Sms Uprising

Providing a unique insight into how activists and social change advocates are addressing Africa's many challenges from within, this collection of essays by those engaged in using mobile phone technologies for social change provides an analysis of the socioeconomic, political, and media contexts faced by activists in Africa today. The articles address a broad range of issues¿including inequalities in access to technology based on gender and rural and urban usage¿and it offers practical examples of how activists are using mobile technology to organize and document their experiences. An overview of the lessons learned in making effective use of mobile phone technologies without any of the romanticism so often associated with the use of new technologies for social change is given. Examples are shared in a way that makes them easy to replicate, hoping to lead to greater reflection about the real potential and limitations of mobile technologies. Contributors include Ken Banks, Nathan Eagle, Anil Naidoo, Berna Ngolobe, and Juliana Rotich.

Part I: The context1 Economics and power within the African telecommunications industry 2 Nathan Eagle2 Mobile activism in Africa: future trends and software developments 17 Christian Kreutz3 Social mobile: empowering the many or the few? 32 Ken Banks4 Mobiles in-a-box: developing a toolkit with grassroots human rights advocates 40 Tanya Notley and Becky FaithPart II: Mobile democracy: SMS case studies 5 Fahamu: using cell phones in an activist campaign 56Redante Asuncion-Reed 6 The UmNyango project: using SMS for political participation in rural KwaZulu Natal 71Anil Naidoo 7 Kubatana in Zimbabwe: mobile phones for advocacy 86Amanda Atwood 8 Women in Uganda: mobile activism for networking and advocacy 105Berna Ngolobe 9 Mobile telephony: closing the gap 116Christiana Charles-Iyoha 10 Digitally networked technology in Kenya's 2007¿08 post-election crisis 124Joshua Goldstein and Juliana Rotich 11 Using mobile phones for monitoring human rights violations in the DRC 138Bukeni Waruzi