MobiChange will be an open-source, multi-lingual mobile social networking platform, accessible by voice and SMS, designed to support local communities and enable social change.

The MobiChange project will have three parts --

1. An open source code base for a multilingual mobile social network designed on the basis of extensive ethnographic research, to be accessed almost exclusively by voice and SMS (MobiChange).

2. A Drupal-based community website to discuss how such a platform may help non-profits engage local communities and mobilize social change (www.mobichange.org).

3. A hosted ad-supported consumer version of the mobile social network, built on the MobiChange platform, designed for mass market adoption ( www.mobitalk.org).

www.mobitalk.org will be our main source of revenue.

MobiChange will work closely with grassroots non-profits working with disadvantaged local communities to build a code base and user interface that is flexible enough to be customized for development-oriented applications in the areas of education, activism, advocacy and micro-enterprise.

It will be the first social networking experience for millions of mobile phone users who have limited ease with English and use a $50 mobile phone as their only computing device. It will allow them to do some of the things we take for granted on social networks — meeting new people with common interests, benefiting from new opportunities for learning and earning, even sharing their own knowledge and skills with others.

A desired outcome will be the effective use of the Mobichange platform at a grassroots level to self-organize, coordinate and mobilize activities relevant to the community.

MobiChange will subsequently release its open source code base and train non-profits in emerging Asia and Africa to use it as a powerful development tool. In addition: The MobiChange founding team combines a rare set of skill and experiences: (1) expertise in the emerging markets in Asia and Africa, (2) understanding of the emerging mobile social networking space, and (3) experience in using mobile and social media applications to engage non-profits and grassroots communities.

Ken Banks runs kiwanja.net, an organisation that helps grassroots non-profits around the world figure out how to use mobile technology in their social change work. Ken's FrontlineSMS project has previously received grants from William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, MacArthur Foundation and the Open Society Institute. For more, see www.kiwanja.net.

Dina Mehta is a partner at Mosoci (research for web 2.0 strategy) and Explore Research & Consultancy (qualitative market research). Dina has contributed to building several communities on the internet, such as Worldchanging, Tsunami Help, KatrinaHelp, Asia Quake Help, SkypeJournal and Global Voices Online. For more, see www.dinamehta.com.

Gaurav Mishra is the 2008-09 Yahoo! Fellow in International Values and Communications Technology at Georgetown University where he will be teaching a graduate course on the use of social media in business, government and development in Spring 2009. Gaurav has extensive previous experience in the Indian consumer market. For more, see www.gauravonomics.com.

All three have been widely acknowledged as thought leaders in the social media and mobile for development (Mobile4D) space, coregularly on their blogs about these topics, and are frequently quoted in the media.