World AIDS Day and Reconstructed Living Lab

Today the world is celebrating World AIDS Day and at RLabs we are doing our part to ensure a difference in the lives of people impacted by HIV and AIDS. Some of the projects the RLabs team had involvement with includes:


- Mobile Counselling with Cell Life and National AIDS Helpline

- Mobile HIV/AIDS Information Portal with more than 30,000 subscribers

- Mobile HIV/AIDS CellBook partnership with Metropolitan Foundation providing users access to a full text with advice and information via the mobile phone.


These are just some of the activities RLabs are busy with to reconstruct communities across South Africa.

Art of a Mobile Counsellor

In collaboration with the Department of Social Development and Impact Direct Ministries, the RLabs team hosted the world's first Mobile Counselling Course to a group of particpants from various Non profit and Community based organisations. The focus of the training was to empower these organisations to make use of mobile phones as part of their counselling services. The training was managed by our mobile counselling specialists who covered a wide range of topics over the three days ranging from the "Art of Mobile Counselling" to "Confessions of a Mobile Counsellor".



The new mobile counsellors were also introduced to the system that will be used for the mobile counselling activities. The excitement by the participants and orgsanisations involved was a clear indication that using mobile counselling as part their support services to clients could add value to their service delivery. This is especially the case for organisations working with youth who use mobile phones daily for engagement with friends and family. The training was only the beginning of the journey and the next few weeks we have to roll it out to schools that could benefit of Drug Mobile Counselling Services.

National AIDS Helpline: Pilot training

After a long day of travelling in Johannesburg it is so exciting to be part of the rollout of the world's first HIV/AIDS Mobile Instant Messaging counselling service by the National AIDS Helpline. This week it will be further training with the counsellors and training with the supervisors of National AIDS Helpline who will be managing the services locally. This initiative has been made possible by Cell-Life and their partners who are sponsoring this service.

To add the HIV/AIDS mobile counselling service do the following:

- Add redchatzone@gmail.com on your mobile chat service and accept the contact.
- This service is currently available Monday to Thursday 4 - 6pm.

My first WAP mobile phone

Ten years ago I acquired my first WAP enabled phone the NOKIA 7110. Just amazed at how technology has changed. Post your first WAP enabled mobile phone as a comment to this post.

The Art of Mobile Counselling - Part 3

Continuing our journey on exploring "The Art of Mobile Counselling" today we will look at what is known as Text language or "Textese". This is a language and culture that is increasingly used by mobile chat users. As a mobile counsellor being familiar with how the language evolved is important and to understand how the chat language words are formed. Below is a general guideline to what could be expected from most chat users:

Words are replaced with single letters:
be --> b
see --> c
are --> r
you --> u
why --> y
okay --> k

Words can be replaced with single digits:
one, won --> 1
to, too --> 2
tree --> 3
for --> 4
ate --> 8

A single letter or digit can replace a syllable therefore shortening some words e.g: ate can be replaced with 8, therefore great can be text as gr8, wait becomes w8, later becomes l8r or l8a. To can be replaced with 2 therefore we can have tomorrow that could be text as 2mro.

Combinations of the above can shorten a single or multiple words for example your and You're become ur or yr and u're. Next week we will continue with "The Art of Mobile Counselling".

Mobile Youth: Youth Marketing for the Public Sector

This week the Drug Advice Support service to mobilise youth in support of social good was featured on Mobile Youth website and Upstart Radio. An eBook "Youth Marketing for the Public Sector" by Graham Brown explores various ways how brands and public sector organisations have engaged youth in social programs. In our case the key element was identifying the champions amongst the youth as reaching them on a platform that they are comfortable with.



You can read more about engaging with youth for social good programmes in the FREE eBook that can be downloaded here.

Mobile language preferences by users on MXit

One of the projects that we are collaborating with is the Red MXit information service offering HIV info to users in different languages. This project is currently be managed by Cell-Life and the idea is to give access to information on the MXit platform. The user have to add the service on the MXit profile as a buddy and can view information in 4 of the official South African languages (SA have 11 official languages - See table on the right for language distribution during 2001 census) and in the text (mobile) language. It was interesting to see (High level observations) which of these languages are the most popular amongst our users using this service. Red gave the user the following language options:

- English
- MXit Chat
- Afrikaans
- Sesotho
- Zulu

The number of subscribers to this service is 22,003 of which 62% is male subscribers. The age groups for this service support the MXit demographics with 76% of the subscribers being between the ages of 15-25. The same content was available in all the language options for the user and the following was the language preferences (estimates based on overview of available users count) ranked:

