Posted on December 20, 2012

Through an arrangement with TechSoup, Philanthropy News Digest is pleased to offer a series of articles about the effective use of technology by nonprofits. For more information on this series, contact Mitch Nauffts, PND's editorial director, at mfn@foundationcenter.org.

Using Smartphones and Portable WiFi Hotspots to Tell Your Story

More than any other time of the year, December is the time for charities to tell their story. To quote a somewhat recent YouTube blog piece, "If a picture is worth a thousand words, then is a video worth a million?" Quite possibly. With that in mind, TechSoup has some tools that may come in handy.

Storytelling With Mobile Video

Here's an idea for using smartphones with good cameras and video capability like the Dell Venue Pro touch screen phones: for your holiday message, send someone out to video compelling work that your nonprofit or library is doing in the field. It's reasonably easy to upload videos to Facebook or YouTube even without a data plan.

The donated Dell phones normally use AT&T or T-Mobile pay-as-you-go or contract plans, but they can function without it because they are WiFi-enabled. (Having WiFi on a cell phone means it can connect to any wireless network just like a laptop computer.) You can essentially use them as a $31 (admin fee) HD mobile recording device.

TechSoup's Alex Bezdikian went out and conducted a video interview last spring using one of the Dell phones. Her Moments In Mobile piece describes the experience. Watch her video below:

It's important to note that not all smartphones are WiFi-enabled. Some, like iPhones and Dell Venue Pro phones, can connect to the Internet via WiFi and even do Skype calls.

"Phablets"?

Having WiFi makes a phone function a bit like the new "phablets" — touch screen devices that combine some phone and tablet computer functionality. The Samsung Galaxy Note series of phones are the best-known phablets out there.

I think one of the most interesting phablet-type features of the Dell Venue Pro smartphones is their Windows 7 Microsoft Office Mobile app, which comes preloaded on the device and allows users to view and edit Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and Excel documents and use Outlook for e-mail.

The Office Mobile apps are of course compatible with their desktop counterparts. One other note: the Dell Venue Pro smartphones use the Windows 7 OS and do not upgrade to Windows 8.

Making Your Own WiFi Hotspot

So, you're heading out armed with your handy WiFi-enabled phone to do some recording. What if you have trouble finding a wireless network when you need one? No problem. You can actually make your own with another TechSoup product donation, Mobile Beacon.

Mobile Beacon offers handy mobile hotspot hardware devices that provide you with 4G mobile broadband Internet service. The Mobile Beacon 4G coverage area encompasses U.S. cities in thirty-five states and the District of Columbia.

Eligible nonprofits and libraries can apply to get the Mobile Beacon Clear Spot G4 Voyager device for a $15 admin fee, and the mobile broadband data plan is $10 per month (with a one-year contract). The Mobile Beacon device, by the way, works well with the Dell phones.

People's Emergency Center WiFi Hotspots

People's Emergency Center (PEC), a homeless services and neighborhood revitalization nonprofit that serves West Philly, has been using Mobile Beacon quite a bit under a government-funded project that's part of the Broadband Technology Opportunities Program.

Tan Vu, PEC's director of digital inclusion, told me that they're using the devices to provide broadband to families in their transitional and permanent housing programs.

PEC is also running twenty computer training labs, called Keyspots, where kids can earn a free refurbished desktop. Adults also drop in to get training, netbooks, and the Mobile Beacon hotspot devices, which they set up at home. PEC has delivered 80,000 hours of training to 50,000 people since 2010 via the labs.

Tan Vu said that families, once they find out how useful broadband and computers are for their children, often elect to take the computers and Mobile Beacon devices with them when they leave the program.

He also described how PEC is using Mobile Beacon devices to set up ad hoc computer training labs in the city. Vu says they can set up a lab in less than half an hour, and they recently set up a thirty-PC lab in a community center to provide voting information to low-income residents of the community.

PEC president and CEO Farah Jimenez is grateful for tools like these that further multiple digital inclusion programs. She's also grateful for renewed funding in this area, and says "BTOP opens new doors for homeless families. It puts them on the path to opportunity."

You can learn more about digital inclusion and BTOP-funded projects like this at the TechSoup for Libraries blog.

Tell Your Story

There are a ton of great nonprofit and library stories out there well worth a video (or a million words). If you're interested in using your phone for digital storytelling, check out TechSoup's App it Up! Project for lots of great resources. And be sure to check out the Windows Phone Marketplace for an array of Windows 7 apps (many of which are free) to use with donated Dell smartphones.

To learn more about how nonprofits and libraries are using mobile devices for digital storytelling, visit our TechSoup Digital Storytelling Challenge (TSDigs). And watch for more details about the 2013 TSDigs Challenge coming soon.