Here’s roundup of all the articles I’ve come across recently on how mobile is being used for non-profit purposes in developing countries:

FrontlineSMS is a service that allows text messaging with large group, especially useful for NGO’s and non-profits working in the field. From their website:

A lack of communication can be a major barrier for grassroots non-governmental organisations (NGOs) working in developing countries. FrontlineSMS is the first text messaging system created exclusively with this problem in mind.

By leveraging basic tools already available to most NGOs — computers and mobile phones — FrontlineSMS enables instantaneous two-way communication on a large scale. It’s easy to implement, simple to operate, and best of all, the software is free.

FrontlineSMS:Medic uses the FrontlineSMS platform targeting healthcare networks in the developing world. FrontlineSMS:Medic is mentioned in Can Your Cell Phone Change Lives? a recent post on The Pop!Tech blog and also Healthcare via SMS in the developing world on Springwise.com.

Hopephones.org takes the phones that you are throwing away and receiving the hardware credit from recycling them. This allows them to purchase usable, appropriate cell phones for healthcare workers worldwide. They also partner with FrontlineSMS:Medic.

As additional reading, Wikipedia has an entry on mhealth or mobile health, which it defines as, a recent term for medical and public health practice supported by mobile devices

Springwise.com has an articles on Microfinancing and mentoring via mobile phones which mentions MobileMovement:

Mobile Movement provides mobile phones and training to foster both micro-funding and professional advice via SMS, MMS and email. Through a collaboration with UN-HABITAT, Microsoft Research India and the Vancouver-based Environmental Youth Alliance—with funding from the MacArthur Foundation—Mobile Movement’s first prototype project is currently under way in Kenya, where it is working with 15 youth groups from the slums and low-income neighbourhoods of Nairobi that are part of UN-HABITAT’s Urban Entrepreneurship Program.

Also on Springwise, Quick tasks via SMS for phone uses in the developing world.

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Update: Jakob Nielsen the guru to all things usability has a report on mobile usability. His conclusion:

Mobile usability is hard.

Major problems for users accessing the internet have been: small screens, awkward input, download delays and mis-guided sites.

That’s why simple SMS is still a very viable option for those in developing countries as a robust means of communication.

Update: Ashoka Tech has a blog post Mobile Technology is growing fast. Really really fast.

Health and gaming industries have recently seen a closer relationship. Dance Dance Revolution got people sweating for points and it was only time before people began to realize the potential of the Wii as exercising device, and for Nintendo to capitalize on it with the Fit.

Reuters has an article Health games become serious business drawing on the recently growth of serious games:

“Healthcare is 18 percent of the GDP of the United States and so games for health is probably the largest sector of activity in the serious games field long-term,” said Ben Sawyer, co-founder of The Games for Health Project.

“If you add up the 18 month sales of “Wii Fit” and the sales of “EA Sports Active,” Konami’s “Dance Dance Revolution” and other healthy games, the worldwide retail numbers are over $2 billion.”