Mobile for Development
Using mobile technology for social causes
by Evgeny Morozov @ BarCamp Baltics
February 09, 2008

Plan (kind of)
I. Random facts
II. Uses of mobile tech
III. Opportunities (and problems)
IV. OMG, it's finally over

~ 3,3 billion mobile phone subscribers globally

More than 1,1 billion sold last year worldwide

97% of people surveyed in Tanzania said
they could access a mobile phone, while
just 28% could access a land line phone...

Young people in the US 4.2% more likely to vote
after an SMS reminder

Global New Year's SMS traffic: 43
billion messages, 30% up from last
year

Japan: of last year's 10 best-selling novels,
five were originally mobile phone novels

A 2005 study showed that an increase of 10
mobile phones per 100 people could increase
GDP growth by 0.6%

2008: first time an Egyptian court reviews a case
of divorce-by-SMS

Kenya: only 19% of the country's 36 million
people are reached by traditional banking
institutions. BUT virtually have access to the
mobile phone.

~1 billion: the number of illiterate people in the
world

426,000: the number of mobile
phones retired in the US every day.

During this year's State of the Union address, you

could have turned your cell phone into a Bush Lie
Detector by signing up for live fact checks

By texting \"facts\" to shortdoce 30644, when the
President told a lie during the State of the Union,
you could have received a text with the truth.

Applications: Development / Economics

“Fish dumping, which averaged about 5 to 8
percent of daily catch before mobile phones, was
eliminated. Fishermen’s profits increased on
average by 8 percent, while consumer price
declined by 4 percent.” Quarterly Journal of
Economics, 2007

Applications: Health

SMS the word 'HIV' to 31771 followed by their post code or
town name. Their two nearest testing locations will be SMS'ed
back.

Applications: Social

EpiSurveyor is a free, open source tool enabling anyone
to very easily create a handheld data entry form, collect
data on a mobile device, and then transfer the data back
to a desktop or laptop for analysis

Health+Data mash-up

3

Applications: Politics, Mobilization, Other

Kenya: ““The Ministry of Internal Security
urges you to please desist from sending or
forwarding any SMS that may cause public
unrest. This may lead to your prosecution.” “

BBC Africa’s Have Your Say received over
3800 and published over 1300 comments
after requesting updates from Kenyans

Opportunities

Opportunities: More $ for
applications development

Opportunities: Open Handset
Alliance

Opportunities: Visual story-telling /
Ubiquity

Opportunities: wind/solar charging

Opportunities: Wind-Powered Base
Station

Opportunities: p2p transmission

Opportunities: Phone for the
Illiterate

Email: evgeny.morozov@gmail.com