The Features of Mobile Tech and their Applications for Good Causes - Connectivity

The following two parted article examines the key features of mobile technology and how these features can be vital to those looking to use mobile devices for good causes; whether it be aid or health agencies employing them ‘in the field’ or charities rolling them out to disadvantaged individuals to improve their quality of life.

Wireless Connectivity
Perhaps the primary advantage of any portable device, in terms of its use for charities and aid agencies for example, is the factor that makes it portable in the first place - that is its wireless connectivity. There are a myriad of ways in which devices can connect with the rest of the world. When it comes to delivering basic communications, vast swathes of the developed and developing world are covered by mobile phone networks and, as the more basic mobile phones are becoming cheaper and cheaper, it has never been easier to make phone contact across disparate locations. Where mobile phone signals don’t exist yet (due to a lack of mobile phone base stations) there is still the option of using satellite phones which are potentially able to relay voice and simple data communications, using satellites, between any two locations across the planet.

However, the real advances in the last decade have gone beyond sharing one-to-one conversations in opening up the internet, and therefore the ability to share vast amounts of information, to portable devices such as notebooks, tablets and smartphones. Such devices, when connected to wireless (WiFi) hotspots or 3G (and increasingly 4G) cellular data networks, can give users access to the internet when they are away from fixed (home or office) locations, in transit or in the field to allow data sharing and collaboration. For any aid worker or health professional working in the field for example, this can be a vital means of immediately sharing information about patients or environments, with colleagues - perhaps back at a base - for further analysis and diagnosis.

Using the internet (on 3G for example) to carry data, mobile VPN (virtual private networks) can also provide a secure link between disparate locations so that any of this data/information which is private and sensitive can be shared with, and restricted to, trusted individuals and networks. Following on from the above example, but more specifically, health workers visiting patients off-site in their own homes can instantaneously update health records on secure centralised servers using mobile VPN technology, with no need to wait until they are back at base.

GPS
Most portable devices such as smartphones and tablets also come with GPS integrated within their connectivity options. GPS, or Global Positioning System, uses signals bounced from multiple satellites to identify where any device in the world is located. For individual consumers, it helps us to navigate maps and see what services and attractions are nearby, but for aid workers it can allow vital information concerning their context to be logged alongside other data they are sharing. If water samples, or photos are being captured for example, GPS functionality can add an automatic and accurate time (incorporating time zone) and place stamp, making the information far more complete, accurate and useful.

What’s more, for those actually carrying a portable device, the GPS functionality can prove life saving as allows their position to be tracked and picked up when they are in need of assistance. Whether it's a lost walker or an elderly individual who’s had a fall, their support and rescue can locate them without delay where GPS is utilised.

To find out more about how mobile devices are being used for good causes you can check out these videos from Vodafone's Mobile for Good Foundation, or get more information on the uses of VPN.

The Features of Mobile Tech and their Applications for Good Causes - Usability & Portability

Having looked into how the connectivity of mobile devices can be useful in providing flexible and diverse communication channels for those carrying out charity work, the following part of this article highlights the more interactive features that increase the functionality of the devices for both aid workers and disadvantaged individuals.

Cameras
A digital camera is now standard in the vast majority of portable or mobile devices and an increasing proportion can capture both photo and video. Coupled with the aforementioned connectivity of such devices, this provides many charity or health organisations with the ability to capture evidence and information on what is happening ‘in the field’ and share it almost immediately with their target audiences. For example, the visual aspects of symptoms can be recorded and reported by health professionals to their colleagues for further analysis; or evidence on the extent of disasters can be collated, shared and assessed to inform what actions should be taken next. Moreover, this evidence can be shared with the wider world to effectively communicate situations where aid action is required to the public, across the globe, in order to raise the profile and ultimately the funding for a cause. Even where charity or aid workers are not on the scene, the prevalence of portable devices with in-built cameras and connectivity means that the public’s attention can be drawn to those in need by witnesses with such devices documenting events.

Size
Arguably the second decisive factor in defining a device as portable is its size. Devices such as tablets and particularly smartphones can be carried and transported to any part of the world that people can get themselves to. As these devices are packed with computing power that would have, only a few years previously, been restricted to desktop PCs, plus connectivity that crosses boundaries, they are not only able to collect information but process it, analyse it, share it and report it wherever they are. Whether it’s individuals who require more assistance themselves, or people and organisations helping others, the fact that they are not tethered to a location means that they are able to deal with demands when and where they occur.

Touch Screen Displays
The development of a touch screen is fundamental to the existence of portable devices as it has allowed them to do away with both physical keyboards and mice to become handheld and pocket sized.

