| Developer(s) | The FrontlineSMS developers |
|---|---|
| Stable release | 1.6.16.1 |
| Written in | Java |
| Platform | Cross-Platform (Linux, Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X) |
| Type | SMS |
| License | LGPL |
| Website | http://www.frontlinesms.org |
FrontlineSMS is a free open source software used by a variety of organizations to distribute and collect information via text messages (SMS). The software can work without an internet connection and with only a cell phone and computer. The software was originally developed in 2005 for conservationists to keep in touch with communities in Kruger National Park in South Africa.[1]
FrontlineSMS enables users to connect a range of mobile devices to a computer to send and receive SMS text messages. The software works without an internet connection by connecting a device such as a cell phone or GSM modem with a local phone number. FrontlineSMS can send and receive messages, group contacts, respond to messages, and trigger other events. If internet access is available, FrontlineSMS can be connected to online SMS services and set up to feed incoming messages to other web or e-mail services. FrontlineSMS includes different features which enable messages to be filtered by keyword, or allows the submission of java based forms with FrontlineSMS Forms.
In Aceh, UNDP and Mercy Corps use the software to send market prices and other agricultural data to rural coffee farmers. In Mongolia it is used to distribute weather information to farmers who have no internet or TV access. In Iraq it is being used by the country’s first independent news agency - Aswat al Iraq - to disseminate news to eight countries. It was used by bloggers during the 2007 Pakistani state of emergency to get news safely out of the country (reported in the Economist), and in the October 2008 Azerbaijani elections it helped mobilise the youth vote.
It has been used to monitor national elections in the Philippines, Afghanistan and Nigeria. For example, in April 2007 it was used by the Network of Mobile Election Monitors (NMEM) to oversee the Nigerian presidential elections.[2] Volunteers with mobile phones sent back reports from election booths to a central hub in an effort to prevent vote rigging. A similar system was deployed to monitor the 2009 elections in Afghanistan[3] where it was combined with the crisis-mapping tool Ushahidi, to plot the reports on an online map.
After the 2010 earthquake in Haiti, FrontlineSMS team members helped establish the 4636 Short Code through other related organizations (Ushahidi, INSTEDD) to allow people on the ground to report emergency information.[4]
FrontlineSMS and its sister organizations are also improving the provision of healthcare in developing countries, where bad roads, long distances, and a shortage of healthcare workers make delivering care difficult. FrontlineSMS:Medic uses the FrontlineSMS software to gather health data and assist in patient follow-up. Community health workers use FrontlineSMS:Medic to transmit information about symptoms and follow up with patients much more quickly and efficiently (by sending a text message rather than driving long distances over bad roads). When FrontlineSMS:Medic was first introduced in one area of Malawi, the local hospital doubled the number of tuberculosis patients treated over six months, while saving 2,100 hours in travel and work time and $3,500 in costs.[5] The tool is now being used in 11 countries, mostly in sub Saharan Africa.[6] In June 2010, FrontlineSMS:Medic team released a public beta of PatientView, which allows hospitals to manage patient information in rural settings where there is no Internet access.[7] The FrontlineSMS:Medic team is also working on a monitoring system to capture symptoms across different languages and spellings and detect disease hotspots, and are working with a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles to develop an addition that would allow remote diagnosis of malaria and some sexually transmitted diseases, including potentially HIV.[8]
FrontlineSMS is licensed under the LGPL. The licensing is defined on the software's Sourceforge page.[9]