Dialing Out: Non-Profit Develops Technology That Converts Second Life Chat To African Cellphone Text Messaging

This is Switchboard, an SL-based mash-up technology created by NYC-based Global Kids.  What it does, explains staffer Rik Riel, is convert chat messages in Second Life into SMS text messages sent to someone's cellphone, and back again.  In this particular demo, several Teen Second Lifers are communicating with a girl in Uganda, who's using her mobile to discuss how Africa's AIDS crisis has ravagaged her family. 

This is a powerful innovation for several reasons beyond even that powerful use case.

Other organizations like Vodafone have added an IM-to-mobile interface to Second Life, but I believe Global Kids' Switchboard is the first to convert text messages into publicly viewable SL chat.  (Thus making group communication easier.) More compelling is that this technology has been engineered to function with African telecoms, which as I understand, require different protocols than mobile systems in the developed world.  Finally (and most important to me), mobile phones are having a revolutionary impact on Africa, providing a vital life line out of poverty and poor governance.  (Here's a great New York Times Magazine primer on the subject.)  Because of this, Africans are innovating brilliant ways to use the mobile phone-- for one, turning minutes into virtual currency. A direct line from African mobile phones into Second Life, which has a virtual currency of its own, suggests a wealth of transformational possibilities. 

According to Rik, "Once we work out the kinks, we plan to release the scripts and web moderation system behind it for others to use in their own work."

Comments

[Dusan Writer]

This is AMAZING. All I can say is wow...I'm totally floored by this - great job - Global Kids need, hmm...I don't know....a Nobel Prize? Something...what they're doing is transformative.

[Tria B.]

News? SL IM or chat to SMS and back - gateways are used now for over 2.5 years, this is easy to realize, also with nearly zero programming skills. All the major cell phone providers offer tools for establishing such a gateway.

[Daniel Voyager]

I was actually at the GK "Switchboard" event yesterday at Global Kids island in TSL, taking part. The event was awsome and I really enjoyed it with everybody else. I hope there will be more of this in the upcoming months, great way to go!!!. *smiles"

I leave the Teen Grid in December and I hope that there will be something like this set up there too.

You can see my TSL snapshots of the new GK "Switchboard" event on my Flickr stream, located here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/danielvoyager/

[rikomatic]

Hi Tria, we're certainly not looking to re-invent the wheel. We'd love to hear about tools that do SMS text to SL like our system.

Our goal was to make something cheap and light that we could open source once it was less buggy. We didn't want to go through a cell phone company to do something that nearly everyone should be able to do. Which is why we had someone build Switchboard for us on top of the open source SLOODLE framework.

[LifeFactory Writer]

Delightful developments! Mobile is the way to go! Waiting for the girl in Uganda to be able to use her mobile to capture video in her neighborhood and have it uploaded/streamed into SL....

[Jeff Lowe]

Wonderful job, Rik and all those involved in the project. I absolutely love to see educational non-profits use tools like this to make a real difference in the lives of children worldwide. And opensourcing the results...brilliant.