engage
Reaching around the world
Talking with participants with SMS
Quality
SMS is a familiar and simple communication tool that most mobile phone owners use throughout their day. But it can also be an easy way to reach large numbers of people, spread across big geographical distances, instantly, and without using the internet.
Tools such as the award-winning Frontline SMS help people to distribute and collect information via text messages. Frontline SMS is an open source software that turns a laptop and a mobile phone into a central communications hub, which can be used with or without an internet connection.
Using these basic tools already available to many organisations, messages can be sent to individuals or large groups, and replies can be made individually, from anywhere in the world.
Relevance
New ways to utilise SMS gained fame when FrontlineSMS began empowering people in the developing world to carry out tasks like monitoring elections, providing better healthcare in rural areas, responding faster to emergencies, and mobilising people for a common cause.
Now, ITC-ILO is bringing this same tool to the classroom, both in training courses in the field, and to communicate with large networks of participants, in one easy action.
Tools like FrontlineSMS are useful for ITC-ILO, because by utilising existing tools (most of our participants already have a mobile phone), we can reach many people at once, instantly, and they can respond, easily, cheaply, and quickly.
it doesn’t matter where message receivers are located - as long as they have mobile phone signal; people don’t need to have internet connectivity to receive messages.
Now, ITC-ILO is bringing this same tool to the classroom, both in training courses in the field, and to communicate with large networks of participants, in one easy action.
Tools like FrontlineSMS are useful for ITC-ILO, because by utilising existing tools (most of our participants already have a mobile phone), we can reach many people at once, instantly, and they can respond, easily, cheaply, and quickly.
it doesn’t matter where message receivers are located - as long as they have mobile phone signal; people don’t need to have internet connectivity to receive messages.
Impact
In 2010, the ash clouds from the eruption of Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajökull disrupted flights in Europe and around the world.
Participants on their way to courses at ITC-ILO in Turin were left stranded, often with no way to contact the training centre, and not knowing who to contact. At the same time, ITC-ILO realised it had no easy way to communicate frequent updates to many people at once.
Now ITC-ILO is piloting FrontlineSMS to communicate with large networks of participants, in one easy action. Participants can respond, by simply sending an SMS back to the Centre.
FrontlineSMS allows ITC-ILO to create and manage SMS related course or academy groups, to collect data via SMS and export data for easy analysis and, last but not least, run our own information service for a particular course or academy.
Participants on their way to courses at ITC-ILO in Turin were left stranded, often with no way to contact the training centre, and not knowing who to contact. At the same time, ITC-ILO realised it had no easy way to communicate frequent updates to many people at once.
Now ITC-ILO is piloting FrontlineSMS to communicate with large networks of participants, in one easy action. Participants can respond, by simply sending an SMS back to the Centre.
FrontlineSMS allows ITC-ILO to create and manage SMS related course or academy groups, to collect data via SMS and export data for easy analysis and, last but not least, run our own information service for a particular course or academy.