Interesting results from this competition. Details here: http://www.160characters.org/news.php?action=view&nid=2547
The winning selections highlight the dramatic differences between texting in the US (and other countries with a robust communications infrastructure) and the rest of the world. All of these winners are using texting to provide a communication mechanism where *none existed* prior. Text messaging itself is not actually important here - it's the fact that it's a cheap, reliable, and accessible form of passing information between people. If email were extant, it would have exactly the same effect.
So in developing global SMS strategies, one has to be aware of this stark difference. What works in Pittsburgh may be completely irrelevant in rural Uganda. The issues at stake are not even vaguely similar. In Pittsburgh, the issue is - how can texting supplement existing communication tactic, such as email, phone calling, mailing, etc. In Uganda, it's more of an explosive recipe - adding communication to a comm-disenfranchised scenario. I imagine that a majority of SMS campaigns in non-comm areas will look similar to these over the next decade... whereas US-based campaigns will be a lot more specific and narrow in focus...
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