Political participation via mobile devices: Its an engagement tool that is still in its early stages here in the U.S. In 2004, Rock the Vote launched a groundbreaking mobile phone campaign that solicited more than 120,000 sign-ups across the country and helped register as many as 10,000 voters. My personal favorite element of the campaign was that on the night before the election, our subscribers recieved a voice mail instructing them how to locate their polling place through their phone.

Still, it was just a beginning. A new project in San Franscisco has just launched, called Mobile Voter, that shows promise.

The article about Mobile Voter notes that in other countries, mobile phone technology is credited with huge increases in participation. For example, in Spain, where a surge in youth voter turnout helped throw the incumbent party out of power, there were more than 40% more text messages sent on Election Day that normal.

But there are still a lot of unanswered questions about what would be most effective for voter and political engagement. What kind of services and tools would you want to have access to through your mobile device?

As we formulate our mobile campaigns for 2006 and 2008, we could use your input.