Ez Texting makes group texting a snap

Ez Texting is a new, easy to use group texting platform ripe for the picking. The platform is easy to use (I signed up for a trial in like 5 seconds) and is much less costly that other offers out there (2.5 cents per message). Ez Texting also offers two-way text which infinitely increases the type of work you can do with it.

It's simple: Sign up. Upload the numbers of the people you want to reach. Compose. Blast off!

The folks at Ez Texting suggest that their program could be used in schools to send out important messages to students; for real estate agents wanting to keep their clients up to date with new listings; or for event promotion and group data gathering.

Potentially a great solution for non-profits on a budget or just individual networking. With so many platforms springing up its hard to know which to try. Nice that Ez Texting offers a free trial to the curious.

Happy Friday folks!

eTouch helps young people discuss touchy subjects

A new wireless, touch screen program has been piloted at National Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Researchers say that when young people answer questions using the device, risk of injury, depression and drug and alcohol use were more often identified by teens, thus opening the door for practitioners to discuss sensitive topics.

The system was more successful at identifying risky behaviors than were time-strapped doctors. Although neither report that I read (Columbus Dispatch or AMNews) talked about using the system for identify STD/HIV or sexual health risk taking specifically, it appears perfectly suited.

As long as privacy for young people can be assured as they are using the tool, and that doctors have alone time with their teen patients, the tool could definitely help open some doors for discussion. Family and peer support around sexual health are crucial to young people's decision making abilities, but there are growing technology trends (texting!) that encourage young people to take more control and get what they need in intimidating clinical settings.

United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation help expand the mobile revolution

ISIS is proud to be included in the report produced by the United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation titled Wireless Technology for Social Change: Trends in NGO Mobile Use.

The forward authored by Vodafone CEO Arun Sarin, and United Nations Foundation Chairman Ted Turner, underlines the critical time we are in; a turning point for how technologies, particularly mobile networks, are connecting critical health systems and slashing away at digital divisions around the globe.

The report showcases 11 mobile projects from around the world and shares the results of a global survey about how NGOs are using mobile technologies.

So, put up your feet, grab a hot chocolate (or an iced tea depending on where you are) and learn about how mobile phones are helping to improve HIV/AIDS care, conserve the environment and wildlife, reach youth with sexual health information, prevent violence, connect clinics and rural health care workers, deliver food in war zones...and so much more.

Big smiles.

Textual harassment in schools

The New York times reported today that over 35 percent of kids aged 11 to 18 have been sexually harassed. Boys and girls report similar levels but girls and sexual minorities suffer harsher consequences of this harassment. And it's not new to hear that besides verbal and physical abuse, young people are being sexually harassed on websites and by text message.

How have social networking sites and text messaging allowed bullies to get away with more? The schools are legally bound to protect their students from sexual harassment, but is the virtual nature of harassment sliding under the radar?

Regardless, how can young people protect themselves? Unlike a pinch in the hallway, news of a nasty Myspace comment can spread really fast. A devastating text message can come in during a class leaving us alone with our phones.

Some sites allow us to block or erase comments. We can take people off of our gchat list, we can defriend the person or erase their phone number from our vast collection. And we can tell someone and ask for support.

For more about the recent rise in cyber-bullying the New York Times also published this solid article. See also, this special edition of the Journal of Adolescent Health. Or the CDC's set of youth violence prevention resources.

Utterz-ly Amazing

One day humans and computers will merge into one beautiful new super life form á la Battlestar Galactica. But that will undoubtedly end in some cataclysmic hellfire war that will redefine what it means to be truly human. This, thankfully, is still a long way off. Until the end days are upon us, isn't it fun watching technologies merge and reshape how people can communicate? My latest curiosity is a the site Utterz.com, which seems to up the ante on my beloved Twitter.com in the mobile posting game.
With Utterz you can post pictures, video, voice recordings and text straight from your mobile phone all via MMS which means no going online, no clunky cell phone browser and standard text messaging rates. At first glance I was in love because I mistakenly thought I could post my MMS messages straight to my blog/site/social network. I was wrong. Like Twitter you set up a profile page that houses all your Utterz and you can network with other Utter-ers. In order to post your MMS content you have to embed an Utter widget to receive and display your utterz on your personal blog/site/social network.

Check out my Frak montage Utter, I know... I got a little stage fright and couldn't think of anything to say... but the true nerds out there will smile with me.



The direct connection between Utter-ing and sexual health remains to be seen but suddenly there are amazing new vehicles for communication and public and private domains are merging. It is interesting to watch the technologies that will reshape these boundaries.

