What is TextUP?

In fragile states like Liberia and Bosnia, tens of thousands of public servants, such as police, teachers, and transportation officials, struggle to do their jobs. To increase the effectiveness of their agency, I propose a utility to deliver just-in-time vocational training via the simple feature mobile phones already in their pockets. This concept, tentatively called “TextUp”, is a social enterprise based on a subscription model, the public servants pay a small fee per month.


Click here for more on this concept.

To use TextUp, a public servant starts by texting to an advertised number, receives a reply asking her to register. After registration, she is free to text in questions. An example may be: “Where can I find the district office to get school books?” or “To conduct a proper arrest, what do I need?” Answers are sent back via text or voice. After a free trial, the public servant pays via airtime minutes (no traceable currency transactions) for the subsequent months.

Content will be curated from an network of former or current public servants posting to an SMS-based social network platform. Examples of such platforms include Snaptu from Israel (just purchased by Facebook) and MXit from Zimbabwe and South Africa. “FrontlineSMS Learn” in is piloting general learning via feature phones, I am in contact with them. Other examples of successful uses of feature phones for learning include the English literacy program by the BBC, called Janala. It is a subscription based service, same as I propose for TextUp. In 2011, I conducted a survey for a text-message based youth education program by SMSOne in India, called eduVARTA. I assessed demand for this subscription-based service, and the sample of people surveyed did show strong demand, the results suggested people would pay 100 rupees, or one month extra of a mobile phone bill, for the service.

For security encryption employed by gambling companies for their feature phone games and betting will be used. Because of security reasons, user information cannot be released, but heatmaps of requests can be created. This real-time data could be used to inform top-level reformers, aid agencies, and NGOs where to help. The vision is TextUp can help create actionable data that can strengthen fragile states on the micro and macro level.