Local Sms Community Newsletter

Serving Mankind, Smartly !!!

Connecting BoP through

Local SMS Community Newsletter

Let us be clear… Half-educated, unemployed youth, with no prospect of being integrated into a better future is a prescription for disaster. If young people do not have a stake in the existing social order and political order, if they do not feel there is a way for them, why should they sacrifice today for a better tomorrow? Why should they have an interest in protecting the stability and social safety of that system? Ismail Serageldin, Vice President,

Therefore this project is designed for …  School-college

dropped outs  Opportunity less – street wanderer  Socio-politically sadden youths  Financially backwards youths … to promote social entrepreneurship in them & help them gain social prestige and enough m o n e y for livelihood.

Introducing….

Local SMS Community Newsletter Winner of  Youth Employment Summit Award - 2008 by Clinton Global Initiative & Microsoft Unlimited Potential Program  Manthan Award - 2007 for best e-Content in India

A social entrepreneurship project by

Ravi Ghate

…Mobile… 

This word has changed the entire communication scenario of the World.



In India, mobile brought the communication revolution so suddenly that nearly 29 Crores of Indian Population is now connected!!!



Right from street hawkers to businessmen every one is connected.



And Indian Government is expecting around 50 Crores of Mobile users by 2010.



This will definitely result in very high number of SMSs

…Figures and my perspective… 

As every Mobile operator is busy adding their own users, why not unite all the users of all the operators under a single umbrella?



Why not create Location based Integrated, Interconnected, Interactive Local Community?



Why not establish a Media of these affiliated communities cooperatively?



Why not distribute the Power of Media amongst the Self employed youths of India?

…My Idea… 

A self employed youth running a Free SMS newsletter for the local community (Local community consisting of 1000 mobile users as members).



He will send Social as well as Promotional SMS to serve the community.



Citizens will be updated free of cost.



He will earn around Rs. 6-10 Thousand every month.

(RESULT : 300 communities are working successfully in 21 districts)

Definition It’s a

SMS

Location based Citizen centric Information & knowledge focused Update & alert service through Which is free for the members And which is run by a local – social entrepreneur

Why LoCo    

 

To develop citizens own local-micro media To amplify citizens voice To bring them together under a single umbrella to encourage their participation To update citizens with all latest local happenings on various fronts like social, political, governmental information To enhance affection and oneness in the members To empower local school-college dropouts

A : 18 Cr B: at home C: 2-4 Ch D: Audio Vanishes E: City/ District

Why SMS as media

A: 10 Cr B: Home-off C:10 papers D: paper Vanishes E: City-Rural Separate edition

A : 29 Cr B: Always with U C: 1 message D: SMS gets stored E: Micro Location based A : 15 Cr B: at home C:100 + Ch D: Picture Vanishes E: TV-State /Cable TV -City

A= Penetration B= Availability C= Options D= Visibility E: Coverage

A: 3 Cr B: at office C: unltd websites D: News Changes E: City, Special area-cause

LoCo Memberships Students Farmers Citizens Co-op Sector Politicians Businessmen Women SHG NGOs, Social Workers Artisans, Professionals, Workers

1000 members from above categories

LoCo Members in different roles Human Beings Product/Service Providers

Professionals

Citizens

Members in different roles

Beneficiaries

Voters

Buyers

Operations Considering different roles of citizens, different SMS are sent to the community members Types of SMS send 4. Social 5. Promotional Ratio 1:4 = 1 Social= 4 Promotional No bombarding of SMS We send only 1 SMS per week. Maximum 5 promotional SMS per month Annually maximum 60 SMS

SMSing is King !         

  

Voter Awareness, RTI Local News Birthday Wishes to all members Local happenings like cultural programs, lectures, stage shows, Ganeshotsava, Navratri shows, programs on National Days etc. Water & Power shutdowns & due dates,Telephone bills due dates Municipal taxes & due dates Road/Traffic congestion/ Road closures Local/Municipal/Sate Government /Indian Government important announcements Local Social activities like … Eye Testing, Health checkups & different camps • Political Climate changing alerts • Co-operative Local Police important instructions • Commercial Emergency medical services like Blood Wanted etc. • Social

• Government al

…Self-sustainability… 

Every Self employed youth take care of his Local SMS community. So he knows how many promotional messages to be send against every social message. He will recover the free social messaging cost by sending promotional SMS. And he never could be in loss.



