When I started out on this journey, this attempt at fusing politics, communications technologies and an aesthetic lifestyle, I came to hear of and eventually meet a handful of people that were to become my inspirations, my own personal council of wisdom.

These were people who contributed to the development of low-cost computer networks for groups working within social justice sectors in Africa, Latin America, South Asia, Southeast Asia and Central Europe. People like Jagdish Parikh, Roberto Verzola, Carlos Afonso, Shahidul Alam, Dr Onno Purbo, Mike Jenson, Miguel, Norbert Klein, Leo Fernandez, Paul Wilson and Melbourne born, Karen Banks.

This is a well deserved award to a focused, single minded, selfless soul whose legacy, like those of her peers and the many more I am ashamed to have over looked in this brief invocation of praise, whose legacy is and will continue to be near impossible to record let alone comprehend. It is to be lived...

APC WNSP’s Karen Banks Wins Anita Borg Award for Social Impact

MONTEVIDEO, Uruguay -- Our strategy is to get women central, active and visible in all walks of technology. We don’t want it to be a surprise to see a woman running a wireless shop, fixing a pc, or leading a campaign to break with the telecom monopoly in her country.” -- For nearly 15 years Karen Banks and the APC Women’s Networking Support Programme (APC WNSP) have worked to bring technology to underserved women and communities. Their work will be recognised at the Grace Hopper Celebration of Women in Computing conference on October 7 in Chicago, USA.

More about the award from APC News.