What’s more, however, touch screens provide a more intuitive way for some less able users to make the most out of their device. By generating possibilities around the creation of specific accessibility applications, they open up functionality to individuals with specific needs. Large, increasingly high resolution displays, for example, allow touch screen controls to be made as large as possible and well defined for those who have difficulties perceiving the usual small controls. Using software (see below), controls no longer need to be fixed and can be dynamically configured to suit the user’s needs. Button colours, keyboard layouts and languages, for example, can all be changed using software to benefit the device’s user.

Software
Finally the element that brings many of the hardware capabilities together, integrates them and leads to ingenious solutions to niche but demanding problems is the software. On each platform, solid and useful pre-packaged software is complemented by stores of 3rd party applications, developed by people ranging from global software companies to keen individuals building apps in their spare time. It is hard to find a problem too big or too small where someone hasn’t attempted to develop an app to deal with it. Therefore with mobile device processing power growing at an exponential rate and the physical capabilities of high connectivity, GPS and camera functions all on offer, the real potential mobile devices have in aiding good causes is the creativity of those developing solutions for them.

To find out more about how mobile devices are being used for good causes you can check out these videos from the Vodafone Foundation, or get more information on communications and networking from this provider.

The Government’s Adoption Map for the UK

Children of the United Kingdom's Children's Migrant Programme (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

The UK government recently released a map of the country’s local authorities, colour coded to indicate the number of children in each authority that are eligible for, and in need of, adoption. The map demonstrates the areas of the country that are therefore struggling to recruit enough adoptive parents to meet demand and the government hopes that this will encourage more to come forward. Consequently it is perhaps an opportune time to take a quick look at what adoption in the UK actually entails and why the government deems it necessary to take this course of action.

What is Adoption?
As mentioned, these latest developments concern the number of children that are in need of adoption. This means children that are in need of parents who will be required to assume full parental rights over them and to take this responsibility on as a lifetime commitment. A child who is adopted becomes a fully integrated and permanent member of that family and in the eyes of the law hold the same status, rights and protection as a child would by birth. Indeed, at the point a child is adopted, the birth/original parents relinquish their parental relationship and effectively cease to be the child’s parents in any legal context.

The concept of adoption is notably distinct from that of fostering where a foster parent cares for a child who is need of a secure home on a temporary basis. Although children may be in foster care for varying periods of time, the intention with fostering is always to return the child to their parent’s home as soon as possible, if possible. The birth/original parent remains the child’s legal parent and the foster parent becomes a temporary guardian.

Barriers to Adoption
The permanency of adoption introduces a number of factors which affect the ability to find suitable adoptive parents with which to place children. The fact that the prospective adopters must be willing themselves to make this lifetime commitment, and take on both the financial and emotional challenges that that brings, will limit the number of parents coming forward to adopt in the first place. Importantly, however, the stakes are also increased in regard to the welfare of the child, which is the ultimate concern with adoption. As a consequence there is a need for greater emphasis to be placed on making sure the parents and children are suitable matches and will subsequently be happy as a family. This is, of course, a concern in any scenario when placing a child with carers, but has even greater importance with adoption. It is the job of adoption agencies to ensure that the adoptive parents have come to terms with the commitment and that the child will be happy and secure with suitable parents for the rest of their lives.

With the higher stakes, there is a risk that the processes involved in qualifying for adoption and then placing individual children can be exhaustive and create too many administrative, practical and emotional obstacles; dissuading parents from entering the process, and preventing children from exiting care and finding settled families.

Upcoming Changes
As the government’s new map helps to demonstrate, there are currently more children waiting to be adopted than prospective adopters and so the challenge facing the government and agencies is to appeal to more parents/families to come forward, to enter the process, whilst ensuring that the necessary safeguards are in place to protect both the child and the adopters wellbeing.

To this end the government are looking towards a few initiatives to raise the profile of the adoption issues in the UK and make the process easier for parents to enter the pool of prospective adopters. The map is one stage in this. Parents can now see the scale of the shortfall in adoptive families in their local area by seeing the number of children who are eligible for adoption but still awaiting a suitable family. Hopefully, this may encourage those who may have been under an illusion that the chances of being successful in their applications was remote because of the competition they may have faced.

The map however is part of a wider initiative which also involves a new adoption hotline funded by the Department for Education but run by charities and staffed by people with first hand experience of the adoption process. The hotline aims to make it easier for prospective adoptive parents to access the information they need as well as to navigate their way through their applications. In addition, the government is planning to launch a new website, “Gateway for Adoption” later in the year which will aim to be just that and put parents into contact with the relevant agencies as they embark on their adoption journeys.

