Mobile Voter - Using New Media to Politically Engage the Mobile Generation

Founded in 2004, Mobile Voter is a non-profit non-partisan organization (501c.3) seeking to facilitate the process of civic participation via web and mobile technologies. Over the past several years, Mobile Voter has conducted innovative youth-focused initiatives making extensive use of mobile phone technology.

In 2006, Mobile Voter's, TXTVOTER '06 campaign registered tens of thousands of young voters across the country. The multi-pronged campaign leveraged the ubiquity of text messaging, a unique peer-to-peer registration model, and the organizational might of existing grassroots organizations. Over 200 groups worked with Mobile Voter to register and mobilize their constituencies. TXTVOTER '06 was funded by grants from the Pew Charitable Trusts (coordinated by Young Voter Strategies) and the MacArthur Foundation.

In 2007, Mobile Voter wrote a book with Rock the Vote entitled Mobilizing Generation2.0: Using Web2.0 Technologies to Recruit, Organize, and Engage Youth. It will be published by Wiley Press in 2008. Read more about it!

Email: info AT mobilevoter.org
Addr: 44 Elsie St. San Francisco, CA 94110

Ben Rigby and Grace Stanat are two former private-sector CEOs motivated by a common desire to apply Silicon Valley know-how to improving our democracy. Prior to running Mobile Voter, they managed teams that delivered mission-critical solutions to some of the nation's top companies such as Sony Playstation, The North Face, Nokia, Robert Mondavi, and Credit Suisse.

Ben Rigby

Rigby graduated from Stanford University with Honors, Distinction, and Phi Beta Kappa. He went on to co-found Akimbo Design, a web design firm that created and managed the consumer Web sites for The North Face, Beringer Vineyards, California Pizza Kitchen and completed award-winning projects for Nokia, Sony Pictures, MGM, Calvin Klein, and Macromedia. His company produced three Web design books, won dozens of awards, and had work featured in major media publications such as Newsweek, the New York Times, Washington Post, and USA Today.

In 2002, Rigby took a position as CTO of DFILM - a youth entertainment company creating web and mobile applications. At DFILM, he managed the launch of a youth-focused communication platform in partnership with KPN, the largest wireless operator in the Netherlands. He also launched a viral application called the MovieMaker that is consistently used by 300,000 unique users per month and has been licensed by Yahoo!, Sam Adams, IBM, the Sierra Club, and Old Navy.

In 2004, he founded Mobile Voter, which was the first organization in the U.S. to engage young voters via text messaging (SMS). With grants from Pew Charitable Trusts and MacArthur Foundation, Mobile Voter registered tens of thousands of voters in 2006. In 2007, Rigby wrote the well reviewed book “Mobilizing Generation 2.0: a handbook for using Web2.0 Technologies to recruit, organize, and engage youth.”

And in 2008, Rigby made the transition from 2D to 3D - diving deep into the world of immersive media. He's currently exploring the intersection of social change, immersive interfaces, and mobile technology. His 3D project is under wraps - although it often touches the project he co-founded called The Extraordinaries, which allows people to volunteer on-demand and on-the-spot by mobile phone.

Grace Stanat

Grace graduated valedictorian from Pomona Collage with a dual degree in Mathematics and Fine Arts. He headed to Oxford as a Marshall Scholar in 1987 where he earned a Master's in Computer Science and a second Fine Arts Degree. In 1996, Grace founded and became CEO of 415 Productions, which grew to be a 65 person web development firm with clients such as Robert Mondavi Wineries, Sony Playstation, the San Francisco Symphony, KQED, The San Francisco Opera, the San Francisco Ballet, AXA Rosenberg, Credit Suisse, and the Library of Congress.

Grace's innovative and compassionate approach to managing teams has generated excitement among business media. He has been featured in USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek and on NPR and Good Morning America.

Grace joined the Mobile Voter team as co-executive director in 2005.

Bart Cheever
Bart Cheever was a founding partner in Mobile Voter before stepping down in 2005 to serve on San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom's Digital Media Advisory Council. He was founder and CEO of DFILM, a mobile and online application developer focused on the youth market, where he oversaw closing first round funding from Disney.

Cheever has 13 years producing and product managing experience in both the film and technology world. He's produced a pilot for MTV Networks, was invited by the Cannes Film Festival to organize their first ever digital film showcase in 1999 and created one of the first sites to show video on the web in 1994. Wired Magazine called him "one of 25 people reinventing entertainment" and he was named "one of the ten coolest people in America" by Faith Popcorn's Brain Reserve.

Katrin Verclas

Katrin Verclas is co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org, a global network of practitioners using mobile phones in social change work. She, was until recently, also the Executive Director of NTEN: The Nonprofit Technology Network, the national association of IT professionals in the more than 1 million nonprofit organizations in the United States.

Katrin is passionate about the use of technology in democratic participation, economic empowerment, and government accountability. She has a strong background in IT management, IT in social change organizations, and in philanthropy. Prior to NTEN and MobileActive, she has led several nonprofit organizations, and served as a program officer at the Proteus Fund for six years, focusing on the use of technology in civic and democratic participation, and in government transparency.

She has consulted with foundations such as Carnegie Corporation and Pew Charitable Trusts, among others, and is currently engaged in a research project on mobile use in civil society with the UN Foundation.

Katrin has written widely on mobile phones in citizen participation and civil society organizations, open source software in the nonprofit sector, and information and communication technologies (ICTs) in development. She is the editor of a forthcoming book on IT Leadership in organizations, and is the author of an essay in a book to be published in 2008 on the use of technology in engaging young people in democratic movements. She is a frequent speaker on ICTs in civil society at national and international conferences and has published numerous articles and publications on technology for social change in leading popular and industry publications.

Katrin serves on the boards of Mobile Voter and NTEN, and is a member of IEEE Computer Society and the Development Executive Group.

MobileActive.org is a global network of practitioners using mobile phones in social change work. MobileActive.org features a high-traffic community blog with the latest case studies and analysis of the use of mobile phones in civil society organizations; data on mobile penetration worldwide, and maintains a comprehensive directory of projects, vendors, and tools using mobile technology. The network organizes a popular conference for practitioners and technologists at the cutting edge of using mobiles in social change work around the world.