1. CiviCell and CiviSMS
Requested amount from Knight News Challenge:
$180,000Total cost of project including all sources of funding:
$180,000Expected amount of time to complete project:
12 monthsBuilding upon the CiviCRM framework as a base, add on cellphone based content and applications and also formalise the work already done with regard to integration of SMSs.
This will allow organisations using CiviCRM a way of providing news and information directly to their constituents without them needing to access computers or printed media. This is ideal for many underdeveloped areas.
CiviSMS will try to pull together the work done on integrating SMS with the CiviCRM system and also draw from work done on the Drupal SMS framework. It is intended that Wap Pushes will be possible as well as standard SMSs.
CiviCell will be a turnkey cellphone targeted XHTML / (plus WML for backwards compatibility) website which would have the following functionalities:-
secure login based on cellphone number(s),
News & Announcements,
Instant messaging within the constituent base with a message center and contacts,
Group Chat within the constituent base,
Integration with CiviEvent,
Allow users to update their status and selected details from the CiviCRM database,
Custom links.
It is intended that CiviSMS would be integrated with CiviCell to allow for initial sending of the CiviCell link and also to remind constituents to logon if they have not accessed the cellphone content in a while or if they have a number of messages they have not read.
We will trial this with NGOs based in specific localities within South Africa.
2 commentsHow will your project improve the way news and information are delivered to geographic communities?
Through using Established NGOs and Community Based Organisations
The majority of NGOs and Community based organisations have constituents within specific geographical locations.
The open source CiviCRM (http://www.civicrm.org) system was designed from the ground up for non-governmental organizations that engage in advocacy, community and political organizing, and non-profit work. It is probably the most widely used open source CRM software designed for Non-Profit organisations.
In many underdeveloped areas of the world internet connected computers are not generally available whereas internet enabled cellphones are commonplace. Therefore an NGO working in an underdeveloped area can greatly improve the way that it communicates news and information with its constituants by utilising SMS and cellphone based web content.
By utilising the backend of CiviCRM and building SMS and cellphone based content/applications on top of it, non profit organisations would be able to provide information more effectively and at less cost than ever before.
Please note that in South Africa (where we would look at trialing this) - Data costs are considerably less that SMS costs.
0 commentsHow is your idea innovative? (New or different from what already exists.)
The Integration of Open Source CRM and Cellphone Based Content
There are open source CRMs available and these can also often interact through the internet. For example CiviCRM can allow people to register for events, sign up for memberships or contribute to a cause through the internet. CiviCRM and other similar systems are very useful for organisations to communicate with their constituents.
There are also Bulk SMS systems and cellphone based chat systems and plenty of cellphone based Internet content around.
This idea integrates the cellphone technologies with the existing databases and back office systems.
0 commentsWhat experience do you or your organization have to successfully develop this project?
CiviCRM implementation experience and Experience of Cellphone Content provision
We have performed CiviCRM installations and worked with Non-Profits using CiviCRM. We also have links with a number of NGOs in South Africa who we will try to trial the systems with.
I was developing Cellphone based web content as long ago as 1999 and set up one of the first widely used information sites called Phoneafact.com which had over 120000 wml pages of information. We have experience in developing web content with XHTML.
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