Mobile for Good: N2Y4 Top Tier Contenders Announced

April 13, 2009 Awhile back I wrote about mobilizing youth via mobile, and this past weekend’s Global Engagement Summit seems to have brought out all kinds of positive media uses and leadership teams eager to make a difference on the ol’ blue marble. (Here’s a glimpse into the GES world via 10:00 Northwestern Univ. video)

Thanks to NetSquared passionista Britt Bravo, I’ve been able to keep up with some new finds like Fast Forward Fund (youth investing in youth for social change) and Pulse and Signal’s Andre Blackman also pinged me with the latest on Humana Games’ Horsepower Challenge exergaming venture.

Both of them had the finalists for the  N2Y4 Mobile Challenge in their Facebook feeds (I was thrilled last year when Ushahidi won in N2Y3 (year 3) for the mobile mapping in Kenya taking pragmatics for safety to a new level) which helps a lot, as that ‘status line’ comes in handy for info gathering.

So without further ado, here are the 15 Projects selected this year for N2Y4…All inspiring uses of mobile in and of themselves. It’s yet another example of community innovation and collaboration in IdeaBlob polling style, proving the power in kids’ hands goes far beyond teens and texting when it comes to mobile media and youth mobilization.

With over 2.2 billion  mobile phones in the developing world, it’s captivating to see the powerful potential of how the devices are literally being used as ‘mobile doctors‘ in rural areas enabling real time sharing of information far beyond ‘who likes who’ on the middle school lunch tables…

As these top contenders face off for $50K in resources, cash and prizes at the N2Y4 Conference this year, it underscores the need for TEAMwork to pull together thought leaders doing good things in using the power of media for positive change. (NetSquared is an initiative of TechSoup Global envisioning new ways to pair nonprofits with technology in pro-social ways)

Along these lines, I’ve been amazed at the forward-thinking mobilization of text campaigns on the “third screen” (phones!)  integrating with teens and technology to put vital health info literally into their hands.

I’m still working on my continuation of the SxTechConf.org series Focus on Youth about the use of mobile apps for raising health awareness too…From the CDC’s April STD Awareness month (see STDtest.org for test results served via mobile) to the InSpot notification hub to address STDs via SMS and receive texts on safety concerns and mythbusting regarding sex (see SexTextInfo addressing healthcare youth dilemmas with  ”what do I do if’ mobile anonymity)…Now more than ever, it seems mobile is the media conduit to demystify and deliver health care conversations that may not be taking place at home.

As APHA’s The Nation’s Health sums, “For Bay Area youth, getting the ‘411’ on sexual health is as easy as hitting ‘send’ on their cell phones.”

Kids are scrambling to find accurate knowledge and tips, from relational aggression to cyberbullying to fun facts, freebies, coupons and quizzes…so the concept of using mobile goes well beyond ‘RU Healthy’ and opens doors to change agents as a distribution channel.

ISIS recently posted the full session of talks on using mobile to persuade (which comes in handy in the health care best practices field) including word from young social scientists like Dean Eckles of Nokia Innovate Design Experience Animate (IDEA) Team, and Kevin Bertram, CEO of Distributive Networks Mobile Marketing (known for Obama’s SMS mobilization of youth and basically all about ‘what’s NXT in TXT’) so there’s no doubt in my mind that the N2Y4 challengers could reap some best practices out of listening to those pros!

Here are the ISIS links from their site for easy download:

click here to download the presentation

click here to watch part one of Dean Eckles’ talk

click here to watch part two of Dean Eckles’ talk

click here to watch part one of Kevin Bertram’s talk

click here to watch part two of Kevin Bertram’s talk

I’d also point the N2Y4 participants to the marketing pros at Mobile Youth.org Graham Brown and Josh Dhaliwal (above) who have been posting insights via slideshare regarding best practices, tips and tactics for reaching youth with relevance, authenticity, and social media mindsets…

To me, it means N2Y4 can use this data to do GOOD things in the world (rather than just hawk stuff!) So go for it leaders in mobile…

Use that youth mobile challenge to mobilize!

Close to the end of this month, on April 28, 2009, we’ll find out the top three winners from the ”Change the Web” challenge too.

Meanwhile here are the mobile N2Y4 media finalists, congrats to all!

15 NetSquared Mobile Challenge Projects (N2Y4):

• Agricultural Market Information Service (AMIS) Project
• DatAgro: Increasing the Yield of Latin American Farming Cooperatives
• Digital Democracy’s Handheld Human Rights
• Equobility
• Face the Change
• FrontlineSMS + Cell Alert = FrontlineSMS Alerts
• FrontlineSMS:Medic – SMS for Medical Records and Mobile Lab Diagnostics
• IJCentral: A Movement to Support Global Rule of Law
• IPeace
• Local SMS Community Newsletter for  Promotion of Self-Employment
• PublicStuff–The Craigslist for Local Government Interaction!
• SeeClickFix: Report Non-emergency Local Problems and Collaborate to Solve Them
• Slave-Free
  
• The Extraordinaries — On-demand crowdsourcing volunteerism via smartphones.
• VozMob: Mobile Voices/Voces Moviles