The United Nations' Web4Dev Conference is taking place this week in New York and even if you aren't able to attend, you can still be a part of the action.

Mobile innovations from the 2008 USAID Development 2.0 Challenge

The three winners of the first USAID Development 2.0 Challenge show that in developing countries, cell phones—and in particular the text messages (SMS) they can send so cheaply and quickly—offer huge potential for development efforts.

Congratulations to RapidSMS Child Malnutrition, the winners of the 2008 USAID Development 2.0 Challenge! Thank you to our winners, finalists, and everyone who submitted and participated in the voting process.

We are pleased to introduce you to the three winning projects from the 2008 USAID Development 2.0 Challenge. We are elated with the caliber of the winners. They are (in alphabetical order):

We are pleased to introduce you to the three winning projects from the 2008 USAID Development 2.0 Challenge. We are elated with the caliber of the winners. They are (in alphabetical order):

The past couple of weeks have been particularly exciting for Ushahidi and FrontlineSMS.

During the recent Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellows boot camp in Camden, Maine, I had the pleasure of sharing a cabin with Erik Hersman of White African, AfriGadget and Ushahidi fame.

Ushahidi, which means "testimony" in Swahili, is a website built in the aftermath of the Kenyan 2008 elections to map reports of violence.