A personal plea: Help me help someone save 'home' for millions

Hello.

I hope you don't mind me reaching out to you like this - I don't do it often, so when I do you know I mean it. I'm writing to ask you to help me make something amazing happen - in about four clicks and two minutes. If I had you at 'hello', then go here: http://bit.ly/voteSMS and vote for FrontlineSMS:Legal, as soon as possible. The site will ask you to enter your e-mail, but that's the only registration required.

If you feel, quite reasonably, that you'd like to know what you're clicking for, then read on...

Each of us interacts with the law all the time - it's a necessary, occasionally painful part of life, something we often have to deal with at the most difficult moments. Yet it's the bedrock on which our societies function, a critical check on power and a means of safe-guarding our rights and resources at every stage of life. Without access to the law, shocks can become crises; assets can disappear overnight; and constitutional rights can be overruled by social norms at the expense of the vulnerable in the community. For so many in the developing world access to justice is next to impossible, thanks to poor infrastructure and stifling bureaucracy.

FrontlineSMS:Legal is a fantastic organisation, setting out to do something completely new, at the boundary of two complex fields - using SMS to extend, improve and coordinate the systems and services that provide justice, and legal services, to hard-to-reach populations who are otherwise unable to access them. Mobile services are proven to improve systems and streamline data management, cost-effectively. I urge you to read more about their mission on their blog. You all know I'm a geek about this stuff - but this is quite literally the sexiest thing to happen to the law in developing countries, like, EVER. I get overcome with excitement just to be allowed to stand next to this project in public and occasionally make it cups of tea. Imagine my happiness to be able to actually help it along - with a few clicks and some light typing. And here's how:

FrontlineSMS:Legal is a semi-finalist in the Ashoka Changemakers competition on Property Rights - the page describing their entry is here. Of 211 applications submitted from 47 countries, they've made it to a round of 19. This round is a popular vote, open to every person/e-mail address interested in taking the time to register. The top 8 or 9 entries will be reviewed by a great panel of judges, including people like Hernando de Soto. Of those 8 or 9, they'll select 3 entries to win $50,000 each. Winning this competition could set FrontlineSMS:Legal on its feet and allow them to develop technology that will enable text messages to feed land registry maps, both on and offline - transforming the accountability of government in this area, one of the most prone to corruption and graft - and protecting the rights of land owners, so that when the unthinkable happens, the one thing people don't lose is home.

I think it's an amazing organisation and a great project, with the potential to make an immeasurable difference. Please please please, click on this link: http://bit.ly/voteSMS and vote for FrontlineSMS:Legal, as soon as possible. The site will ask you to enter your e-mail, but that's the only registration required. Click on the 'like' button or leave a comment and let the world know you were there!

Guys, I'm grateful to you for reading this far. Now go and vote. Let me know you have, and I promise I will make YOU the hot beverage of your choice with my own little hands.

And if I've really sold it to you and you've looked at the links and you believe in it too, then pass it on - tweet, email, Facebook, whatever - get people to click and vote, and we'll make something AWESOME happen.

Happy weekends, and thank you for reading!

Laura

Academic paywalls, and mobile technology in conflict-affected states - there's more than you think

I'm blogging from the World Bank's Innovation Fair: Moving Beyond Conflict in Cape Town, South Africa. In presenting a bit about FrontlineSMS and some thoughts on SMS in conflict, I referenced an article from Development In Practice, 'Challenging conventional views on mobile-telecommunications investment: evidence from conflict zones' (Agnieszka Konkel & Richard Heek Volume 19, Issue 3 May 2009, pages 414 - 420). Lots of thoughtful nods when I was talking, so I thought I'd put up a link and some of the findings.

The paper argues that the accepted pillars of a good 'investment climate' - 'security and stability, finance and infrastructure, workers and labour markets, and the regulatory framework and tax' - underpinned by 'good, stable governance' may not, in fact, be prerequisites for investment in mobile telephony. Afghanistan, DRC and Somalia, three countries with poor governance indicators, all show rapid mobile penetration growth rates between 2001 and 2006. Tentatively, they conclude that these figures are due to foreign investment, and possibly to individuals prioritising mobiles over other needs:

'...insecure countries are places of great uncertainty, and uncertainty pushes up the value of information. Thus citizens will be willing to invest a greater than average level of their income on information and communication technologies, particularly those – like mobile phones – which can help to provide just the kind of information (safe/unsafe locations, approaching dangers, places to find scarce commodities, etc.) that addresses their main uncertainties.'

Interesting implications for using mobiles and other information-sharing tools in conflict - and certainly fertile ground for future research. If you can get a copy of this short and useful article, it's well worth a read.

A Short Rant

A perennial complaint of mine is that so much excellent analysis and thinking - from conceptual thinking that could change our whole approach to aid and development, to deeply practical hazard prediction and mapping - is locked up in academic prose and, fatally, behind paywalls. David Steven on Global Dashboard wrote about this recently. Academic journals perform a vital function, but the ridiculous costs make the articles in them absolutely inaccessible to many in NGOs. The result: good work going to waste, and work on the ground and in offices in capitals all over the world not benefitting from the combined wisdom of the world's academics. Some examples of great free-to-air content:

• the Humanitarian Policy Group at the Overseas Development Institute
• the International Review of the Red Cross
• the Public Library of Science - PLoS.org (thanks to @EvieBrowne for the link).

Any more for any more?