State Mobilizes for Texting Pakistan

The federal government's efforts to use social media to improve communication have officially gone global. At a press conference today to announce $110 million in humanitarian aid for displaced residents of Pakistan's Swat Valley, State Department Secretary Hillary Clinton discussed a plan to use cell phone text messages to inform local communities about the assistance efforts:

We have been hard at work in this area for a number of weeks, looking for ways that we can get communications directly to people on the ground. And we know that a lot of the Pakistanis who are being displaced by the conflict have cell phones. So we're going to try to reach directly to them, not only to give them information that will be of assistance to them, but also to provide a way of connecting them up with other people, with the military, with the governing authorities.

Additionally, Americans interested in donating to the relief efforts can text the word "swat" to the number 20222 to make a $5 contribution to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Clinton said the money will be used to provide tents, clothing, food and medicine to displaced Pakistanis and she is hoping for a "big response" to the text messaging campaign. She added that the Obama administration has reached out to Pakistani Americans to solicit contributions from that community towards the relief efforts.

From my own travels in South Asia I have been consistently impressed by the level of market penetration cell phones have achieved in the region over a relatively short period of time. It is now much easier to get a cell phone than a land line in that part of the world, making the use of text messaging for public outreach a logical choice.

I'm not sure I can say the same about the idea of collecting donations via text. The proposal as outlined inspires a number of questions, including how will the money be collected and for what exactly will it be used. Would it be added to a user's wireless bill or deducted from a bank account? What would the State Department do with the names of people who donate? Would every additional text message result in an additional donation? I can easily foresee a scenario where people mistakenly think that texting "swat" repeatedly would result in additional money being donated, without realizing they are on the hook for the funds.

It's also interesting to ask whether the government should really be asking the public to donate their own money to an international cause that is already receiving millions in taxpayer funds without explaining why the amount of federal aid is insufficient. Considering how free the government has been with its pocketbook lately, it's hard to believe that $5 donations from taxpayers are really that necessary.

Hat tip: TechDailyDose