taptu: mobile touch web report 'government & non-profit' update mar 2010

government and non-profit update march 2010

This is the third report from Taptu in a monthly series that will track the growth of the Mobile Touch Web.

Find previous reports and other resources at www.taptu.com/metrics

contents 03 The Touch Web is the Inclusive Web

08 Global overview: Mobile Touch Sites, all categories

10 Government & Non-Profit category analysis

Selected sub-category screenshots

11 Central Government & Agencies and Local Government

12 Colleges & Universities and Museums & Libraries

13 Healthcare and Charities & Causes

14 Religious Organisations and Military Organisations

15 About Taptu & Methodology

government & non-profit update march 2010 02

the touch web is the inclusive web

what we didIn January this year, we completed the first in-depth survey of the Mobile Touch Web. We estimated a total of 326,600 Mobile Touch Web sites – more than the number of apps across all app stores. We defined the Mobile Touch Web as Web content that is created specifically for mobile touch screen devices, with finger- friendly layouts and lightweight pages that are fast to load over cellular networks. One of our findings in January was a more advanced and progressive adoption of the Touch Web in the Government and Non-Profit sector.

Given the predictions that internet-connected touchscreen phones will increase significantly beyond that of PCs, the Touch Web has the potential to more than double the level of internet adoption around the world. Unlike PC technology, all the demographic segments of society are moving towards high levels of mobile phone ownership.

The Touch Web is the most democratic and inclusive of the mobile content technologies. Why? First, the Touch Web allows web developers to develop a site or WebApp once to support multiple mobile OS platforms. Second, there is no commercial entity that can act as a gatekeeper via an apps store. This is very attractive to Government and Non-Profit organizations. This sector is the focus of this

month’s State of the Touch Web report.

what we sawHistorically, Non-Profits have tended to lag the commercial sector in their adoption of new information technologies. Their budgets tend to be lower than commercial organizations of equivalent size. They are often significantly more risk averse, wanting to see new technology prove itself before engaging with it.

Yet despite these background factors, Taptu observed a surprising degree of adoption of Touch Web technology, and some very innovative services. To some degree these track the rapid recent adoption of Web technology by Non-Profits, especially for fund-raising. In 1997 just $300,000 was donated online. Ten years later annual online donations had risen to more than $10 billion. Experts say that online donations were likely to exceed $15 billion in 2009 – despite the recession. According to The Chronicle of Philanthropy, 4 out of 5 donors have made a gift online. In their own words “during the next decade, mobile phones and other handheld devices will become vital to Non-Profit efforts.” 1


1 Source: http://www.urmobile.com/


the touch web is the inclusive webcontinued...

notable government & non-profit sub-categories

Sub-category What’s the point?

01 Central government & agencies Paying tax online, contacting political representatives, & supporting the move to a “digital democracy”

02 Local government Providing mobile access to public transport routes and timetables, giving visitors easy access to local information and resources

03 Colleges & universities Create a virtual campus to promote student engagement, improve pastoral care, and provide mobile access to learning resources.

04 Museums & Libraries Check opening times, or catalogue, and to get information and maps when you are on-site.

05 Healthcare Providing 24/7 information about medical issues, locations of practices and dealing with constant care needs.

06 Charities & Causes To donate via your mobile whilst watching TV, or follow a specific cause whilst on the go.

07 Religion Providing information, fundraising and community engagement.

08 Military For service personnel, keep connected to news and other military info resources when you are in the field away from your PC.

We’ve identified 8 important sub-categories of Non-Profits where we measured significant numbers of existing Touch Web sites and WebApps. These are discussed in more detail in the report on the right.



touch sites of the month march 2010 help haiti http://helphaiti.mobi

With the massive penetration of mobile devices, a charity that wishes to maximize audience reach can no longer afford to ignore mobile. Touchscreen devices, which make it easier to use the Mobile Web compared to older-style phones, offer the most advanced mobile platform to try out new ideas.

The recent disaster in Haiti demonstrated just how important the mobile donation channel is becoming. mGive, which processes SMS donations, announced on their blog that within 3 weeks of the disaster that they had processed $37 million. Taken as a single donation, this represents a larger sum than that of the Central Emergency Response Fund (CERF). An example of a site looking beyond SMS donations to a full mobile checkout experience is helphaiti.mobi.

