Social Media's Role In The Evolution Of FrontlineSMS

It's Social Media Week this week, and in recognition of this and our seventh anniversary next month, we'd like to reflect on the role that social media has played in the history and development of FrontlineSMS.

In a recent BBC Future article, I wrote about the "democratization of development." In it, I argued that the dual rise of the world wide web and mobile technology had opened up the opportunity for everyone to contribute to solving some of the world's bigger problems. Today, someone with an Internet connection and a software development kit can write a health-, agriculture- or human rights-focused application and begin building a global user base within days, if not hours. To quote from my article, there are likely more people working on solving social and environmental problems in the world today than ever before in human history. Clearly this can't be a bad thing...