In November, I was lucky enough to sit on a panel on text messaging for advocacy at the Convio Summit. My co-panelists, Matt Wilson from Mobile Commons and Kristin Kich of NARAL Pro Choice America both had some great case studies about using mobile to build lists and generate actions. There were lots of great questions during the session, including the very appropriate one about just who is texting anyway. Much like social media, there's an assumption out there that the only people who are texting are kids. That was probably true as recently as 2006/07. But it's not anymore! Nielson Mobile has just released statistics that indicate that EVERYONE is now texting. In the last quarter of 2007, the number of text messages consumers sent outpaced the number of calls they make and receive. According to 160Characters, the number of text messages has been steadily increasing: Qtr 3, 2007: 226 calls / 193 texts Qtr 4, 2007: 213 calls / 218 texts Qtr 1, 2008: 207 calls / 288 texts Qtr 2, 2008: 204 calls / 357 texts Of course, it's still heavily skewed towards the kids. Teens age 13-17 send and receive an average of 1,742 text per month, compared to "just" 231 calls. But the dominance of text messages is clear in several age categories: All Subs: 204 calls / 357 texts 12 & Under: 137 calls / 428 texts Ages 13-17: 231 calls / 1742 texts Ages 18-24: 265 calls / 790 texts Ages 25-34: 239 calls / 331 texts Ages 35-44: 223 calls / 236 texts Ages 45-54: 193 calls / 128 texts Ages 55-64: 145 calls / 38 texts Ages 65+: 99 calls / 14 texts So if you've been thinking that text messaging wasn't a good way to reach to your audience, you may want to think again. The President-Elect doesn't have a mobile strategy for nothing.

Each year for the last couple of of years, we've used the NTC as a showcase for new technologies we think you should be thinking about. This year, we're going mobile, in support of the local New Orleans nonprofit community.

Here's how it works:

Subscribe to the NTC campaign by texting TXTNTC to 69866 or completing the form in the full blog post.

You will receive messages only during the conference. We'll feature a different New Orleans nonprofit on each day of the conference. They will send you a few messages each day, with some unique opportunities and special surprises:

• Wednesday: The National World War II Museum
• Thursday: Tipitina's Foundation (Home of the venue for the Salesforce.com Foundation After Party.)
• Friday: Renew Our Music

Last week, I had the great pleasure of visiting Austin, TX for the TIG conference. I gave a presentation on the power of municipal wireless networks and mobile devices -- two great flavors that are going to taste even better together!

James spent some time heckling me from the front row, but he finally took pity and let me finish. Turns out, it was a good presentation for him!

Here are my slides, should they be useful to you. Props to MobileCommons for letting us do the demo.