Video Clip of the Month: Free Mobile Books for Africa

May 2, 2012 by

I first heard about nonprofit Worldreader—which gives Kindles to students with little access to printed books in rural sub-Saharan Africa—last January on the Build It Kenny They Will Come Blog….  The following line in the post really wowed me:

“Imagine, all the books a child would ever need to see them through their basic education, all packed into a ~$100 device.”

It turns out WorldReader is taking its idea of bringing free digital books to the developing world one step further. WorldReader’s newest project is turning plain old feature phones into smart phones that can be used as electronic readers.

Imagine children using cell phones to read books in parts of the developing world where they previously had few to no books. All for free, except for the costs of the cell phone. Keep in mind that an astounding 79 percent of people in the developing world had a mobile phone subscription at the end of 2011, more than percentage with access to electricity.

To quote the Build It Kenny They Will Come Blog….:

“We often say in mobiles-for-development that today most people in the developing world will make their first phone call on a mobile, and have their first experience of the Internet on one, too. Perhaps children, in the not-too-distant future, will have their first experience of reading on [a mobile phone]?”

Filed Under: Relief & Development, Technology Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Finding Out Via Facebook Your Husband is Dead

April 29, 2012 by

Vietnam MemorialI grew up in a military town during the Vietnam war. I remember my friends’ dads going on tours, particularly submarine cruises, for months at a time with little or no communication. There was just a lot of wondering.

Today, social media has made life for military families another universe. You can keep connected with military personnel via Facebook and YouTube just about every day. Dads and moms serving abroad can help their kids with their homework, read bedtime stories, and do some of the things they would if they were back home.

That would have been unimaginable in my childhood. Many dads returned back then as virtual strangers to their young kids, and young kids generally do not hug strangers.  So welcome homes were often … painful.

The beyond-words blessing of social media’s real-time information does have a down side, though. A handful of military families are learning about the death of their loved ones via Facebook, according to USA Today. One of the widows mentioned in the article received the bad news when she was home alone with her children.

The military has a special process for notifying families that their loved ones have died. Uniformed military personnel are dispatched to their next of kins’ homes to deliver the news in private face to face in a dignified way.

According to the USA Today article, the next edition of the Army’s Social Media Handbook, which provides guidance for leaders, soldiers and family members, will address the casualty notification process.

This is a sound strategy, in my view, because I believe additional training is the answer. Additional guidance and more training should help prevent this problem from growing—along with any related calls to restrict military personnel’s access to social media in the field.

Social media has brought so much joy to military families. It’s truly sad to think it has caused extra pain for the families of some military personnel who have made the ultimate sacrifice for our country.

Filed Under: Communications Tagged With: , , , ,

Video Clip of the Month: Women Who Tech Promo

April 22, 2012 by

I apologize to my regular readers for the lack of posts the last few weeks. I’ve been busy visiting my family out of state for Easter, had some unexpected Internet connectivity problems, and then was busy with client catchup. So my monthly video clip of the month post, usually posted around the first of the month, is way, way overdue.

So without futher ado, here’s my April 2012 video clip of the month: a video excerpt from the Women Who Tech TeleSummit after party in San Francisco in 2008. It’s an oldie but goodie—with relevant information on a time-sensitive topic.

Registration is open for the 4th annual Women Who Tech TeleSummit—taking place May 23, 2012, from 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. EST—featuring an incredible lineup of female technology change makers. Women with an Internet connection anywhere in the world can take part.

The cost? $20 with scholarships available.

Just like the past three sold out TeleSummits, this one may sell out too. So register now. Among the talented women in technology, startups, and social media serving as panelists include:

I signed up as soon as I learned registration was open for this year’s event. Again, I recommend you do the same.

Filed Under: Communications, Technology Tagged With: , , , , ,

KONY 2012 – Finally a Realistic Theory of Change

March 29, 2012 by

Reprinted with permission from the Peace for Sale blog. For background on this post, please see the earlier The making and breaking of KONY 2012 Peace for Sale blog post. 

The Enough Project has worked with Funny or Die to produce a pretty funny short film. It’s a parody on KONY 2012 with a call to action. The action, however, does not claim to end a war – its goal is to build awareness and to inspire people to send the letter below to President Obama. This is a realistic goal that does not cost much more than some time and a phone call and is an action the primary viewers can do to impact policy. There is a clear connection between the action and the result. Unlike KONY 2012… where buying a bracelet and targeting youth who are unable to vote to END a WAR surely is a bit off target.

Here is the video and below is the is the letter… and here is the Enough Project site to get more info.

Dear President Obama,

I applaud your decision to deploy U.S. military advisors to assist regional counter-LRA efforts. This is an important step towards a more effective strategy to bring an end to the LRA crisis. But unless an urgent need is addressed, it will be nearly impossible to find Joseph Kony. The main force trying to find Kony has been cut in half and is not allowed to operate in Congo, where most of the LRA is located. A robust Africa-U.S.-Europe partnership is urgently needed. The four key elements of this partnership should be:

  1. Troops: President Obama should call on African governments to deploy capable forces to help find Kony;
  2. Intelligence: A surge of U.S. intelligence support; and
  3. Transport: Logistical assistance from European countries.
  4. Defection strategy: aid and radio towers to make sure that LRA fighters know they have a safe place to come out.

