This document provides a crash course on using mobile phones to create and distribute content. It discusses platforms like WordPress, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr that allow sharing audio, video and text from mobile devices. It also reviews best practices for gathering and distributing content as a citizen journalist and ways to generate revenue. The document gives an overview of the types of content and gear that can be used to engage in mobile journalism.

1. GOT MOBILE?
A crash course in creating, sharing and distributing stories from the palm of your hand.
Erik Sundelof
Kara Andrade
Monday, February 23, 2009

2. OUR CONVERSATION WILL
Train you to use cellphones to
submit audio, video and text
content using platforms such as
Wordpress, Twitter, Facebook,
Flickr and All Voices.
Review journalistic practices for
gathering and distributing content.
Inform you of ways to generate
revenue from content & posting
anonymously.
Show you common cellphones &
practices for posting multimedia.
Monday, February 23, 2009

3. WHY MOBILE?
Data from Informa estimates
that by 2010 half of the planet’s
population will have access to
the Internet through a mobile
device.
Two and a half billion mobile
users across the world- many
more people than have access
to a personal computer.
The World Bank estimates that
more than two-thirds of the
world's population lives within
range of a mobile phone
network.
Monday, February 23, 2009

4. CELLPHONES ARE
Immediate: the real time
behavior is crucial for covering
emergencies and crisis.
Simple: everyone knows how to
use them!
Ubiquitous: Everyone has one
and they’re cheaper than a
computer.
Monday, February 23, 2009

5. WHAT INFORMATION CAN YOU SEND FROM
A CELLPHONE?
Text: SMS, MMS, E-mail, Clients.
Images: pictures, photos as MMS,
E-mail, Clients.
Videos: MMS, Email, Clients.
Audio: Mostly PBX systems (Asterix,
Cisco Unit Boxes) using MMS, E-
mail, Clients.
Monday, February 23, 2009

6. WHAT GEAR DO YOU NEED?
Any cellphone that can post
SMS and MMS content.
A Wi-Fi connection or data plan.
A tripod.
A good microphone .
Extra batteries.
Monday, February 23, 2009

7. WHAT YOU CAN USE
Blogging platforms: Blogger,
Typepad, Wordpress and Drupal.
Stream video: Qik, JustinTv,
Twitter, YouTube and more.
Geo-location: zLocate, Zoomr,
Yahoo and Google.
Photos: Flickr, Facebook, Utterli
SMS Gateways: Open source, i.e.
Kannel, gnuii and Frontline SMS.
Commercial, i.e.Clickatell,
TxtNation and Mblox.
Monday, February 23, 2009

8. THE 4 STEP APPROACH TO SOCIAL STRATEGY
Monday, February 23, 2009

9. Mental Checklist of What Is News:
IMPACT: Is it affecting many and how
serious is it?
PROXIMITY: An event will have more
relevance if it is closer to the readers. You
can use social tools to amplify.
TIMELINESS: s the event new?
NOVELTY: This is what’s new in “news,”
first, lasts, and onlys.
CONFLICT: Is there conflict involved? It’s
the stuff all good stories are made of.
AUDIENCE: Who is the audience and is it
news at all?
Monday, February 23, 2009

10. TWITTER: ONE TWEET AT A TIME
Many journalists are now using
Twitter for breaking news,
interviews, promotion of online
work and keeping up with their
beats. Twitter users beat
government agencies and leading
news organizations in reporting
disasters.
Monday, February 23, 2009

11. TEXT TO TWITTER
1. Go to www.twitter.com and set up a username and password
2. Set up your cellphone to link to your account
3. Send an SMS or text message to 40404. Put that address into phone’s address book.
4. You can also download a cellphone client like Blackbird to make it easier to access
Twitter on your cellphone.
Monday, February 23, 2009

12. PHOTO & VIDEO ON FLICKR Leave the laptop at home
Monday, February 23, 2009

13. PHOTO & VIDEO ON FLICKR
1. Set it up so you can upload by e-mail.
2. Get your e-mail address at Flickr Tools page:
www.flickr.com/tools.
Monday, February 23, 2009

14. FLICKR TO TWITTER?
Go to www.flickr.twittergram.com
It will take your latest photos and automatically send it to twitter from Flickr
Monday, February 23, 2009

15. Recording Audio
Try Utterli (formerly Utterz)
www.utterlin.com
1. Register & then set it up with
your Wordpress or social apps to
cross-post
2. Call 712-432-6666 to post your
audio
3. You can email photos, video
and text to: go@utterli.com
Monday, February 23, 2009

16. CASE STUDIES
Monday, February 23, 2009

17. GETTING YOUR VIDEO ON
It’s just like posting a photo!
YouTube: email posting
Flickr: email posting
Qik
Justin.TV: currently requires a a laptop to
work properly.
Clients offer simple ways to post
Monday, February 23, 2009

18. Kenya’s Election The use of SMS to cover elections
in Kenya in 2008 (FrontlineSMS)
2008
Monday, February 23, 2009

19. Allvoices.com Report Your News with text, vid, pix
Monday, February 23, 2009

20. CONFLICT ZONES
The conflict between Lebanon and
Israel 2006 via cellphones.
How was it done?
Put up simple Typepad blog &
linked to SMS gateway.
Sent an email to 20 of your friends.
First week: 10,000 viewers.
Second and third week: 100,000
viewers each week.
Monday, February 23, 2009

21. OTHER CASE STUDIES
1.Volunteering dentist in Kenya & Ethiopia: Daily format to keep in touch with friends and
family in Sweden
2. Tsunami 2004: Several Web site emerged which posted survivor and victims via SMS
outperforming the government initiatives.
3. Social activism: The riots in Gothenburg 2001 were orchestrated by central SMS blasts.
Monday, February 23, 2009

22. THINGS WE LOVE
On-demand volunteerism by mobile
phone www.theextraordinaries.org
MobileActive’s training guides:
http://mobileactive.org
Sixth Sense -- a device that hangs
around the wearer's neck and allows her
to summon data:
http://tinyurl.com/akkh8y
Cool new platforms like Crowdfire:
www.crowdfire.net
Creativecommons.org!
Create, share & remix!
Monday, February 23, 2009

23. CREDITS
Creative Commons photo credits to: Inju, Brenda Wallace, Matt Cox, Gaetan
Lee, Steve Garfield, David Barreda, Paulo Ordoveza, Mostafa, Zarko Drincic.
Many thanks to Steve Garfield for sharing his presentation on SlideShare.net
and to Forrester for their POST method.
To contact your mobile guardian angels:
Erik Sundelof, erik@allvoices.com
Kara Andrade, kara@spot.us, Twitter: newmaya
Monday, February 23, 2009

24. EVERY CELLPHONE IS A NEWS OUTLET
START POSTING NOW!
Monday, February 23, 2009