Yesterday was International Women's Day and MobileActive highlighted some incredible women in the mobile technology sector on their blog to celebrate the day.   Take a look below at these great innovators focused on mobile technologies that create social change and impact around the world.

Learn more about International Women's Day and the NetSquared Mobile Challenges

Here are some of the incredible women highlighted from the MobileActive.org community for their innovative applications of mobile technology - a great roundup from Katrin Verclas.

• Melissa Loudon is a research officer at the Centre for Spatial Data Management at the University of Capetown in South Africa.
• Erica Kochi, the co-director of the Innovation Team at UNICEF.
• Amanda Atwood, Brenda Burrell and Bev Clark are the three women who make up Kubatana.net, Zimbabwe's premier civic and human rights site.
• Rose Donna, the co-founder of Datadyne and a computer scientist.  
• Claire Thwaites, the British-born, charming and irreverant director of the Technology Partnership between the UN Foundation and the Vodafone Group Foundation.
• Kutoma Wakunuma's research focuses on the social and economic impact of mobile technology on gender relations.
• Kathleen Diga who's research findings discuss whether the use of mobile phones is reducing poverty aong women -- or is, in fact, driving women into greater poverty?
• Christelle Sharff teaches at Pace University in New York and runs Mobile Senegal - a series of mobile application bootcamps for students.
• Prof. Anita Wasilewska, an Associate Professor, at Stony Brook University.
• Deb Levine is one of the pioneers in the field of mobiles for public health.
• Patricia Mechael coordinates mobile strategy for the Millennium Villages Project at Columbia University.
• Yael Schwartzman, a computer scientists in Mexico, is another mobile pioneer.
• Holly Ladd runs AED Satellife where she has pioneered the use of PDAs in health in developing country.

Learn more about these talented women innovators and more to watch in 2009 on the MobileActive.org blog.

Mobile Challenges at Net2

UC Berkeley Human Rights Center Mobile Challenge
The Human Rights Center is sponsoring a challenge to encourage innovations for applying mobile technologies for human rights investigations and advocacy. Through a NetSquared Community vote, 10 finalists will be chosen. All 10 finalists will be invited to present their ideas at an international conference, "The Soul of the New Machine: Human Rights, Technology, and New Media," at UC Berkeley, May 4 and 5, 2009. A panel of judges, selected by the Human Rights Center, will choose three winners, to be announced at the conference. Winners will receive cash awards of $15,000 (first place), $10,000 (second place), and $5,000 (third place) to implement their ideas.

Submit your Project here!

N2Y4 Mobile Challenge
N2Y4's Mobile Challenge calls for your world-changing ideas of how mobile applications can help citizens, groups and others create a better world for everybody.   NetSquared and our Challenge Sponsors invite submissions of innovations in mobile technologies for use by civil society.   Through a NetSquared Community vote, 14 Featured Projects will be selected to participate in this year's NetSquared Conference.   Two representatives from each of the 14 Featured Projects will be invited to present their ideas in person at N2Y4, May 26-27, 2009 and compete for cash prizes.

Submit your Project here!