A guest article written by kiwanja.net has been published in the latest edition of Microfinance Insights magazine. The article - "Mobile Telephony and the Entrepreneur: An African Perspective" examines grassroots economic activity triggered by the arrival of mobile technology, and is based on earlier articles for PC World and the Boston Review.

I've just spent the weekend in Paris. Lovely you might think - and you'd be right - but not because of the sightseeing or famous French cuisine (although we did get a taste of the latter). A few of us got together to share ideas and thoughts on Freedom Fone, a Knight News Challenge-winning project building a media distribution platform providing news and public-interest information via land, mobile or Internet phones.

kiwanja.net was recently interviewed by the Economist for a Technology Quarterly article examining the role of - and potential for - the mobile web in developing countries. This is the second time kiwanja has appeared in the Economist. The first - last November - covered the use of FrontlineSMS in Nigeria and Pakistan.

Following an appearance earlier this year at GSM Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Ken Banks has been invited to an invitation-only World Economic Forum meeting in New York next month which will focus on collaborative opportunities between the telecommunications, financial services, healthcare and media & entertainment industries.

In the fast-moving social mobile space, keeping up with developments can be a tricky affair. For every initiative we unpick, examine and discuss there are dozens more which never end up gracing the pages of the world wide web, or are never profiled at conferences or in magazines, books or other ICT4D publications.

Today has turned out to be rather significant for FrontlineSMS. Two months and two days since we released the new version we've hit our 500th download request. Although I didn't set any targets back on launch day, by all accounts we've done incredibly well and FrontlineSMS is now likely the most widely adopted non-profit text messaging platform around.

Ken Banks has been invited to attend a number of conferences and internal meetings over the next three months. Confirmed conferences include:Open Source in Mobile (OSiM), Berlin (September 2008)World Economic Forum (Telecommunications Industry Partners Strategy Meeting), New York (September 2008)

In an age where you can find answers to almost anything with the click of a mouse, it can come as something of a surprise when what might seem like a simple bit of research comes to an abrupt, premature end.

kiwanja.net has been awarded a complimentary membership and invitation to the 2008 Clinton Global Initiative (CGi) annual meeting, due to take place in New York next month. CGi is an invitation-only event which aims to move “beyond discussion, fostering a sense of shared responsibility to address major global problems"

Ken Banks has been interviewed by researchers at the University of Texas for a forthcoming book focussing on how anthropologists are contributing to the development of technologies that address the challenges of globalisation. According to the books authors, "The phenomenon of globalization has generated many opportunities for anthropologists to make a practical difference in the lives of people around the world".