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In Rio, Mapping Gunshots Can Backfire

Raphael Tsavkko Garcia

September 29, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Brazil, Rio de Janeiro

Crime-tracking mobile apps give millions of Brazilians crowdsourced data on urban violence, alerting people to dangerous places and filling gaps in government data on shootings, robberies, and other risks. But apps such as Fogo Cruzado (“Crossfire”) and Onde Tem Tiroteio (“Where There's a Shooting”) offer statistically crude glimpses of crime, distorted by media and racial biases that one expert blames for myths about the risks people actually face.

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Purple Keys, Part 2

Monica Pelliccia Elena Ledda

September 25, 2020 |

Are We Europe |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: France

A mobile app called App-Elles was used 5,400 times during the early months of the pandemic by either the survivors of gender-based violence or witnesses and helpers trying to connect the survivors to assistance. Created by French singer Diariata N'Diaye, the app lets users designate three "protectors" chosen in advance to receive alerts. Once alerted, they can summon help via text message or other discreet means of contacting women who are trapped at home with their abusers. The app is among other examples of digital survivor-aid services developed for women during the pandemic.

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Hi, There. Want to Triple Voter Turnout?

Tina Rosenberg

September 19, 2020 |

The New York Times |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States

Vote Tripling is a get-out-the-vote strategy where volunteers set up outside of polling places, a safer pandemic option, and ask voters to text three friends with a reminder to vote. A randomized trial showed turnout was nearly 8 percentage points higher among people receiving texts. The message to vote holds more weight coming from a friend and it empowers those doing the texting, who also receive an election day reminder to send the texts. To be most effective, the technique requires a busy polling place where proximity to the polling place is legally allowed.

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Can't Pay Your Rent? ‘Lawtech' Is Here to Help.

Kriston Capps

September 18, 2020 |

Bloomberg CityLab |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, San Francisco, California

Soon after the federal government imposed a second moratorium on evictions, SixFifty, a tech firm, released Hello Landlord, a mobile app for tenants to generate a legally compliant form letter invoking the law with their landlords to block a threatened eviction. In the first nine days after its release, the app was used by more than 200 people. The free service is an example of what's called lawtech: technology giving access to legal information to individuals and small businesses. Hello Landlord asks 19 questions that serve to automate what a tenant's lawyer might do – if only the tenant could afford one.

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Smartphones saving the rainforest

Julie Ball

September 15, 2020 |

BBC |

Radio |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: Brazil

Rainforest Connection makes a smartphone app that is part of a system using solar-powered phones in the rainforests of Brazil, Sumatra, Costa Rica, and Peru to stream audio of suspected illegal logging. This system, using recycled phones, enables the capture and shutting down of logging operations. In Brazil, about 100 loggers have been arrested and a large share of the rainforest has been protected, though many loggers there and in other countries still evade detection. This app is one example of innovations in use around the world to extend the lives of smartphones to benefit environmental conservation.

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What Kenya can teach its neighbors — and the US — about improving the lives of the "unbanked"

Kelsey Piper

September 11, 2020 |

Vox |

Text |

Over 3000 Words

Response Location: Kenya

Mobile banking in Kenya has increased economic mobility for families living in poverty. The mobile money system is not connected to bank accounts, making it accessible to the overwhelming majority of Kenyans who don't have bank accounts but do have cell phones. Mobile banking allows deposits and withdrawals as well as transfers, and has allowed families to save money to use when their income, often from farming, takes a hit thus creating a security net for themselves and allowing them to receive funds from friends and family. Savings allow families to meet basic needs and access medical care if necessary.

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COVID-19: NC rural mental health outreach gets creative

Liora Engel-Smith

August 07, 2020 |

North Carolina Health News |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: United States, Asheville, North Carolina

Mental health agencies in North Carolina have partnered with a mobile phone carrier to provide data-enabled smartphones to individuals who lack access to technology during the pandemic. Because this doesn't provide a solution to all, however, mental health experts are also meeting with patients outside in social distanced settings.

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Prison Voicemail: Messages from behind bars

Ruth Evans

August 04, 2020 |

BBC |

Podcast |

Over 15 Minutes

Response Location: England

Prison Voicemail is a smartphone app that lets incarcerated people in the UK stay connected to their families, improving their mental outlook while imprisoned and their chances of success once they're released. The fee-based app closes gaps left by ordinary pay phones and other means of communication by letting people communicate through recorded messages, rather than when they both happen to be available. Sound clips of families talking in this podcast drive home the profound personal impact of children and parents sharing the routine news of their lives across the barrier of prison walls.

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South Korea's Key Weapon to Stop the Pandemic? Smartphones

Dasl Yoon

July 16, 2020 |

Wall Street Journal |

Video |

5-15 Minutes

Response Location: South Korea

In South Korea, the government is using smartphone technology, including various independent apps and text messaging, to implement contact tracing. This has enabled the country's economy to avoid a full shutdown. Early results comparing South Korea to other countries shows that this digital strategy is just as successful as implementing complete lockdowns.

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What Estonia could teach us about internet voting in a post-pandemic world

Chris O'Brien

June 11, 2020 |

VentureBeat |

Text |

800-1500 Words

Response Location: Estonia

Estonia’s i-Voting system is currently used by 46.7% of voters and allows them to vote from home using a government-issued smart card. To vote, residents need a computer with a card reader or can have their encrypted ID linked to their cell phone SIM card. They can track their vote with a QR code and are able to change their choices any time during the 10-day voting period. Estonia is currently the only country to use this method, in part because eroding government trust has prevented the use of centralized systems that track personal information.

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