1) English was the most popular choice with approximately 60% of users accessing content
2) Chat Language (MXi Chat) had approximately 25% of users
3) Afrikaans had approximately 10% of the users accessing content
4) Zulu content was accessed by approximately 3% of users
5 Sesotho content was accessed by approximately 2% of users

Although Zulu has the highest number of home language speakers in South Africa in only managed 4th on the list of available languages with the English language proving to be the most popular with the current group of subscribers. Interesting observation in the above list is the MXit chat or chat language that was more popular than Afrikaans, Zulu, Sesotho combined (These languages presenting more than 45% of the South African population).

Perhaps more should be done to see how the chat language can be integrated as part of mobile service delivery with the increase of mobile users being comfortable communicating using it as its language of choice.

To add this contact on MXit:
- Go to Tradepost
- Select MXit Mix
- Select My Culture option
- Select Red
- Add Contact

This service is available 24 hours a day. Your feedback would be welcomed.

Mobile Counselling services via The Grid

Today we've extended our mobile counselling service to the 800,000+ users on "The Grid" mobile social network platform (Thanks Nic Haralambous for stats update). This means that users on The Grid will be able to access our Drug Advice Support, Debt Counselling and HIV/AIDS counselling services. Users on the Grid have to import contacts and could add one of the following communities:

- AIM
- MSN
- Yahoo
- GTalk
- Icq

Once selected then users would be able to communicate with any of our advice support services. To import any of the above communities on the Grid the following steps should be taken:

1) Go to Online Friends
2) Select menu
3) On the menu select "My Friends"
4) Import Contacts
5) Select Menu -> Add Community
6) Select Community (AIM, MSN, Yahoo, GTalk, Icq), Enter User name and Password
7) Select Import now

The user can add our Drug Advice Support(DAS), HIV Redchatzone and Debt Breaker contacts in any of the above communities to access our FREE services via The Grid.

National AIDS Helpline Mobile Chat service growing

The collaboration with Cell-Life and National AIDS Helpline (managed by Lifeline) ,using our Advice Support Network (ASN) software, offering mobile counselling in the area of HIV/AIDS is clearly showing signs of growth during the "Pre-pilot". Thursday the counsellors had conversations with 16 people and supported 635 messages during their 2 hour session. We are looking forward to see how this project grow as the Lifeline counsellors become more comfortable using the mobile phone medium as a means to support those in need of HIV/AIDS support.

Social Media for Non-profits workshop

Yesterday as we hosted a number of non-profit organisation representatives it was exciting to see how these non-profits would use Social media as part of the organisation strategies. It was also an opportunity to have members of the Reconstructed Team (Craig Ross (in image above), Brent Williams and Clinton Liederman) to facilitate the workshop. The day was a huge success as we not only managed to get the participants excited about Social Media but we also explored way of how it could be used practically within the various organisations for Social Change.

Some of the topics covered that got the participants talking was the use of blogs, micro-blogging and mobile phones as part of the organisation to engage with various stakeholders. Some of the challenges for many of the non-profits were the lack of resources (E.g. bandwidth, having staff dedicated to social media strategy etc). However, during the workshop we were able to discuss a basic Social Media strategy that could support Non-profit organisations. Using the following steps as part of the Social Media strategy proved to be useful to the participants:1)listening 2) participating 3) creating 4) building networks and 5) evaluating.

At the end of the day all the participants managed to start a blog, micro-blogging, get involved with social networks and draft a basic social media strategy for their various organisations.

BBC Interview - Drug Advice Support

Tuesday afternoon (25 August 2009) we had the privilege to share our experiences on how we using mobile phones to support people impacted by the problem of drugs. I had an interview on the BBC World Service and you can listen to it online. The interview about Drug Advice Support (DAS) starts at 42:32 (See image for guidance) on the BBC iPlayer.

Workshop: Social Media for Social Change - Port Elizabeth

“Introduction to Social Media for Non-profits, NGOs, Community-Based Organisations and Charities”


The “new web” has transformed the way people connect and social media platforms have become an essential part of the organizational and business strategies. These technologies can be useful for non profits as strategic tools for engagement, relationship building with stakeholders and communities, networking and fundraising. With millions of users of social media in South Africa alone and over a billion worldwide across various platforms (PCs, Mobile phones etc.) this is an opportunity for non profits to share with the masses using FREE tools available to support the vision of such organizations.

