Does mobile technology affect social responsibility?

In addition to the initiatives from the government sectors, mobile phones popularity also facilitate and encourage the private sector to implement certain programs for the benefit of the public. Although such initiatives can take any form, a tendency to initiate activities promoting employment is frequently observed. BBC reports about a regional mobile phone company Shyam Telecom that equipped about 200 rickshaws in the western state of Rajasthan with mobile phone connections, as part of the company’s promotional strategy. These ‘mobile payphones’, which were aimed at driving up the business of the telecom company, also provided a source of employment for the poor.

The use of cellular as a recruitment ad-publishing platform emerged in China as well. Since 2002 when Beijing Recruitment Centre launched the service of applying for jobs on mobile, there have been 20,000 job seekers subscribing it. Over 80,000 recruitment messages have been published in total, and there are 2000 people online per day. Job hunters need to store their personal details in the Recruitment Mobile Net first, and then the job vacancy messages, which are matched with their demands and skills will be sent to subscribers’ mobile through SMS in seconds, no matter where they are, whether they switch off the mobile, or whether their mobile has no signal. As soon as they switch on their phones or get the signal, the recruitment information would be displayed. Through this service, job seekers will never miss out any single recruitment information. These messages are customized and valuable to each individual phone user.

Furthermore, in northern America there are pilot projects under way to test mobile fundraising via text message where the donation is billed to the customers monthly cell phone bill. Previously prohibitive because of carrier fees, the market for mobile fundraising is opening up this year. The carriers have agreed to waive fees for a set of pre-approved organizations vetted by the Mobile Giving Foundation that has just started operations. While small in scale so far, the mobile fundraising market is bound to rapidly expand in the next 12 months.

===Sources===
1)"Positive Contributions of Mobile Phones to Society", Ibrahim Kushchu, Mobile Government Consortium International, UK, at http://www.moba-ken.jp/kennkyuu/chousa/2006/research06_01/positive_mgci_eg.pdf
2)Kuang, Wenbo, 2003. Discussion on the Development of the Mobile Phone Medium in China, http://academic.mediachina.net/academic_zjlt_lw_view.jsp?id=4706
3)http://mobileactive.org/using-mobiles-advocacy-dos-and-donts-mobile-campaigns

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