Mobiles for social change – community generated OERs

I am sure you have heard the stories of fishermen in Africa with mobile phones.

With their mobile phones they are today able to ask daily market prices from market places while still in the sea. This way they are able to bypass greedy middlemen transporting the fish from a harbour to the market or choose a harbour giving the best price.

These kinds of stories are now gathered at the http://www.shareideas.org

Shareideas.org is an online community and a wiki for sharing ideas on how to use mobile communications for social and environmental benefits.

It is quite well known that in many parts of the world mobile phones are a catalyst for social change. Shareideas.org tries to get the best practices around the world in one place online.

The site covers such areas as civic engagement, economic empowerment, education, environment, health and safety and humanitarian relief. The site is primary targeted for NGOs but anyone interested in social movements are welcome to join.

With the aim of being useful for NGO’s the site has also How to -section covering guidelines on how mobiles can be used in NGO work. You‘ll find stories how to collect field data, distribute information, manage finances, manage your organization, respond to emergencies, track people/products etc.

Shareideas.org is actually a wiki site. If you want to edit the stories or add your own story in there you may create account and will immediately get rights to edit the pages.

I think you got it already: shareideas.org is a collection of open educational resources and a community-based content creation initiative.

ShareIdeas.org was created with support from Nokia and Vodafone, but the idea is that the global network of individuals and organizations will make it their place to share their best practices. So, we need you. Join the site and share your story!

Disclaimer: I have been consulting Nokia and Vodafone in the Shareideas.org project.