Forecast: Info to Go
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Info to Go: How mobile and wireless technology can and will impact the nonprofit sector
By Joshua Peskay, Manager of Technology Consulting Services at the Fund for the City of New York
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Imagine being constantly connected to everything. For some people, this sounds like utopia, for others, a nightmare. But this is where the mobile and wireless technology revolution is eventually taking us. It's leading us to a world where, with a single device, we will be constantly connected to everyone else through voice, email, Internet, and even live video.
The result is that information is becoming radically decentralized. There is a tremendous opportunity for nonprofits to capitalize on this technology, putting great power (i.e. information) directly into the hands of community members.
One of the biggest challenges to nonprofits looking to take advantage of the revolution in mobile and wireless technology is just figuring it all out. There's WiFi, 3G, GSM, and Bluetooth, just to name a few wireless communication technologies. There are cell phones, handhelds, Tablet PCs, and good old fashioned notebook PCs, just to name a few mobile devices. Determining the what, how, and why of mobile and wireless is going to be one of the biggest technology challenges that nonprofits will face in the coming years. But like most challenges, some worthy rewards lay beyond.
I won't take on the entire morass of mobile and wireless in this article, but I will discuss two particular technologies that have immediate applications in the nonprofit sector and which are already being used with great success.
--------------> WiFi
Arguably the easiest and most practical of the wireless technologies, WiFi, in its simplest terms, replaces the need for network cables. It is limited, to be sure, in terms of its speed (currently about half the speed of wired networking) and range (about 300 feet per access point, assuming no physical obstructions), and security (making your network wireless has some obvious security implications). However, used appropriately, it can result in some practical and extremely useful applications.
For example, in New York City there is a set of wireless mobile labs that have been provided to various nonprofits by the Beaumont Foundation. These labs consist of 10-15 notebook computers and a wireless access point. They come with a locking, rolling cabinet, meaning an entire lab of 15 computers can literally be picked up and carried around the city from site to site. Once at a site, the local network admin simply plugs the Wireless Access Point (WAP) into their Local Area Network (LAN) and presto, the entire lab of 15 computers is networked and on the Internet. These mobile labs are being used for many purposes in New York City, including technology training, community technology centers (CTC's), and creating workshops for interns. Using these mobile labs, community organizations in New York City have been able to provide training and technology resources to many more people than would have been possible without this technology.
------------> Handhelds
Handhelds are taking on features faster than we can keep track of them. Whereas a few years ago handheld devices simply replaced a bulky address book and calendar, now they can word process, run presentations, take pictures, record video, play MP3s, send/receive email and browse the web. The ability to set your handheld to "stun" can't be far away (and certainly promises to spice up the battle between Palm and PocketPC).
But there are countless other applications for handheld devices. One project called Computerized Neighborhood Event Tracking, or ComNETsm, puts handheld devices in the hands of community members so that they can record conditions in their neighborhoods. The Fund for the City of New York's (FCNY) Center on Municipal Government Performance started this project in New York City, and it has since been adapted in Des Moines, Iowa, Worcester, Massachusetts, San Francisco, and various parts of Connecticut. Other places are in planning stages. The data can be uploaded via the Internet, can be reviewed by community members and reported to local government at the community's discretion. This data collection method, and pictures of conditions obtained with an attached digital camera, has resulted in many direct neighborhood improvements, including added pedestrian ramps, tree plantings, and in one case a $6 million project to reconstruct a street in a business improvement district.
As one can see from these examples, mobile and wireless technology has tremendous promise as a nonprofit tool. In the coming years, I expect to see many more organizations using this technology to connect community members to the digital world, with all its resources.
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Some further resources for those interested:
CNet's Wireless Networking 101: This is a step-by-step guide for setting up a wireless network. Very practical and easy to understand.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3244_7-5021297-1.html?tag=fs
CNet's Handheld Release Calendar: This is a list (updated monthly) of the latest (and sometimes greatest) handhelds on the market.
http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-3128_7-5021316.html?tag=cal
ComNET: Information about the Fund for the City of New York's ComNET program.
http://www.fcny.org/cmgp/works.htm
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About the Author
Joshua Peskay is the Manager of Technology Consulting Services for Fund for the City of New York. Joshua prides himself on his ability to communicate effectively with both the technical and non-technical people in the nonprofit world, bridging the gap between them to provide practical technology improvements. In his spare time, Joshua is a playwright, adventure racer, and jujitsu fighter.
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when you say it like that it makes a lot of sense 
Clearly, the technologies will continue to evolve. Currently, there are more cell phone users than "traditional" residential internet connections and communities of color and low/moderate income communities are more likely to use cell phones, pagers and cd-players than laptops and desktops (with or without wireless). This will blur as more devices that are mobile connect in different ways to the Internet.
So, the question is will community serving organizations will recognize their clients as technology users (albeit non-desktop/laptop ones) and leverage handheld devices that their targets already use for mobilization and participation activities in their community. Or when these technologies mature and are pervasive, will these groups lament they wish they could use these technologies, but are three years behind, again.
Formulating a strategy for using client mobile devices to increase mobilization and participation is critical because: a. your opposition does it already much better than you; b. the people you are trying to serve have already adopted these technologies because it is relevant to their lives; and c. organizations that do not leverage mobile devices for communication will alienate younger workers and will be plagued by labor shortages in the future.
Right now, you can sign up for basic information services like weather, directions and restaurant reviews on your cell phone. Community serving organizations should be experimenting with providing community information and messaging services so that when the infrastructure is built out to support full color, motion and sound capabilities, these organizations will be ready to exploit it for positive change in the communities they serve.