Just the other day I was talking with some colleagues wondering why there where never ever “Bushism” ringtones that become widespread. I mean, there have been cases of people making Bush blunder ringtones, but the real question is why political ringtones have not caught on and why no one is standing up and trying to distribute it on a mass scale.
Well just in time for the 08 elections, Ringtones08.com is hoping to make Ringtones the new bumper sticker and lawn sign. Simply put RingTones08.com is a free site that user the power of myxer.com to let anyone upload and download ringtones about the 2008 election. Thats a key element, not only will they create and distribute election teemed ringtones but they will also let you, or anyone (i.e a campaign) use their site to upload ringtones of their own for viral distribution.
Thats a good question and a really great article over at the Techpresident blog that I wrote explains it all. A couple of days ago I wrote that Hillary Clinton announced a text message initiative for her campaign, the first implementation of text messaging for a presidential campaign. In her announcement Hillary pulled out all the usual bells and whistles telling people to take out their cell phones and text the word “Join” to 77007 (listen to it here). So far its less impressive than the PR its receiving.
Yesterday, Washington Governor Christine Gregorie signed the first law of its kind to put a ban on text messaging while behind the wheel of a moving automobile. The fine, if caught, will be $101. A major weakness in the Washington law is that it allows for enforcement of the no-texting-while-driving provision only when the driver has already committed another traffic offense. Â
The State of New Jersey is considering similar measures.
Many of you know and recall the large impact that text messaging had for protesters and the police during the Republican National Convention in 2004. Well one little story that also made some news, but never really made it to use, has just returned to the headlines. It all started when Joshua Kinberg built a bike, or as the police put it “quick escape vehicle” that, rigged to a cell phone, could receive slogans via SMS / Text Message and spray them on the ground with chalk.
“A cell phone received text messages from visitors to my website,” Kinberg explained, “A program I had written sent the message to a printing apparatus.”
Apparently, the bike was part of his Parsons (art school) thesis and took six months and 5,000 dollars to build.
It was the ultimate convergence of high-tech and old-school dissent.
Unfortunately, Kinberg was arrested before he could ever put the bike to use when he demonstrated the setup in front of MSNBC camera’s. He was arrested by the bomb-squad, which apparently also cited his genius.
Anyway, his bike was confiscated for six months. The apparatus was eventually found behind a desk at the D.A’s office, sans the bike.
MOpocket has been around, if you know what I mean. We have blogged to our faithful from conferences like CTIA, 3GSM, the Politics Online Conference, Personal Democracy Forum, Mobile Mondays, Roots Camp, and countless other events… Surprisingly enough, MOpocket was denied a press pass to the 2007 Nonprofit Technology Conference (NTC) put on by NTen. And I quote:
“Kathie — sorry to do this to you, but press passes are reserved for
journalists of edited publications as per our guidelines, not private
blogs. Even though I love what you write!”
The most ironic thing about this is that the NTC conference this year is focused on “Reinventing Politics: Creating Social Change From the Ground Up.†Well, NTen, I hate to spoil it for you… but I am pretty sure its bloggers who are creating social change from the ground up. Way to support the cause!
If You Think Mobile Technology Does Not Influence Elections then consider why in the days leading up to the national elections in Cambodia SMS / text messaging was turned off. Apparently, the National Election Committee of Cambodia has asked that SMS be shut down from March 31 to April 1 at 3pm, because “it can be used as a tool for election campaign by political parties”.
Student safety on college campuses nationwide has become an increasingly serious concern. This week Rodger Desai, the CEO of Rave Wireless, announced during his panel at SXSW Interactive an initiative by Security On Campus, Campus Progress and Rave Wireless to make college and universities a safer place.
Purposefully launched during women’s month, by texting the word “Safety” to the short-code 30644 users are able to sign a petition that will be presented to University CIO’s around the country and help ensure that colleges and universities are doing all they can to keep students safe.
The service will also allow you to text in your email address in order to receive updates from Security on Campus and Campus Progress when action is needed to be taken around an issue of Campus Security. The campaign was then later marketing with interesting flyers shedding light on crime statistics (like the one above) and with banners and cocktail napkins at the Singlepoint, Rave Wireless, Mcommons and Distributive Networks party that night.
