SOCIAL MEDIA: Social media used by youth to air social concerns

NEW DELHI: Is it okay for your boyfriend to know your email password and check your mails or for your girlfriend to track your SMSes and screen your friends?

Taking a different perspective on gender violence in a youngster's everyday life, 'Must Bol' - a by the youth, for the youth campaign - is creating ripples in Delhi's youth circuit. Started in December 2010, and having entered the virtual world the very next month, the campaign has hit an instant cord with the youngsters because of the relevance of the issues and the non-preachy manner in which messages are being put across.

full article on the Times of India website

NEWS / IT: Children can play game by texting at bus stops

Leave it to the people at "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood" to devise a way for children to learn while they are waiting for a bus.

The Fred Rogers Co. is field-testing a game that uses phone text messages to promote interaction between parents and preschoolers and develop children's literacy skills during what otherwise would be down time.

"When people are sitting in the bus shelters, there's nothing to do," said Margy Whitmer, a media producer for the company. She got the idea for Word Play while waiting at a traffic light in Oakland.

The parent sends a text message to a number shown on a poster at the bus shelter. Back comes a text message asking a question that the child can answer by studying the poster.

Read more: http://old.post-gazette.com/pg/12121/1228149-298.stm#ixzz1tWJyc5Rm

ARTICLES / RESEARCH: Textese gr8 training 4 poets of 2moro

Research has linked children's use of text abbreviations with improved literacy.

THEY'RE at it wherever you look - on the bus or train, even just walking to school. Students seem fixated on their mobile phones, nimbly tapping out text messages such as ''Wen wil i c u 2night? Cos sum1 left a msg bout ur frend bein sik. R u sik 2?''

This tide of texting has prompted warnings that the technology is leading to a decline in language skills. So are children losing the capacity to read, write and spell well?

The answer: Probably not.

Indeed, new research has found a strong link between primary school children's use of text abbreviations and improved literacy.

full article

PROJECTS: Unicef launches free SMS number for Nepalese youths

UNICEF Tuesday launched a free SMS number for youths in Nepal so they could text in their views and comments on issues that concern them to the global organisation.

The number 4400 is a toll-free mobile text message service that allows users to send messages directly to the UNICEF in Nepal, Xinhua reported.

The number is being launched in partnership with the popular radio show 'Saathi Sanga Manka Kura' (SSMK), a youth oriented radio programme run by Equal Access Nepal.

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RESOURCES / STUDIES: Teens and Mobile Phones (USA)

Daily text messaging among American teens has shot up in the past 18 months, from 38% of teens texting friends daily in February of 2008 to 54% of teens texting daily in September 2009. And it's not just frequency – teens are sending enormous quantities of text messages a day. Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day, or 1,500 texts a month, and one in three send more than 100 texts a day, or more than 3,000 texts a month. Older teen girls ages 14-17 lead the charge on text messaging, averaging 100 messages a day for the entire cohort. The youngest teen boys are the most resistant to texting – averaging 20 messages per day.

Text messaging has become the primary way that teens reach their friends, surpassing face-to-face contact, email, instant messaging and voice calling as the go-to daily communication tool for this age group. However, voice calling is still the preferred mode for reaching parents for most teens.
About the Survey

This study is based on the 2009 Parent-Teen Cell Phone Survey which obtained telephone interviews with a nationally representative sample of 800 teens age 12-to-17 years-old and their parents living in the continental United States and on 9 focus groups conducted in 4 U.S. cities in June and October 2009 with teens between the ages of 12 and 18. The survey was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates International. The interviews were done in English by Princeton Data Source, LLC from June 26 to September 24, 2009. Statistical results are weighted to correct known demographic discrepancies.

Source - Full report

TECHNOLOGY / NEWS: ‘RapidSMS’ system for monitoring nutrition in Malawi gets top tech award (AFRICA)

The 'RapidSMS' system developed by UNICEF for Malawi allows health workers to enter a child's data and receive instant alerts on nutritional status. It is a vast improvement on Malawi's previous nutrition surveillance system, which suffered from slow data transmission and high operating costs.

NEW YORK, USA, 10 September 2009 – UNICEF has won the Gov2.0 Summit Award for an innovative system adapting accessible technology to better monitor the health and nutritional status of children in Malawi.

'RapidSMS' is UNICEF's open-source platform for data collection, logistics coordination and communication, allowing any mobile phone to interact with the web. The technology directly responds to one of the biggest challenges facing UNICEF's field operations: access to accurate, timely and actionable information.

'Best thing I've seen'

The technology was presented at the Gov 2.0 Expo Showcase in Washington DC, where an audience of about 600 academics, entrepreneurs, journalists and representatives from non-profit organizations and government agencies voted for their favourite projects.

RapidSMS won in the category of 'Government as a Provider' and received high praise from attendees, many of whom posted reactions via Twitter.

As one post from 'ilabra' said: "Rapid SMS unicef talk best thing I've seen at Gov2.0. real problems, code production and a floss [free license and open source software] project. A generative pattern. Well done."

full article

TECHNOLOGY / SMS: UNICEF uses text messages to spread the word about polio in Zambia (AFRICA)

UNICEF uses text messages to spread the word about polio in Zambia

20 July 2009 – The United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) will be sending text messages to millions of Zambian parents this week as part of a new initiative to harness modern technology in the fight to prevent polio.

UNICEF has joined forces with the Zambian Health Ministry and two mobile phone companies, ZAIN and MTN, to encourage parents to bring their children under the age of five to the nearest health-care centre for free polio vaccinations.

“It is about time that we used modern technology to ensure child health and this year is particularly important because of the polio prevention campaign,” said UNICEF Zambia Representative, Lotta Sylwander.

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NEWS / ARTICLES / TECHNOLOGY: SMS and MSN to report antisocial behaviour (UK)

Haringey invites young people to text in crimes in confidence

By Alison Bennett - Children & Young People Now - 13 February 2008

Young people on a London estate are using text messaging to report antisocial behaviour discreetly and without fear of recrimination, in an initiative which is believed to be the first of its kind.

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