FrontlineSMS:Radio
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Venessa Miemis
Mar 14, 2011, 9:48:42 AM3/14/11
to The Next Net
fyi, from [liberationtech] mailing list:
------
Dear All,
Having recently read Walid's post about a pirate radio station in
Yemen, I would like to share some information about an initiative from
FrontlineSMS in collaboration with the Cambridge Centre for Governance
and Human Rights.
As you may know, FrontlineSMS (http://www.frontlinesms.com/) is award-
winning free, open source software that turns a laptop and a mobile
phone into a central communications hub. Once installed, the program
enables users to send and receive text messages with groups of people
through mobile phones without necessarily having access to the
internet. We have been working with community radio stations who have
been using the core software to connect with their audiences and this
has given birth to FrontlineSMS:Radio.
We are developing a software plugin for to extend and customise the
FrontlineSMS platform for the requirements of a radio station. It
will incorporate specific features to assist community radio stations
to achieve more efficient and creative two-way SMS communication to
complement their programme output. Ideas for how this hybrid media
tool might be used include allowing listeners to contribute their
opinions, react to current affairs and register their vote in radio
polls as well as submit news stories and song requests. This
interaction has the potential to engage communities in civic activism
and promote social change. We hope to have a pilot trial in April with
the release of the software later this year.
FrontlineSMS is delighted to pursue this venture in collaboration with
Cambridge University’s Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR -
http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/cghr/). In October 2010, the Centre
launched a two-year research project to explore the extent to which
new information and communications technologies influence citizen
participation in governance processes. The research will focus on
monitoring how communities access and input into information on social
issues throughout the lifecycle of the project. As Ken Banks has
explained, this unique partnership and academic scrutiny means that
'from the outset and for the first time, this project will determine
user behaviour, identify system design and monitor impact throughout
the project life cycle.' For more you can watch a video here (http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW4Bk_rh5ro) where Sharath Srinivasan,
Director of CGHR speaks about the project at a recent event on global
poverty and technology in October 2010 or read the CGHR article
'Democratising the Airwaves'. We are taking part in the Small Media
Initiative (http://www.smallmediainitiative.com/) at SOAS, London next
month which is focusing on closed societies - a serious challenge for
users of SMS.
So for start up - or indeed existing - Radio stations which are not-
for-profit, you might want to consider using FrontlineSMS to manage
two-way communication via text which you can download now completely
free! For more information you can follow us on Twitter @smsradio and
we will soon be launching a dedicated website which will include
updates on the progress of the software development.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have further questions
and I would be interested to share ideas with anyone interested in the
use of SMS in conjunction with radio broadcasting.
Kind Regards
--
Amy O'Donnell
Media Project Manager
FrontlineSMS
\o/
m: +44(0) 7886 787863
e: a...@frontlinesms.com
skype: frontlinesmsradio
twitter: smsradio
www.frontlinesms.com
------
Dear All,
Having recently read Walid's post about a pirate radio station in
Yemen, I would like to share some information about an initiative from
FrontlineSMS in collaboration with the Cambridge Centre for Governance
and Human Rights.
As you may know, FrontlineSMS (http://www.frontlinesms.com/) is award-
winning free, open source software that turns a laptop and a mobile
phone into a central communications hub. Once installed, the program
enables users to send and receive text messages with groups of people
through mobile phones without necessarily having access to the
internet. We have been working with community radio stations who have
been using the core software to connect with their audiences and this
has given birth to FrontlineSMS:Radio.
We are developing a software plugin for to extend and customise the
FrontlineSMS platform for the requirements of a radio station. It
will incorporate specific features to assist community radio stations
to achieve more efficient and creative two-way SMS communication to
complement their programme output. Ideas for how this hybrid media
tool might be used include allowing listeners to contribute their
opinions, react to current affairs and register their vote in radio
polls as well as submit news stories and song requests. This
interaction has the potential to engage communities in civic activism
and promote social change. We hope to have a pilot trial in April with
the release of the software later this year.
