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care2team 8 min read

NetSquared DC: The Electoral Use and Viral Potential of SMS

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Source: DevelopmentSeed.org

A diverse group of people interested in technology and social change gathered Tuesday night for the NetSquared DC meeting, which is held regularly on the third Tuesday of every month. NetSquared DC, organized by Michael Silberman of Echo Ditto, has quickly become the largest NetSquared Meetup in the country, with 95 members, since its launch in March. The meeting featured invited speaker Ian Schuler, ICT Project Manager of the National Democratic Institute (NDI).

Ian spoke about short message service (SMS) and more specifically about NDI's use of SMS to monitor voter turnout and election results for the referendum for Montenegrin independence held May 21, 2006, in which Montenegro voted to declare the independence of the Republic of Montenegro from Serbia and Montenegro. NDI used simple tools, a laptop computer and volunteer-operated cellular telephones connected to various networks, but was able to efficiently collect and manage all of the numbers and results that they sought using SMS. This relatively simple technology allowed volunteers at specific polling places to easily send turnout numbers and recorded results in real time without disturbing the electoral process, something that Ian noted would not have been possible using a voice system of any other available technology. In addition, SMS can be used in some areas where there is no voice signal, as was the case in one polling place in Montenegro. The SMS pilot in Montenegro by NDI not only provided for the effective collection of data, but also helped to maintain calm during a period of uncertainty after the election when a group using other predictive strategies prematurely announced that the referendum would pass. This could have led to unrest, but NDI was quickly able to announce that the results were actually too close to call.

Reflecting on this pilot test with SMS, Ian helped the group by identifying several other uses for SMS technology. He found that SMS would be useful not only during elections, but for executing the coordination of any single large-scale event. SMS is a particularly intriguing technology because messages sent using SMS can quickly become viral. This occurs when users send the message to the other people in their address books who then send it to their contacts. In this way, individuals can easily and rapidly expand the number of people who receive the message by forwarding it to the different users within their social networks.

After Ian's talk, several individuals shared valuable reflections about the NetSquared Conference held a few weeks ago in California:

Michael Silberman, of Echo Ditto, talked briefly about the discussion he led at the conference about integrating online and offline activism. This topic is very important. It seems that many groups neglect either online or offline activism, and learning to use both to an organization's advantage can be extremely helpful.

Ivan Boothe, of the Genocide Intervention Network, talked about how valuable the time in between events was for networking. His comments illustrate how social networking and making new contacts can lead to new ideas or help existing ideas to materialize.

Justin Perkins, of Care2, discussed Web 2.0 strategies and how viewing members of organizations as social networks, rather than just as email lists, can help lead to "community" growth and strength by tapping into the creativity and engaging an organization's members to communicate with each other. He also pointed out the importance of using technology as a means rather than as an end in itself. In light of the abundance of great technology currently out there, one of the great challenges organizations face is discovering specifically what their goals are in order to employ the right tool in the right context.

If you missed it, check out the podcast of the meeting and browse through the photos, as you can see, everyone had a great time.

To get involved with future NetSquared Meetups, sign up here. The LinkTV coverage of the NetSquared conference in San Jose will be available on Care2, and maybe frogloop, very soon...

Links to other bloggers covering the events:

Development Seed

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