MobileActive.org’s Katrin Verclas @ PICNIC: Inspiring Change.
An inspirational presentation given by Katrin Verclas, founder of MobileActive.org at PICNIC 2009 in Amsterdam sparked a lot of wide-eyed, open-minded discussions this afternoon around
how people can use mobile to help global development, create awareness and provide assistance through new technologies and applications. I have been wanting to meet Katrin for some time now because I’m inspired by her passion and dedication to change the world through technology.
Now, I’m sure that this seems very high-level to a lot of people, and I’m sure many people claim that they are “trying to change the world,” however, she is actually DOING something, and that’s the main difference – she named her non-profit organization “MobileActive” for a reason.
Her discussion was based on statistics and analytics which underscore how mobile is positively impacting global development and communication in regions around the world including Africa, South East Asia and Latin America. With over 4.5 billion phones around the world, mobile is the most important media channel to make change.
I found the following blog entry on utilizing mobile to help women find prenatal care very intriguing:
ZMQ Software Systems case study
MobileActive.org’s vision is to help organizations make use of the most ubiquitous communications technology in the world with data, tools, and how-to resources; build a network of practitioners and technologists in a supportive community of practice; and highlight and explore the many innovative campaigns and projects — their lessons learned.
were headed to Amsterdam for 
