DigiActive.org

Campaign:”I Know” Targets US Young Adults on HIV

Description: According to the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), over 33 million people worldwide are living with HIV. In the United States most aid for preventing and treating the virus tends to go towards those living in the developing world. However, there has been criticism by many American advocates that the U.S. government has neglected to provide the same aid to a group in its own country which has been the most affected by the virus – African Americans. While African Americans represent over 12 percent of the U.S. population, they account for over half of all those being infected yearly and living in the United States with HIV. As the Obama administration starts to put together a national HIV/AIDS strategy – the first one in 20 years, other HIV activists are taking their message directly to the people via digital activism.

Digital Tools Being Used: Facebook, Twitter, Text Message, Radio & Video

What Are They Doing: The “i know” effort is part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Act Against AIDS campaign, which uses multiple social media platforms to reach out to African American youth with facts about HIV/AIDS with the aim to engage them in open conversation.

“By supporting frank conversations through social media, ‘i know’ creates an opportunity for young people to talk directly with each other about the issues that fuel this still-deadly disease,” said Kevin Fenton, director of CDC’s National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD and TB Prevention. “Their ideas and involvement will be a critical part of the solution.”

The campaign uses a mix of both old and new media. Followers have a choice of using Twitter, Facebook and texting to get alerts and status updates on HIV knowledge and attitudes, as well as links to information about HIV testing and prevention. The campaign’s website allows users to identify local HIV testing sites and campaign events and video stories of those living with HIV. There are also radio and online video public service announcements that has actor Jamie Foxx calling for a new discussion on HIV.

What is the Impact:Since the campaign’s launch on March 4, hundreds of users have become followers of the various platforms and it seems that the campaign has initially succeeded in engaging users, as can be seen with the many status re-tweets and discussion. While it is good that social media is being used in this campaign, it should also be highlighted that the campaign’s radio use is just as important, as many African-Americans still see the significance of this medium for getting out information within their community. However, it will take a longer amount of time to actually determine if both the online and radio efforts turn into offline actions.

Book Review: SMS Uprising – Mobile Activism in Africa

Editor: Sokari Ekine

Authors: Nathan Eagle, Ken Banks, Redante Asuncion-Reed, Anil Naidoo, Amanda Atwood, Christiana Charles-Iyoha, Becky Faith, Joshua Goldstein, Christian Kreutz, Tanya Notley, Juliana Rotich, Berna Twanza Ngolobe, Bukeni Waruzi

Subject: SMS Uprising gives an overview of the use of mobile technology for development and empowerment in Africa.

The book is made up of two parts. The first four chapters explore the context of mobile activism. Christian Kreutz has contributed a great summary of future trends and software developments in African mobile activism. Another essay by Ken Banks asks whether “social mobile” is “empowering the many or the few”.

The second part consists of seven case studies from several African countries. The fields they describe are equally diverse, ranging from e-agriculture to dissemination of political news. A special focus lies on the empowerment of women. Anil Naidoo from South Africa describes how mobiles are used in the UmNyango project to empower women in the rural region of KwaZulu Natal, and WOUGNET from Uganda aims to ameliorate the economic situation of female farmers in Uganda.

I especially liked the essay by Rotich and Joshua Goldstein on “Digitally networked technology in Kenya’s 2007–08 post-election crisis”. It is a short version of a case study written for the Berkman Center’s Internet and Democracy Project. The chapter looks at three facettes of social media in a conflict situation: “SMS campaigns to promote violence, blogs to challenge mainstream media narratives, and online campaigns to promote awareness of human rights violations.”

SMS Uprising combines theoretical groundwork and practical case studies useful to everyone interested in the use of mobile technology for activism and development. While some chapters are a bit longer than necessary, in combination the book provides a good overview of the issue.

SMS Uprising is published by Pambazuka Press. It is available on their website as a paperback plus PDF for £12.99 or the PDF alone for £9.99 as well as on Amazon.

[This is an altered version of a post I wrote for my blog, i like patterns.]

Tactic: Haiti earthquake gets quick response online

Description: Haiti was rocked Tuesday night by a 7.0-magnitude earthquake. According to a report, Haiti’s First Lady Elisabeth Debrosse Delatour said that “most of Port-au-Prince is destroyed.”

While almost all phone lines have gone down on the impoverished island, Haitians have been able to communicate to friends and relatives around the world with the use of new media. Not only has there been a flurry of tweets and photos of the devastation posted online over night, but charitable individuals and organizations have responded quickly with their efforts to help victims.

Digital Tools Being Used: Twitter, Video, Photos, Text Message, etc

What Are They Doing: Victims of the earthquake immediately got on Twitter, uploaded photos and YouTube videos and text messaged to give eyewitness reports on the tragedy like this one:

RAMHaiti: It’s 8:44PM and we’re still getting aftershocks!!I can hear people gathered in the distance singing prayers…people in large numbers are singing prayers downtown

In the last few hours charitable organizations have been able to make initial assessments of victims’ needs and have asked for donations, mostly through the use of digital tools.

