Enacting Real Change With Social Media
Mobilitate is a social media platform with a difference; it provides South Africans with the means to effect real change within their communities and, hopefully, spur their municipalities and government leaders to do the same.
According to Mobilitate's website, the platform was created to increase the efficiency of South Africa's democracy and assist in making the country a safer place for its citizens.
It states: "These are ambitious goals.
We will reach our goals.
" The process is simple enough: Create an account, you can sign in with your Facebook account if you have one, and pick your area of concern.
You can choose from six categories: 1) Service delivery.
2) Crime.
3) Causes.
4) Communities.
5) Councillors.
6) News.
Once you've created your account you can start making a difference.
For instance, within service delivery you can choose to add an issue or, if you're feeling constructive, add an idea.
Mobilitate has been going for only three months or so but it already has 3662 members.
In that time a large number of issues have been reported; considering the appalling levels of service delivery and crime in the country that is understandable.
Of the 1181 issues that have been reported 221 have been fixed.
That might seem like a poor percentage, but again, consider that the site has only been operating for three months and that the turnaround time for addressing problems in South Africa is notoriously bad.
Seen in the context of the country's track record, 221 resolved issues in three months isn't bad.
And, they're issues that might not have been addressed were it not for Mobilitate.
The nice thing about Mobilitate is that it does the hard work for you.
All you have to do is lodge a complaint or add an idea or report a crime or join a community or create a cause and Mobilitate will make sure that your voice is heard.
It also allows members to post relevant news, congratulate councillors on work done and interact with like-minded citizens.
In an article on memeburn.
com, Lionel Bischoff, CEO of Kaizania (the company behind Mobilitate), stated that the services provided by the platform are free of charge and will remain so.
He said that making money is not the main objective.
"We have a team of 13 dedicated to building a complete platform for transparent governance and crime fighting in South Africa.
As long as we can break even by the end of 2011, I am fine investing a few more million into Mobilitate.
We will never charge citizens for the service.
" One of the aims is to get government agencies on board as quickly as possible to help the speedy resolution of issues.
"We work with a number of municipalities, but not yet in an official capacity.
We are already cc'd on internal work crew emails for a number of municipalities, so we have access to info that citizens usually do not," says Bisschoff.
Here's hoping Mobilitate succeeds in all its goals.
Goodness knows South Africa needs it.
According to Mobilitate's website, the platform was created to increase the efficiency of South Africa's democracy and assist in making the country a safer place for its citizens.
It states: "These are ambitious goals.
We will reach our goals.
" The process is simple enough: Create an account, you can sign in with your Facebook account if you have one, and pick your area of concern.
You can choose from six categories: 1) Service delivery.
2) Crime.
3) Causes.
4) Communities.
5) Councillors.
6) News.
Once you've created your account you can start making a difference.
For instance, within service delivery you can choose to add an issue or, if you're feeling constructive, add an idea.
Mobilitate has been going for only three months or so but it already has 3662 members.
In that time a large number of issues have been reported; considering the appalling levels of service delivery and crime in the country that is understandable.
Of the 1181 issues that have been reported 221 have been fixed.
That might seem like a poor percentage, but again, consider that the site has only been operating for three months and that the turnaround time for addressing problems in South Africa is notoriously bad.
Seen in the context of the country's track record, 221 resolved issues in three months isn't bad.
And, they're issues that might not have been addressed were it not for Mobilitate.
The nice thing about Mobilitate is that it does the hard work for you.
All you have to do is lodge a complaint or add an idea or report a crime or join a community or create a cause and Mobilitate will make sure that your voice is heard.
It also allows members to post relevant news, congratulate councillors on work done and interact with like-minded citizens.
In an article on memeburn.
com, Lionel Bischoff, CEO of Kaizania (the company behind Mobilitate), stated that the services provided by the platform are free of charge and will remain so.
He said that making money is not the main objective.
"We have a team of 13 dedicated to building a complete platform for transparent governance and crime fighting in South Africa.
As long as we can break even by the end of 2011, I am fine investing a few more million into Mobilitate.
We will never charge citizens for the service.
" One of the aims is to get government agencies on board as quickly as possible to help the speedy resolution of issues.
"We work with a number of municipalities, but not yet in an official capacity.
We are already cc'd on internal work crew emails for a number of municipalities, so we have access to info that citizens usually do not," says Bisschoff.
Here's hoping Mobilitate succeeds in all its goals.
Goodness knows South Africa needs it.
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