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Quick Counseling via SMS
Teenagers Get Sex Education Via Cellphone - NYTimes.com
Great article about a welcome innovation. I’m surprised that it has taken this long, given that texting has been ubiquitous (among teens) for almost a decade.
A few things to note about the North Carolina model:
- It’s not automated. If/when it needs to scale it will be *much* more intelligent than a system that is automated from the start. They are building a huge database of real questions and real answers.
- It’s not push. They’re not broadcasting messages, intrusively, to people’s phones. The client initiates the conversation. Hallelujah!
- It’s shockingly low-tech. The responders should have actual composition and reference tools, as well as fingertips access to the database of all previous q&a. They seem to be using a phone to send and receive the texts, which must get old after a while.
Google’s work with SMS/text services (GOOG) and the experience of being able to Twitter from places without internet access has shown me that texting can be far more useful and powerful than most folks realize. It’s great to see organizations using this power for good.