Red Cross: Help Haiti right now, text Haiti to 90999 to give just $10 to the Red Cross

UNICEF: Donate now for Haiti on their website

Rap artist and activist Wyclef Jean was among the first to organize online when he sent out these tweets:

@wyclef Help Haiti by donating to Yele on www.yele.org follow @YeleHaiti

@wyclef Another way you can help Haiti after their 7.0 earthquake: Donate $5 by texting YELE to 501501 and by visiting www.YELE.org

News organizations that cater to Haitian communities in the United States have also taken the initiative to give their readers updated information about the earthquake’s aftermath, such as the Boston Haitian Reporter, which has been live-blogging since Tuesday night.

What is the Impact: While a full assessment of the Haitian earthquake will be long term, this latest international incident shows the incredible value in digital activism for quick response and possibly saving lives.

15andCounting: Strategy Behind a Social Media Campaign

video introduction to the 15andcounting campaign

15andCounting is a campaign by the International Planned Parenthood Foundation demanding better access to sexual health services for youth.  They are using a mix of old and new social media tools, from an e-petition and Flickr to Twitter, the SMS platform Mxit, and the music platform Dopetracks.

In this interview I ask Paul Bell, a campaign representative, about the strategic thinking behind their tool choice and how their use of these  online and mobile tools will lead to offline change in government policies towards youth.

What is the 15andCounting campaign?

15andCounting is a global campaign to demand better access to sexual health services and education for everyone. We’re now 15 years into a 20 year commitment signed by 179 governments to improve the sexual and reproductive health and rights of all young people. Only five years remain and many governments are seriously failing to make progress against their goals. 15andCounting is encouraging young people to call their governments to task on their grave failings

How have governments failed to make progress to promote, protect, and provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services?

There are 1.5 billion young people in the world today and the majority of them live without access to condoms or contraception. This is contributing to: the spread of HIV, millions of unwanted pregnancies, millions of women continuing to die from pregnancy related causes every year, and millions of young people having to drop out of education at an early age.

Any attachment to the choice of the name?

Fifteen years ago, at the International Conference on Population and Development (ICPD) in Cairo, 179 governments signed up to a Programme of Action to improve the sexual and reproductive health of everyone. 2009 is the 15 year mark. People born in that year (1994) at the time of the ICPD, are now 15 years old and form part of the largest cohort of young people the world has ever seen – some 1.5 billion – who have a right to sexual and reproductive health services and information.

Why run the campaign now?

People born in 1994 at the time of the ICPD are now 15 years old and form part of the largest cohort of young people the world has ever seen – some 1.5 billion – who have a right to sexual and reproductive health services and information. Fifteen years after ICPD too many governments have failed to make good on their promises. Only five years remain for the vision of ICPD to become reality. Unless governments deliver on their promises young people will be denied services and information critical to their health and wellbeing.

What’s the motive for running the petition now?

The Count Me In petition will be delivered to the Secretary-General of the United Nations on the 12^th of October, in an attempt to help persuade governments to promote, protect and fulfil their promise to provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services for all young people. October marks the 15^th anniversary of the ICPD conference in Cairo.

What are the network platforms you’re using to attain the goal of the campaign?

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/pages/15-and-counting)

Twitter (http://twitter.com/15andcounting)

Youtube (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDGoFfvvIXY&feature=channel_page)

Dopetracks (http://www.dopetracks.com/forums/4/topics/13784)

Millions of young people across the world do not have access to a computer, but do have a mobile phone. Therefore we are also working with MXit, an instant message provider to reach young people primarily in Africa through their mobile phones via a WAP site (www.15andcounting.mobi).  We are also launching SMS campaigns in Kenya, India, Indonesia, Brazil and Mexico.

With a lot of social network sites, why did you choose these particular networks over the other network platforms?

Twitter has been used as a way to get buy-in form professional stakeholders in the charity/care sector and to connect with bloggers and influential voices in the conversation: we feel that Twitter is the ideal for this purpose, but as a secondary function it also works to extend the outreach direct to people for petition signatures.

Youtube was purely there to host the video, which is easily embedded into other sites.

Dopetracks is a unique online proposition: a community of beat-makers, singers, poets, rappers, all collaborating online via their online music player/recorder (so that people don’t need any proprietary kit). We felt that the target market will be able to express themselves effectively – and engage with – the campaign though music. These people are very active promoters of their music and it encourages brand advocates to raise awareness with their peers.