Content:
This one day training “hands-on” workshop will cover the following areas:
1. Background to social media and tools such as blogs, wikis, micro-blogs, wikis, and multimedia file-sharing sites;
2. Provide a THREE step approach to how your organization can utilize and reap the benefits of social media
3. Practical opportunities for participants to engage with some of the social media tools.
4. Social Media and mobile phones
5. Drafting a Social Media strategy for non-profits.

Objectives:
1. Understanding of Social Media and its context
2. Identified tools that could be integrated into the non-profit operations to support its vision and objectives
3. Introductory level of hands-on experience using social media tools
4. To use mobile phones as possible social media devices
5. Understand the importance of a Social media strategy for a non-profit

Workshop Details:
All required equipment will be provided for the workshop and this includes all refreshments. Workshop price is R750.00 for the day.

Workshop Date & Time: 8 September 2009, 9am – 4pm.

Venue: Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University (NMMU), Summerstrand, Port Elizabeth

To be part of this Social Media Revolution RSVP at rene@impactdirect.org.za or for more information contact Marlon at makesparker@gmail.com

PS: The workshop had limited space for 10 participants only.

The Art of Mobile Counselling - Part 2

Realising that counselling using Mobile Chat is not the same as helpline or face to face counselling due to a number of factors. Some of the key characteristics and skills for mobile counsellors are:

- Firstly all the counselling skills that applies to helplines and face-to-face is also true for mobile counsellors
- Fast Communication Skills, the mobile chat generation is a "Now" generation who requires immediate response. Fast chat skills would therefore be good to ensure the most of the medium.
- Multiple conversations with various people in need would require being able to multitask
- Understand the mobile language and culture (E.g. know the basics such as not typing in Capital Letters, make use of the basic chat characters just to give that feel of belonging etc.)
- Read between the characters, important to make sense of the expressions through the mobile phone medium.
- Brief and to the point, remember less is best. The small mobile phone screen of most users mean that they do not need long paragraphs but short and to the point messages.
- Creativity, the mobile counsellor should be creative to get the message across in as few characters as possible
- Passion, as with all other form of counselling passion for the area and medium is important.
- Minimal Chat Response (MCR), this is one of the important skills that's required making use of characters during the conversation such as "k", "o" etc. This is important to ensure continuous conversation and getting the user to discuss their situation.

Next week we'll share more on the Art of Mobile Counselling and your comments are welcome as we grow the characteristics and skills of a Mobile Counsellor.

Drug Advice Support featured in Business Week

Yesterday the Drug Advice Support (Our mobile counselling drug support service) was featured in US publication BusinessWeek, The article "MXit Mixes Mobile Networks with Social Conscience" was the second major publication the project featured in this week. MXit being more than just a Mobile Instant Messenger but moving towards becoming more of a Mobile Social Network have become one the big African Mobile Innovations that will continue to grow in Africa and in parts of Asia according to Herman Heunis, CEO of MXit Lifestyle. He also added in the Business Week article that MXit has an advantage over telecoms in understanding social behavior because that's "the core" of their business. With this perspective towards their product and their innovation we should see a greater increase of MXit type technologies being deployed in the area to support Social Good.

The full article featured in BusinessWeek can be read here.

Launch National AIDS Helpline Mobile Instant Messaging service

Today will be the launch of our hard labour over the past few weeks providing National AIDS Helpline with the technology to offer mobile counselling service to thousands accross South Africa. Why this is such wodnerful opportunity? Interesting facts about South Africa:

1. Highest number of HIV+ people in the world
2. Most unequal countries in the world
3. Best technical infrastructure in Africa, especially cellphones

"Massive potential to use cellphones to provide communication & info services to millions infected or affected by HIV"


We salute the world's first HIV/AIDS Mobile Counsellors as we looking forward seeing how communities will be reconstructed through the use of technology.

National AIDS Helpline counsellors are available Mondays to Thursdays 3-5pm. Add the contact redchatzone@gmail.com (Jabber) or redchatzone (Google Talk) and nickname: Red Chat Zone.

