Ken Banks
Encyclopedia
Ken Banks is the Founder of kiwanja.net and creator of FrontlineSMS
, a mobile messaging application aimed at the grassroots non-profit community. He was the invited opening keynote speaker at the 2009 Humanitarian Technology Challenge and is described as "probably the world’s leading voice in promoting mobile phones as an appropriate technology" in the May/June 2010 edition of World Watch magazine
Banks is Co-Chair of the W3C Mobile Web for Social Development Group, a member and panelist for the Clinton Global Initiative and on the Advisory Board of a number of non-profit ventures including FrontlineSMS:Medic, Samasource and Question Box. He has written about the role of mobile technology for Didactics World, BBC News, Boston Review
, Vodafone
Receiver and Stanford University
and Harvard University
magazines, has a regular on-line column in PC World
and is a judge in the not-for-profit category of the official GSM Association Global Mobile Awards. He also appeared as a special guest on VoxAfrica TV, PRI's The World, CBC's Spark and BBC's Digital Planet. Banks has been interviewed and quoted in a number of mainstream and industry publications including The Economist
, the BBC
, The New York Times
, Time
magazine and in a recent UN publication focusing on advances in mobile health.
Banks graduated from the University of Sussex
in the UK with honors in Social Anthropology with Development Studies in 1999. 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
. In May 2010, Banks was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, an award 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.". Throughout 2011 Banks picked up a further three awards. He was the winner of the Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest, named an Ashoka Fellow, and picked up the Curry Stone Design Prize for his work with FrontlineSMS.
Banks has lived and worked throughout Africa since the early 1990s in countries including Kenya
, Nigeria
(where he ran a primate sanctuary), South Africa
, Mozambique
, Cameroon
, Zambia
, Uganda
and Zimbabwe
. He currently resides in Cambridge
with his wife.
He has received grants from the MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Institute (OSI), The Rockefeller Foundation, Hivos, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In May 2010 the Omidyar Network announced additional funding to allow Banks to continue his work.
In 2007 he launched The kiwanja Foundation, a US-based non-profit focused on advancing the potential of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change around the world.
FrontlineSMS
FrontlineSMS is a free open source software used by a variety of organizations to distribute and collect information via text messages . The software can work without an internet connection and with only a cell phone and computer...
, a mobile messaging application aimed at the grassroots non-profit community. He was the invited opening keynote speaker at the 2009 Humanitarian Technology Challenge and is described as "probably the world’s leading voice in promoting mobile phones as an appropriate technology" in the May/June 2010 edition of World Watch magazine
Banks is Co-Chair of the W3C Mobile Web for Social Development Group, a member and panelist for the Clinton Global Initiative and on the Advisory Board of a number of non-profit ventures including FrontlineSMS:Medic, Samasource and Question Box. He has written about the role of mobile technology for Didactics World, BBC News, Boston Review
Boston Review
Boston Review is a bimonthly American political and literary magazine. The magazine covers, specifically, political debates, literature, and poetry...
, Vodafone
Vodafone
Vodafone Group Plc is a global telecommunications company headquartered in London, United Kingdom. It is the world's largest mobile telecommunications company measured by revenues and the world's second-largest measured by subscribers , with around 341 million proportionate subscribers as of...
Receiver and Stanford University
Stanford University
The Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University or Stanford, is a private research university on an campus located near Palo Alto, California. It is situated in the northwestern Santa Clara Valley on the San Francisco Peninsula, approximately northwest of San...
and Harvard University
Harvard University
Harvard University is a private Ivy League university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States, established in 1636 by the Massachusetts legislature. Harvard is the oldest institution of higher learning in the United States and the first corporation chartered in the country...
magazines, has a regular on-line column in PC World
PC World (magazine)
PC World is a global computer magazine published monthly by IDG. It offers advice on various aspects of PCs and related items, the Internet, and other personal-technology products and services...
and is a judge in the not-for-profit category of the official GSM Association Global Mobile Awards. He also appeared as a special guest on VoxAfrica TV, PRI's The World, CBC's Spark and BBC's Digital Planet. Banks has been interviewed and quoted in a number of mainstream and industry publications including The Economist
The Economist
The Economist is an English-language weekly news and international affairs publication owned by The Economist Newspaper Ltd. and edited in offices in the City of Westminster, London, England. Continuous publication began under founder James Wilson in September 1843...
, the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, Time
Time (magazine)
Time is an American news magazine. A European edition is published from London. Time Europe covers the Middle East, Africa and, since 2003, Latin America. An Asian edition is based in Hong Kong...
magazine and in a recent UN publication focusing on advances in mobile health.
