Mobile Tech in Citizen Participation

By phumeza Submitted on 13 October, 2008 - 22:11

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Mobile Tech in Citizen Participation, facilitated by Jose Carlos Vaz is one of the sessions I attended today. at the  MobileActive08 conference. He made a presentation on Mobile Technology for e-democracy: m-democracy. This is based on an initiative to get ordinary citizens into governance issues through the use of mobile technology.

The presentation highlighted that mobile phones can be used for other things other than just voice calls and SMS. Raising awareness and participation in democratic processes is another way a cell phone can be used. He also highlighted that cell phones are widely used and people don’t need any training to use cell phones, this an advantage that mobile technology should be explored for other uses like citizen participation in democratic processes.

The presentation also highlighted the issue of high costs involved in the use of mobile technology. This becomes a critical issue if mobile technology for citizen participation is rolled out on a large scale, for example if its use is adopted by a country. In such a case governments have to bear costs that come with that.

In realising the importance of using mobile technology for citizen development, citizens and civil society have to be organised through global social networks to promote adoption of this technology at a larger scale, he suggested.

Participants in the session also contributed interesting comments, one is a suggestion to look into other means to mobilise for the adoption of the use of mobile technology for social upliftment.