How is each of the networks used?

http://twitter.com/15andcounting – we’ve built up a following or stakeholders and interested parties, which has stimulated wider distribution through blog posts and ‘retweeting’ of the 15&Counting messages. We have used Twitter as a distribution channel, not as a content channel.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/15-and-counting/56924592285?_fb_noscript=1 – a Facebook group has been set up and is used to flag up news and drive discussion amongst members and an ‘Are you a Sexpert?’ application was developed to further engage our audience. This is designed to pull together a community of supporters and drove people to complete the survey.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fDGoFfvvIXY A video on what the campaign is all about was put together and uploaded onto Youtube – this is video is embedded into the 15andCounting homepage, and is used as an background information piece for the blog outreach.

http://www.dopetracks.com – We’re setting up a competition on Dopetracks – a large online music collaboration network so that young people can create and distribute tracks with a 15andCounting theme within the network and in other networks: These people are very active promoters of their music and it encourages brand advocates to raise awareness with their peers. They frequently use twitter, myspace and other networks to increase the distribution of their music. We’ll also be encouraging people to collaborate with other people in different countries, using our blog/ partner network.

We’ll also be using the collateral created to promote into local radio and with a ‘mixtape’ of the featured tracks.

How effective will these platforms be for your cause?

The web is essential for IPPF to reach the target audience. These social platforms allow the campaign to engage directly with young people and allow them to get connected to groups in their country or region who are working towards improving sexual and reproductive health and rights. More than anything, we’re looking at how to facilitate people to become advocates for the campaign and motivate others. We have created an instruction/ training blog to show our partners around the world to engage with social media http://15andcountinglearn.wordpress.com/

We’ve been effective in activating community support for our campaigns, including driving support for ‘buzz marketing’ initiatives. We have had two Digg.com front pages: http://digg.com/health/Best_Condom_Adverts_Ever (this drove 22,000 people to the site in 24 hours) and http://digg.com/educational/Teach_5_to_8_year_olds_masturbation_says_UN_agency (this encouraged 6000 people to bookmark the site and broke traffic figures for the site).

You realize that their many online petitions, most of which unfortunately have failed to make impact, what have you done not to suffer similar fate?

We have done everything we can to ensure that the petition makes an impact by supplementing it with a number of elements – we have created a dedicated website for the campaign, used social networking sites (as detailed above) to target a wide variety of youth, and used mobile phones to reach the population who have less access to the internet. In this way we hope that we have ‘randomized’ our petition as much as possible, making it available to the widest possible net, without targeting specific communities. As such we believe we have compiled a very robust study, for example in Africa we have had 94,000 people sign the petition through the .mobi site. Furthermore we know that the activists involved in this campaign will continue to work hard on the ground in their countries to ensure the message stays alive.

How will you reach the larger population, which is not much involved in using digital tools?

A combination of the below:

Advocacy programmes are being undertaken by IPPF member associations – IPPF works in 176 countries worldwide and a global leader in providing and advocating for the right to improved sexual and reproductive health. Here we

Mobile phones – as mentioned above, we are targeting millions of young people across the world who do not have access to a computer, but do have a mobile phone – both through SMS and instant messaging.

Postcards – postcards which allow people to sign the petition have been distributed in key communities across the globe

Critics say online polls are highly non-representative of the population, and the respondents are self-selected.  Isn’t this also a pseudo-petition?

To get truly representative engagement with the target audience, we would have to spend a huge amount of valuable resources engaging people on the ground in each country: that money would better be spent campaigning. Online is the most cost effective way to run the petition, and we’ve addressed the differing ways that people engage with the net in different countries (e.g. via mobile phone) and sought to facilitate signatures in non digital formats (eg. postcards).

How will it be delivered to government heads, especially those who signed the memorandum? And what is your expected outcome thereafter?

The Count Me In petition will be delivered to high-level United Nations officials on the 12^th of October, in an attempt to help persuade governments to promote, protect and fulfil their promise to provide better access to sexual and reproductive health services for all young people.

Through the 15andCounting campaign we will have engaged with a whole new generation and cohort of committed young advocates around the globe and we hope that these advocates will remain engaged with the issues 15andCounting addresses. We will continue to empower our youth advocates to become highly effective network builders and advocacy experts into the future.

Interview: Tonyo Cruz on Digital Activism in the Philippines

I am in the Philippines this week with fellow DigiActivist Lynn Casper to participate in a training organized by the Computer Professionals’ Union. While here I decided to interview one of the country’s most prolific digital activists – Tonyo Cruz – and ask him about digital activism in the Philippines.

Tonyo Cruz (foreground) at a recent event in Manila on digital campaigning

Mary Joyce: You are a very prolific digital activist – president of the famous mobile activism organization TXTPower, prominent blogger at tonyocruz.com, and  founder of a Filipino bloggers’ organization. How did you first become  involved in digital activism?

