History

MID-TERM REPORT TO SSRC:
An online, multimedia tour of Mobile Voices' progress to date (February 2009)

I. Summary of Project Accomplishments & Growth

Mobile Voices ("VozMob" http://vozmob.net) is an academic-community partnership between the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (http://annenberg.usc.edu/) and the Institute of Popular Education of Southern California (IDEPSCA - http://idepsca.org) to research and design a platform for low- wage immigrants in Los Angeles to publish stories about their lives and their communities directly from their mobile phones. This low-cost, open source, customizable, and easy to deploy multimedia mobile storytelling platform is being designed in collaboration with its users to help recent immigrants who lack computer access gain greater participation in the digital public sphere. In parallel, our research team is studying and documenting participatory approaches to building and deploying low-cost new media, exploring how storytelling helps community building and organizing, and investigating how emerging media tools can best be leveraged to promote digital inclusion and assist marginalized groups.

Thanks to the generous support of the Social Science Research Council over the past six months, the Mobile Voices project was launched and has made great progress toward our goal of establishing a citywide, mobile, multiethnic, immigrant communication network. Grounded in a popular communication approach, we have developed a prototype of the mobile storytelling platform through an iterative process of participatory design, which engages low-wage immigrants in developing their own communication tools and practices. The Popular Communication Team (PCT), a group of volunteer day laborers and domestic workers devoted to using citizen journalism and other forms of communication for social change, has been piloting the platform and will soon be teaching others in their communities how to use it. The Mobile Voices ‘sandbox’ site is now operational (see http://prueba.vozmob.net), Drupal modules for mobiles are being developed, and the PCT is producing a continuous stream of multimedia content. As we begin to transition from the prototyping phase to deployment at each of IDEPSCA’s six worker centers (and shortly thereafter, to other community organizations), plans are underway for the roll-out of the Mobile Voices platform through popular communication workshops using the mobile "toolkit."

As an action-research project, while developing the Mobile Voices tools we are simultaneously carrying out research, much of which is detailed in this online "tour" of progress to date. Consistent with our open-source and participatory approach, Mobile Voices is sharing with and learning from others; we have been participating in a variety of presentations and conferences which are also detailed in this report.

In addition, we have used the past six months to build on the seed funding from SSRC and the Annenberg Program on Online Communities (APOC) to secure technical, in-kind and financial support from the Nokia Research Center in Palo Alto, CA, and submitted a proposal for funding to the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Competition Innovation in Participatory Learning (http://www.dmlcompetition.net/). As we grow our financial support, we are growing our team of committed and innovative developers, researchers, and community organizers.

How to use this guided tour

The following is a sampling of progress to date that exemplifies the dynamic experience of participatory design and research to support popular communication and community organizing. Within this research wiki — a workspace for the project — we have provided summaries of key accomplishments to date and plans for the coming months. These summaries often link to the actual works-in-progress. We welcome feedback from SSRC as well as the public; comments and questions may be posted on our blog at http://blog.vozmob.net.

Please click on the links below to access additional information on the following initiatives:

II. Research

1) Systematic review of existing mobile services for organizing and advocacy efforts

We used two frameworks – technology clusters and communication infrastructure – to review existing mobile services for organizing and advocacy. Technology clusters frames mobile phones in the context of a larger communication ecology in a given society. The communication infrastructure framework takes an ecological approach as well, but also includes the presence of other actors, like local NGOs and geo-ethnic media, in local “storytelling” networks that bond communities. Specifically, five areas of applied mobile technology use were examined: citizen journalism, political action, public health, humanitarian assistance, and m-government. The findings of the report show that within the context of the chosen frameworks, few critical assessments have been done to assess the efficacy of mobile communication. While case studies by NGOs and other organizations provide a good foundation, more detailed inquiry is required. Thus, there is a need for future research.

http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/12/analyzing-the-impact-of-mobile-technology/

Participatory design (PD), a methodology developed in the industrial sector, directly involves users in technology development to increase the technology’s effectiveness while democratizing the design process and empowering users. As open source and mobile technologies proliferate, the potential of participatory design to help meet the communication needs of marginalized communities is growing. PD for citizen media, participatory media production, or popular communication remains under-explored as a process for social change. This case study considers the outcomes—and their theoretical and methodological implications—of using a PD approach to develop a mobile, popular communication platform for low-wage immigrants in Los Angeles.