Helphaiti.mobi is run by Global Impact, a not-for-profit organization that represents over 55 leading US based International Charities. A touch mobile site enables a charity not only to process one-time donations but to retain the giver in a longer-term relationship with the charity. This can be achieved by imaginative communication (through images and videos, delivered to the touch screen) of the issues at hand.

help haiti http://helphaiti.mobi

2 Source http://blog.mgive.com/2010/02/03/behind-the-scenes-at-mgive-processing-over-37-million-in-donations

3 Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/news/datablog/2010/jan/14/haiti-quake-aid-pledges-country-donations



touch sites of the month march 2010 directgov mobile http://m.direct.gov.uk

The direct.gov desktop portal aims to provide the British public with a centralized point of access to all of it’s online services, including tax payments, processing court fines, accessing journey information or job hunting for the unemployed. The British Government has now brought the most mobile relevant sections to the Mobile Touch Web. The m.direct.go.uk site helps citizens to search for work, to get live information on road and public transport delays together with access to NHS services, passport services and free local Internet access facilities.

mit mobile webhttp://mobi.mit.edu

This is a truly device agnostic web application done in the best way possible, and is exactly the quality you would expect from the home of the MIT mobile experience labs.

Based around a simple navigational experience the user is presented with 16 areas which they can access, these range from a searchable, categorized Campus map enabling students and staff to identify the locations of everything from Libraries to Dunkin’ Donuts, to bus shuttle times; from being able to manage your MIT paperless money system, to seeing what events are on. By simply having your touch-phone and your MIT ID card, you can perform almost every single action you could ever want to perform on campus.

directgov mobile http://m.direct.gov.uk

mit mobile web http://mobi.mit.edu


conclusionAcross the 8 sub-categories that we’ve analyzed, we observed different levels of exploitation of Touch Web technology:

Level 1 – Information & Transaction Touch Sites – Charities are a good example of non-profits that are using the Mobile Touch Web as a convenient resource for disseminating information, but haven’t yet taken the larger steps, which could offer the biggest payback. At Taptu we can see a next level of adoption where charities’ Touch Web Sites will evolve into mobile donation portals and take centre-stage in the fund-raising process in line with the general increase in mobile commerce (for more info see our previous report on mobile touch commerce).

Level 2- Touch Sweet Spot Sites – Within the Colleges & Universities sector we observed examples of sites that utilized touch functionality to it’s full potential and added access to real time information to provide an outstanding Mobile Touch experience. MIT is providing students with a number of innovative services. It points the way to the future of university online systems.

Government and Non-Profit organisations, like commercial organisations, have to prioritise their spending on mobile initiatives. If they focus too much on single platforms like the iPhone they become vulnerable to accusations that they are favouring specific and privileged demographic groups. The Mobile Touch Web can offer a more egalitarian approach which reaches a broader cross-section of the population at lower cost and in less time.


mobile touch sites global overviewmarch 2010

Notes: Indexing .com, .net, .org domains + DMOZ. Percentages based on analysis of English language sites (84.9% of sites indexed)

“Higher quality” sites which as used as the basis of our category-level analysis are defined as those with above average quality score for either visual quality or information quality.

Blogs

Shopping & Services

Photo & Design

Social

Technology

World Affairs

Government & Non-Profit

Places, Travel & Local

Other

mobile touch sites

analysis of mobile touch sites

Top categories % of sites

Blogs 32.7%

Shopping & Services 16.4%

Photo & Design 10.1%

Social 5.5%

Technology 4.2%

World Affairs 3.9%

Government & Non-Profit 3.7%

Places,Travel & Local 3.1%

Adult 2.0%

News & Weather 2.0%

Mens Interest 1.5%

Entertainment 1.2%

Gambling 1.0%

Autos 0.8%

Womens Interest 0.9%

Music 0.9%

Sport 0.6%

Games 0.5%

Apps 0.2%

Other 9.1%

Total 100.0%

Global total number of Web sites scanned 114.0m

Sites estimated as touch-friendly 367,900 (0.32%)


mobile touch sites global overviewmarch 2010

higher quality sites


Shopping & Services 22.7%

Social 12.1%

World Affairs 8.7%

Places,Travel & Local 8.3%

Government & Non-Profit 6.8%

Adult 4.9%

News & Weather 4.4%

Photo & Design 2.7%

Entertainment 2.6%

Gambling 1.9%

Mens Interest 1.6%

Technology 1.4%

Womens Interest 1.3%

Sport 1.3%

Music 1.2%

Games 1.0%

Blog 0.7%

Apps 0.4%

Autos 0.4%

Other 15.6%

Total 100.0%


Shopping & Services

Social

World Affairs

Places, Travel & Local

Government & Non-Profit

Adult

News & Weather

Photo & Design

Other

higher qualitysites

Notes: Indexing .com, .net, .org domains + DMOZ. Percentages based on analysis of English language sites (84.9% of sites indexed)