The campaign also helped shed light on Rave Wireless’ mobile phone solution for campus safety with its Rave Guardian application, an application that allows a student to put a timer on their phone that will broadcast the phones GPS location to the campus police if it is not reset. Rave’s Rave Guardian application propelled Montclair Sate University to win the 2006 Clery Award for innovation in Campus safety and is also a finalist in this years Wireless Innovation Contest’s Taking Care of The Community category at CTIA.
Do your part now to ensure our kids are safe at school. Text “Safety” to 30644 now!
The UK arm of Amnesty International has decided to try another route by recently launching a digital wallet service to allow you to donate to them via your mobile phone. Instead of sending a text message to a premium sms number (short code) you’ll be able to use PayPal rival LUUP to donate directly to them. Apparently the lower costs of doing things this way will let them gain an extra 15% on donations.
The first Amnesty International campaign where it will be possible to donate using LUUP will be related to a crisis campaign highlighting atrocities perpetrated against the people of Darfur. Launched today, this campaign will focus on the abuse of women’s rights in Darfur where rapes perpetrated by the state backed militia, the Janjawid, are a daily occurrence. Donations to the campaign will help Amnesty International to lobby the United Nations and the government of Sudan to deliver an effective peace-keeping force in the region as soon as possible.
As many of you may or not already know I am moderating a panel at this years SXSW Interactive Festival entitled MobileActive: Mobilizing The Masses With Mobile Technology. The panel should be a great conversation with some of the industries leading experts on using mobile technology for activism and political purposes. If you will be at SXSW in Austin on March 12 you should definitely stop by. The companies involved on the panel will also be throwing a little party later on, the info of which will be discussed at the panel.
Like last year, SXSW also has its own mobile thing going.
Whether you are a registered attendee or not you can stay in the loop of SXSW action by signing up to receive SXSW SMS alerts. SXSW will send you alerts and updates specific to your badge type from last minute schedule changes, special events, breaking news and more. But users can also search for content via SMS to get band and film listings, festival updates, vote for your favorite film and more. The search feature will even allow you to text various keywords that you may or may not want to find more information about. Texting “sx cab” for example will send you back relevant cab and limo information. SXSW is using Wiredset and StarTXT for their mobile messaging needs. The whole rundown of SXSW’s SMS service can be found here.
For those of you who would rather use their data plans SXSW has also gone mobile web and has actually taking advantage of the controversial (also here) .mobi domain to do so. SXSW’s new mobile specific site allows you to get official SXSW information like schedules, mp3s, video clips, podcasts, and more when and where you need it. Users will also be able to access the Mobile Registrant Directory through the mobile site and thus connect with other registrants and sign up for SMS alerts. Check out SXSW.mobi to try out these new features and stay informed about everything happening at SXSW 2007.
For those of you that do not know, an Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) is essential an mobile network or operator that is renting spectrum and bandwidth from a major carrier, say like Sprint or Cingular and white labels it to cater to a niche market. You may be familiar with some of these and not even know they are an MVNO. Of the more house hold MVNO names you have Virgin Mobile, Boost, Helio, Disney and Ampd. You might also be familiar with the ESPN Mobile MVNO experience and all the controversy and speculation about the success of MVNO’s that caused when it went belly-up in less than a year.
There is no doubt in my mind that the MVNO market is a shaky one who’s outcome is nowhere near certain. But, that does not mean that in the meantime it cannot also try to do some good. The well known Credit Card and long distance company Working Assets has been quietly revving up their MVNO engines over the past year. For those of you that are not familiar with the company, Working Assets is a for profit company that takes a portion of what they charge their customers and automatically donates it to a progressive organization working for peace, human rights, economic justice, education and the environment. The company is now applying the same business model to the wireless world through what is proving to be a very interesting MVNO model.
Just the other day I was talking with some colleagues wondering why there where never ever “Bushism” ringtones that become widespread. I mean, there have been cases of people making Bush blunder ringtones, but the real question is why political ringtones have not caught on and why no one is standing up and trying to distribute it on a mass scale.
