Yesterday, I spent the day in Manhattan, at the UNICEF building, with a bunch of folks passionate about the technology in mobile phones, and the ways to use that technology for good. I’ve been a very long time cell phone user (had one since 1998), but I haven’t been involved in implementing a mobile system for an organization, so I had a lot to learn.
The place to find reports on what happend is on the wiki. Also, check out the twitter stream for the #omc09 hashtag.
I was especially interested in the issue of mobile data collection. (I was so interested, I facilitated a session.) And, even more specifically, I’m interested in how to leverage CiviCRM and mobile devices for a range of interesting applications. There are a number of ways to get data from mobile phones into a CRM – and all have advantages and disadvantages, depending on a lot of things.
- Globally, what you can basically depend on is SMS. Smartphones haven’t made it into most of the developing world, nor have 3G networks. So how do you get SMS data into a database system like CiviCRM? You need an SMS gateway, and systems such as RapidSMS to gather data
- Use J2ME to write applications for mobile phones, and send the data via SMS to a central database.
- A tool such as EpiCollect, which is an Android app.
- A slimmed-down, simplified webform to be used on mobile browsers.
One thing that would facilitate this would be a more robust API system in CiviCRM – access to the data via REST or JSON, which would allow CiviCRM to talk with some of the tools out there like Mesh4X.
I learned a ton. Thanks to MobileActive.org and the Open Mobile Consortium for a fabulous event.
{ 3 comments… read them below or add one }
Michelle — it was so fabulous to have you there! Thanks so much for coming and participating, really made me very happy. As far as data collection on a mobile is concerned, also check out this guide that Melissa Loudon wrote on MobileActive.org: http://mobileactive.org/new-resource-using-mobile-phones-data-collection. It’s a useful overview of the processes and some of the tools available (and there is more data collection apps than you can shake a stick at ;) Great to see you, and looking forward to seeing you next week as well!
Michelle:
can you comment a bit more on what is missing in CiviCRM’s api for the above. The REST API is fairly solid (and is getting an ever increasing unit test coverage base). It does the basics of creating contacts/contributions/locations/activities quite well at a granular level.
Elaborating on what is missing / non-robust will help us close down the holes :)
lobo
Michelle – a few resources I like…
I personally like and recommendMobileCommons. It just works. Orgs like Planned Parenthood have used it to fundraise via mobile. I also think This American Life is also using it to raise funds via SMS.
I also saw this recently: http://mobileactive.org/ and this article on mobile fundraising while searching around…