For a full abstract of this study: http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/mobile-voices-an-analysis-of-participatory-design-for-popular-communication-and-social-change-abstract/

3) Studying change: Quantitative & qualitative data on communication practices and perceptions

Preliminary Survey of Communication Practices
In 2008 we conducted a survey of communication practices, including mobile phone and computer use, among 58 workers at five of IDEPSCA’s day laborer centers. The survey findings aided the initial development of the project by describing day laborers' existing usage patterns and their ideas on how mobile phones can be effective tools. We found that most workers (78%) did own mobile phones and used them on a regular basis. A majority of the workers reported using their phones primarily for work purposes and also to contact friends and family in other countries. We discovered that phone models and plans varied greatly, as did usage of specific phone features such as text, video, and photos. Interestingly, many workers knew how to take photos using their mobile phones but did not know how to upload this content onto a computer. When asked about computer use, an overwhelming 98% of the workers said they would like to learn how to use a computer. Some of the most useful findings from the survey were the anecdotal accounts of how workers have used their phones in different ways -- such as to document completed jobs or to visually explain a plumbing problem through photos. Overall we found an expressed interest in learning more about mobile phones and their features in order to fully take advantage of this accessible and affordable communication tool.

For a more detailed report on survey findings click here: http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/preliminary-survey-of-communication-practices/

Mid-Project Qualitative Interviews
As part of an evaluation and reflection effort, we interviewed day laborers who have been actively using the Mobile Voices system and organizers involved in the project. The purpose of the interviews was to evaluate both the successes and challenges that the project faced four months in. Our analysis of the interviews reveals that participation in the project has changed the way that participants feel about mobile phones and about technology in general. While the prototyping phase of the project demands much patience and persistence, participants look forward to the deployment phase so that they can teach others what they have learned. Overall, the individuals currently using the system and creating multimedia stories feel very empowered by the ability to produce content and have their voices heard.

A key takeaway from interviews with IDEPSCA staff and community organizers is that Mobile Voices is a real alternative media channel that “empowers workers to tell their stories.” All interviewees expressed distrust in the mainstream media’s desire (and ability) to represent the real lives and struggles of low-wage immigrant workers. Their stories are either left out altogether, or, even worse, completely misrepresented. Mobile Voices, especially the use of multi-media messages that workers create to tell their stories, gives voice to this community and augments their already ongoing popular education efforts. As one interviewee said, “The storytelling is incredibly powerful. It humanizes people in this global economy where individuals are not worth a cent.”

For more detailed summaries of each interview, click on the following links:
http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/05/interview-with-zamoran/
http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/interview-with-pct-member/
http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/13/interview-with-vozmob-coordinator/
http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/23/interview-with-idepsca’s-director-highlights/
http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/07/idepsca-intern/
http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/16/interview-with-activist-involved-in-a-faith-based-collective-key-themes/

Evaluation
We are currently planning a participatory evaluation process for the Mobile Voices project. For more on this see: http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/17/abstract-for-proposed-iamcr-evaluation-presentation/

III. Participatory Design Process and Outputs

1) Mobile-customized Drupal content management system (CMS) for digital storytelling

One of our goals with Mobile Voices has been to develop an effective process for the Popular Communication Team (PCT) to be able to participate in the design of our Content Management System (CMS). We determined early on that we would be customizing Drupal (http://drupal.org), the popular Free Software CMS, for our needs. The question was, how could we create a workflow whereby the developers working on the customization would respond to the needs expressed by the PCT, rather than simply to the researchers’ preconceptions about what might work best? For a description of the process being used click here: http://vozmob.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/the-vozmob-content-management-system-tools-and-strategies-for-participatory-software-development/

2) Open source application for low-cost mobile handsets

Since inception, vozmob has pursued two complementary technology paths. The first and principal thrust aims at developing a Content Management System (CMS) able to interact with any mobile phone or carrier –this is described above. The second thrust seeks to test and develop handset-based applications that can enhance vozmob CMS functionality. During Spring 2008 we tested a number of simple Java-based clients designed to simplify the integration of pictures, text, and sound recording into blog postings. These require internet connectivity on the phone – we tested them on low-cost Motorola phones with pre-paid connection from Boost mobile and the results have been disappointing (see http://docs.indymedia.org/bin/view/Global/VozMobPhoneApps).

