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Tag Archives: mobile
September 29, 2011, 10:11 am
Two Nonprofits Honored for Innovative Technology
Hollaback created a smartphone app that lets victims of sexual harassment log their experiences and post a picture of the person they say harassed them.
South by Southwest, the annual conference of thinkers and innovators, has honored two nonprofits it says are using technology in novel ways to promote social good.
The organizations, which won scholarships to attend next year’s conference, are Hollaback and Friendfactor. Three other groups that are not nonprofits also won after entering an essay content to describe their work.
Hollaback, in Brooklyn, works to fight sexual harassment by collecting personal stories of victims on its Web site. Victims are encouraged to use their smart phones to post pictures of those who engage in “street” harassment.
To making such reporting easier, Hollaback has …
July 21, 2011, 9:32 am
Is Mobile Technology Better for Communication Than Fund Raising?
Silver Ring Thing, a Christian group that promotes abstinence among teenagers, is seeing success with mobile technology—but not for fund raising. The organization is using the medium almost exclusively for reaching out to young people.
During the past 18 months, the group has built a mobile database totaling about 25,000 numbers, mostly teenagers, said Jason Burtt, Silver Ring Thing’s senior vice president and national director. Silver Ring Thing sends one or two messages a month to its list, mostly encouragement, news, and links to blog posts and videos.
About 10 percent of the people who receive a message with a link visit it, and about 5 percent watch videos, Mr. Burtt said.
“We get good feedback from people who receive them,” Mr. Burtt said. “The main service for us is to be a reminder [to our audience], along with a chance to launch or advertise things that we are …
July 12, 2011, 10:40 am
Blending Old and New Tech to Make History Come to Life
Imagine walking down a familiar street and being able to see what it looked like 80 years ago. That’s the experience the nonprofit behind the new Web tool Historypin hopes to bring about with its site upgrade, a new mobile application for Android users, and a global release event held Monday night.
The site, a project of the English nonprofit organization We Are What We Do and supported by Google, allows people to “pin” old photos to a location on Google Maps. They can then see a before-and-after of the old photo in its present-day location.
“By taking the magic and power of old photographs and stories, we want to create a spark that could lead to a really valuable communication,” said Nick Stanhope, chief executive of We Are What We Do.
Mr. Stanhope said the organization is trying to reduce the “big gaps” that have emerged…
June 23, 2011, 2:54 pm
New Nonprofit Apps: Advocacy, Management, and Mission Get Attention
The international advocacy organization One has chalked up some early successes with a new mobile application for iOS—the operating system for Apple’s iPhone, iPad, and some iPods.
The application, released this month, makes it easy for the organization’s supporters to call their U.S. representatives, sign petitions, and connect with other advocates and organizers in their area. During its first two weeks, the free application recorded more than 20,000 downloads.
“We think that mobile advocacy is the next step,” said Kimberly Hunter, a spokeswoman for One.
So far, the best measure of its success is downloads, but that will change with new campaigns, Ms. Hunter said. The organization plans eventually to add a competitive component to the app that will allow supporters to measure their actions against others’—and for the organization to figure out which people are its most…
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