SMS and Computer Based Sex Ed in Nigeria

LearningAboutLiving.org is a computer based sex ed program for Nigerian youth. The site guides students and teachers through some of the rough puberty topics by offering conversation- starting texts and suggestions for activities. The topics for discussion range from: Body Image, Love/Friendship, Assertiveness and HIV/STIs. I do have to mention that though the site offers fodder for discussion the word condom never appears.

The really interesting portion of this curriculum is the text in feature. I would love to know how it works in a little more detail. But it seems that when students have questions they aren't comfortable asking an adult or in a group setting they can text their issue and receive a personalized response. In the first 2 months the service fielded 10,000 questions. I think it would be great to include the questions and responses on the site so students who didn't know how to frame their questions could learn from their peers.

tech take-up and the dating curve

For the first two months after my mom upgraded her cell phone she would hang up on me every time I called. It wasn't that she didn't want to talk to me, it was that she couldn't figure out how her new phone worked. I always got an instant call back. Who can really blame her for not wanting to invest any energy into her phone. She can dial, and send me photos of dogs...and that's what's important.

But what happens when 50 and 60 somethings try out a new online dating site? I'm making an assumption here that the internet dating learning curve might be something like the cell phone learning curve for some older adults. It's a new way of communicating that hasn't always existed. Many dating websites are set up to be intuitive and facilitate quick communication via IM, text or internal email. Resorting to a good old fashioned phone call is not usually an option. Does this shake the boomers, or is everyone just adjusting?

Here are a few real life stories from two lovely ladies I know.

Case Study one: relative of friend, "Betty," 50s
Betty meets a nice man on Match.com. They start to exchange Match.com messages about having dinner together and Betty provides her phone number. "Bill" confirms by email that he would love to have dinner and waits for Betty's email about where. Meanwhile, Betty starts cooking dinner, gets all gussied up and waits for a phone call. They never meet.

Case Study two: relative of friend, "Anne," 60s
Anne signs up on eHarmony and learns how to search the profiles. She quickly gets confused by the prescripted stages of communication that eHarmony forces you through. After sending multiple stock messages with no replies, she abandons ship and goes on a date with a neighbor she met while walking her dogs. "How could I communicate anything personal about myself using that thing," she complained.

But there are success stories too, of course.

I regularly orchestrate multi-friend events entirely over text and things work out fine. I even have a friend who has never once talked to her boyfriend on the phone, only via text. But there is a learning curve for figuring out how to communicate on a dating site, via IM or text message (let alone figure out how to send and receive these messages). Are these skills becoming necessary for older single adults?

And this goes for all ages, but it seems that calling your date has become scarier now that you can send a text or email.

As ET once said "Be Good"

I firmly believe that we are living in the future. Think about it for a moment. True there aren't flying cars whizzing through the air and we can completely exist on chocolate bars (although I bet I could live a pretty long time maybe even thrive on Cliff Bars alone.) That being said, a lot of this tech stuff that these 'future' kids of today casually wield would have amounted to a super-power when I was a wee-one (and I'm still clawing away at my 20s.) They have the power to instantly communicate and organize en masse. All they need is a cell phone touch pad and a rudimentary understanding of a growing system of code (OMG, LOL, ROFLOL, QFT etc) I love using urban dictionary as my rosetta stone to translate this new tech language.
I love the idea of relatively a simple cipher created out of the need for speed and brevity having this much power. Its like watching a language being born. As with every super-power there is always a dark side. What would Superman be without Bizzaro. The dark side of text messaging reared its ugly head as cops in Tokyo and Saitama broke up a ring of junior high and high school girls that were selling sex online via their cell phones. Apparently one of those arrested was in the 6th grade. Wow! What really makes my jaw drop and drag on the floor is that they developed an intricate text/SMS friendly code to advertise their services.

Like:
IkebLURV1700Yukichi2JC1

Ikeb = Ikebukuro. The neighborhood that the girl is in.
LURV = "I will have sex with you."
1700 = Time: 5PM
Yukichi2 = Yukichi Fukuzawa, the guy whose face is on the 10,000 yen note x 2 = I cost 20,000 yen
JC = Joshi Chugakusei (Junior high school girl. JS would be elementary school girl, JK would be high school girl)
1 = Grade 1. In Japan, 1st year of junior high = 7th grade.

I got this break down from www.tokyomango.com

So, wow I say! As our advances in technology continue to bestow upon us futuristic powers I have but one bit of advise - Always, Always use your powers for good not evil!

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