Tonyo Cruz: I’d like to think that I started my activism in high school. I was among the students of Manila Science High School who published an underground paper called The MaSci Times in 1991. We used the old program Printshop to design this one page newsletter that poked fun at our school principal and voiced out our complaints, among others. We just had it photocopied and came out with about a dozen issues.

Bayan, the multisectoral group I worked for in 2000-2003, was among the first people’s organizations in the Philippines to go online. Their first website was hosted in Geocities. As Bayan media officer, I introduced email, email groups and text messaging as ways of quickly and surely reaching journalists. Bayan officials later used email,
email groups and text messaging as tools for managing the organization. These tools — mobiles and the web — later proved crucial in the mass actions that led to the People Power uprising of 2001 which ousted President Estrada.

Following Estrada’s ouster, a group called Plunder Watch pressed [now President] Arroyo to prosecute Estrada. The group held a big media event for the launch of its website which contained Estrada’s accountabilities and liabilities. I was also the media officer of Plunder Watch and oversaw the management of the said website.

That same year, my friends and I gathered in Quezon City to form TXTPower. The following years, I was also involved in trying to form Indymedia Pilipinas which gave way to Indymedia in Manila and in Quezon City.

MJ:  Social networking is very big in the Philippines and Friendster is the most popular. According to their Country Sales Manager, Narciso Reyes, there are about 14 million active Filipino users on the site, which is almost 70%
of the total online population of the Philippines. Has this large user base translated into Friendster being used for digital acitivsm in the Philippines? If not, why not

TC: We will see by late this year whether Friendster will get the attention of candidates and parties, or whether voters themselves would use Friendster for their choice of candidates or for election-related causes. I do hope they do so.

MJ: Although there aren’t figures yet available, there is a growing number of Filipinos migrating from Friendster to Facebook, particularly the tech-savvy urban middle class. You recently used Facebook to organize a blogger
meet-up in opposition to President Macapagal Arroyo. Why did you choose Facebook to organize this mobilization? Which is more activist-friendly, Friendster or Facebook?

TC: Friendster has provided limited use to political activists simply because Facebook has overtaken it as the preferred social networking site of the most articulate, most dynamic and most political segment of the lower, middle and upper classes. They may be fewer than Friendster but these Facebook users are more influential. Also, there
are more activists, journalists and politicians on Facebook than on Friendster. Read more »

Mobile Activism in Uganda: Environmental Issue Touches Ethnic Nerve

Part of Mabira forest

Background: In an attempt to increase its sugar production, the Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd., which produces Lugazi Sugar, sought government permission to clear and annex about 71,000 square km of the adjacent Mabira forest.  Mabira forest is one of Uganda’s largest natural tropical forests.

There is has been a period of government offering prime pieces of land to investors. This has attracted widespread criticism from the opposition politicians, civil organizations and the media.

The National Association of Professional Environmentalists, under the banner “Save Mabira Crusade”, organized the demonstration in April. The demonstration took place in Kampala, the capital city of Uganda.

Tools: Mobile Phones

Police men facing demonstrators

How tools were used: Messages were sent to people’s phones. One of the messages read; “Save Mabira. Don’t Buy Lugazi Sugar.”

Outcome: After the protest, their continued tense debates on broadcast stations. The government announced that the proposal had been suspended. Also, the Indian community in Uganda appealed to Mehta Group, the Indian parent company of Sugar Corporation of Uganda Ltd., to drop the request. This was after the local population turned hostile on Indians during the riot.

The organizers were overwhelmed by the numbers that turned up. Wielding banners, posters and tree branches, the demonstrators planned to walk to Parliament to present their petition to the speaker of Parliament. These were ordinary people, most of them casual labourers who joined the National Association of Professional Environmentalists, students and politicians showing their solidarity. The police who had earlier permitted the demonstration tried to stop the protesters from reaching the gates of Parliament. This led to running battles between the protesters and police in the streets. Military police armed with peppered tear gas, water cannons and heavy ammunition were poured onto the streets. Town business was heavily destabilized, traders hurriedly crossed their shops to guard against the looters. But still some shops were vandalized, especially those that belonged to Indians.

Impact: The demonstration was successful, despite the violence, as the main cause of saving Mabira was achieved, thanks to the use of digital means – mobile phones. However, the leaders of the crusade were temporarily held by police.  

Sugar Corporation of Uganda had low sales of their Lugazi Sugar in the following months, and the company had to do some re-branding. This further forced Mehta Group to devise other means of increasing their production capacity.

Analysis: Using the complex configuration and composition of Save Mabira Crusade community Ugandans took advantage of an opportunity in crisis to learn much more about community dynamics in environment and development.

One important lesson was that it is possible to have unity in diversity and diversity in unity and that no power under the sun can crash these dualisms when a people is determined to defend its collective interest. This was a beautiful aspect of the Mabira demonstration.

