Hyderabad

Every day throughout the event, we'll recap the day's events and coverage at http://tech.ashoka.org/tech4society

Click here for Day 1, and check back tomorrow as we add more.

Remember, you can follow coverage here on the AshokaTECH blog and get involved with the discussion as it happens on Twitter—just use #tech4soc in your tweets.  Ask questions, share thoughts, ideas and links, read what others have to say and tell us what you think!

There's a live discussion on Twitter going on right now about Tech4Society.  Here's what people are saying, from Hyderabad and around the world.

You can join in too—just log on to Twitter and use #tech4soc in your tweets!

The Tech4Society event is warming up for it's opening tomorrow through Saturday, Feb. 11-13 in Hyderabad, India, and even if you can't be there in person, you can still be involved online.

The event – a celebration of Ashoka-Lemelson Fellows – brings together pioneers on the cutting edge of innovation in solar energy, clean water, mobile technology, science education, agriculture and healthcare. In 2006, Ashoka and The Lemelson Foundation launched a partnership that aimed to find, support, and celebrate social innovators whose inventions and technologies offer fresh, effective approaches to advancing social change. Combining Ashoka’s nearly 30 year track record for finding and supporting the world’s leading social entrepreneurs with The Lemelson Foundation’s renowned expertise in incubating and celebrating invention for social good, the partnership has sought to prove that entrepreneurship and invention can align in powerful ways to improve the world.

"It's critical to identify the best, most high-impact and sustainable ideas…throughout the world." -- Julia Novy-Hildesley, Executive Director, Lemelson Foundation

In advance of the Tech 4 Society event convening in Hyderabad, India later this week, AshokaTECH Podcast host Alex Budak interviews Julia Novy-Hildesley, Executive Director of The Lemelson Foundation.  As a sponsor of the Tech 4 Society event -- which brings together leading social entrepreneurs, showcasing tech solutions and innovations revolutionizing social change throughout the world -- The Lemelson Foundation continues its tradition of supporting innovation and invention throughout the world.

In addition to the Tech 4 Society event, Alex asks Julia about her recent research on the "innovation engine" model for growth, her thoughts on where social-tech is headed in the next decade, and how we can ensure that a diverse group of future inventors are creating the next great innovations for the world.

As always, be sure to follow Alex on Twitter, @TheBudak, for updates on the podcast and your chance to have your own questions answered in future interviews.

That's the team, or at least a small part of it.  Our team that has gotten us to this moment, just 3 days away from the Tech4Society event.

It's about 1am here in Hyderabad.  A group of us are sitting in our guest house working, on about our 18th hour of the day.  You'd think it would be drudgery but its not.  Everyone is so tired that at this point, everything is funny.  Everything is hysterical.  The fact that it was suggested that we have a fortune-telling parrot at our event made us laugh so hard.  (The parrot won't be there, just in case you were curious).

Our Keynote speaker, Fernando Flores, arrived tonight and was brought to his hotel safe and sound.  We have volunteers and event planners at the airport and a fantastic-sounding line-up of presentations and activities for our Market Place Evening on the 12th.

Our videographer has landed, as has nearly the whole team.

Now is the time when we move from plans to action, from well-thought-out lists to quick-response phone calls.

3 days until a year's worth of work comes to fruition and hopefully something even better.

Can't wait to share the ride with you all!

***

The judges' results are in and we have a winner for the Blog Your Way to Hyderabad Competition!

Congratulations to Elliot Harmon, who will travel to Hyderabad, India, to cover the Tech 4 Society Conference as AshokaTECH's official blogger this February 11-13.

We'd like to thank our six finalists and encourage you to read their entries here.  We'd also like to thank the more than twenty budding and established bloggers who submitted entries and encourage you all to keep up the great work spreading knowledge and advancing social innovation in all forms!

Hello AshokaTECH readers and competition finalists,

As you know, six finalists are being considered for the Blog Your Way to Hyderabad Competition which will send the lucky winner to the Tech 4 Society Conference in Hyderabad, India, this February as AshokaTECH's official blogger. 

We've been planning to announce the winner by January 1, 2010, and we hate to let that date slide but the final votes are not yet in from our judges.  We apologize for the delay, but we're working to wrap up the process as quickly as possible.  Please bear with us and stay tuned for the announcement of the winner—we'll let you know the results as soon as we do!

It was a tough competition to go through as we were impressed with the quality of all the entries to the Blog your way to Hyderabad competition, and after much deliberation we have selected six preliminary finalists.

The finalists are:

For the last time (at least for awhile) we are going to interrupt your regularly scheduled "Road to Hyderabad" programming to bring you this special segment showcasing entries from our Bloggers Competition which ends TODAY.

If you've been following the news over on Social Earth and Ashoka Tech, you know that we are running a blogger's competition to find our official blogger for the Ashoka Tech 4 Society event happening in Hyderabad, India, February 11-13, 2010.  You should also know you have onl 8 HOURS to get your blog post to us.

All you have to do is click here for more information, fill out a short application, and write us a blog post before November 30th.  Then, stay tuned to find out if you are one of our shortlisted finalists or even the competition winner!

So without further ado, here is this week's featured entry.  Today's entry comes to us from Ashley Metz Cummings.  You can read her entry below or on her blog here.

We are going to interrupt your regularly scheduled "Road to Hyderabad" programming to bring you this special announcement: