That is exactly what Ken Banks imagined as he was sitting in watching Saturday night television one night.
A few months later his computer programme, FrontlineSmS, has gone on trial in four African countries and is set to revolutionise the way that charities communicate with people in the developing world.
Through the programme, Mr Banks wanted to marry his passionate belief in conservation work with his wide knowledge of Information Technology.
Influenced by the British inventor Trevor Bayliss, whose clockwork radio allowed thousands of people throughout the developing world to receive information about the threat of AIDS, Mr Banks wanted to make it possible for charities and other organisations in Africa to contact, and send information, to those living in the remotest areas of the continent.
Twenty years ago the most effective medium for doing this was radio, now it is mobile phones that have the largest captive audience in Africa.
Mr Banks estimates that 94% of people in South Africa have mobile phones, even those living miles from the cities in national parks have them, so the ability to ‘blanket text’ every phone in a wide area would be an invaluable source for any group.
‘A lot of people in the remote areas of Africa can’t get a landline phone but almost everyone now has a mobile.
Without text messaging there is no other way of contacting them.
he said.
‘Now that it is working, it is very exciting,’ he added.
‘Charities are doing amazing things that they couldn’t have done without it.