Exogenous factors beyond crusaders’ control penetrated and marred the demonstration. Until then, the crusaders were in charge of it while government was in charge of security, which unfortunately broke down. Sadly some people died, others got injured and many properties were destroyed. This was the ugly part of the demonstration.

Crusaders, as an emergent, issue-focused community, learnt that, for Mabira, they had to empower themselves to act; that empowerment goes beyond political or legal permission to participate in civic activities; that empowerment includes capacity to do things that citizens want to do or be done; and that community capacity-building and strengthening for action by the community itself work where government has failed to act or discourages such action.

It was a truly socio-environmental movement for sanity in environmental governance. Despite official perception it had nothing direct to do with politics although (i) civic political leaders of diverse political orientations and association participated and may have, as they often do, developed opportunistic tendencies; and (ii) it is difficult to separate civil society work and activism from politics. Indeed civil society (organized or not organized) is part and parcel of a country’s political stream, not only to vote but also to demand good governance -environmental, political or otherwise. The accountability of non-governmental organizations is also linked to and influenced by politics and political processes.

Image Source: ugpulse.com,

Tags: Mabira, Uganda
Posted in Campaigns, Mobile Phones, Sub-Saharan Africa | No Comments »

The Green Meme: is Switching your Twitter Icon Activism?

Background: Does turning your twitter avatar green make you into an activist?  Does it constitute an effective protest against the suppression of rights of civilians in Iran?  On June 17th, 2009 many Twitter users began turning their avatars green. This was their way of showing solidarity with those Iranians protesting the questionable election results which returned the incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad to power.  Some Twitter users uploaded solid green squares in place of their avatars; another 230,000 used the website (http://helpiranelection.com/) created by @arikfr to tweet their support and either turn their icons a shade of green or to add a green ribbon to their picture. This trend spread like wildfire and soon most of my followers were riding this wave.

Tools: Twitter, external web site

How These Tools are Used: After seeing pictures of protestors in Iran wearing green, many Twitter users began to manually change their Twitter pictures. This individual process was then streamlined by the self proclaimed “creative geek” Arik (@arikfr ) in creating his website. He had seen what people were doing, liked it and so “decided to simplify the process to allow it to reach [a] wider audience.” This worked, as my twitter stream was soon filled with the simple message “Show support for #iranelection add green overlay to your Twitter avatar with 1-click – http://helpiranelection.com/”. From twitter juggernauts like @garyvee to smaller scale users; the green icon fad had permeated twitter.

Analysis: Recently there has been much discussion around the phenomenon of average people participating, or attempting to participate in online activism. Mary Joyce, cofounder of this web site, was recently quoted in the Washington Post article stating that the ease of creating or joining a cause online sadly resulted in only “a maximum of 5 percent [who] are going to take action”. This problem is mirrored on Twitter as members can feel as though they’ve done their moral duty by expressing their anger at the situation by turning their icons green. To many, they feel like that is enough, they are spreading the word and showing solidarity. But how many of them donated even $1 to help organizations in Iran? Now THAT would have helped. Other skeptics of this movement, such as Martin Bryant, made their frustration with these activities clear as well.

The real question stems from the implications of digital activism. Digital activism is a progressive way of tackling the injustices in the world, but is the internet making it too easy for the average person to feel like he/she has sufficiently participated and so relieving them from any feeling that they should do more? Were people using the green meme to try and convey what humane and politically active people they were whether or not there was any truth to it? The last thing we need as a culture is another easy way out of hard work. I would have preferred to see a system where to turn your icon green a $20 donation was required. While it is not a lot, it would have resulted in only the truly concerned tweeters participating.

During the protests in Iran Twitter was very useful as a communication device with the western world. The concept of the “citizen journalist” was extremely important as all information coming out of Iran came from the people. The New York Times writer Noam Cohen noted that “Twitter is a tool and thus difficult to censor”. Retweeted updates and pictures from Iran became my main news source on the situation and I know that I wasn’t alone. There were many inaccuracies, but social tools gave the American people the coverage that wasn’t available anywhere else.

In the past month, Twitter has proven that it is far more than a narcissistic platform. As seen when the hashtag #CNNfail was used to criticize CNN for their coverage of the election in Iran. The trending topic gained so much support that it provoked a written and spoken apology from the network. When the New York Times profiled Twitter as a company they acknowledged its ability to “disseminate information in the face of a press crackdown” during the Iranian election.

I contacted some Twitter users who still had green avatars to pose the question: “Why did you change your avatar green?”

Daniel @dwplanit

“A few reasons: I am strongly for populist democratic uprisings; it was easy; there isn’t much more I can do to support democracy in Iran…Another effect the avatar changes might have is simply encouraging Iranians to continue to fight for democracy. And that could be a positive side effect.”

Alejandro @successfool

“Because I want to use my twitter id/following to attract attention to the cause.”

