MobileActive08
Session: SMS Platform Open Source Consortium
Note by Mr Christopher Fabian:
These are not session notes - they are points for discussion - CF
Convening the power of SMS developers for African Youth
SpeakAfrica – connect young people in 12 countries, via SMS, prior to 2009 African Union Summit in Madagascar,
Summary:
The African Union conference in Madagascar (June 2009) and the UNICEF Connecting Classrooms project which will be linked into it provides an excellent opportunity to convene the MobileActive community around a specific goal, which will then be showcased in front of all African Union leaders in Madagascar.
The specfic goal – loosely defined – is to allow students in the connecting classrooms project (12 countries in Africa) who will be communicating and discussion the themes (see below) on a wiki, to extend their communicative ability to mobile phones – taking pollsof their community, sharing information via SMS, etc. – and also doing alerts during the conference itself (5 youth will be chosen to go to Madagascar as young bloggers)
Additionally there is the opportunity, using groups like avaaz, to mobilize young people in the 12 countries before, during and after the event, showing that tangible results can come from mobile connectivity. This even can be used as a platform, as well, to pitch the FairMobile bill of rights, and integrate main talking points of that into the discussion with AU leaders.
Background:
UNICEF Executive Director, in her meeting with the President of Madagascar proposes the idea of an Africa Youth Meeting back to back with the Africa Union Summit being hosted by Madagascar in mid 2009;
The President of Madagascar has welcomed the idea and has written to the AU;
The Objectives:
The momentum around the commitments made by African Governments on children’s and young people’s issues, the AU Summit 2009 in Madagascar and the changing technology landscape in Africa provides an opportunity to expand opportunities for young people to meaningfully contribute to, and engage in the influencing of decisions that affect their lives.
Possible Themes:
Education, Vocational development, ICT, HIV/AIDS, Protection (these are far from finalized but will be based on African Union youth themes. These can be discussed via SMS / mobile phone
The Key Principles:
1. Many resolutions related to the young in Africa have already been passed by the AU. The focus at this time should therefore be on accelerating the implementation of these resolutions rather than ask for yet another resolution;
2. Mobile phones and SMS polling can support these initiatives and allow AU governments to work with their youth constituencies to implement resolutions.
3. Support youth engagement initiatives that are sustainable and can become a part of the country programme implementation rather than those that respond to just an event – the open-source nature of many MobileActive projects lends itself to job creation and skill development;
4. Use available technology and methodologies to create opportunities for sustainable engagement of the young including the out of school and marginalized – ensure that technology works on GSM with a black+white phone
5. Achieve the stated objectives while creating a minimal carbon footprint – Mobile technologies are environmentally friendly;
6. Identify few strategic partnerships (2 or 3 in each) with private sector, civil society and academia which provide Africa-wide engagement and action possibilities – this is a great opportunity to engage mobile providers and producers
Background
The Africa Youth Forum will be the main event for youth participation. When Youth in Africa is chosen as the theme of the AU Summit in mid 2009: the outcome of the thematic discussions become a part of the AU follow up agenda. However, this option also requires the most advocacy and engagement on UNICEF and partners side. Impact on the youth in Africa is included in whatever theme is chosen for the AU Summit in mid-June and efforts are made to make Youth in Africa as the main theme for discussion in one of the forthcoming AU Summits;
A. Engaging young people in the national and local development process and community action:
(1) An opinion poll and focus groups to access a cross-section of youth across the continent. The outcome will portray a representative reflection of the views and attitudes of youth about a) the decision-making abilities in their lives, and b) what is important to them;
(2) Connecting Classrooms in the five AU regions will link young people to each other to discuss issues around the questions asked in the opinion poll and focus groups. Key points will be translated to ensure cross-dialogue across languages;
(3) Face-to-face interaction and discussion groups held with the help of partners like Save the Children and Plan at the country and sub-national level which feed into Speak Africa Platform;
(4) An expanded speakafrica.org will host a virtual dialogue with youth in Africa. Many of the discussions from Connecting Classrooms and the opinion poll and focus groups will feed in to this virtual dialogue. This virtual discussion will be accompanied by an ongoing marketing campaign that links back in to existing youth initiatives. Speak Africa (with feed in from connecting classrooms and other participatory processes in place in Africa, will become the basic long-term foundation for youth engagement in future processes as well.
Two of the most active participants in these processes, from each region, will represent their region in the Africa Youth Forum to be held in Madagascar.
Next Steps:
Bring together developers of open-source mobile apps that have been scaled in NY (2nd week November 2009) to work with UNICEF innovation unit to identify needs
Set up collaborative workspace / worksite for the process
Decide on 12 countries (so far: SA, eth, Madagascar, Egypt, Senegal, Uganda) – (by end November)
Get hardware and support in place in countries.
