How do you remind registered voters to get out and vote? How do you mobilize an entire region to donate money to victims of a natural disaster? How do you get parents involved in their children’s school? If your first thought is a TV commercial or a catchy jingle, then you’re clearly behind in the times. The answer is text messaging.
Text is an infant medium (compared to the pack of tubes called the Internet) and it has revolutionized modern communication in the same way that the Web and blogging have. With the new advances in mobile Web browsing (if it can be called browsing at this point) and micro-blogging, the line of distinction between the two is ever more blurry. In fact, I could be writing this article while waiting for the bus, but in order to retain some modicum of dedicated journalism I’m writing it from a full fledged Dell desktop. Do these scenarios sound familiar: You’re sitting at Melba’s or Café Largo having a delicious dinner, or you’re sitting in church when out of the corner of your eye you see someone feverishly thumbing away on their mobile device with the same fervor as a cat entranced by a catnip laced toy.
Texting has become a defacto mode of communication progressing at such a quick pace that the rules of proper etiquette regarding text are barely catching up to the medium. Just a hint, if you’re on a first or second date with someone you really like then you might want to resist the burning temptation to pull out your Blackberry and text a friend an update or post to your Facebook page, “Robert is: totally feeling this girl!” Not cool!
Traffic laws are quickly being amended to include cell phone use and texting while driving. A large number of people have been caught thumbing away at red lights, green lights, and even the freeway. While texting has generally been thought of as a means to reach someone without interrupting their immediate activities, this purpose has hardly been proven effective. You’ll catch people at meetings or conferences reaching for their Smartphone holsters in a knee jerk fashion at the slightest hint of a vibration.
If you haven’t been in a cave over the last 20 months, then you know of the electronic presidential campaigning employed by our new President-elect. You might have signed up for text messages on Barack Obama’s website alerting you of calling parties, voter registration drives, debate watch events, and the Democratic Convention. As a matter of fact, during the campaign I would play cool and tell my co-workers that, “Barack just texted me. He needs me at Café Bonjour for voter registration.” My self-delusion resulted in me believing that somehow the man himself was reaching out to ME to help HIM, rather than it being a strategic move to garner more votes.
Now, let’s turn our attention back to Harlem since this is Uptown Flavor and not C-NET. Recently a company by the name of CellTrust, a company that deals with secure mobile messaging and other mobile applications, engaged in a SMS alert program at Harlem Success Academy (which now has three new schools). HSA needed an effective means to communicate directly with the parents of their students. Many of the parents belong to the newer generation that don’t have landlines installed in their homes. Also, despite a massive drop in the price of computers a disproportionate number of Harlemites still cannot afford to buy a Personal PC, so email was not an viable option. Past experience had shown that sending alerts via the postal service always posed the risk of a letter not arriving to parents at their most recent address.
CellTrust and the school decided to turn to texting (SMS as it is referred to by people 55 years old & older). The text messaging system was used to remind parents of mandatory meetings, sports events, trips, important homework assignments, and administrative alerts. Rather than making hundreds of phone calls or sending out hundreds of letters, one blast of a text message was all it took to get the parents engaged in their child’s school life. (Watch the video here.)
Harlem Success Academy parent talks about the SMS alert program
According to CellTrust, parent participation went from under 5% to 99%. While I’m not sure how they measured the results, the program has led to tangible improvements in school participation and in conjunction student performance has shown improvement as well. For example, the school used text messages to alert parents about the admissions lottery event to fill 650 slots within the 3 schools. Reportedly, 5,000 people attended the event which is the largest showing for a charter school lottery in New York State. As a result, the slots were quickly filled. It also allowed the school to set up enrichment programs for the students before the school year even began. The schools opened on time without any delays.
The program became such a successful innovation that CellTrust won two of the Mobile Marketing Association’s (MMA) Fourth Annual Global Mobile Marketing Awards, for “Best Use of Mobile Marketing: Relationship Building for the North American region, as well as the Global award in the same category.” In the end, Harlem Success Academy established a successful paradigm for increasing parent participation and student improvement in a neighborhood that has historically lagged behind the rest of city. As an added bonus, CellTrust received two awards to boast about by making an investment in the future of Harlem’s children.
While texting may be seem like an annoyance in some circumstances there are many practical needs it can satisfy. What other uses can texting be transferred to? How about reminders about doctor’s appointments? How about receiving the results of your blood tests? How about real-time alerts for people awaiting organ transplants?
Following the tragic shooting rampage at Virginia Tech, many universities have since created safety alerts that can be sent to students in real-time. Cell phones are always within arms reach of their owners, so whatever messages that need to get out will arrive virtually in real time. As moronically simplistic as that may sound, it is what makes the technology practically indispensable. So imagine the endless possibilities that texting can have in developing countries.
The next time you’re at a restaurant or in church and you’re set to ‘mean mug’ that rude person reaching for their Smartphone, take a second to pause; That person just might be receiving an important message. However, if he or she writes back then you can feel free to sneer since it is probably safe to assume that the annoying text is not life altering, but rather an ill-timed mobile conversation.
Posted on November 19, 2008 by illoquentgent