For those looking for legal advice in regard to the adoption process and other childcare related matters you can click here.

How Charities Can Embrace Technology - Tools for the Disadvantaged

Many technologies can be employed by the people, who the charities are supporting, themselves to solve some of the obstacles that they face in their everyday lives and charities are vital in increasing the awareness of these technologies and their benefits as well as rolling them out to those who will make use of them.

Accessible Tools
There is a growing awareness in technological circles of the concept of accessibility for example - making technology usable for those with disabilities - and as more and more websites, mobile phones and computers become usable by such groups these individuals are gaining a rich medium through which to access the world around them. Examples of accessible technologies include the use of screen readers with compatible websites to provide content to the visually impaired, large button/display mobile phones, intelligent zoom functions on any type of device and voice activated controls.

These technologies can allow individuals to communicate with friends and family where they may have struggled to in the past, become more self sufficient (e.g., maintaining jobs or simply doing their own online shopping) and reach the support they need more readily, whether it be their carer/charity worker contacts or valuable online support groups and communities which they can use to share and received advice and counsel.

Mobile Tools
Beyond accessibility there are many other uses for cutting edge technology in helping disadvantaged individuals improve their own quality of life, whether as a result charities finding ways to utilise the technology that the individual already owns or introducing new solutions that can also be of benefit. Accessible digital technology can be used for self monitoring (e.g., events, symptoms or medication) either in cloud based calendars or specially built applications, for accessing advice and support on tap (as above), for interactive, accessible, intuitive and engaging learning and education or for mobility. In particular the burgeoning smart mobile phone market with its internet capabilities (using WiFi, 3G and soon 4G), plethora of apps, built in cameras and video recorders and touch screens has delivered a pocket sized solution that combines so many of the latest technologies and makes them available in an accessible medium and free of location ties. In a format which can therefore be taken to those who most need it wherever they are.

More specific examples of how these possibilities have been realised to support those most in need include mobile apps which use in-built cameras to read QR (quick response) barcodes on packets of medication to take the user to a web page with all the information and guidelines that they require, and one touch mobile devices which can be used by victims of domestic abuse to alert the authorities when they are being abused and record the event as evidence (e.g., Vodafone’s TecSOS service).

Thanks in part to the mass market adoption of mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, it has never been more affordable for charities to make use of such integrated high technology or for that technology to be adopted by the individuals themselves that they are looking to help. And as the market moves forward at such a pace it is just a question of “watch this space” for the possibilities that lie ahead in the next few years.

How Charities Can Embrace Technology - Working With Tech

In the first part of this article we looked at the ways in which technology such as mobile communications, computing and the internet can help charities spread their messages and reach their potential sources of funding and aid. However, all of these technologies can also have more direct applications for some charities by actually assisting the work that they carry out.

The speed with which data can be shared between, not only fixed locations over extensive wide area networks and virtual private networks, but also over wireless technology, smartphones and 3G connections from remote locations and on the move, has unleashed numerous possibilities for charities to become more effective and efficient in the work that they carry out. Charities that reach out to the vulnerable can be more responsive and can more easily take their work to these individuals rather than waiting for them to come to the charity. Furthermore technological advances can be employed and promoted by charities as solutions to help the vulnerable become self sufficient, empowered and integrated into society.

Efficiencies in Health Care
One particular field in which many charities operate is healthcare and, although technology in this area is often at the forefront of technological advances in general, such high technology as scanners and robotic surgical devices, which are revolutionising the effectiveness of both diagnosis and treatment, can be very costly.

However there is massive potential for technology, particularly mobile technology, to overcome many of the obstacles faced by carers and healthcare workers, especially where there are issues relating to location. A great idea of how creative combinations of existing technologies can be used to increase efficiencies in this area can be taken from the recent adoption in some hospitals of robots on which tablet computers are attached providing video conferencing facilities. These mobile face to face communication tools, which can be used at the patients bedside, allow consultations to occur between patient and doctor even when the two parties are in different hospitals. This not only makes the hospital efficient (the cost is not small but is less than employing extra staff), to the benefit of all its patients, but also ensures that the patient receives the best possible care, and in good time too, even when the most appropriate doctor for their ailment is located in a different hospital.

