How citizens use mobile news to inform their communities in
Indonesia   In West Borneo, Indonesia, palm oil farmers monitor
big business and send the news they find to their fellow farmers
via mobile phones.  They learned how to gather and report this
news--which is critical to their livelihoods--as part of a
program led by Knight International Journalism Fellow Harry
Surjadi. Surjadi, a longtime environmental journalist, says the
program fills an information void in a poor, rural community too
often ignored by Indonesia's mainstream media.  The farmers and
other citizen journalists around Indonesia have learned to share
information and news reports via text messaging using the
FrontlineSMS and Swara voice-over-mobile systems. A training
center at Ruai TV, in the provincial capital, trains people in
basic journalism, including understanding of facts, observation
skills, data collection, news writing for SMS, inverted pyramid
and basic reporting.  Surjadi is also taking the concept beyond
citizen journalism, t