If you're interested in projects that didn't happen, our favourite three are listed here.
 

Means of Exchange

www.meansofexchange.com

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.

Further details are on the Means of Exchange website

FFI Innovation

www.fauna-flora.org

After a gap of almost ten years, kiwanja.net has returned to consult on a new initiative at Fauna & Flora International (FFI) - a UK-based international charity - on the application of emerging technologies in global conservation. A dedicated project site will be launched in 2013.

Read more about FFI's work on their website

"Rise of the Reluctant Innovator"

We're currently working on a book featuring the stories of ten social innovators. "Rise of the Reluctant Innovator" aims to fill a much-needed gap in the social innovation/social entrepreneurship market.

The book will highlight the personal stories of ten social innovators from around the world. Ten social innovators - ordinary people - who randomly stumbled across problems, injustices and wrongs and, armed with little more than determination and belief, decided not to turn their back but to dedicate their lives to solving them.

Until the book website launches you can read more
on the concept in this Wired Magazine article

FrontlineSMS

www.frontlinesms.com

Over the past few years text messaging (SMS) has emerged as a leading tool for communicating a wide range of messages to communities and individuals around the world, particularly developing countries. Most of the text-based systems driving these services were developed independently, at high cost, and largely with commercial users in mind.

As a result, many NGOs which could benefit from SMS usage were unable to use the technology. Since 2005 FrontlineSMS has successfully bridged this gap, and is today being used in over eighty countries around the world in a wide range of non-profit activities.

Further details are available on the FrontlineSMS website

Silverback

www.silverbackers.org

Today's feature-rich mobile phones open up whole new opportunities for the conservation and development communities. While text messaging is leading the way in the developing world, in mature markets (which generally contain the majority of new technology early adopters) there are increasing opportunities to exploit the growing features of higher-end devices.

Silverback is a mobile phone game which takes advantage of the game-playing features of today's mobile phones, and over eight levels teaches people about gorilla conservation. Taking the player from a juvenile gorilla to a fully-mature silverback, the game highlights threats to gorillas in the wild, and contains numerous help screens and gorilla facts. Silverback was re-launched in the Spring of 2008 in response to the escalating conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo, home to the last remaining mountain gorilla populations.

Details of the game, and instructions on how you can download it to your phone, are available on the Silverback website

nGOmobile

www.ngomobile.org

nGOmobile was a prototype competition aimed at grassroots non-profit organisations in the developing world, designed to encourage them to think about how text messaging could benefit them - and the impact and reach - of their work. Launched in the autumn of 2007, nGOmobile awarded prizes of laptop computers, mobile phones, GSM modems, software and cash to four NGOs who came up with the most innovative application ideas.

Further details on the competition, its partners, the prizes, the expert judging panel and the rationale behind it are available on the nGOmobile website
 

Non-executed projects

Big ideas count for little if you don't do anything with them. If (like us) you believe it's all about execution, here's three of the bigger project ideas we've had over the years but didn't do anything with.
 

Idea #1: Incubation Centre
Date: March 2008

There always seemed to be some new Centre or other going up during my two years at Stanford, and I wondered how great it would be to have one dedicated to appropriate technologies, and I briefly blogged about it in March 2008. Of course, Stanford wouldn’t have been the best place for this given the cost, so the idea slowly evolved from my crude mock-up (above) to something a little more eco-friendly based in rural Cambridgeshire. I’d still love to pursue this idea, but given the growing number of innovation hubs appearing around the world, maybe the chance has gone.
 

Idea #2: Mobile Sensing
Date: June 2005

On 8th June 2005, the idea for a Mobile Environmental Monitoring Device was born. MEMD would:

“… gather environmental information as people move through their landscapes. Indicators such as temperature, air quality, CO₂ levels and air pressure would be recorded along with a fix on each location. For the first time individuals will be able to monitor their own exposure to local, relevant environmental hazards”

Manufacturers such as Nokia began pushing their own concepts a couple of years later, and today mobile sensing with mobile devices is nothing new. I originally blogged about MEMD – another idea whose time has passed – in more detail here.
 

Idea #3: Mobile Payments
Date: September 2003

On 1st September, 2003 – during a field trip to South Africa and Mozambique – I put together this diagram showing how someone might pay for a newspaper using their mobile phone. Mobile payments are nothing new today, but back then very little was happening. If I’d ever wanted to make money, this might have been the idea I should have stuck with, not that I’d ever have been able to make it happen. Further details on a blog post here.
 

“Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life – think of it, dream of it, live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This is the way to success, that is way great spiritual giants are produced” - Swami Vivekananda.