Mobile Activism
Cheryl shared a method of sending video shot on mobile to SMS: Video shot on mobile phone and emailed to blip.tv (video hosting service) blip.tv automatically cross-posts to your blog twitterfeed.com (free service) picks up new post from your blog RSS feed and posts to twitter your followers receive through web, email, chat client or SMS
SMS on most mobile phones you can make groups and forward a single SMS to multiple people 25 sec video = 800-900kb = small enough to send via MMS or Bluetooth
Press conference strategy - organizer has video on bluetooth enabled phone, tell press to access phone & download video
Kris showed a video shot on his mobile & shared to journalists
He mentioned that video on mobile phones starts up quicker than most video cameras, so they can work better in spontaneous situations
Briggs - when president was replaced "people power 2" activists were called via sms, when some comrades got arrested they could hold an indignation rally right away. Ringtones - the party they support has a ringtone they send via MMS to other mobile users
"Hello Garcie" - during last presidential elections the president cheated, her phone was tapped and conversation proving the cheating was recorded & distributed via MMS to other users, became most popular ringtone in the Philippines
Kris -
100,000 people were mobilized for a major rally in Malaysia, using mobile for communication - they were able to organize 3 locations, but 10 hours before a new sms went out to meet at 4 new locations - due to roadblocks, bus closures, etc - this was spread 5 people at a time and everyone came to the new locations
In Malaysia, sms is cheaper than phone calls, plus sending sms to journalists is cheaper and eliminates misquoting
SMS with prepaid phones is difficult for authorities to trace
Sasha-
two ways to be tracked w/ phone 1-via cell tower location 2-gps enabled phones
If your phone is on, it can be accessed remotely by the phone provider and can be used as an audio listening device, and it's legal (in USA) for the state to request direct access to this audio without a warrant, and this is actually being done - so for security sensitivity many activists will turn phone off and even remove battery for sensitive conversations
There are SD cards that have built-in wifi so they will upload your photos to flickr (etc) as soon as you move within range of open wifi
Tool - TxtMob txtmob.org instead of using SMS group on your phone, you host it on txtmob (can have anonymous account) mass txt service, essentially - it's like a mailing list for SMS
Briggs - in Philippines one of her coworkers developed software called TextSOS that allows migrant workers to send messages to the leaders... helped document 10 cases of rape that did not make it to the embassy
tacticaltech.org Tactical Technology Collective good resource, they have a mobile activist tool kit they did NGO-in-a-Box they research, report & package some of this software there are plugins there for open source software
Sasha says there are some services to do live video streaming from mobile phones - but they're for higher-end more expensive phones. don't remember name - but google live stream phone
Mobile Applications - phones that can host apps or games make guidebook on what to do if you're arrested, or communicating in indigenous communities phone user can access the application when needed
you can also design a web site specifically for mobile phones with small amt of graphics
Kris with photos - post them to flickr via your mobile phone spontaneously post photos during protest so if your phone is confescated it won't matter also use YouTube for same purpose with video
3GP is the format for mobile phone video - so you either need to
Sasha if you make arrangement w/shortcode provider you can allow ppl to donate by sending a txt to the shortcode and they will donate directly to you off of the $$ left on their SIM card or from their mobile account
In Malaysia the activists are tech-savvy but the police are not, so activists can get away with a lot.