FrontlineSMS is delighted to pursue this venture in collaboration with
Cambridge University’s Centre of Governance and Human Rights (CGHR -
http://www.polis.cam.ac.uk/cghr/). In October 2010, the Centre
launched a two-year research project to explore the extent to which
new information and communications technologies influence citizen
participation in governance processes. The research will focus on
monitoring how communities access and input into information on social
issues throughout the lifecycle of the project. As Ken Banks has
explained, this unique partnership and academic scrutiny means that
'from the outset and for the first time, this project will determine
user behaviour, identify system design and monitor impact throughout
the project life cycle.' For more you can watch a video here (http://
www.youtube.com/watch?v=NW4Bk_rh5ro) where Sharath Srinivasan,
Director of CGHR speaks about the project at a recent event on global
poverty and technology in October 2010 or read the CGHR article
'Democratising the Airwaves'. We are taking part in the Small Media
Initiative (http://www.smallmediainitiative.com/) at SOAS, London next
month which is focusing on closed societies - a serious challenge for
users of SMS.
So for start up - or indeed existing - Radio stations which are not-
for-profit, you might want to consider using FrontlineSMS to manage
two-way communication via text which you can download now completely
free! For more information you can follow us on Twitter @smsradio and
we will soon be launching a dedicated website which will include
updates on the progress of the software development.
Please do not hesitate to get in touch if you have further questions
and I would be interested to share ideas with anyone interested in the
use of SMS in conjunction with radio broadcasting.
Kind Regards
--
Amy O'Donnell
Media Project Manager
FrontlineSMS
\o/
m: +44(0) 7886 787863
e: a...@frontlinesms.com
skype: frontlinesmsradio
twitter: smsradio
www.frontlinesms.com
Samuel Rose
Mar 14, 2011, 10:58:48 AM3/14/11
to building-a-distributed...@googlegroups.com, Venessa Miemis
On Mon, Mar 14, 2011 at 9:48 AM, Venessa Miemis <veness...@gmail.com> wrote:
> fyi, from [liberationtech] mailing list:
>
> ------
>
> Dear All,
>
> Having recently read Walid's post about a pirate radio station in
> Yemen, I would like to share some information about an initiative from
> FrontlineSMS in collaboration with the Cambridge Centre for Governance
> and Human Rights.
>
> As you may know, FrontlineSMS (http://www.frontlinesms.com/) is award-
> winning free, open source software that turns a laptop and a mobile
> phone into a central communications hub. Once installed, the program
> enables users to send and receive text messages with groups of people
> through mobile phones without necessarily having access to the
> internet. We have been working with community radio stations who have
> been using the core software to connect with their audiences and this
> has given birth to FrontlineSMS:Radio.
>
> fyi, from [liberationtech] mailing list:
>
> ------
>
> Dear All,
>
> Having recently read Walid's post about a pirate radio station in
> Yemen, I would like to share some information about an initiative from
> FrontlineSMS in collaboration with the Cambridge Centre for Governance
> and Human Rights.
>
> As you may know, FrontlineSMS (http://www.frontlinesms.com/) is award-
> winning free, open source software that turns a laptop and a mobile
> phone into a central communications hub. Once installed, the program
> enables users to send and receive text messages with groups of people
> through mobile phones without necessarily having access to the
> internet. We have been working with community radio stations who have
> been using the core software to connect with their audiences and this
> has given birth to FrontlineSMS:Radio.
>
I made a quick page here http://p2pfoundation.net/Frontline_SMS
As far as I can tell, this relies on the existence of a commercial
cellular signal carrier. However, this is still potentially really
useful for people in crisis areas, activist groups, etc. Plus,
messages can be routed to the web in various ways (or via email).
--
--
Sam Rose
Future Forward Institute and Forward Foundation
Tel:+1(517) 639-1552
Cel: +1-(517)-974-6451
skype: samuelrose
email: samue...@gmail.com
http://forwardfound.org
http://futureforwardinstitute.org
http://hollymeadcapital.com
http://p2pfoundation.net
http://socialmediaclassroom.com
"The universe is not required to be in perfect harmony with human
ambition." - Carl Sagan
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