Verdict: carrot
Now here’s a book looks a likely candidate for my 2010 “to read” list: SMS Uprising< which treats how cell phones are changing activism in Africa, complete with case studies. The book’s blurb at its Pambazuka homepage is certainly worth a look alongside this review from Anne Perkins:
But the optimists – and the activists like Christian Kreutz, who wrote the second essay in this collection – believe mobiles can extend participation, monitoring and transparency, decentralise networks and provide opportunities for local innovation.
Mobile has greater penetration than television (although not radio, with which it can work as a kind of poor man’s internet, with radio broadcasts soliciting citizen journalism to report on local events and conditions). The essential element is not high technology, but universality – and people on the ground who can frame questions, find or write software and then recruit users. SMS activists are the sons and daughters of the first generation of internet users – passionate about open source technology and shared experience.
Theory is one thing: but where these essays really come alive is in the descriptions of projects that have already worked.
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