I am obsessed with cell phones right now. Mostly I bloody *hate* them. I haven’t had one for six months, but work made me get one last week. So since they made me get one I am lobbying to get into some cell-phone-type research, partly to figure out my personal issues with cellular voice communication, [...]

I’ve never seen gadget hype reach the levels that have been achieved by the iPhone. And I’ve never been so caught up in it myself. After visiting eyesondarfur.org I’ve decided that I’m giving my iPhone budget to Amnesty International: $50 a month over the next year.
In the culture jamming spirit I spliced an iPhone ad [...]

There has been a lot of excitement recently around a couple of developments in touch screen interfaces: First there was the insane presentation at TED 2006. Secondly, of course, the iPhone made everyone all hot in the pants for it’s touchable goodness.
In Malawi, the NGO Baobab Health Partnership … adapted Linux to $100 [...]

The Darfur Wall is a beautifully executed charity project that fills a very simple, traditional purpose (collecting money) using an innovative and stark interface. The black and white, no-images design reinforces the tragedy of the situation without being overwhelming. I think this is a great example of online design serving a progressive cause — which [...]

Ethan Zuckerman has a great post about the recent newsines (trendiness?) about “conflict” diamonds, pointing to a parody site realdiamondfacts.org. It’s a sendup of DeBeers and Co. (It’s an exact parody of their PR-campaign website, diamondfacts.org.)

The bigger issue, Zuckerman points out, is that there are any number of products that the Rich Folks of [...]

Rajan Harinarain, a South African entrepreneur and inventor has come up with a temporary foldaway house for use in emergency situations complete with electrical wiring and fittings, doors and windows that can be erected by a small team in 5 minutes.
Afrigadget is a great site (though with irregular posts) about a bunch of interesting developing [...]

WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: LinuxChix Africa
“LinuxChix Africa manages to shatter two stereotypes at the same time: the idea that women aren’t interested in free/open source software development; and the idea that women in Africa are bound to traditional cultural roles. Founded in late 2004 by Anna Badimo, a computer science graduate student in [...]

An interesting article from the Washington Post, (via Kenyanpundit) :African Rebels Take Their Battles Online.

In countries where newspapers and radio stations are routinely shut down and dissidents are often jailed, the Internet is also giving ordinary Africans new freedom to debate political and social issues. “The Internet is a war weapon,” Aboude Coulibaly, director of [...]

Just discovered a beautiful resource of maps (mostly environmental info, especially soil) for most of the countries of Africa. (Found via Kikuyumoja’s realm.)
This is an incredibly thorough, high-quality resource, with scanned resolutions that will knock any map-lover’s socks off. The pages are easy to navigate, with appropriately-sized thumbnails and then really large downloadables. [...]

The ICT4D (Informaiton and Communication Technology for Development) Africa Scan is a serious undertaking that seeks to provide a reference of the major ICT development activities in Africa.
This is a useful place for researchers to begin when attempting to understand the current pace and direction of technology development work on the continent.

The [...]

While poking around on stuff related to the WSIS in Tunis, I found this excellent document about wireless internet in Africa, which was used at the first meeting of the WSIS in 2003. I only wish that there was an updated copy somewhere …
“The most intriguing application [of wireless technology] in developing nations is the [...]

Today’s New York Times carries a front-page article about the growth of the cell phone industry in Africa.
The article is as well-written a summary of the communications crisis in Africa as I have ever read — though it is an undeniably, perhaps inexplicably, upbeat assessment of the curent growth trend in cell phone use. [...]