- From: Katrin Verclas <katrin@mobileactive.org>
- Date: Thu, 1 Oct 2009 17:26:00 -0400
- To: MW4D Group <public-mw4d@w3.org>
- Cc: Prabhas Pokharel <prabhas@mobileactive.org>
- Message-Id: <8C052892-E085-45ED-8CD7-57ACD319BD19@mobileactive.org>
Dear all -- I have been on this mailing list with great interest looking at the development of the impressive Roadmap. Unfortunately, due to a standing commitment on Monday mornings I have not been able to partake in the calls that you have had. As you are wrapping up the final document, here are my comments and corrections. Corrections: The MobileActive.org wiki is no longer available - we have migrated all still relevant content to the mDirectory, the most comprehensive database of tools, research, case studies, and how-tos on mobiles in development and mobiles in social change. Please update all links accordingly as they will be/are dead links. The link for the mDirectory is http://mobileactive.org/directory. Current dead links on the roadmap are: an analysis of the different tools in that domain and another List of tools for data collections, and http://www.w3.org/2008/MW4D/wiki/Stories/ Other comments: Relevant to MobileActive.org 6.2.1 "Knowing what others are doing / have done" and "Potential Actions to address this challenge" under Content-Providers Challenges. It is probably worth your while to look at mDirectory and MobileActive, and mention us, since that's exactly what we are doing, both online and offline. 9. Conclusion "Support Actions" Point 1 "Raising awareness on potential of mobile tech in entrepreneur and NGO comm" Point 4 "Developing a further comprehensive repo of resources with stories of use-cases ...." That is, actually, the mDirectory we developed. "Recommendations" 4.1"Share, cooperate, collaborate...." that is what MobileActive's about. A few things that that might be misleading: -- On the author-end chart: -> SMS / Tech Requirements. On chart "At least PC + GSM Modem" should be modified to "PC + GSM modem, or Web connection + Subscription to Bulk SMS provider." You mention clickatell, etc, later, but seem to not know about it here. -> USSD / Cost. You should look into ZA. Specifically, its not free in ZA. -- 6.1.3 Under "Increasing the number of languages supported" You say SMS should support Unicode. But need to note that this will reduce # of characters even further. -- Voice vs. SMS Your general thinking is that Voice is more expensive than SMS. You point out that 10 seconds to 30 seconds of Voice, on average, is what an SMS costs. 10s of voice rivals (and maybe conveys more info than) one SMS in terms of info delivery. In other words, the situation is much less extreme than you point out -- especially when you look at India. I think it's also critical to point out that SMS is extremely expensive as a data delivery mechanism, esp with menus that go back and forth between user and content provider (you point out this is difficult, programmatically, but not that its costly). General thoughts In general, this is still very much focusing on SMS. You downplay voice and mobile apps in particular, in terms of what they can do, and give them less coverage than SMS. In other words, the roadmap is very SMS- oriented without noting that the field has been changing over the last few years and that there have been some shifts. It's worth noting that mobile apps let you communicate more cheaply, in some instances, with the same offline capabilities as SMS (note MxIt, for example). While I see your point in regard to volume of SMS sent globally, shifting trends are noteworthy here and should be mentioned. Thanks! Katrin Verclas Co-Founder and Editor MobileActive.org katrin@mobileactive.org + 1 413 687 9877 skype: katrinskaya Check out our new site and mDirectory! Tools, research, case studies, and how-to use resources about mobiles in social change work. http://mobileactive.org
Received on Thursday, 1 October 2009 21:26:42 UTC