This post is the second in a two part series on how to get involved in the base of the pyramid movement. Part 1 was a personal story of involvement, and Part 2 focuses on the role of students in bringing social transformation.

I recently attended the Social Enterprise Knowledge Network (SEKN) colloquium at Harvard Business School and had a conversation with a professor about the role of students in BoP ventures. He left me with this parting insight: "Don't forget - students change the world. Many social movements throughout history have been started and led by students."

It wasn't a surprise for me to hear this at the SEKN colloquium. One of the main objectives of SEKN is to empower business school professors with knowledge, research, and insights on social enterprises in order to influence students -- who will ultimately drive social transformation. "SEKN seeks to advance the frontiers of knowledge and practice in social enterprise through collaborative research, shared learning, case based teaching, and the strengthening of institutional capacities in management education."

During my time at the colloquium, I was able to rub shoulders with a number of HBS professors who had a lot to share about students and BoP ventures. Michael Chu, who teaches a base of the pyramid class at HBS, said his class is always oversubscribed. Another indicator of this enthusiasm on campus is the fact that HBS's base of the pyramid club has the highest membership of all student clubs.

(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)

Things are generally slower in August, as many folks take vacation and less gets done by those who are at the office. (For a refreshing and innovative take on this phenomenon, you might consider Seth Godin's advice to work like your hair is on fire while the competition sleeps.)

For the rest of us, this means there's less content than normal floating around the base of the pyramid blogosphere. Despite this, here's a quick roundup of worthy reports and posts:

The GSM Association commissioned a report summarizing the findings of 20 top research papers. It might sound like a glorified literature review, but it's worth your time. This is really the first report to put together, in one place, research on the economic and social impact of mobile phones in developing countries. Jack Ewing of BusinessWeek gives the quick analysis, while Dave Tait at the Emerging Futures Lab provides a handy link to download the 36-page PDF file. From Ewing's blog post:

(This post continues past the break; click "Read More" to continue)