“Higher quality” sites which as used as the basis of our category-level analysis are defined as those with above average quality score for either visual quality or information quality.

government and non-profit mobile touch sitesmarch 2010

analysis of mobile touch sites*


Religion 72.5%

Medical 13.7%

Colleges & Unis 4.8%

Politics 3.3%

Environment 3.0%

Charities 1.3%

Museums 0.6%

Military 0.6%

Total 100.0%

example sites in category

Site Name Site URL

Christ for all Nations http://m.cfan.org/

Medline Plus http://m.medlineplus.gov/

MIT http://mobi.mit.edu/

Directgov http://m.direct.gov.uk

WWF http://wwf.mobi/

Love the unloved http://lovetheunloved.com/

Velvet Foundation http://m.velvetfoundation.org

America’s Navy http://m.navy.com/

Notes: Indexing .com, .net, .org domains + DMOZ. Percentages based on analysis of English language sites (84.9% of sites indexed). * Higher quality sites only - see Methodology page for further information. % change equals current month versus previous. Important: To view site, go to site URL on your touchscreen phone (Many sites do not render properly on PC browsers). Sites can be classified in more than one category.

Government & Non-Profit % of sites 3.7%


Religion

Medical

College & Unis

Politics

Environment

Other

government & non-profit

example central government & agencies

example local government

securities and exchange commission

http://m.sec.gov/

us department of veteran affairs

http://m.va.gov/

directgov mobile http://m.direct.gov.uk

cdc.gov http://m.cdc.gov/

state of indiana http://in.gov/

miami-dade transit http://miamidade.gov/transit/mobile/

utah.gov http://utah.gov/

the city of wheeling http://wheelingwv.gov/


example colleges & universities

example museum & libraries

westminster college http://travelocity.com/

massachusetts institute of technology http://delta.com/

california academy of sciences http://m.calacademy.org/

inside higher education

http://m.insidehighered.com/

university of oxford http://m.ox.ac.uk/

velvet foundation http://m.velvetfoundation.org

iowa city public library

http://icpl.org/

walker artcenter http://walkerart.org/


example health care

example charities & causes

american college of emergency

physicians http://m.acep.org

medlineplus http://m.medlineplus.gov/

webmd http://webmd.com/m/

thesite.org http://thesite.mobi/

love the unloved http://lovetheunloved.com/

shelter extra http://shelterextra.mobi

best friends animal society

http://m.bestfriends.org

urcause http://urcause.mobi


example religious organizations

example military organizations

christ for all nations http://m.cfan.org/

cornerstone church http://cornerstonesimi.com

lake ann camp http://lakeanncamp.com/

richland hills church of christ http://rhchurch.org/

usaf thunderbirds http://usaftbirds.mobi

military.com http://m.military.com/

america’s navy http://m.navy.com/

support our troops http://supportourtroops.org


report methodologymarch 2010

Taptu scans 110 million internet domains each month, using a cluster of 750 servers, downloading approximately 10 terabytes of data for each scan. Each scanned site is checked against a number of tests for potential mobile touchscreen-friendliness.

Candidate sites are then filtered to identify English language sites, then further evaluated for site quality, then classified by type. “Higher quality” sites which as used as the basis of our category-level analysis are defined as those with above average quality score for either visual quality or information quality. These quality ratings, together with site popularity data, are used as the basis for our selections of Taptu Top 10 Touch Screen Sites in each of the topic categories.

about taptu

Founded in 2007, Taptu built a strong user base and reputation for entertainment search on mobile devices. The service was available globally in 5 languages, generated in excess of 1 million searches per day and over 3.2 million users (June 2009) and picked up several international awards along the way.

Since early 2009 Taptu has evolved and pioneered the index and crawling of media specifically designed for touch screen mobile devices. Consumers can now, for the first time, search and explore millions of mobile touch web sites, apps, images and the realtime web from their touch screen mobile device. Taptu is also making this unique index available to third parties via an API.

get copies of past reports and sign up for future oneshttp://www.taptu.com/metrics/

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