Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Extending FrontlineSMS
These are some thoughts I've had about how the External Commands functionality of FrontlineSMS can be used to develop all sorts of cool performance support applications. In addition, I can't help but wonder how the tool might be used also to develop mobile communities of practice. And why think just about a single instance of FrontlineSMS? Why couldn't one develop entire networks of individual nodes, connected to each other, to extend the reach of communication and support?
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Nice work, James. Great to see people beginning to think through some of the more advanced functionality that's been built into the software (kudos to the developers, there).
ReplyDeleteCheers.
Ken
www.kiwanja.net
I've been thinking along the same lines for a while. It would be interesting to see FrontlineSMS used in a node structure, syncing through SMS between each other. My thoughts were on using Feedsync for this (or, InSTEDD's Mesh4x). Could be very interesting.
ReplyDeleteLet us know how this is starting to come along in reality -- is this something you are planning on building on top of the open source part of FSMS? (that leaves the non-open source forms, however...)
ReplyDeleteHi again, James
ReplyDeleteI think the main point you are making in your videos are how to build on the "out of the box" functionality in FrontlineSMS. Nothing you talk about needs any access to the source code, which is exactly how we intended it to be - 99% of users have no interest whatsoever in accessing it, even if they knew what to do with it.
Once again, it's great to hear your thoughts on what's possible with this, whether or not you do any or all of it yourself.
Ken
Phenomenal stuff, James!
ReplyDeleteLike Hash/Erik, I've also been thinking along similar lines in terms of the potential for Mobile Crisis Mapping (MCM). I come from the humanitarian side and using mobile phones to replicate the network value of the web is a great idea, call it SMS-Web. I'm really excited by the ideas you presented. Huge potential. Have a look at the Folksomap project in India, just blogged about it here:
http://irevolution.wordpress.com/2009/04/26/folksomaps-gold-standard-for-community-mapping/
The idea is to allow people to query community-generated maps using the most basic mobile phones, which can be done once a dedicated ontology using OWL is set up. Users can then query by SMS or voice. I think this is an awesome idea that Ushahidi should think about integrating, otherwise, we're not tapping into the full potential of MCM. What do you think?
Would be great to Skype about this further if you have time. My username: patrickmeierskype
ps. truly shows potential of ecosystem effect of ICTs, great stuff.
ReplyDeleteConnecting mobile phones with internet/database interactivity is really the next big thing. I just heard about frontlineSMS recently, and this possibility for extension sounds really exciting.
ReplyDeleteThis post has certainly gotten a lot of play. Nice...
ReplyDeleteKen - Thanks for the kind words :) And, yes, I'll second the "kudos" to the developers for enabling easy extension of the out-of-the-box functionality.
Erik - Sounds like you may be a little ahead of me on the syncing stuff -- hadn't even thought about Feedsync or Mesh4x :P
Katrin - I'm thinking pure SMS, no forms (shooting for low-tech ubiquity). So, this would all be on top of the open source bits.
Patrick - Dig the Folksomaps. I think a voice interface to all this stuff (including Ushahidi) would be a great addition. If you're working w/a very low-literate population, SMS could still be problematic. Reminds me of an "audio web" project in India I read about recently. Seemed interesting but, for the life of me, I can't remember where I found it (think it may have come through the MW4D list).
Vola - I completely agree! The opportunities for building upon the foundation of an SMS gateway like FrontlineSMS are rather exciting. And virtually limitless, too.