Identify schools for ocnneting classrooms (end December)
Train schools and engage using SMS technology (January)
Present findings at Web4Dev conference Feb 11-14 in NY
Convening the power of SMS developers for African Youth
SpeakAfrica – connect young people in 12 countries, via SMS, prior to 2009 African Union Summit in Madagascar,
Summary:
The African Union conference in Madagascar (June 2009) and the UNICEF Connecting Classrooms project which will be linked into it provides an excellent opportunity to convene the MobileActive community around a specific goal, which will then be showcased in front of all African Union leaders in Madagascar.
The specfic goal – loosely defined – is to allow students in the connecting classrooms project (12 countries in Africa) who will be communicating and discussion the themes (see below) on a wiki, to extend their communicative ability to mobile phones – taking pollsof their community, sharing information via SMS, etc. – and also doing alerts during the conference itself (5 youth will be chosen to go to Madagascar as young bloggers)
Additionally there is the opportunity, using groups like avaaz, to mobilize young people in the 12 countries before, during and after the event, showing that tangible results can come from mobile connectivity. This even can be used as a platform, as well, to pitch the FairMobile bill of rights, and integrate main talking points of that into the discussion with AU leaders.
Background:
UNICEF Executive Director, in her meeting with the President of Madagascar proposes the idea of an Africa Youth Meeting back to back with the Africa Union Summit being hosted by Madagascar in mid 2009;
The President of Madagascar has welcomed the idea and has written to the AU;
The Objectives:
The momentum around the commitments made by African Governments on children’s and young people’s issues, the AU Summit 2009 in Madagascar and the changing technology landscape in Africa provides an opportunity to expand opportunities for young people to meaningfully contribute to, and engage in the influencing of decisions that affect their lives.
Possible Themes:
Education, Vocational development, ICT, HIV/AIDS, Protection (these are far from finalized but will be based on African Union youth themes. These can be discussed via SMS / mobile phone
The Key Principles:
1. Many resolutions related to the young in Africa have already been passed by the AU. The focus at this time should therefore be on accelerating the implementation of these resolutions rather than ask for yet another resolution;
2. Mobile phones and SMS polling can support these initiatives and allow AU governments to work with their youth constituencies to implement resolutions.
3. Support youth engagement initiatives that are sustainable and can become a part of the country programme implementation rather than those that respond to just an event – the open-source nature of many MobileActive projects lends itself to job creation and skill development;
4. Use available technology and methodologies to create opportunities for sustainable engagement of the young including the out of school and marginalized – ensure that technology works on GSM with a black+white phone
5. Achieve the stated objectives while creating a minimal carbon footprint – Mobile technologies are environmentally friendly;
6. Identify few strategic partnerships (2 or 3 in each) with private sector, civil society and academia which provide Africa-wide engagement and action possibilities – this is a great opportunity to engage mobile providers and producers
Background
The Africa Youth Forum will be the main event for youth participation. When Youth in Africa is chosen as the theme of the AU Summit in mid 2009: the outcome of the thematic discussions become a part of the AU follow up agenda. However, this option also requires the most advocacy and engagement on UNICEF and partners side. Impact on the youth in Africa is included in whatever theme is chosen for the AU Summit in mid-June and efforts are made to make Youth in Africa as the main theme for discussion in one of the forthcoming AU Summits;
A. Engaging young people in the national and local development process and community action:
(1) An opinion poll and focus groups to access a cross-section of youth across the continent. The outcome will portray a representative reflection of the views and attitudes of youth about a) the decision-making abilities in their lives, and b) what is important to them;
(2) Connecting Classrooms in the five AU regions will link young people to each other to discuss issues around the questions asked in the opinion poll and focus groups. Key points will be translated to ensure cross-dialogue across languages;
(3) Face-to-face interaction and discussion groups held with the help of partners like Save the Children and Plan at the country and sub-national level which feed into Speak Africa Platform;
(4) An expanded speakafrica.org will host a virtual dialogue with youth in Africa. Many of the discussions from Connecting Classrooms and the opinion poll and focus groups will feed in to this virtual dialogue. This virtual discussion will be accompanied by an ongoing marketing campaign that links back in to existing youth initiatives. Speak Africa (with feed in from connecting classrooms and other participatory processes in place in Africa, will become the basic long-term foundation for youth engagement in future processes as well.
Two of the most active participants in these processes, from each region, will represent their region in the Africa Youth Forum to be held in Madagascar.
Next Steps:
Bring together developers of open-source mobile apps that have been scaled in NY (2nd week November 2009) to work with UNICEF innovation unit to identify needs
Set up collaborative workspace / worksite for the process
Decide on 12 countries (so far: SA, eth, Madagascar, Egypt, Senegal, Uganda) – (by end November)
Get hardware and support in place in countries.
Identify schools for ocnneting classrooms (end December)
Train schools and engage using SMS technology (January)
Present findings at Web4Dev conference Feb 11-14 in NY
