MobileActive is over but the work has just begun…Stories about the convergence and the use of cell phones and texting in avocacy and civic campaigns are coming in fast after the first-ever MobileActive.  The event brought together a group of activists from around the globe to explore the use of cell phones for social justice and citizen participation campaigns.

Patrick Burnett, a participant from Fahamu, puts it well: "In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) SMS is being used to monitor child rights violations.

In Argentina indigenous communities are using SMS to halt the bulldozers that destroy their forest livelihoods.  And in the Philippines, angry activists have used SMS to hold government to account. The power of cellular technology is no longer up for debate; what remains to be discussed is how to maximize it for social good. Mobile Active Convergence, held recently in Canada, did just this… What came out of the three-day event…went far beyond this expectation, as a diverse group of people from around the world banged their heads together, mixed their ideas and thrashed out a vision for just how far cellular technology can go in creating a better world. The end result was new ideas, the formation of a lasting network and the production of a body of knowledge available to many beyond the confines of the conference."

MobileActive is over and all of the fabulous participants have gone home.  Together with Green Media Toolshed and Marty’s great vision, we brought activists from around the globe together.  All are using mobile phones in their campaigns in new and innovative ways — in the Congo, Philippines, Argentina, US, South Africa, and the UK, among other places. 

Here are a few excerpts and stories from people who attended: 

MobileActive Conference gets underway - I just arrived about an hour ago in Toronto for the MobileActive conference….From what I have heard, it is going to be a cool crowd from all around the world. For example, I took a cab from the airport to the hotel with Bukeni, a documentary film maker from Congo who was just in New York presenting his films on child soldiers. [Aspiration Aggregation]

Inspiration can come from the most unexpected places. I'm a little past halfway through AdvocacyDevII. As I expected, there are a lot of really interesting people here, and I have had some great conversations, and learned a fair bit. It has also been great to meet face-to-face with a fair number of people that I have corresponded with over the last 2 years, but never met.

From David Geilhufe. CivicCRM is an open source constituency relationship management application running on Drupal (for now):

“Progress on CiviCRM is coming along well and now is the time to get involved!…CiviCRM is now ready to be integrated into other applications. If you have or are considering an NPO application that stores CRM data (contacts, relationships, actions), please take a look at CiviCRM as a basis for your project.

CiviCRM is open source and as long as you contribute your modifications to CiviCRM back to the community, you can do anything you want with the software. CiviCRM is already being adapted by consultants for custom applications in fundraising and member management.

There are a number of lists of tools and strategy on using short text messaging for advocacy and other nonprofit work.

AdvoacyDev generated a list of SMS Tools.

On Mobile Active, we are compiling resources and articles on using SMS for advocacy. Aspiration and Green Media Toolshed are hosting the site in conjunction with a strategy meeting of activists in Toronto in September 2005.

It includes a rich set of resources, articles, case studies, and tools.

Power to the Edges: Trends and Opportunities in Online Civic Engagement -

http://www.pacefunders.org/power.html

This report from the affinity group PACE - Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement is a snapshot of the current state of online democracy in the age of connectivity brought about by the Internet and other digital information technologies.

The implications of online democracy for nonprofit organizations are significant and challenging. The report authors urge nonprofits and the funders who support them to become more nimble, integrate online and offline activities, leverage and strengthen activists networks and brandish a new set of leadership skills that are facilitative and inclusive.