Mobile Apps used to distribute info instead of Govt Paper Leaflets

Posted by Robin Jewsbury on 14/03/2010 3 comments
Your rating: None Average: 2.9 (9 votes)

The government currently creates millions of leaflets per year at huge cost as well as the environmental costs. Many of these could be replaced by content applications and sent to mobile phones. It is entirely possible to create these apps for nearly every model of phone.

Tagged:
Add new comment

Comments (3)

Not everyone uses a mobile phone

Thu, 01/04/2010 - 11:26 — Matthew Slyman (not verified)

This would be terrible for inclusiveness, and possibly bad for security.

* Not everyone uses a mobile phone (even fewer, a smart phone. Would you distribute government leaflets by SMS?)
* Not all mobile phones are compatible - who would decide which models to support and which not to?
* There are plenty of people who cannot read the tiny screen on their mobile phone, or who wouldn't like to read any complex or important information through a screen that's not much bigger than four postage stamps.

Mobile phones are great for private communication but I don't want to hear from the government through my mobile phone unless they're telling me about an imminent natural disaster that I need to avoid.

OPT-IN for communication via email in lieu of communication by post, would be nice... It would save paper. HOWEVER, consider that:

* Some government communications are sent TO EVERYBODY. Royal Mail can deliver to everybody quite cheaply... But if you start telling them to deliver to everyone on a street EXCEPT numbers 3, 8, 12 and 17; that actually makes the service more expensive and difficult to provide.
* Certain communications must legally be sent to a postal address. Imagine if I wanted to intercept your OFFICIAL POLL CARD, and registered to receive your postal mail from the government at my email address... Nice idea?

Thanks for posting this

Wed, 17/03/2010 - 10:14 — robinjewsbury

Thanks for posting this; the technology to achieve this can be found at http://eyemags.com. It always free to download and its free to create simple apps for non commerical use.

I agree, and feel especially

Fri, 02/04/2010 - 12:18 — james.p e2 (not verified)

I agree, and feel especially stongly about this after recieving junk mail from the green party through my door. Its 2010! can they not come up with a more enviromentally friendly way to spread their confused message?

@data.gov.uk maybe there should be a spam button for comments like the one above.