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!!

Reuters inSPOT snowball - and that's a good thing

On Valentine's Day Reuters touted inSPOT as another tool in the tool belt for putting the smack on rising syphilis rates in New York City. We agree, it's a sharp tool indeed.

Quick to follow Reuters was the DC culture blog Heybeus who called us inSPOT creators "tech-savvy, crotch burny San Franciscan[s]." And we totally take that as a compliment.

And the snowball gained ground... another wink and a nod from Vermont and our own local wit, SF Weekly.

More buzz = more awareness about STD and HIV notification options = more responsibility taken!

Networking with a View

Save the date! Plan on networking and hobnobbing with public health folks, youth advocates, youth and tech geeks at the top of the JW Marriott on Tuesday, January 22nd. Beverages, appetizers, live spinning by DJ JL, co-sponsored by ISIS, Inc. and the Full Circle Fund.

Full Circle Fund folks are cool. Their party line, "Full Circle Fund is an engaged philanthropy organization cultivating the next generation of community leaders and driving lasting social change in the Bay Area."

But really, they have 4 circles - technology, education, homelessness, and environment, where they donate time, money, and expertise to worthy non-profits, like ISIS. Yes, ISIS and San Francisco Dept. of Public Health won the Full Circle Technology Award in 2007 for SexINFO, our text messaging project for urban youth. And we got to sit in the front row for Al Gore's speech at San Francisco City Hall. Woohoo!

Join us on the 22nd, and meet some great folks.
www.sxtechconference.org
text "contest" to 61827