Amy O'Donnell's Comments

I have downloaded  Frontline SMS Alpha but its not loading, am failing to use it.Ever since it only say please wait loading and it ends there.Hope ur ok.

Thanks, Amy! 

Amy,

Given that our station is in the US and we have good Internet connectivity at the station itself, even though many of our listeners do not, can we use FrontlineSMS with an Internet to SMS service? I realize we are not the typical Frontline user, but I come from a developing country radio background, so tend to look at solutions I know of from that world, like FrontlineSMS. But, the cost of buying a GSM modem and setting up service with a GSM provider just for text messages it huge here. US mobile providers consider SMS an add-on service and they charge dearly for it.

Greg

Amy,

Yes, I did see that you are working on FrontlineSMS:Radio. We are very interested to see where this goes. We are not currently doing anything with SMS, it is something we want to develop, and FrontlineSMS seems like the tool to help us to do that. We will be very interested to read about how other radio stations are making use of this great tool, and then seeing how we can adapt those uses to our situation.

Greg

Ahsante Amy,

I am working with the National Broadcaster  and some community radio stations using frontline SMS on agriculture extension. Mainly we focus on getting feedback from program aired where farmers ask questions. We also send short messages to selected farmers on agriculture practices.

Farmers have been able to ask questions which we provide real time feedback. In addition we provide agriculture tips to the farmers on the best practices on selected topics.

Hi,

I work in Search for Common Ground Rwanda as Design Montitoring and Evaluation Coordinator. In Search for Common Ground we have a lot of project and we are working with radio stations. We support radio stations by strengthening the journalists. Now we have a regional project (Rwanda, Burundi and DRC) supporting trading for peace in greate lakes. to implement this project we have radio programs broadcasted through different radios in Rwanda Burundi and DRC and we are need to use Frontline SMS to collect feedback  from listeners to those radio programs.

Broadcasting, considering SMS via PC to Mobile phone, or mobile phone to mobile phone, but for in my case, i  considering SMS from PC or Web application to mobile phone, tapping the  social responsibility of most IPs, GSM and CDMA service provider, encouraging them to increase concern in most under privilege sector of the population.  Broadcasting means to propagate from a medium to media.

We're in the early development stages of trying to find a solution. I'll know more about a pilot in May, but can't promise anything now. But we are definitely going to take a look at it.

My main problem right now is my cell phone is a Nokia E51 with a Symbian operating system. In order to download and try out the system, I have the additional expense of purchasing another cell phone. I can resolve this too, but it takes some time and additional funds.

I'm still getting familiar with Frontline SMS, what it can do and how it might apply to the radio context in which I work.

One of the challenges we face in most radio stations is what to do with SMS responses that come in from listeners. More often than not, they disappear into the hectic environment and often mean very little. I'd like to see a system that captures messages as they come in, provide some sort of contextualized response that promotes more engagement and can work with virtually any cell phone network. Systems like this exist but often are regional and require only working with the regional provider. Features are never the same so we struggle with consistency of information about what's happening.

I'm open to continuing the conversation.

Hi, Amy,

I am familiar with Frontline SMS through Ken. At my request, he briefed some Kenyan leaders I am working with about this service. I know nothing about radio. : ) And very little about all the services that are springing up for Frontline SMS. So, I'm here to learn. And see how to use it for community development work in Africa.

Hugs,

Nirvana

Hi Amy,

I am glad to be on this forum now. We can share experiences with Frontline SMS and learn more from each other. Thanks a lot once more and lets keep rolling.

Scott