Entire money collected @ Rs. 1 to Rs. 5 per SMS would be the profit of the young man.



What other source can give him this much money on one time work of mobile numbers data collection?

…Scalability… Just consider 

There are 29 Crore mobile users.



We will connect every 1000 users under one Local SMS Community.



That means we can give DIRECT self employment to 2,90,000 youths in India.



Considering lowest 8-10 % success ratio, we can definitely provide DIRECT Self Employment to at least 30,000 youths in India.



And as mobile users are adding up in millions, we can provide self employment to thousands of youths from India.



This model can be replicated nationwide.

Current Status & Local Communiti es Citizens connected Self Employme nt

scope

300

2 Lack

2 Lack 50 Thousands

20 Crores

330

2 Lack 25 Thousands

…Bridging the Digital Divide… 

In Indian society, an earning member has got a mobile phone. Communicating with him/her means you are accessing all members of his family. Now just consider, if Self Employed Youth sends a Health Camp related SMS, then the SMS would be discussed amongst all the members and the needy members of the house attends the Health Camp arranged by some NGO. Also they will inform their neighbors about the health camp.



Or consider a different case, if he sends a SMS stating that please attend the Spiritual Lecture by some Saint, then the elderly members of the house will definitely attend the Lecture. This clearly shows that irrespective of whether the elderly members or kids having mobile or not, or literate or illiterate, but we are reaching them through this SMS and

…Social Networking… Serving through SMS has tremendous impact on Local Communities. 

Just see, one social SMS impacts on at least 5 members of the house. And we are connecting 1000 mobile users in a Local community, which clearly means that we are communicating with not less than 5000 citizens. We have managed around 30 such groups consisting of groups of School parents, Political Voters, Educational Netwoks etc.



Likewise we are forming at least 1,000 such communities in Maharashtra, that clearly means we are networking more than 10 Lac Maharashtrian mobile users under one roof.



You can call this as Social Networking.

…Uniqueness… It’s a first attempt to … 

Offer Self-employment to the 10th-12th Failed – undergraduate youths without any huge investment.



Develop a Media, Fruits of which could be shared by all Self employed youths.



Distribute lifelong benefit to Self employed youths for one time work.



Integrate mobile users of all operators.



Run a Location based SMS newsletter.



Update members through Local News & Happenings speedily.

That’s not all… In the history of India, no one, including Govt of India has tried to bring every household together through any communication media .i.e - ICT Once you connect every citizen…. Value added services (VAS) follows you…

VAS  mCommerce

 mGovernance

 mDiscount

 Samples

coupons  mAuctions  mBazaar

 mResearch  CoBiz

by Youths  mVillage

This was about the SMSONE project which connects communities affectionately… & now…

about Co-operative Business (CoBiz) which will empower the Base of the Pyramid.

Phase I Establish LoCo Net

LoCo 1000 members

Benefits to Unemployed Youths

Rural & Urban LoCo

In Phase I : SMSing is the only service. Every Community is a stand alone model.

Top-Down approach

Benefits to

Phase II Enrich with various product & services

Unemployed Youths SE Youths, Institutions

LoCo 1000 members

Rural & Urban LoCo

Benefits to

Phase III Connect Rural-Urban LoCos & CoBIz

Youth Groups, Women SHGs Village Enterprises

LoCo

LoCo 1000 members

1000 members

Rural LoCo

Urban LoCo Benefits to ALL

Phase IV Producer 2 Consumer

R U

Rural BoP as Producer, Entrepreneur, Service Provider

Bottom-Up approach C O B I Z

Farmers, Artisans, Youth Groups, Women SHGs, VLE

Urban BoP as Consumer, user, Nationalist Citizens

U R

Questions before us…  Should

we continue to suck the BoP by selling them- branded clothes, cold-drinks, unnecessary mobile conversation & grab 1 $ out of their 2 $/day ? Social Entrepreneurial thinking  Why look at BoP as buyers, consumers as of the mentality of MNCs? Individual Growth  Why don’t we think in terms of empowering them as producer, service providers or entrepreneurs &

? 4 me SMSONE Media Services Pvt Ltd A 211, Parmar Trade Centre, Sadhu Vaswani Chowk, Pune Station, Pune – 411 001 (MS)