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Ken Banks
Founder, Kiwanja.net; Creator, FronlineSMS
Ken Banks, founder of kiwanja.net, specialises in the application of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change in the developing world. He combines over 22 years in I.T. with over 17 years experience living and working throughout Africa in countries including Kenya, Nigeria (where he ran a primate sanctuary), South Africa, Mozambique, Cameroon, Zambia, Uganda and Zimbabwe. In 1999 he graduated from Sussex University with honours in Social Anthropology with Development Studies
His vision is to empower others to create social change, and he does this by developing and providing tools to mostly grassroots organisations who seek to better use technology in their work. In 2007 he hit headline news on the BBC when his text messaging application - FrontlineSMS - was used to help monitor the Nigerian Presidential elections. Since launch the software has been successfully implemented in over fifty countries including Afghanistan, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, the Philippines and Pakistan
Ken has recently been interviewed by the BBC World Service, The Economist, BBC News Online, The New York Times, Nokia, The Africa Journal, The Independent newspaper, The New Statesman, The Guardian and the Sussex University Alumni magazine, among many others, and he has sat on panels at a number of events including the Aspen Institute, the Clinton Global Initiative and Google Zeitgeist. Ken also sits on Vodafone's "Social Impact of Mobiles" emerging markets advisory panel. He has written about his work, and the wider role of mobile technology, for a number of publications including Didactics World, BBC News, Boston Review, Vodafone Receiver and Stanford and Harvard University magazines, and has a regular online column in PC World. He has also appeared as a television guest, discussing issues on ICT and Africa, and has acted as an official judge for the Global Mobile Awards, the Mobile Messaging Awards and his own nGOmobile initiative. He was also a regional judge for the 2008 Adjudication Panel for the African ICT Achievers Awards Programme
He has spoken about the application of mobile technology at many conferences, workshops and organisations including Nokia, IDEO, Stanford University, the MacArthur Foundation, University of San Francisco, Amnesty International and the University of Arizona. He has also presented papers at the W3C Workshop on the Mobile Web in Developing Countries and the 16th International World Wide Web Conference, where he also sat on a specialist panel discussing web delivery models for emerging markets. Ken has also spoken at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, and has delivered keynote opening addresses at Mobile Messaging 2008 in Cannes and at the UN Foundation in Washington DC
Ken was recently awarded grants from the MacArthur Foundation, HIVOS, Rockefeller Foundation, the Open Society Institute (OSI), the Omidyar Network and the Hewlett Foundation, and has been short listed for three mobile industry awards for the development of FrontlineSMS. Between 2006 and 2007 he was based at Stanford University as a Visiting Fellow on the Reuters Digital Vision Program, and in 2008 was named as one of sixteen Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows. In 2009 he was named a Laureate of the Tech Awards, an international awards program which honours innovators from around the world who are applying technology to benefit humanity.
In 2010 he was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, a Program which "recognizes and supports uniquely gifted and inspiring young adventurers, scientists, photographers, and storytellers - explorers who are already making a difference early in their careers". He currently spends his time between Cambridge (UK) and Stanford University in California
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