does it require in terms of resources and budget? - Can we use it to target doners?

Various SMS services:

- Revolution messaging --- hosting --- shared shortcode (having your own is really expensive) --- reasonably priced

- Mobile commons --- really big one --- great product, very expensive

- Frontline --- software you can run yourself off a laptop with a tethered phone or GSM modem --- developed primarily for data collection work in Africa --- can be an inexpensive way to get started, you can use this and port to a different service later

- Telerivet, web interface --- sending out messages at demonstrations --- getting feedback from guests at an event --- $30/month for 5000 messages / day and 10,000 contacts --- have to use your personal phone # or subscribe through a number through them | $0.01 per message inbound and outbound

- Mozeo --- inexpensive

- SMS Blast --- good for quick, one off messages

It’s a good idea to connect this services with an internet SMS number that lets you send and receive SMS over the internet

APIs to build your own system - Troppo, free to develop - Twillio - Clickitel, expensive but flexible, has a lot of foreign shortcodes

Shortcodes - a five digit code that sends messages to you - usually use a shared code, with a keyword to route the message - costs something like $10,000 to set up your own shortcode - really helpful for signs and radio adds - much easier to remember

Case Study: Presente - can text to collect a phone number and collect a list of phone numbers - then reply with “Text your email and zip to join” - import into CRM system to followup by email - can be challenging to differentiate messaging for SMS and emails - can use SMS to collect donations, but you have to have your own shortcode - you could also text out a link that goes to a mobile optimized web page that collects donations, but requires a smartphone with data plan

CRM Integration - build your own custom - sometimes can export a csv file and then import it into a CRM - some CRMs have SMS integration, but usually with only with one provider

Other projects - communicating with doctors for medical advice - international development: mobile messages system for women who have stores in a market (like a replacement for email, in a community that didn’t have email)

Tips - need to be able to parse the information in some way--if you collect multiple pieces of information, it’s all in one message - using delimiters (like comma separated information) doesn’t work very well-9 out of 10 people will mess that up - keep it simple, collect one or two pieces of information - register a lot of different spellings of your keyword, to account for misspellings - can use a different keyword to specify language preference (Spanish vs. English, for example) - short bursts of messages are better than longer messages with multiple/complicated asks - make sure you give people a first message with an opt-out option

Other tools

- vojo.co --- mobile mapping and storytelling system --- can do MMS --- mobile blogs sent over SMS

- WhatsApp

- Snapchat

- cel.ly --- social networking over SMS

- mailchimp --- gather for collecting data at events (a little bit expensive)

Budget - Telerivet recommended as a relatively low cost service - Frontline is virtually free, and a good way to get started at very low cost

Other uses for mobile - walking tours, have a number that you call from each location with a recorded message - “people’s Skype” built for occupy--call a number and use multiple crowd members phones to broadcast a message - OPD sends out alerts, and you can text back a number, which the OPD will then send the same message to them

Research on teen use - Pew Internet Research, a number of years ago, did some research what mobile use is higher in Latino communities, compared to white communities - Anecdotal evidence says that current teens use mobile and texting more than ever before, but no hard research numbers

ussd - a low level mobile system, like sms, for messaging - used in a lot of other places in the world to collect multiple points of information - uses one connection for multiple messages, rather than several individual messages

Callback systems - You text to the shortcode, and then it calls you back - Example use is that user is called back, given a recorded message with talking points, and then connected to their congress person to talk about a particular issue - EFF and The Day We Fight Back have used this - The Day We Fight Back has an open source platform they built on Twillio that you can use, but you have to host it