Crowdsourcing via SMS service by united-forests
Pitch
A SMS service for Farmers that connects and informs them about natural events and seasonal cycles, that gives their calendar a meaning
Description
Summary
With a SMS service you can connect Farmers of a certain region, and help them to share their information on weather patterns etc. Additionally one can scan the text messages for crowdsourcing reasons and create maps of environmental conditions and/or flowering information.
Category of the action
Adaptation
Who will take these actions?
Establishing such a SMS service requires a participatory approach, were mobile service providers and organizations are involved.
On a bootstrap level - A possible way to take actions, is to set up a CrowdMaphttp://www.ushahidi.comand connect it with SMSsynchttp://www.ushahidi.com/product/smssync
What are other key benefits?
Better understanding of micro climatic changes through participation of the people and through analysis of crowd sourced maps.
Better information of locals - grounding knowledge in generations (culture and values).
What are the proposal’s costs?
Our costs will be mostly comprised of labor for setup and maintenance of the platform. There are also costs to market the platform to the locals.
Also innovative funding models can be developed including partnership with phone companies or offering companies opportunities to conduct CSR and pro-bono activities with us.