Jimmy @loyaleagle

“I figured it would show solidarity among tweeps and might even help in some small way (though now I’m a little sick of it).”

Tee @TeeMonster

“When I found out about the “elected” government shutting down Social Media outlets, I was outraged. I turned the avatar green to show my support for the opposition and also as a statement for freedom of information. If Iran wants to be taken seriously as a nation, they need to realize that information cannot be blocked. Not in this age.”

Gina @gminks

“To me it was more about getting the word out, drawing attention. I don’t really think that is activism. But then again, I knew there was nothing I could do to change things in Iran.”

Arik @arikfr

“The idea of the campaign was to make it easy for people to show support and to raise awareness to the issue. To date over 230,000 people used the application to add green overlay/ribbon to their avatar, which means that most of Twitter users (if not all of them) have noticed it.”

Impact: I have mixed feelings about how quickly the fad of green avatars spread. It can be interpreted as honorable how fast Twitter became a seemingly outraged activist community or disheartening that our culture is happy to click a link to change their picture but nothing more. How can we modify what is expected of would-be online activists to engage them in making a concrete difference?

mHealth launched in Uganda

Background: Malaria is the leading cause of illness and death in Uganda. The country spends 10% of the Ministry of Health’s budget treating the disease. A new model, mHealth has been introduced, to contain the disease. Text to Change, a Dutch non-profit organization is spearheading the initiative, sponsored by the UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs and Uganda’s Ministry of Health.

Tools: Mobile phone

How the tools are used: A health question is texted to a phone. The recipient then answers back. After replying, the participant receives update information, and another question. All those who reply the message are entered into a draw to win airtime.

“Are children under five and pregnant women most susceptible to malaria?” was the first question.

Target audience: The pilot project is targeting 10,000 people. All these are from Jinja, an industrial district in eastern Uganda.

Outcome: If successful, the scheme will spread countrywide and neighbouring states of Kenya and Tanzania. The results got from this 10-day demonstration will be shared with Ministers of UN Member States at the Annual Ministerial Review session of the UN Economic and Social Council in Geneva in July 2009.

Impact: Over 900 people responded to the text in the first two hours after it was sent.

Analysis: Texting4Health is initiating this demonstration in Uganda, riding on the penetration of mobile phones in rural areas. Uganda has witnessed an increase in mobile phone coverage. Currently, there five mobile phone service providers. Most people use their phone as a ‘call and talk’ device, rarely engaging other functions. However, Texting4Health is counting on the prolificacy of the mobile phones for success.

Uganda spends almost 586 million USD on diagnosing and treating malaria annually, about Shs 19USD per person. This includes money spent by all the stakeholders. Government alone spends about 30 million USD per year on fighting malaria, 10% of the total Ministry of Health’s budget. Malaria kills estimated 320 people daily, mainly children and pregnant women.

A lot of schemes have been rolled out to combat the disease. its the first time mHealth is being used.

image: Text to Change

Quick Guide to Secure Communication

UPDATE: Version 5.0 is now available in .doc form (click here to download).

Patrick Meier, DigiActive’s director of applied research, has created a very thorough list of ways to stay safe and protect your data while taking part in digital activism in repressive countries. We have reproduced Patrick’s list of tactics and technologies below and we encourage you to read his original post on his blog iRevolution to learn more about his conceptual framing of these issues as well as to read the useful feedback in the comments section. For more in-depth information on digital security for activists, check out Tactical Tech’s Security in-a-box.

Since this is quite a long list, here is a table of contents. The list below (which continues after the jump) contains both tactics and technologies for keeping safe while using the following devices and applications:

• Mobile Phones
• Digital Cameras
• Computers/Laptops
• Flash Disks
• E-mail
• Browsers and Web Sites
• VoIP (online telephony)
• Blogs and Social Networking Sites
• File Sharing
• Cyber Cafes

