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The Women in Mobile interview series seem to be really popular among m-trends.org readers so I thought it might be good to bundle some of the latest interviews not published yet for your summer reading.

What I like about the series, apart from getting to know all these wonderfull women of course is the diversity of characters interviewed but especially how passionate they all are about the potential of Mobile. Whether they work as software engineer, as executive or entrepreneur, as artist or designer or as activist, they are all very open-minded and forward-thinking, how diverse their job functions may be.

This post to bundle the following 4 Women in Mobile interviews:

- Sarah Blow, behind the London Girl Geek Dinners

- Julia Dimambro, CEO of Cherrysauce, a mobile adult entertainment company

- Stephanie Rieger, inventing and designing mobile lifestyle at Yiibu.com

- Katrin Verclas, Executive Director at N-TEN (The Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network)

If you are a woman working in Mobile or if you know a woman that you think should be part of this interview series, please drop me a note (email at the right in sidebar). Enjoy the reading!

Image © phonemag.com

NYC connection Justin Oberman from mopocket.com brought me in touch with her recently. Katrin runs her day job in an organization called N-TEN—an umbrella association of nonprofit technologists and the people that provide technology service to nonprofits and civil society organizations. She is also very involved in MobileActive. MobileActive is a global network of nonprofit and non-governmental organizations, mobile technologists, and grassroots activists who are using mobile phones in their civic activism.

BACKGROUND - WORK

- Can you explain more about your work?

The MobileActive network started in 2005 when we held the first-ever conference on using mobile phones in civic action and activism in Canada with activists and mobilists from around the world. Since then, we have built a collaborative website at www.mobileactive.org where we collectively track campaigns from around the globe that are using mobile phones. We maintain a lively mailing list for peer networking, have produced local events in Europe, Asia, and the United States. There have been numerous partnerships and collaborations between mobile techies and civil society organizations – for human rights, voter mobilization, advocacy and organizing.

Please check out the many stories, campaigns, and people in our network at www.mobileactive.org!

Incidentally (and as a sneak preview here) we are going to be producing a series of white papers – the MobileActive Strategy Memos – that will be how-to guides analyzing existing campaigns and making recommendations for campaigners wanting to use mobile phones in these areas:

1. human rights
2. voter registration and mobilization
3. legislative and policy advocacy
4. issue advocacy
5. fundraising

We are releasing the first in the 5-part series later this month – stay tuned!

- Are you more social, business or technical oriented?

All social – all the time ☺ But we play with tech and the potential new mobile technical developments have for activism and organizing.

- What brought you into mobile?

I love technology ☺ And I love technology for social change. The mobile medium has enormous potential to reach and connect people who are otherwise not online/on the Internet. Mobile phones are organizing tools, communication tools, information sharing tools, tools for political expression (ringtones, and political jokes, for example), they can be used for monitoring tools and data gathering for civil society purposes. They are easy to use and ubiquitous, cheap, and accessible. I want to make the world a better place and use the smartest and most appropriate and accessible technology to aid in this work. I am drawn to the potential for collective action to do so – and hence am very interested in the possibilities of mobile phones as organizing tools for activists and campaigners who are in the trenches all around the world.

DIGITAL LIFESTYLE

- Which tools you use to publish, blog or moblog your work?

I am too busy to blog much… I know I should do a lot more of it, though. I live on my Treo 650 when traveling – texting, web, email (at least checking), phone, of course.

But even with a qwerty keyboard (the English-language keyboard) blogging and doing anything other than 160 characters is pretty much a pain.

- Which applications and services do you use regularely on your phone?

Google local ☺, text messaging, right now the handy World Cup score tool that updates me when there is a goal… email, contact database, games for my kids.

- Would you use your device to interact with other machines? Yes!

- Which machine-to-machine can you think of would be handy to interact with?

Every possible one – ranging from ticket machines for the subway to my still-used iPod (replacing that one with my mobile would be good, but because the sound quality is better, I have not yet)

- Would you download mp3 tunes on your phone? Share them with friends? Mobsharing? Any thoughts on DRM?

Yes on mp3s. I wish the world was licensed Creative Commons. DRM is a much longer conversation..

- What about Mobile TV?

No thanks. Well, soccer would be cool.

GEEK STUFF

- How do you experience the Mobile Internet? Which mobile browsers do you use?

How? Painfully. It’s no fun. Wishlist for 2007: The ubiquitous mobile Internet, and full mobile compatibility of all web sites.

