mobile activism and techno community tools

Grant Corbishley (Snr Lecturer at Wellington Institute of Technology and expert in cross disciplinary engagement) has kindly sent me a number of great links related to mobile activism and techno community building tools. Uncategorisable objects and ungenreable activities aboundJ

The SMS Guerrilla Projector is a device that allows people to project text messages onto other people, buildings and public spaces. Fantastically subversive, it currently seems to be used for either arts or marketing purposes but would be interesting as part of a campaign for activists (hence the name perhaps).

With a similar but different purpose the Graffiti Gun Camera adds material into people’s photos by ‘firing’ images and text onto public spaces - unseen by passers by but logged by their cameras.

Mobichange is a mobile social networking site/tool that is multi-lingual and open source and designed for people to access via voice and sms. It is designed for people who have a mobile phone as their only computing device and have limited skills in English - people who want to meet others and/or need to moblize to take collective action in grass roots communities.

Tactical Sound Garden is another open source based platform this time helping people to cultivate sound gardens in shared public spaces. Using a Wifi enabled mobile device (pda, mobile phone, laptop) people can plant sounds in and around their cities that can then be picked up via headphones connected to those same devices. A fantastic way to stimulate the imagination and connect digital, imaginal and physical spaces. (Similar technology to some of that created by the A.R.T Mobile Lab of Banff New Media Institute mentioned in an earlier post)

And finally Kitchen Budapest is a new media lab based in Hungary with some incredible talent working on a vast array of projects that connect mobile and new media technologies with spaces, cultures and communities. The cyclists among you will greatly appreciate their Bycall Project which lets bicyclists transmit a warning signal to cars (via their radios) within a 15 minute radius. A flick through their project page will inspire you for weeks to come!

Thanks again Grant!

PS: don’t forget ANAT’s Portable Platforms as another great source of mobile inspirations.