Mobile Devices in the Field
As mentioned in the previous instalment of this article, mobile devices can be vital tools for in the field to provide a commentary on the work being done and the conditions being faced by charity workers, but these channels of communication can also be invaluable in allowing charity workers to share information between themselves instantaneously and on the go so that the demands of the vulnerable and in-need can be responded to most effectively and speedily. For example, international charity workers who are treating patients in the field can communicate symptoms to colleagues based in a central location, using mobile phones, text messaging, instant messaging email and even video, so that the diagnoses and treatments can be determined remotely but then implemented on location, straight away. Alternatively workers can use these mobile technologies to arrange and change logistical planning whilst in the field, to respond dynamically where the need is greatest by communicating and researching the information they need as they go.

Corporate Giving
When any technology is employed or purchase by a charity, it is worth that charity approaching the original provider (or any other big business that has charitable links) to see whether there are any cost savings to be had due to their charitable status. Many providers will offer concessions and discounts whilst some will even provide services gratis, such as staff time and expertise, digital services or computing resource (e.g., hosting in the cloud) as part of their corporate giving schemes.
© Stuart Mitchell 2012

How Charities Can Embrace Technology - Publicity and Fundraising

Walk for Cancer - it's raining! (Photo credit: miamism)

The missions of charities are as wide ranging as the number of issues that different societies face across the world, however any cause can benefit from embracing the advances in technology that are taking place all around us. Whether it be communicating their message to the general public and boosting their funding or carrying out the work to help the disadvantaged that lie at the heart of their objectives, technology can help charities become much more efficient, effective and dynamic in all aspects.

The Internet
One of the biggest challenges facing charities is in publicising their cause and the work that they do, and ultimately raising the funding that they fundamentally rely upon. The internet has been a godsend in that respect and it has never been easier to create a web presence to inform the general public and potential donors and volunteers about a charity does and why. What’s more, charities can even use their online channels to obtain their funding or services directly from their donors whilst they are imparting this information to them.

The internet provides a vast array of possible mediums through which charities can communicate their messages such as standalone web sites - incorporating engaging rich media including charity videos, games, blogs and infographics - or sometimes the more effective social networking sites. What’s more, there are plenty of off-the-shelf e-commerce systems, such as PayPal and WorldPay, which can be integrated into a charity’s web site to allow them to receive donations via the internet or raise money through other initiatives such as online charity shops.

Virtually any computer literate charity worker will be able to create a simple site or blog, but for those charities looking to provide a rich online experience to its users it is worth forming a relationship with a digital development or web design agency to deliver that content. Some agencies will specialise in working with charities, using flexible agile methods to do so and possibly offering special concessions (e.g., discounts, free resource etc) so it is important for each charity to find the right agency for them.

Social Networking
The boom in social networking has given charities a way to reach out to the communities that form on these networks and communicate directly with them. The premise of sharing that drives networks such as Facebook or Twitter means that if a charity can engage effectively with users on these sites they will be shared and recommended across the communities (and sometimes the general public too) more readily, thus spreading their message in a way and at a speed previously not possible. A charity’s reach can be greatest, therefore, when it combines its own website channel with social media channels to provide a broader online presence. Information and updates that are posted on a charity’s own website can reach a much wider audience if they are also promoted through social media outlets and shared across those communities. In particular, social media can be invaluable when organising fundraising events as participants buy into the cause and actively share it with their communities to raise awareness, sponsorship and encourage other participants to volunteer.

Furthermore,, the integration of blogs and/or social media updates together with online donation facilities, for example, means that charities can provide running feedback on the success of their fundraising activities as well as on the effectiveness of the work that is being carried out with the funds that have been donated thus far. Consequently, donors (and prospective donors) are able to see exactly where and how their money is being used and, assuming they see value in it’s application, be more motivated to provide further funding.

Mobile Internet/Apps
Through the use of mobile browsers and apps, another dimension can be added to all these benefits in that the charities can provide updates whilst working ‘in the field’ and the public can access information and donate from wherever they are. For example, a charity worker providing aid in the wake of a natural disaster can tweet from their mobile device as they are on the scene or even record an on location video diary to bring the extent of the crisis to the attention of the public. In particular, when charities workers are operating in scenarios where other forms of communication can be difficult, mobile devices being used on location can be the only way for the workers to get their message out until they return back home.

Furthermore, the possibility of being able to donate, not just access the charity’s message, via a mobile app, browser or via text messages (with the money being taken from your mobile bill) means that members of the public are more likely to donate when they get the urge/motivation and have the means to do so at their fingertips. They no longer have to wait until they get back home or to the nearest bank, by which time they may have lost that urge. In addition, there is a likelihood that members of the public will be more generous with their money when it is being transferred in an digital ‘virtual’ medium as opposed to a more tangible one.

© Stuart Mitchell 2012