With close to 2.5 billion phones in circulation around the world, in many countries mobile phones are the easiest and least expensive way to communicate and are far more pervasive than the Internet. Because of this, mobile phones have enormous potential to be used by organizations as a tool to engage and interact with people.

The MobileActive Strategy Guide series, a joint project of NTEN, Green Media Toolshed, and MobileActive, looks at how mobile phones can be used to increase civic participation and engagement. The first guide in this series was released today and examines how mobile phones can be used in electoral and voter registration campaigns.

Mobile campaigns have already been used for election monitoring in Macedonia and Kenya, among women voters in Saudi Arabia, and in a number of popular uprisings in the Ukraine and South Korea. This year the U.S. based group Mobile Voter aims to register 55,000 young people to vote via their cell phones. And these are just a few examples of how they're being used.

This strategy guide provides case studies of successful mobile electoral and voter registration campaigns and advice organizations can use to start their own mobile campaigns. If your organization has considered using mobile phones for advocacy and outreach, this guide will help you get started or improve your current efforts. Download the strategy guide.

Other guides in this series will focus on advocacy, fundraising, humanitarian and disaster relief, and mobile organizing. Visit MobileActive for more information.