- Web 2.0? Do you use it? What does it mean to you? Does/will these evolutions influence mobile technology? How?

I dislike the term. It is, in the end, all about community, peer- and user production, the ease of use and pervasiveness of tools and really, in the end, about the democratization of innovation.

Mobile phones are all about that – as evidenced by the fact that there are now vastly more than 2 billion of them in use, and the many, many creative uses people deploy them for – in social interactions and every-day, in sophisticated political campaigns, in music and entertainment – you name it. There are new ideas, new uses, creative innovations every day. Look at the Kuwaiti elections where women are texting their opinions about candidates, the political ringtones that sprung up all over, the political jokes surreptitiously passed on in Zimbabwe – there are more creative uses of the medium than I have seen in a long time.

- What are your favourite mobile user-generated content projects?

Oh, good question! Other than MobileActive ? I have no idea! Yours? Love to hear about them!

- MoSoSo + wi-fi + urban networks = ?

Social change.

- Do you develop content/technology yourself?

Content, yes. Mobile content, no. Tech, no.

FUTURE OF MOBILE

- How do you see the future of mobile?

Very bright! Let’s just hope commercial interests do not take it over (such as television) to close it off in some way for civil society uses.

- What do you think about the Fixed-Mobile-Internet convergence? 3G vs. Wi-Fi? Hybrid phones?

I’ll leave this to the industry experts – I’ll watch you all closely, though, and see what can be used/appropriated/deployed in and for our work in the NGO and nonprofit sphere.

- What differences do you see of mobile use in USA – Europe - Asia?

Vastly different social uses based on different technical infrastructures. Much more pervasive texting, obviously, in Europe and Asia, though people in the US are taking sms by storm. Different social uses have implications for political organizing and social change work, of course, so they are of great interest to us and we are tracking the socio-cultural dimensions of mobile use closely.

- What is gonna be the next *big thing* in mobile?

Well, if I had my druthers, global mutual aid networks

PERSONAL FAVORITES

- Who inspires you professionally?

More people than I can count ☺ My partner who runs an international NGO and who is a brilliant man, my children for whom I do this all in the first place, many of my colleagues who are building and running incredibly creative campaigns and organizations, and really someone every day who makes the world a little better. I have the great privilege of seeing this work and reporting on it, connecting, and aggregating, building community and running programs that disseminate learnings from this rich, inspired community that I work in.

- Your favorite mobile technology blog?

Yours, my friend. And Emily’s textually – that girls rocks the house.

- Your favorite mobile device?

My Treo right now, may be different tomorrow ☺

- Favorite mobile application/service?

Texting.

- Your ultimate dream scenario including mobile?

A better, more just, more equitable world.

- The ultimate tech device not invented yet?

Ah, I am not a futurist in that kind of way…

- Who else could you recommend to be interviewed next?

I want a Kuwaiti woman ☺ Talk to Becky faith of Fahamu, too! And Emily. Definitely Emily!

-> FYI: Women in Mobile interview with Emily Turrentini from textually.org here

- Anything else you would like to add? Something the big players are missing?

Mobile phones and radio are two of the more subversive tools out there. Forget the internet in vast parts of the world.

Thanks Katrin for your time and good luck with the new projects!

While some of us are working and wondering what’s going to be the next new business model or next killer application in mobile technology, other people in different parts of the world are using the mobile phone to fight injustice. Trixie Concepcion of TXTPower, the group that popularized the Hello Garci protest ringtones in the Fillipines, is one of them. I think it’s essential for m-trends.org readers to know a bit more about her and her activities (thanks to Katrin Verclas from mobileactive.org, now at N-TEN for putting me in touch). * Picture by Justin Oberman.

The Hello Garci scandal (or just Hello Garci) is a political scandal and electoral crisis in the Philippines started somewhere in June 2005. The scandal involves incumbent president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who allegedly rigged the 2004 national election in her favor.

Trixie explains what actually created the Hello Garci incident and craze:

“Sometime in June 2005, a lawyer from our National Bureau of Investigation released a wire-tapped conversation between Mrs. Arroyo and an election official. The conversation was about ensuring that Mrs. Arroyo win by a margin of one million votes. This is what actually sparked the political crisis besetting Mrs. Arroyo until now. In any case, someone or some group made several ringtones of the significant parts of the conversation. The ringtone then was being passed on from phone to phone but the demand for it was already high and people were asking where they can download the ringtones. Some txtpower convenors thought to use our website to host downloads of the ringtone.