I urge you to reach out to your African and European counterparts to secure their support.

When you signed the historic, widely-supported LRA legislation into law last May, you called the nearly 25 year-long LRA crisis a “unique crisis of conscience.” It’s time for your administration to act with all the urgency required to fulfill congressional intent and create a African-U.S.-European partnership capable of finally ending the LRA.

Sincerely,

President Obama Contact Information:

Phone:(202) 456-1111
Fax:(202) 456-2461
Email: Use form on Enough Project website (toward bottom).

Filed Under: Causes, Communications Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Limits on Federal Public Relations Activities? Sort of…

March 21, 2012 by

I read with interest yesterday a post on a “wide-ranging” Senate investigation into the federal government’s use of public relations services. From the Institute for Public Relations website:

“Twice in the past year there have been investigations into public relations spending by the federal government. The most recent was launched in late February by Senator Claire McCaskill (D–Mo.) and Senator Rob Portman (R–Ohio), who have triggered a wide-ranging investigation of the federal government’s use of public relations and advertising services. At the initial stages of this inquiry the Subcommittee is seeking data for the past five years pertaining to “contracts for the acquisition of public relations, publicity, advertising, communications, or similar services” at 11 separate Federal agencies.  We have our concerns, which we expressed directly with the Senators and through an op-ed published in Roll Call.”

It will be interesting to see where the investigation leads. Similiar controversies have frequently arisen over the years when some members of Congress perceive a federal agency’s public relations activities are overly promotional of a policy or program, particularly in an election year.  The Department of Defense, Department of Education, Department of Health and Human Services, Federal Communications Commission, Internal Revenue Service, and and other federal agencies have drawn congressional scrutiny during the past decade for potential violations of:

  • 5 U.S.C. 3107 prohibiting the use of appropriated funds to hire “publicity experts”
  • Annual appropriations law prohibiting funds being used “for publicity or propaganda purposes within the United States not heretofor authorized by Congress”
  • 5 C.F.R. § 1320.3(c), as detailed in U.S. Office of Management and Budget Guidance on Agency Survey and Statistical Information Collections, regulating audience research (including surveys and focus groups)
  • The Smith-Mundt Act requiring the U.S. public be insulated from government-sponsored information and broadcasting directed at audiences beyond America’s borders (kind of hard in a Web 2.0 world)

According to the Congressional Research Service, however, the laws prohibiting the hiring of publicity experts and the expenditure of appropriated funds on publicity and propaganda in actuality place very few limits on agency public relations activities:

“(1) No federal entity is required to monitor agency compliance with the publicity and propaganda statutes. At present, the federal government has what has been termed ‘fire alarm oversight’ of agency expenditures on communications. Scrutiny typically occurs when a Member of Congress is alerted by the media or some other source that an agency’s spending on communications may be cause for concern. A Member then sends a written request to the Government Accountability Office asking for a legal opinion on the activities in question.

(2) The terms ‘publicity,’ ‘propaganda,’ and ‘publicity expert’ have been interpreted to forbid a very limited number of activities. Congress has not defined the terms ‘publicity,’ ‘propaganda,’ and ‘publicity expert.’ Thus, to GAO has gone the task of delineating what these terms encompass. GAO has done this on a case-by-case basis over the past half-century. Generally speaking, GAO has narrowly defined these terms. It has held that the ‘publicity or propaganda’ prohibition in appropriations laws forbids any public relations activity that:

  • involves ‘self-aggrandizement’ or ‘puffery’ of the agency, its personnel, or activities;
  • is ‘purely partisan in nature’ (i.e., it is ‘designed to aid a political party or candidate’); or,
  • is ‘covert propaganda’ (i.e., the communication does not reveal that government appropriations were expended to produce it).

GAO has interpreted ‘publicity expert’ to mean someone who ‘extols or advertises’ an agency, ‘an activity quite different from disseminating information to the citizenry about the agency, its policies, practices, and products.”

Social media has further complicated this interpretation and enforcement challenge.

I agree with the op-ed Gerard F. Corbett, chairman and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America, wrote for Roll Call:

“Any investigation into the government’s use of PR firms should not be undertaken unilaterally. It must be met by an equally robust examination of how the government communicates with the public and how it can better use innovative PR firms and professionals to best reach and inform citizens.”

Federal agencies deserve less ambiguity on where to draw the line between the appropriate use of funds for public education and general information and the inappropriate use of tax dollars to promote themselves, a political agenda, or U.S. foreign policy. Communications practitioners who serve federal government clients need to watch this investigation—and adhere to any resulting law changes—carefully.

Do you think this investigation will lead do anything?  

Filed Under: Communications Tagged With: , , , , ,