There are now many possibilities for creating and sharing multimedia content from your mobile phone to communicate and share information with people. This content can be shared phone-to-phone or via the internet

Using only a mobile phone you can:

• Capture images/ video footage to document events or provide evidence of rights abuses
• Record short interviews
• Share images/info with others via MMS
• Send out updates as an event unfolds via SMS

A mobile phone can also be used to connect to the internet to:

• Make quick updates to your campaign or organisation blog/website
• Send updates to micro-blogging sites, such as Twitter and Plurk
• Upload content to content sharing services (such as YouTube and Flickr) using mobile software such as ShoZu

With data transfer costs falling in some countries, mobile phones are now also increasingly used as a means to access the internet while on the move. Some mobile phone providers offer fixed monthly packages for internet use while others sell 'bundles' of internet time.

In certain countries with wireless compatible phones, it is also possible to access internet on your phone through free wireless 'hotspots'. Non Government Organisations (NGOs) can take advantage of this by creating specially adapted mobile versions of their websites. There are online services such as Wapple.net and MobiSiteGalore available to help you to create mobile-friendly websites.

See mobile case studies (Read more) for a variety of innovative ways that mobile phones have been used by rights advocates and NGOs.

Challenges

• Despite the enormous potential, there are still many challenges for advocates and organisations wishing to use mobile multimedia for rights advocacy:
• It is difficult to send content directly from your mobile phone to your blog or website and this often requires that you pay to sign up with a service outside your country, meaning you are charged you the cost of an international message every time you use it.
•  In some instances you may need to connect your mobile phone to a computer to be able to pull off your data (video, audio, pictures) and share it through the internet.
• The quality of video captured on most mobile phones remains low. Unless you or your organisation are prepared to invest heavily in a high-end mobile phone, the use of mobile phone captured video can be quite limited. Sending MMS (i.e. image or video files from your phone to another phone or website) is still extremely expensive in most countries and it doesn't always work.
• Capturing sensitive footage or engaging in human rights discussions using a mobile phone, introduces new risks and vulnerabilities that need to be carefully addressed.
• This section of this website addresses many of the the opportunities, risks and limitations of the use of mobile multimedia for rights advocacy.

Further Information

More detailed information for campaigners looking to use mobile technology in their work can be found on Tactical Tech's Mobiles in-a-box website.
English: http://mobiles.tacticaltech.org
French: http://fr.mobiles.tacticaltech.org
Email: mobiles{at}tacticaltech.org