0n the Frontline

SMS 041 730 6986


Frontline.SMS is an open source award winning application by Kiwanja.net. It is a simple to use "not requiring the internet" way to interact with the others in the project, that will allow any of us to use simple SMS text messaging from a mobile phone to submit observations and recieve news and warnings. All at a minimal cost.

You can Submit an Observation to be recorded in our database and posted on the website by starting your message with the Keyword VBOP. This means you will be able to send in things as you see them on the beach or wherever you are. It will just work of text messages, not photos.

You can also join a special Warning and Alert Group. Just send JOIN to the SMS Number (041 730 6986). Those Joining up will only recieve occasional messages related to specific VBOP alerts such as expected king tides, possible flooding or important beach news (such as the toxic chemical drums being washed ashore)
You can also choose to leave the group and stop warnings by sending LEAVE to the SMS number(041 730 6986).

Finally the small print. Please note the service is not online continuously but will be cleared daily. There is no charge for these messages, other than the normal SMS charges imposed by your telephone carrier (eg Telstra or Optus) 

Being open

I'm putting a bit of work into ways that this VBOP project can use other common web social networking tools and sites to broaden itself. More particularly to make our information easy to submit and use. Well I guess it is not secret but the systems have to be OPEN not closed! Sound simple but it is hard to explain why in a short post, but that is not important.

There is already a presence in Flickr and Twitter. Expect to see some news on BUZZ,  A Picassa Web Album, a wiki style Field Guide and even a neat mobile phone data collection application using Fronteline.SMS

But don't expect to see any Facebook follow me or friends requests or even Like buttons here anytime soon.