The Nigerian Elections have come and gone. Thats the frontline news of the election. And while the usual claims of vote rigging and fraud are being claimed a story that is also being heralded is how mobile phones where being used to help monitor the elections. Apparently, The Network of Mobile Election Monitors of Nigeria (NMEM) set up a mobile monitoring system via Kiwanja.nets out of the box FrontlineSMS solution, first talked about on Personal Democracy here. FronlineSMS was developed by mobile non-profit mastermind Ken Banks.
The purpose of this project is to involve over 30million Nigeria armed with mobile phones in the all important process of electing the next president of Nigeria and to offer them a platform to ensure impartial elections. Volunteer observers will text their observations into the FrontlineSMS hub where the election process will be monitored. kiwanja has provided free technical support and advice, as well as use of the software, to the Nigerian NGO.
[via textually]