Viral messaging: ‘Text messages facilitate productive relationships’

Authors of report say that though literacy rates in Pakistan are a barrier, illiterate phone users are also SMS savvy.

KARACHI:

Due to extreme penetration of mobile cellular technology in the country, a policy lab dedicated to innovation in population engagement, has done a case study on Pakistan and how text messages serve as a facilitator of productive relationships, between institutions and the people they serve.

According to the authors of the report, Alex Gilchrist and Jim Linton Williams, one of the reasons they chose Pakistan from a list of countries where SMS and mobile were common, was because they felt that there is great potential for civil society to benefit from these technologies to engage with the population.

Viral text messaging is widespread in Pakistan, according to the report, which focuses on the use of two-way SMS communication in the country and explores how Pakistanis use SMS and mobile technology – elaborating on the possible tools available to engage the population and stakeholders of the country.

According to the report, it is common in Pakistan for text messages to be forwarded from one friend to another, without knowing the identity of who sent the message. The reason this is possible is because of the remarkably low cost of text messages in Pakistan, which allows this one-to-one viral transmission to reach a considerable scale.

Report findings also suggest that since mobile phones are approaching ubiquity in Pakistan – and allow low-cost access to all types of community members, “the mobile phone can be an effective tool to communicate with ordinary people in Pakistan, as well as to learn from them, and even collaborate with them.” According to the report, SMS enhances two-way communication among ordinary people. Citing examples of ways in which SMS can be used in Pakistan, include having a community bulletin board where users could receive adverts and announcements, vote on community development expenditures, call for help against domestic violence and also sign a petition.

Apparently, the report suggests that the use of SMS is common across phone owners of all demographics in Pakistan, and although literacy rates in Pakistan present a barrier, illiterate phone users are also SMS savvy. Interestingly so, it is common for such phone users to ask literate relatives and friends to read text messages to them, and sometimes even write text messages for them as well, the report states.

Furthermore, an equal number of men and women have access to mobile phones, through one means or another. However, while, men tend to own a phone or use the phone of a friend or of a public call office, women tend to use a phone owned by an adult male family member.

The writers are waiting to see how civil society organisations react to this report, and say that if their recommendations are looked upon positively, the authors, together with these organisations will try to collect funds to implement these recommendations. According to them, they’d like to carry out a similar report exploring the use of voice based mobile communications.







Published in The Express Tribune, June 23^rd, 2011.