Want to bridge the digital divide in your community? While many community news and information sites allow community members to post their own content, few make this easy to do via mobile devices, let alone non-smart "feature" phones. This weekend, the creators of a noted Hispanic community site will launch a hosted version of their content platform that you can post to from any phone -- even a landline.

Making it possible for people to publicly share their stories directly from their phones is a key option for mobile community engagement -- the topic of a free KDMC webinar being offered June 26. (Register now.)

The official debut of Vojo will happen June 20 at the Allied Media Conference in Detroit. Vojo is a free hosted version of the Drupal platform originally developed in 2006 for Mobile Voices -- a project in Los Angeles which has helped immigrant and low-wage workers create stories about their lives and communities. (More about Mobile Voices and community engagement.)

Currently the live beta version of Vojo is available now to test, but after the official launch this weekend, full documentation and more theme variations and resources will be added to the site.

Vojo founder Sasha Costanza-Chock, of MIT's Center for Civic Media, explained that from the beginning the code base for Mobile Voices was free for others to copy, install, configure, and customize -- but this proved to be too much of a technical hurdle for many would-be community publishers and organizers. So they developed a hosted version of the service which does not require users to install any software on their own servers.

If you already operate your own community news, information, or engagement site, you can use Vojo to add mobile posting functionality. This content can then be syndicated to your website or to social media via RSS.

Vojo can be used from any phone, not just smartphones -- which can be particular if you're trying to engage underserved communities. While just over half of cell phones currently in use in the U.S. are now smartphones, the people who still rely on feature phones disproportionately represent demographics that tend to be less socially privileged and less visible. Recent Pew research found that only 36% of American adults with less than a high school education own a smartphone, and 43% of those with household annual income under $30,000. Also, only 40% of rural dwellers own a smartphone, compare to nearly 60% for both urban and suburban dwellers.

Vojo can accept and publish a variety of content types: text and photos as well as audio. Video is available, but currently it's not a big emphasis for the site because it's harder to upload from feature phones, says Chock.

To register with Vojo as a user, call the Vojo phone number from any mobile phone and record a brief audio story. After you hang up, the system will send you a welcome SMS text message; you can reply to this with the username you'd like. You'll then get a text response confirming your username and giving you a password.

Once you have a Vojo account, you can create a new group or join an existing group. This lets you effectively create a weblog with several contributors. Vojo automatically generates a phone extension that group members can call to post content. "By default we have one phone number and auto-create extensions for each group," says Chock. "You have the option to switch that extension to a dedicated phone number. Currently you have to discuss that with us, but later we might make that an automated paid service -- for a small fee."

Each user account, as well as each group, generates an RSS feed for posted content. The user manual includes step-by-step instructions to syndicate Vojo content to other sites.

Vojo group creators have the ability to communicate and coordinate with contributors via text messaging. Group creators have access to a "broadcast" tab that allows them to send a text message to the phones of all group members. "That's really useful if you're covering an ongoing story or doing an ongoing campaign in a community," he says.

Vojo content is delivered to the web via responsive web design, making it inherently mobile-friendly, easy to view on any device with a web browser (something included in many feature phones). You can, of course, view it on a computer too. But you can even access some Vojo content without any computer, mobile device, or internet connection. Anyone can call the phone number and extension for a Vojo group to listen to posted audio stories for that group -- even from a landline.

Chock notes that currently there is no mobile app for Vojo since they focused first on the feature phone use case -- but an app may be coming in the future.