In parallel we have begun a collaboration with engineering students enrolled in Prof. Murali Annavaram' EE579 class at USC's Viterbi School of Engineering. In 2008, two groups of students developed handset-based application prototypes in collaboration with VozMob. The first implemented a labor market system via SMS messaging and the second a mobile blogging editor. These applications currently run on high-end Symbian handsets, but the code could be adapted to lower-end Java enabled handsets. During Spring 2009, we are collaborating again, with the goal to develop two new applications: a handset-based MMS-to-http gateway and a media editor/preprocessor. More information about these efforts can be found at http://dev.vozmob.net/issues/show/58 and http://dev.vozmob.net/issues/show/57 respectively.

The Mobile Voices staff in collaboration with the Popular Communication Team—the pilot group of day laborers and domestic workers who have been helping develop the Mobile Voices platform— is producing a toolkit and workshop curriculum for use by community-based organizations that want to participate in Mobile Voices or set up their own innovative mobile-based system. The toolkit will be available under a creative commons license. In the coming months, we will be using this toolkit in trainings that Mobile Voices will offer (co-led by day laborers and domestic workers from the PCT) to a number of additional community-based organizations in LA.

Mobile Voices has received several inquiries and requests from local organizations for trainings and partnerships; we are thus progressing toward our goal of a citywide, mobile, multiethnic, immigrant communication network. With the additional support of Nokia and the recent hire of a Community Organizer for the project, we are well positioned to scale up the project in the coming months.

IV. Digital Storytelling: Examples of media produced by the day laborer community

The Popular Communication Team is using several of multimedia techniques – from photo slideshows to full video narratives - to create and share their stories. Discussion of the tools (how they can be used, how they should be improved, etc.) takes place during weekly workshops with the group, but the media is produced by PCT members throughout the week as they work, spend time with family and friends, and commute through the city. Below are links to a several examples of what has been produced thus far.

Slide Shows:
Arturo: http://vozmob.virishi.net/en/node/1364
Gabriel: http://vozmob.virishi.net/en/node/1548
Feliz Ano 2009: http://vozmob.virishi.net/en/node/1114

Videos:
Hoy ví a mi gente: http://vozmob.virishi.net/en/node/961
Clan Romeriano: http://vozmob.virishi.net/en/node/1603
Sabor a hiel: http://vozmob.virishi.net/en/node/470

(Click on the attachment links within these pages to play audio and video tracks.)

V. Project Adjustments

Despite great progress made in the first half of this grant period, we have made some adjustments to the project timeline. The deployment of the Mobile Voices platform, workshops, and toolkit has been delayed by factors including the need to obtain additional funds to hire a Drupal developer and a Community Organizer for more streamlined project coordination, and a delay in receiving mobile phones generously donated by Nokia. We also underestimated the complexity of building a platform that is compatible with the highly variable technology, services, and cost structures of mobile service providers in the U.S.

During Spring/Summer 2009, we plan to consolidate and expand the platform's capabilities and make it available to immigrant workers in the six worker centers operated by our community partner, IDEPSCA. During Summer/Fall 2009, we will make Mobile Voices available to other LA-based community organizations and study the concept's applicability in other community contexts. By the end of 2009, we plan to release "vozmob-in-a-box", a F/OSS package including installation files for our Drupal-based content management system, installers for phone-based Java applications, and multi-lingual documentation accessible to various community organizations.

VI. Knowledge Sharing

A key philosophical and methodological concern of Mobile Voices is to share with others our research and design process as well as project outcomes and outputs. Since its inception, Mobile Voices has sought to fulfill this commitment in several ways, as illustrated throughout this online report. We are systematically sharing knowledge-in-progress through a variety of openly accessible tools, including the following:

Mobile Voices team members have given talks to discuss our progress and learning thus far. We have presented our work in the following fora:

We are making plans to present at several conferences in the coming months, including the following:

(an up-to-date list of vozmob presentations, past, future and proposed, can be found at http://dev.vozmob.net/projects/vozmob/issues?query_id=6)

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