Let the jury decide...

So, how will the winners be chosen?

The competition will be judged by a seven-member panel. As soon as the competition closes on 14th December, the judging panel will get together and select the best entries. Winners will be announced on this website - and contacted in person - by the middle of January



     Ken Banks
     Founder, kiwanja.net
     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 many years experience
     living and working throughout Africa with a 22-year career in
     IT. 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. Ken was recently awarded a MacArthur Foundation grant to continue his work on FrontlineSMS, and was short listed for a mobile industry award for his development of the software. Between 2006 and 2007 he was based at Stanford University as a Visiting Fellow on the Reuters Digital Vision Program

     Neerja Raman
     From Good to Gold
     Neerja Raman is a recognized author and executive in management
     research. Neerja is former Director, Strategic Planning and
     Imaging Systems Lab, Hewlett Packard Labs and currently
     Senior Fellow at Stanford University where she is developing
     business and leadership models for social entrepreneurs. She is
     on the advisory committee for Cyber-Infrastructure, National
     Science Foundation and board member of several non-profits. She
     was inducted into the Women in Technology International Hall of Fame in 2005 for global leadership and was recognized with a Distinguished Citizen Award by Federation of Indo Americans in 2006. Neerja’s book, “The Practice and Philosophy of Decision Making” was featured in the category “Books that Empower Women” by WITI. Her research at Stanford has been published in various conference proceedings and as chapter “Eco-Stacking: A Strategy for Success in Social and Business Agendas” in the summer 2007 book “Innovative Approaches to Reducing Global Poverty”. Neerja is a graduate of the Kellogg Executive Program, Northwestern University, and has Masters degrees from S.U.N.Y Stony Brook, New York and Delhi University, India

     Mike Grenville
     Founder, 160 Characters
     Mike is a journalist and a conference speaker about mobile
     messaging. He founded 160Characters.org in 2001 to promote
     and report on the growing potential of mobile messaging.
     160 Characters provides a free newsletter, seminars and
     the annual Global Mobile Messaging Awards. He is also a
     passionate speaker and campaigner on environmental issues

     Micheline Ntiru
     Nokia's Head of Corporate Social Investment for the
     Middle East and Africa
     Micheline's current portfolio at Nokia involves continuing to ensure
     that Nokia addresses youth skills problem in most countries of
     the Middle East and Africa as well as managing initiatives that
     optimise the use of mobile technology for socio-economic
     development. Innovative examples of such initiatives include
     the enabling of rural access to mobile phones and exploring
     mobile learning initiatives as well as the use of mobile technology
to improve health data collection systems. Prior to working with Nokia, Ms. Ntiru has assisted with the management and design of  health and education programmes for non-for-profit, United Nations Agencies and corporations in Cote d’Ivoire, Liberia, Madagascar, South Africa, Zambia and the United States, among other countries

     Mike Short
     Chairman MDA and VP O2
     Mike’s career spans 30 years in Electronics and
     Telecommunications, with the last 17 years in Mobile
     Communications. He was appointed Contracts Director of
     Cellnet in 1989 dealing with major infra-structure investments
     and UK interconnect agreements. In 1993 the focus moved
     to establishing Cellnet’s GSM service and Roaming Agreements.
     He was elected Chairman of the GSM Association for 1995/96 and
     served on their Executive Board for 3 years. He also is a member of the UK Home Office Internet Task Force, UK OSAB (Ofcom Spectrum Advisory Board). Mike has chaired the MDA since 1998, leading the Association as Chairman/spokesperson and on Regulatory matters. He was appointed VP Technology for O2 in 2000 and a Visiting Professor at Surrey University in October 2002. Mike’s focus today is on Third Generation cellular and steering O2’s Group Research and Development in mobile
 

     Bill Thompson
     Journalist/commentator
     New media pioneer Bill Thompson has been working in, on and
     around the Internet since 1984. Formerly head of new media at
     Guardian newspapers, he writes a weekly column, the BillBoard,
     for BBC News online and a monthly feature for new net users
     for BBC Webwise. He makes occasional contributions to other
     publications both on and off- line including The Register, The
     New Statesman, Focus and The Guardian. He appears weekly
     on 'Digital Planet' on the BBC World Service and occasionally on other BBC radio and television programmes. He is the editor of w4mp, the website for people working for MPs. Bill is a visiting lecturer at City University where he teaches Online Journalism in the Journalism Department. Bill is on the board of the New Writing Partnership and a trustee of the Cambridge Film Trust. He has been a steering group member for a number of projects carried out by the ippr and the Work Foundation, including the ippr's Digital Manifesto and the Intellectual Property and the Public Sphere research project
 

     Renny Gleeson
     Global Director of Digital Strategies at Wieden+Kennedy
     Renny's interactive career started back in 1995, when he began
     developing online and CD-ROM games for Cybersites in NYC.
     He then moved on to help found Saatchi & Saatchi’s interactive,
     aka Darwin Digital. As Darwin's Creative Director, Renny's team
     worked with the likes of General Mills, Procter & Gamble,
     GeoCities and Time Warner. He went 'client-side' as the SVP
     Marketing for dELiA*s, a teen girl clothing/catalogue company,
     and grew an empire of web community and retail properties. He
was then recruited by the National Basketball Association to be their Senior Director, Global Media and Interactive Marketing, where he lead the global digital marketing/partnership efforts. In addition to creating mobile programs and programming, he oversaw fantasy game-related syndication revenue, and developed video game integrations and interactive platforms for NBA partners including Sprite, Verizon Wireless, Nike, adidas, IBM, Reebok, AOL, Nestle, American Express, Visa, AT&T, Nokia, Gatorade and McDonald’s