Development Seed Blog

I was at an awesome Netsquared DC Meetup on Tuesday where we learned how SMS (text messaging) could be best used to monitor elections. Since we are in DC, of course there were some people in attendance with first hand expertise at using SMS for international development. The National Democratic Institute (NDI) just finished an SMS pilot project for the Montenegro referendum on independence. NDI’s main office is about two blocks from the bar we were at so Ian Schuler, a friend from the tech scene in DC and ICT Project Manager at NDI told the story of how NDI went about setting up their SMS network, using a combination of a cell phone plugged into a computer to receive incoming messages and an aggregator (Clickatell) to help handle the sending load.  

If you are interested in the details behind this, I recommend checking out the detailed write up here on MobileActive.  

While not always the main focus of the Netsquared meetups, mobile technology has come up in conversations every time I am there. If you are in DC and playing with some new technology, stop by the Meetup next month to share your experiences.