Security Tactics

• Mobile Phones
  • Purchase your mobile phone far from where you live. Buy lower-end, simple phones that do not allow third-party applications to be installed. Higher-end ones with more functionalities carry more risk. Use cash to purchase your phone and SIM card. Avoid town centers and find small or second-hand shops as these are unlikely to have security cameras. Do not give your real details if asked; many shops do not ask for proof of ID.
  • Use multiple SIM cards and multiple phones and only use pay-as-you go options; they are more expensive but required for anonymity.
  • Remove the batteries from your phone if you do not want to be geo-located and keep the SIM card out of the phone when not in use and store in separate places.Use your phone while in a moving vehicle to reduces probability of geo-location.
  • Never say anything that may incriminate you in any way.
  • Use code.
  • Use Beeping instead of SMS whenever possible. Standard text messages are visible to the network operator, including location, phone and SIM card identifiers. According to this recent paper, the Chinese government has established 2,800 SMS surveillance centers around the country to monitor and censor text messages. The Chinese firm Venus Info Tech Ltd sells real-time content monitoring and filtering for SMS.
  • Use fake names for your address book and memorize the more important numbers. Frequently delete your text messages and call history and replace them with random text messages and calls. The data on your phone is only deleted if it is written over with new data. This means that deleted SMS and contact numbers can sometimes be retrieved (with a free tool like unDeleteSMS. Check your phone’s settings to see whether it can be set to not store sent texts messages and calls.
  • Eavesdropping in mobile phone conversations is technically complicated although entirely possible using commercially available technology. Do not take mobile phones with you to meetings as they can be turned into potential listening/tracking devices. Network operators can remotely activate a phone as a recording device regardless of whether someone is using the phone or whether the phen is even switched on. This functionality is available on US networks.
  • Network operators can also access messages or contact information stored on the SIM card. If surveillance takes place with the co-operation of the operator, little can be done to prevent the spying.
  • Mobile viruses tend to spread easily via Bluetooth so the latter should be turned off when not in use.
  • Using open Bluetooth on phones in group situations, e.g., to share pictures, etc., can be dangerous. At the same time, it is difficult to incriminate any one person and a good way to share information when the cell phone network and Internet are down.
  • Discard phones that have been tracked and burn them; it is not sufficient to simply destroy the SIM card and re-use the phone.

• Digital Cameras
  • Keep the number of sensitive pictures on your camera to a minimum.
  • Add plenty of random non-threatening pictures (not of individuals) and have these safe pictures locked so when you do a “delete all” these pictures stay on the card.
  • Keep the battery out of the camera when not in use so it can’t be turned on by others.
  • Practice taking pictures without having to look at the view screen.

• Computers/Laptops
  • Use passphrases for all your sensitive data.
  • Keep your most sensitive files on flash disks and find safe places to hide them.
  • Have a contingency plan to physically destroy or get rid of your computer at short notice.

• Flash disks
  • Purchase flash disks that don’t look like flash disks.
  • Keep flash disks hidden.

• Email communication
  • Use code.
  • Use passphrases instead of passwords and change them regularly. Use letters, numbers and other characters to make them “c0mpLeX!”. Do not use personal information and changer your passphrases each month. Do not use the same password for multiple sites.
  • Never use real names for email addresses and use multiple addresses.
  • Discard older email accounts on a regular basis and create new ones.
  • Know the security, safety and privacy policies of providers and monitor any chances (see terms of service tracker).

• Browsers and websites
  • Turn off java and other potentially malicious add-ons.
    
  • Learn IP addresses of visited websites so that history shows only numbers and not names.
  • When browsing on a public computer, delete your private data (search history, passwords, etc.) before you leave.
  • When signing up for an account where you will be publishing sensitive media, do not use your personal email address and don’t give personal information.
  • Don’t download any software from pop-ups, they may be malicious and attack your computer or record your actions online.
  • Do not be logged in to any sensitive site while having another site open.

• VoIP
  • Just because your talking online doesn’t mean you are not under surveillance.
  • As with a cell or landline, use code do not give salient details about your activities, and do not make incriminating statements.
  • Remember that your online activities can be surveilled using offline techniques. It doesn’t matter if you are using encrypted VOIP at a cyber cafe if the person next to you is an under-cover police officer.
  • When possible, do not make sensitive VOIP calls in a cyber cafe. It is simply too easy for someone to overhear you. If you must, use code that doesn’t stand out.

• Blogs and social networking sites
  • Know the laws in your country pertaining to liability, libel, etc.
  • When signing up for a blog account where you will be publishing sensitive content, do not use you personal email address or information.
  • In your blog posts and profile page, do not post pictures of yourself or your friends, do not use your real name, and do not give personal details that could help identify you (town, school, employer, etc.).
  • Blog platforms like wordpress allow uses to automatically publish a post on a designated date and time. Use this functionality to auto-publish on a different day when you are away from the computer.
  • On social networks, create one account for activism under a false but real-sounding name (so your account won’t be deleted) but don’t tell your friends about it. The last thing you want is a friend writing on your wall or tagging you in a photo and giving away your identity.
  • Even if you delete your account on a social networking site, your data will remain, so be very careful about taking part in political actions (i.e., joining sensitive groups) online.
  • Never join a sensitive group with your real account. Use your fake account to join activism groups. (The fake account should not be linked to your fake email).
  • Don’t use paid services. Your credit card can be linked back to you.