The Art of Mobile Counselling - Part 1

After an exciting week of training with National AIDS Help Line in South Africa who supports thousands every month with the issue of HIV/AIDS we managed to get 6 of their counsellors all geared up for Chat Counselling using mobile phones. Although all of the participants were qualified counsellors we had to teach the difference in counselling approach via mobile phones. We will be sharing some of our thoughts over the next few weeks of what the necessary skills are to make the best of the mobile medium. Our experience with the Drug Advice Support (DAS) counselling service has taught us that Mobile phones as a medium the following is a few suggestions to consider:

- Mobile chat environment has its own culture and language

- Less is best, the counsellor have to use as little text to get the maximum message

- “Hi” is a conversation, for many just a simple "hi" is a conversation that makes them feel connected in some way.

- Communicate in characters not words. Many of the mobile chat users communicate using characters to make the most of the small screen and limited number of characters per screen

We are looking forward seeing the progress of the National AIDS Helpline as they make use of our technology to support thousands accross South Africa.

National AIDS Help Line on MXit

Today we started a world's first by offering training to the National AIDS Help Line using our Advice Support technology to offer counselling via Mobile Instant Messaging (MIM). This Pilot is managed by Cell-Life, supported by HIV organisation Right To Care and PEPFAR which will allow for this service to be fully funded for the duration of the Pilot. What this mean for the National AIDS Helpline is that it would be now the only organisation in the world to offer counselling with regard to HIV/AIDS using Mobile Instant Messaging using the technology (see image below)that was developed by a community on the Cape Flats in the Athlone Living Lab.

The first day went well as we introduced the future mobile counselors to "The Art of Mobile Counselling" and "Mobile Phones for Social Good". The training is being done by myself and Craig Ross, member of the Reconstructed Team, and will keep you updated on the progress of the week. Also look out for a post on the "Art of Mobile Counselling". To add the National AIDS Help Line on MXit you do the following:

1) Add Contacts
2) Got to Jabber or Google Talk option
3) ID: redchatzone@gmail.com (Jabber) or redchatzone (Google Talk) and Nickname: Red Chat Zone
4) Accept Contact

This service will be live Mondays to Thursdays between 3pm and 5pm.

MXit response to Media

Over the past few days MXit was again in the media in connection with a young girl who went missing. Fortunately the young lady was found and back home safely. The response from MXit to its 14 million users can be found below:

"(1:42:02 PM) Info: NOTICE: MXit SAYS NO TO POOR JOURNALISM! We condemn the unprofessional and sensation seeking journalism displayed by e-TV and The Star newspaper this last week. Both news channels in some way blame MXit for the disappearance of the Parktown girl. E-TV ran this story Wednesday night, displaying a pornographic website on the backdrop - totally unacceptable as we will never promote pornography. The Star also ran articles that left readers with only MXit to blame. MXit is not responsible for the disappearance of this girl. We want to warn all users again to enjoy our technology with the necessary responsibility and level of maturity; and never to reveal personal information. We challenge both media owners to get these simple facts accurate, and to properly understand our technology. Can we trust what is reported?"

Please find our previous post about advice for parents and users with regard to use of MXit here

Mobile phones and the elderly

Yesterday morning we had an exciting time with our Seniors Mobile Session (SMS). It was interesting to see the eagerness on the seniors that visit the Impact Centre who want to know more about mobile phones and technology. The SMS workshops is to support the elderly in the local community to maximise the use of their mobile phones. Being able to do basic functions on their mobile phones (sending texts, checking voicemail etc.) the elderly will be able to engage on these platforms with the younger generations as well as peers and it also seems as if there is an increased interest to learn about the use of mobile phones to access the web.

Below are some videos of the SMS group sharing what they expect from these workshops

Red HIV Zone on MXit

Today we launch another exciting inititiave a collaboration with Cell-Life. South Africa has 5.7 million people living with HIV of which and estimated 3 million between the ages of 12 and 35. This is also the age group that has the most mobile and mobile chat (e.g. MXit) users. To ensure that people in this age group are reached with information and advice about HIV on a communications platform that they use daily MXit proved to be an ideal medium.

This is the Cell-Life Red project that will provide users FREE access to information and advice to information about HIV and AIDS. This service is available 24 hours a day and is easily accessible. This new service will offer people opportunity to be part of a community that will support those in need.

Information about HIV will be available in 5 languages (including a chat language)and will also have competitions, contact details and much more as part of reaching the 14 million users on MXit.

If you want to go Red on MXit then you can do the following:

- Go to Tradepost
- Select MXit Mix
- Select My Culture option
- Select Red
- Add Contact



Our goal is to reach at least 250,000 users who will use this contact for information and advice relating to HIV and AIDS. The Red revolution has surely begun. Follow Red also on twitter @RedMXit for more information and updates about the service