At that time of course, the government was threatening to arrest/sue anyone who had in their possession wire-tapped materials. We had to consult some lawyers before we proceeded with that plan. It was good we did as it was a success. So far, no lawsuit is coming our way because so far, no one has admitted that they were the voice in the tapes.”

There are loads of articles on the Internet about Hello Garci but as a starter, you might want to check the BBC NEWS articles about the Hello Garci ringtone craze and the Philippines’ mobile politics situation:

“More than a third of Filipinos have mobile phones. In a country where many live in poverty, they are often seen as a cheap way to stay in touch. But for some the mobile is also being used as a powerful political and social tool.“

You can download the ringtones and remixes (yes!) at TXTPower. A 3gp video is now also available for download. An estimated one million Filipinos are using the Hello Garci ringtone, making it the Philippines and arguably one of the the world’s most popular ringtones.

But we’re here for an interview with Trixie herself… Don’t expect answers on geek stuff and latest mobile trends in this interview but I think it’s more interesting to know how 1st generation GSM phones are used virally to distribute a message when people have something of importance to say and share.

- Can you explain more about your work and background?
I volunteer for a scientist-activist group that is involved in people’s issues. This group involves itself on issues pertaining to environment, public utilities, food, industrialization and the promotion of a scientific culture. This group is the convenor of TXTPower, of which we are a part of.I am also an environmentalist working on marine mammal issues. We closely monitor fishing companies that they practice sustainable fishing that do not harm non-target species. As an animal-rights advocate, we campaign against marine parks and similar facilities.

- Are you more social, business or technical oriented?
Academically, my background is in the earth-sciences. In my work, I use such a background for campaigns and advocacy.

- What brought you into mobile?
Mobile communications is now a critical medium in our work in campaigns, mobilization, advocacy, and education.

- How does mobile technological progress influences your daily routine in your work?
Mobile communications has helped much in mobilizing and organizing at the shortest possible time. The exchange is information is faster, and our campaigns can be adjusted to the latest developments on the ground.

The disadvantages though, in having such a technology is that people sometimes think that organizing a campaign is just an SMS away. Not really. While mobile technology really helps in mobilizing, the initial education work must really be done face to face and in person.

- Which tools you use to publish, blog or moblog your work?
In the Philippines, only about 10% or less of the population have access to computers. Texting or SMS is still the fastest mode of communication. A good segment of the middle class though do blog. But I would think mobloggers are even a smaller group. For our work, we would email our media advisories to media outfits.

- Which applications and services do you use on your phone?
Cellphones in the Philppines are still primarily used for texting. Other applications are still not as popular since most handsets are still not 3G capable.

- Would you use your device to interact with other machines?
Yes if this service is cheap enough and if the model of my phone will allow.

- Which machine-to-machine can you think of would be handy to interact with?
ATMs, Computers, fax machines.

- Would you download mp3 tunes on your phone?
Most phones in the Phils do not support the downloading of ring tones. Even if I did my phone had that capability, I may just use it mostly for my work.

- What about Mobile TV?
That would be cool if the handset cost would not be prohibitive and if the telco’s can provide such service at a reasonable cost. The cost of telecom services is a big issue in the country.

- How do you experience the Mobile Internet?
I have not used this service on my phone. Important: I am actually a campaigner and not really a techie…

- How do you see the future of mobile?
Mobile technology can play a bigger role in the advocacy for more democracy in many poor nations, human rights, environmental protection, etc. Any technology no matter how ‘low-tech’ once embraced and USED by the broadest number of people will be the tool for genuine change. I believe that this is the best use for any mobile technology.

- What differences do you see of mobile use in USA – Europe - Asia?
The issues confronting the mobile user of the US is very much different from the issues confronting the mobile user of Asia, for instance.

In poorer parts of the planet, access to mobile technology is very much an issue. The pricing, costing and distribution of mobile services are rallying points for mobile phone users in the Philippines, for instance.

In the US and in more affluent countries, the issues with regards to mobile tech is that the technology is already there, it just needs to be used by the citizens of these countries in furthering their political advocacies.

* NOTE for the readers (from Wikipedia): “In May 2006, Amnesty International reported a growing concern over human rights violations committed under the Arroyo administration, particularly the deaths of 605 people including dozens of journalists, making the Philippines the second deadliest country for reporters, after Iraq.”