With more than 350 confirmed participants from over 40 countries, next week's MobileActive08 Summit will allegedly be the largest international event to date focusing on this topic and one of the most important ICT4D events to be hosted in Africa in 2008. The Southern African NGO Network (SANGONeT) and MobileActive.org is hosting the event at the Wanderers Club in Illovo, Johannesburg, 13 - 15 October 2008.

The rude honk of vuvuzelas rang through the halls of the Wanderers Club in Johannesburg as the MobileActive08 conference got under way on Monday.

Mobile applications and cellphones seem to be the flavour of the month. Voice is not the only game in town and developers, NGOs and companies are waking up to the potential of leveraging their service, idea, project or survey through cellphones.

Spectrum is a significant national resource and needs to be allocated in a transparent way. This is according to Steve Song, fellow at the Shuttleworth Foundation, who presented at this year's MobileActive08 Summit, hosted by the Southern African NGO Network and MobileActive.org, this week.

SANGONeT and MobileActive.org will be hosting the MobileActive08 Summit, 13 -15 October 2008 in Johannesburg, the theme of which is “Unlocking the Potential of Mobile Technology for Social Impact”. The summit will convene more than 300 international civil society, development and technology experts interested in the use and application of mobile technology in support of social impact.

Sangonet, in conjunction with MobileActive.org, will host the MobileActive08 Summit, from 13 to 15 October, in Johannesburg.

Themed “Unlocking the Potential of Mobile Technology for Social Impact”, the event claims to convene over 300 international civil society, development and technology experts interested in the use and application of mobile technology in support of social impact.

According to MobileActive.org, non-profit practitioners showcasing innovative and creative ways to use mobile phones, and mobile technologists, researchers, government officials and representatives from the international donor community and telecommunications industry, will be among the participants.

Katrin Verclas, co-founder and editor of MobileActive.org, says: “At MobileActive08, participants will explore how mobile phones are used to advance civil society and development work, assess the current state of knowledge in the use and effectiveness of mobile technology to advance social action, and investigate trends, needs and investment opportunities.”

There are close to 3.5 billion mobile phones in circulation around the world. In many countries, especially in the developing world, mobile phones are the easiest and least expensive medium to communicate, and are far more pervasive than the Internet. Mobile phones are also bridging the digital divide in developing countries at a rate much faster than most other technologies to date.

Chad and the footage was already being aired on al-Jazeera. The cameraman, Laith Mushtaq, had just popped down to the hotel lobby to buy a sim card, when the bomb exploded.