Nokia.mobi brings you to the Here and Now

We love one-stop shops – especially ones for your mobile device. Nokia brings us 'Here and Now', an add-on to Nokia.mobi's web portal. This app attempts to put every aspect of lifestyle content aimed at 18 to 35 year olds right at their fingertips.

Through Nokia.mobi's "Here and Now" users can access:
* Mobile internet
* News
* Music
* Daily gossip fix
* Download Market Place
* Nokia's latest products

Great concept if the functionality is there, especially since it integrates content from already popular publishers like Reuters and Rolling Stone. "Here and Now" is meant to encourage users to spend more time on Nokia.mobi, which comes bookmarked on all Nokia phones (but is accessible from any mobile device). This is an advertiser's wet dream app, as it allows interactive marketing to a specific demographic of the 3.3 billion mobile users; We at ISIS see the potential to harness this for sexual health.

Mobile games about HIV/AIDS expanded to Africa

ZMQ, a company that has had a lot of success creating mobile games in India, has expanded four of their HIV/AIDS education games to African networks, including Uganda, Tanzania, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, and Namibia.

ZMQ has a very forward thinking model, "The company is also focused on developing innovative ICT products for new markets of the world at the Bottom-of-the-Pyramid by successfully reaching out to grass-root, under-privileged, and marginalized communities; based on viable and self-sustaining business models in support of the social cause."

With a partnership with a major mobile operator in India, ZMQ was able to offer the gaming tools to the public for free of charge.

One of the games is based on Cricket, super popular in India. It works in items like condoms or faithful characters to move game play along.

For an expanded case study see ShareIdeas, a fast growing wiki that showcases mobile projects with social agendas.

FrontlineSMS Empowers People Around the Globe

Kiwanja.net has announced the release of the latest version of FrontlineSMS, a highly versatile, two-way group messaging system. Ken Banks, Kiwanja founder and originator of the FrontlineSMS concept says, "This new release has been a year in the making, and is the result of over two years worth of feedback from the NGO community. Not only is this an exciting day for us, but also for the countless grassroots NGOs out there who desperately need this kind of technology to help them make the first step onto the mobile technology ladder."

So what is Frontline SMS?
It basically turns a labtop and a mobile phone or modem into a communications hub. It runs on a laptop without the internet, so it is perfectly suited for mass communications in areas of the world where internet is unreliable and electical power often fails.

With FrontlineSMS, free to NGOs in developing countries, people can send messages, conduct surveys and orchestrate two-way communications campaigns with ease.

So far FrontlineSMS has been used by organizations in over forty countries for causes as different as healthcare worker coordination, election monitoring and market pricing for rural farmers and fishermen. The online tour takes you through the intuitive system and illustrates the just how easy (AND POWERFUL!) it is.

Yay FrontlineSMS!! Access meets elegance!!

ISIS Selected for BAVC Nonprofit Institute

ISIS has been selected to participate in the first Nonprofit Institute for New Media Applications hosted by the Bay Area Video Coalition! The institute will bring together 10 organizations to dream up new ways of incorporating mobile and new media technologies into everyday operation.

So for 6 intensive days over a three-week period in July, we will be immersed in development/mentorship/prototyping and we get to cavort around with the other selected groups, including folks from ACLU, Hosteling International, CEO Women, Center for Asian American Media, Youth Together and more!

Two special industry guests include Katrin Verclas, queen of all things mobile, and Beth Kanter, the last word in nonprofit technology strategy.

We'll keep you updated here with how our prototyping project is coming along. All I can say at this point is: Yes, it will have to do with mobile. :)