CiviCRM Community Forums (archive)

Hi,

Hope this isn't to far out in left field.

In discussions with a couple of clients the idea of integration for CiviCRM and cellphones came up. Of course SMSs are fairly easy to integrate with CiviCRM and we can send messages and 'WAP links'. However if you want to have 2 way dialogues with people SMS is no longer that cheap and it is hard to manage large numbers of 2 way conversations at once. 

In South Africa a lot of people use Mxit which is a MIDP cellphone application working with a modified Jabber server. The reason they use it is because by using data messages (here) are 5% of the cost of SMSs - that makes a big difference for people here.

Based on this I had an idea for a chat system in XHTML (most probably the lowest common denominater for Cellphones in the future and also visible on the regular web) built on top of CiviCRM. This would be used mainly for 2way conversation with and between members of a specific CiviCRM group but it would allow announcements/Events and for linking with any other cellphone content. It would also allow people to update their information and manage their activities/relationships all from their cellphones. For the chat element possibly this could then 'federate' with other 'CiviChat' instances if permissions are given.

To me this really fits with the CiviCRM statement of 'tools to connect, communicate and activate your supporters and constituents.' I also thought this might be a very interesting proposal for the Knight News Challenge http://www.newschallenge.org/

Any comments or thoughts on this would be very welcome.

Many Thanks

Rob Allen

Thanks for the reply,

I was actually thinking about Knight News Challenge rather than Knight Drupal. For Knight News the follow is what they fund: -

    * Digital – Your idea uses digital technology (computers, the internet, cell phones, that sort of thing). - check
    * Innovative – Your idea is new and original. It’s different from what people have done before. You are, in some way, breaking new ground - Of Course SMSs and IM has been done before but this integrates it within specific communities using a well establish open source product as a base
    * News/information – Your idea is about giving people access to what they want to know - Check
    * Timely – Your idea delivers news or information while it’s still fresh. - Check
    * Community-building – Your idea helps create a sense of community among some group of individuals. - Check
    * Limited geographic area – Your idea affects people in a specific area, which could be as big as a state or province, or as small as a city block. (If your idea is national or worldwide in scope, it must work at a regional level.) - Many CiviCRM installations are location specific - maybe it could be trialed with some local organisations using CiviCRM
    * Open Source – The inner workings of what you create will be visible to the world, so that others can take it and improve upon it. (Read more here.) - check

The reason to use CiviCRM rather than Drupal is : -

   * Some of the most important data structure elements/data is already there and can be reused e.g User details - civicrm_contact, civicrm_relationship, civicrm_group, civicrm_events
   * CiviCRM is already focused at community orientated/advocacy organisations
   * Organisations using CiviCRM often have a large number of people they want to communicate with as often and cheaply and quickly as possible

I was already thinking of using the smsframework but I must say the idea of integrating the Gammu stuff as well seems cool.

Thanks again - I will put the application summary into the newchallenge garage in the next 2 weeks
http://garage.newschallenge.org/

Why not have a CiviBlast or CiviMassCom component that combines all forms of mass mailing/broadcast communication into one function?

This could integrate e-mail, mass mailings (print labels and such), fax, SMS, Chat, podcasts, news feeds, and other data types.  It seems like all mass communications share a lot of similarities in what they would need from the rest of CiviCRM.  I'm the PR/Tech/Green guy at work so I wear many hats.