• File sharing
  • Use a shared Gmail account with a common passphrase and simply save emails instead of sending. Change passphrase monthly.
  • For sharing offline, do not label storage devices (CDs, flash drives) with the true content. If you burn a CD with an illegal video or piece of software on it, write an album label on it.
  • Don’t leave storage devices in places where they would be easily found if your office or home were searched (i.e., on a table, in a desk drawer).
  • Keep copies of your data on two flash drives and keep them hidden in separate locations.
  • When thinking of safe locations, consider who else has access. Heavily-traveled locations are less safe.
  • Don’t travel with sensitive data on you unless absolutely necessary. If you need to, make sure to hide it on your person or “camouflage” it (label a data CD as a pop music CD). See Sneakernet.

• Internet Cafes
  • Assume you are being watched.
  • Assume computers at cyber cafes are tracking key strokes and capturing screenshots.
  • Avoid cyber cafes without an easy exit and have a contingency plan if you need to leave rapidly.

Security Technologies

• Mobile phones
  • Use CryptoSMS, SMS 007 or Kryptext to text securely (this requires java-based phones).
  • Use Android Guardian as soon as it becomes available.
  • Access mobile versions of websites as they are usually not blocked. In addition, connecting to mobile websites provides for faster connections.

• Digital cameras
  • Use scrubbing software such as: JPEG stripper to remove the metadata (Exif data) from your pictures before you upload/email.
  • Have a safe Secure Digital Card (SD) that you can swap in. Preferably, use a mini SD card with a mini SD-SD converter. Then place the mini SD into a compatible phone for safekeeping.

• Computers/Laptops
  • Use an effective anti-virus program and ensure it updates itself online at least once a day: TMIS, McAfee, Symantec/Norton, AVG, Avira, NOD32, Kaspersky.
  • Do not use illegal, cracked, hacked, pwned, warez software.
  • Keep your software programs (operating systems, productivity suites, browsers) up-to-date with the latest software updates.
  • Use software to encrypt your hard drive: Bitlocker, TrueCrypt, PGP Whole Disk Encryption, Check Point, Dekart Private Disk.
  • Use a different file type to hide your sensitive files. For example, the .mov file extension will make a large file look like a movie.
  • Mac users can use Little Snitch to track all the data that goes into and out of your computer.
  • From a technical perspective, there’s no such thing as the delete function. Your deleted data is eventually written over with new data. There are two common ways to wipe sensitive data from your hard drive or storage device. You can wipe a single file or you can wipe all of the ‘unallocated’ space on the drive. Eraser is a free and open-source secure deletion tool that is extremely easy to use.

• Flash disks
  • StealthySurfer USB Flash Drive
  • The secure browsing Tor software can be installed on flash disk.
  • Using a USB watch calls less attention as do the USB ear rings and this credit card USB flash disk.

• Email communication
  • Use https when using Gmail.
  • Use encrypted email platforms such as Hushmail and RiseUp.

• Browsers and websites
  • Use Firefox and get certain plugins to follow website tracking such as ghostery and adblock, adart to remove ads/trackers.
  • User Tor software or Psiphon to browse privately and securely.
  • I shan’t list access points for secure browsers, Proxy servers and VPNs here. Please email me for a list.
  • Always use https in “Settings/General/Browser Connection.”

• VoIP
  • Use Skype but not TOM Skype (Chinese version). Note that Skype is not necessarily 100% secure since no one has access to the source code to verify.
  • Off The Record (OTR) is a good encryption plugin. For example, use Pidgin with OTR (you need to add the plug-in yourself).
  • Gizmo offer encryption for voice conversations, and then only if you are calling another VoIP user, as opposed to a mobile or landline telephone. However, because neither application is open-source, independent experts have been unable to test them fully and ensure that they are secure.
  • Adium is a free IM application for Macs with built-in OTR encryption that integrates most other IM applications.

• Blogs and social networking platforms
  • There are no safe social networks. The best way to be safe on a social network is fake account and a proxy server.
  • The anonymous blogging platform Invisiblog no longer exists, so the best bet now is WordPress + Proxy (preferably Tor) + anonymity of content.
  • Log out of facebook.com when not using the site.

• File sharing
  • Use Drop.io to create a private, secure media sharing site.
  • Use BasecampHQ with secure/SSL option to create more specific usernames and passwords for each user or remote site.

• Internet Cafe
  • Tor can be installed on flash disk and used at Internet cafe and also used from LiveCDs if flash drives are not allowed.

• Other potential tech
  • LiveScribe (see explanation here).
  • FreedomFone

image: amelungc/Flickr

Citizen Media & the Iranian Protests: Exhibit A

One the big stories with regard to digital activism in Iran has been the use of citizen media to disseminate information about the protests (see references here, here, and here).  The picture above, from the front page of today’s New York Times is putatively an image of the daughter of reformist cleric Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, but could just as easily be an illustration of the new media environment: no less than eight cell phones and digital cameras (red circles) are recording the event the New York Times reporter was photographing.  (For a large version of the photo, click here.) It’s old print media and new digital citizen media juxtaposed in a single image.

image source: New York Times