FrontlineSMS Goes to the Journalists

Consider this: Mobile phones have created the broadest platform for people to engage with media ever. The United Nation's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) estimated that by the end of 2010 there would be 5.3 billion mobile cellular subscriptions worldwide. So if journalists aren't using mobile technology to engage with their audiences, are they missing a huge opportunity to connect efficiently and effectively?

Sean Martin McDonald"The most interesting things that happen via SMS [text messages] are those that weren't possible before," says Sean Martin McDonald (left), director of operations for FrontlineSMS. "One of the things that we're really focused on is helping the people who want to solve their communities' problems to do it through the most efficient ways possible."

Health organizations in particular have used FrontlineSMS in innovative ways, with programs that address public health issues such as malaria outbreaks in Cambodia and maternal health in the Philippines. Medic Mobile has created specific health texting applications from FrontlineSMS software (and other open-source technologies) to remind patients to go to appointments or take pills and help providers keep better medical records at lower costs.