Seminarians' Network

eLECTION TXTwatch

09167050281

09286685292

Desirous of helping ensure a clean and honest local election this 14 May 2007, the Seminarians’ Network or SemNet, a network composed of 25 major seminaries all over the Philippines, will be conducting a project entitled eLECTION TxtWatch, an internet-based election-incident reporting through text messaging.

The objectives of the project are as follows:

• To encourage vigilance among concerned citizens particularly the seminarians and lay affiliates
• Monitor and report elections related incidents in different localities especially those that are not immediately accessible to the media
• Relay these reports to the media links
• Share pertinent information to legit groups linked to SemNet Election TxtWatch 2007

The eLECTION TxtWatch project was first done in the 2001 local elections with a group of seminarians, priests, religious, and lay volunteers as field reporters. SMS (short messaging system) or texting technology was still a novelty at that time with a small number of mobile phone subscribers. The internet/SMS-based election-incident reporting made modest impact as it complemented the efforts of the different election-related institutions in the country such as NAMFREL and PPCRV.

Recognizing that mobile phones have become a potent tool of communication in our country, eLECTION TxtWatch was also done during the 2004 national elections through the help of seminarian-volunteers from SemNet as well as lay partners from all over the Philippines. That year, the project has also expanded its services then as it collaborated with Diocesan Social Action Centers (DSACs) and groups such as COMELEC, NAMFREL, CBCP-NASSA, Radio Veritas, SLB, PART, and YAP.

This year, eLECTION TxtWatch will be launched as a concrete contribution of SemNet in maintaining an honest and peaceful electoral process during the forthcoming May 2007 elections. The following describe the mechanics of eLECTION TxtWatch:

1. Gathering of willing non-partisan religious and lay volunteers around the Philippines.
2. Registration of the volunteers via SMS text and internet technology. Volunteers will receive a text message confirming their registration and describing the process of reporting.
3. Registered volunteers can send elections related incidents via SMS text anytime before, during and after the elections.
4. The SemNet nerve center receives and determines newsworthy and relevant reports, edits them for posting in the designated website and relays them to the respective media partners and other institutions for the necessary actions.
5. The SemNet nerve center monitors the whole process of registration and monitoring of text message reports before, during and after the elections.

Interested volunteers may text the abovementioned numbers.

For questions and inquiries, you may contact semnet at 0916-7050281 and 0928-6685292.

You may also leave comments at this post or the guestbook at http://semnet.multiply.com