The document discusses using mobile technology for social causes and development. It provides examples of how mobile phones are being used in various sectors including health, economics, politics, and social applications. Some opportunities mentioned include developing more applications, open hardware platforms, visual storytelling using ubiquitous mobile phones, and using wind or solar power to charge phones and operate base stations in remote areas without electricity. However, it also notes there may be problems to address with certain uses of mobile technology.

1. Mobile for Development
Using mobile technology for social causes
by Evgeny Morozov @ BarCamp Baltics
February 09, 2008

2. Plan (kind of)
I. Random facts
II. Uses of mobile tech
III. Opportunities (and problems)
IV. OMG, it's finally over

3. ~ 3,3 billion mobile phone subscribers globally

4. More than 1,1 billion sold last year worldwide

5. 97% of people surveyed in Tanzania said
they could access a mobile phone, while
just 28% could access a land line phone...

6. Young people in the US 4.2% more likely to vote
after an SMS reminder

7. Global New Year's SMS traffic: 43
billion messages, 30% up from last
year

8. Japan: of last year's 10 best-selling novels,
five were originally mobile phone novels

9. A 2005 study showed that an increase of 10
mobile phones per 100 people could increase
GDP growth by 0.6%

10. 2008: first time an Egyptian court reviews a case
of divorce-by-SMS

11. Kenya: only 19% of the country's 36 million
people are reached by traditional banking
institutions. BUT virtually have access to the
mobile phone.

12. ~1 billion: the number of illiterate people in the
world

13. 426,000: the number of mobile
phones retired in the US every day.

17. During this year's State of the Union address, you

could have turned your cell phone into a Bush Lie
Detector by signing up for live fact checks

By texting quot;factsquot; to shortdoce 30644, when the
President told a lie during the State of the Union,
you could have received a text with the truth.

18. Applications: Development / Economics

24. “Fish dumping, which averaged about 5 to 8
percent of daily catch before mobile phones, was
eliminated. Fishermen’s profits increased on
average by 8 percent, while consumer price
declined by 4 percent.” Quarterly Journal of
Economics, 2007

26. Applications: Health

29. SMS the word 'HIV' to 31771 followed by their post code or
town name. Their two nearest testing locations will be SMS'ed
back.

31. Applications: Social

33. EpiSurveyor is a free, open source tool enabling anyone
to very easily create a handheld data entry form, collect
data on a mobile device, and then transfer the data back
to a desktop or laptop for analysis

37. Health+Data mash-up

39. 3

42. Applications: Politics, Mobilization, Other

44. Kenya: ““The Ministry of Internal Security
urges you to please desist from sending or
forwarding any SMS that may cause public
unrest. This may lead to your prosecution.” “

45. BBC Africa’s Have Your Say received over
3800 and published over 1300 comments
after requesting updates from Kenyans

51. Opportunities

52. Opportunities: More $ for
applications development

53. Opportunities: Open Handset
Alliance

54. Opportunities: Visual story-telling /
Ubiquity

55. Opportunities: wind/solar charging

56. Opportunities: Wind-Powered Base
Station

57. Opportunities: p2p transmission

58. Opportunities: Phone for the
Illiterate

59. Email: evgeny.morozov@gmail.com