Banks graduated from the University of Sussex
University of Sussex
The University of Sussex is an English public research university situated next to the East Sussex village of Falmer, within the city of Brighton and Hove. The University received its Royal Charter in August 1961....
in the UK with honors in Social Anthropology with Development Studies in 1999. 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
The Tech Awards
The Tech Awards is a program of The Tech Museum of Innovation wherein innovators from any country are recognized for technological contributions which benefit the greatest number of people. Awards are granted in five categories - environment, economic development, equality, education, and health...
. In May 2010, Banks was named a National Geographic Emerging Explorer, an award 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.". Throughout 2011 Banks picked up a further three awards. He was the winner of the Pizzigati Prize for Software in the Public Interest, named an Ashoka Fellow, and picked up the Curry Stone Design Prize for his work with FrontlineSMS.
Banks has lived and worked throughout Africa since the early 1990s in countries including Kenya
Kenya
Kenya , officially known as the Republic of Kenya, is a country in East Africa that lies on the equator, with the Indian Ocean to its south-east...
, Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
(where he ran a primate sanctuary), South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
, Mozambique
Mozambique
Mozambique, officially the Republic of Mozambique , is a country in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi and Zambia to the northwest, Zimbabwe to the west and Swaziland and South Africa to the southwest...
, Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, Zambia
Zambia
Zambia , officially the Republic of Zambia, is a landlocked country in Southern Africa. The neighbouring countries are the Democratic Republic of the Congo to the north, Tanzania to the north-east, Malawi to the east, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Botswana and Namibia to the south, and Angola to the west....
, Uganda
Uganda
Uganda , officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. Uganda is also known as the "Pearl of Africa". It is bordered on the east by Kenya, on the north by South Sudan, on the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, on the southwest by Rwanda, and on the south by...
and Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe
Zimbabwe is a landlocked country located in the southern part of the African continent, between the Zambezi and Limpopo rivers. It is bordered by South Africa to the south, Botswana to the southwest, Zambia and a tip of Namibia to the northwest and Mozambique to the east. Zimbabwe has three...
. He currently resides in Cambridge
Cambridge
The city of Cambridge is a university town and the administrative centre of the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It lies in East Anglia about north of London. Cambridge is at the heart of the high-technology centre known as Silicon Fen – a play on Silicon Valley and the fens surrounding the...
with his wife.
He has received grants from the MacArthur Foundation, Open Society Institute (OSI), The Rockefeller Foundation, Hivos, and the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. In May 2010 the Omidyar Network announced additional funding to allow Banks to continue his work.
In 2007 he launched The kiwanja Foundation, a US-based non-profit focused on advancing the potential of mobile technology for positive social and environmental change around the world.
Interviews
- Ken Banks on how technology is driving social and economic change at AfricaGathering
- Taking things a whole lot further in Africa, Nokia interview with Ken Banks
- Canadian Radio (CBC) Interview with Ken Banks (text and audio)
- Interview with Project Diaspora, July 2009
- Interview with Discovery Channel website - "Ken Banks: Cell Phones on the Frontlines" (text and audio)
- VoxAfrica TV appearance (video), August 2009
- National Geographic interview of Ken Banks on " Solving eco challenges with grassroots messaging"
Publications and Chapter Contributions
- "Mobile Phones: An Appropriate Tool for Conservation and Development", co-author, published by Fauna & Flora International, 2004
- "Impact of Mobile Technology" in "Africa's Turn?", ISBN 0262012898
- "Mobile Healthcare for a Developing World" in "Texting 4 Health: A Simple, Powerful Way to Change Lives" (2009) ISBN 0979502543
- "Time To Eat Our Own Dog Food" in "SMS Uprising: Mobile Phone Activism in Africa" ISBN 1-906387-35-4
- "Appropriate Mobile Technologies: Is Grassroots Empowerment for All?" in "Mobile Technologies for Conflict Management: Online Dispute Resolution, Governance, Participation" (2011) ISBN 978-9400713833
Awards and Fellowships
- Reuters Digital Vision Fellowship at Stanford University (2006)
- Pop!Tech Social Innovation Fellow (2008)
- Tech Awards Laureate (2009)
- National Geographic Emerging Explorer (2010)
- Winner, Pizzigati Prize (2011)
- Ashoka Fellow (2011)
- 2011 Curry Stone Design Prize Winner with FrontlineSMS (2011)
Further reading
- Clinton Global Initiative
- The Social Mobile Long Tail
- mHealth for Development