Using Innovation And Technology To Stimulate Your Local Economy

A pre-G8 day of dialogue is inviting social entrepreneurs to share ideas on addressing global challenges

One week before world leaders gather for the G8 Summit, Ashoka joins the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations Development Programme, the United Nations Foundation, Mashable and the 92nd Street Y to launch G-Everyone, a day of dialogue that invites everyone to share their ideas on how to address global challenges. We asked two Ashoka fellows: How can innovation stimulate your local economy?

Ken Banks is an Ashoka fellow and founder of FrontlineSMS, Means of Exchange and Kiwanja.net. His most recent project, Means of Exchange, looks at how emerging, everyday technologies can be used to democratise opportunities for economic self-sufficiency, rebuild local community and promote a return to local resource use, leading us to a better, fairer, more locally connected world.

Technological innovation is something of a double-edged sword when we think about its impact, and role, in stimulating local economies. Today's globalised world has been largely made possible by innovations in technology – more recently the mobile phone and the internet. We can now purchase and consume cheaper and cheaper products from further and further away, enjoying beans from Kenya and bananas from the West Indies all year round, and communicate 24/7 with strangers in countries we've never visited. [...]