If there is anything I hate more than cell phones, it’s money.
I mean, of course everybody *likes* money, but seriously, who wants to actually deal with it? Going to the bank, cutting checks to the landlord, saving receipts, budgeting, negotiating salaries, calculating the tip, trying to find stuff on sale, thinking about taxes … [...]

I’ve been following the recent debate about the future of web standards and whatnot. It’s been making me think a bit about what I really want to see in the future of web standards. And I can’t get this great California zine Cometbus out of my head. (Well, ok, by “following the recent debate” [...]

Seems like Paypal is one of those “leapfrogging” technologies that could help entire regions skip the process of developing a banking infrastructure, which apparently takes about 200 years of war (judging from how the West has done it).
Good as it sounds, it is important to note that users in all the African countries covered [...]

I missed this writeup from a little while ago. It is a good description of what Geekcorps is doing in Mali. Some of their really interesting projects are the Water Bottle Antenna, which provides a powered wifi antenna for about $3 (compared to $100) and the Desert PC which is basically a fanless, [...]

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 [...]

John Maeda writes thoughtfully about simplicity and design at his MIT-based blog. He just posted a great bit about Paul Polak’s design for a low-resouce flashlight. Design under difficult conditions can lead to the same creative insight as design on a limitless budget.
“… this prototype flashlight that is completely solar powered (recharged in sunlight), easily [...]

New Wi-Fi distance record: 279 km!:
Ermanno Pietrosemoli and Javier Trivio (of EsLaRed) and Carlo Fonda (from the ICTP) have successfully established a whopping 279 km wifi link in Venezuela. They did it using a pair of Linksys WRT54Gs running DD-WRT and some recycled satellite dish antennas (no amplifiers!)

The Tactical Technology Collective is a nonprofit based in Amsterdam that has been doing great work distributing Free/Open Source technology to the global NGO sector.
This morning I was reminded (via Worldchanging) that they are working on creating several different “best of” software compliations for NGOs– kind of like that lovely old mixtape you have [...]

Thomas Krag has a great-looking new book (with lead editor Rob Flickenger) about wireless networking in the developing world. And it’s always nice to see people taking advantage of the print-on-demand services of lulu.com.

The massive popularity of wireless networking has caused equipment costs to continually plummet, while equipment capabilities continue to increase. By applying [...]

I had the pleasure of spending this weekend with Ndesanjo Macha (English Blog/Kiswahili Blog/Profile at Global Voices) in Greensboro, N.C., about an hour from my house in the woods near Pittsboro. We´re working together on a Kiswahili translation of WordPress, the excellent open source platform for this website.
We are fortunate to have the aid [...]

Listservs are always so easy to miss. Sometimes they’re a joy and sometimes they’re dead, but they’re always elusive, popping up just when you think you know every fold of your little online landscape. So, at the risk of being pedestrian, here’s a few quick links from super-excited Carole.

Information Society: Voices from the South [...]

I’ve been reading an excellent report from Eldis (an incredible clearinghouse of development information) about the implementation of OCT programs in developing countries. In part the report seeks to question some conventional wisdom about the necessity of trendy technologies. On the whole it is a great synopsis of practical research with a clearheaded focus on [...]

I’ve just been getting into a magazine called “Developments: The International Development Magazine.” It features respectable journalists writing informed pieces about new issues in international development. The most recent issue is a great bit about Open Source Software and the impact of free programs in the developing world.
I appreciate the E.M. Forester reference in [...]

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 [...]

This report details how budget-strapped organizations working in the developing world are able to use open source software to accomplish computing task that would otherwise just be too expensive.
From the introduction:

The emphasis on openness in open source software has fostered the growth of a world-wide community of developers contributing to the evolution and improvement of [...]

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 [...]

Here’s another update on the laptop debate/idea from Ethan Zuckerman, the ICT-blogger-fellow at Harvard. He usefully recounts the point of the new prototypical $100 laptop as being a radical step toward computer-aided learning in developing countries. I appreciate his skepticism about the project, especially his explicit reference to the late, not-so-great simputer idea, which bombed [...]

Being a great way to communicate quickly, maps can also be incredibly dense with information. When they are put to a wholesome use, maps, like apple pie and puppies, deserve to have a special place in every home.
Take, for example, the incredible work coming out of the Dutch group Mapping Worlds. They’ve beautifully mapped [...]

Ethan Zuckerman is one of the best bloggers in the world; he must get paid by Harvard to do it, or something. (He does.)
His musing last week on the ICT/geek community’s response to the Katrina relief effort is a fascinating look at how we can potentially respond with the full weight of technology’s resources.
Most [...]

With a nod to International Blogging for Disaster Relief Day (Friday, Sept. 2). … Crossposted on the DDN list.
I am beginning research into ways in which mapping technologies like GIS (wikipedia: GIS) are being used (and can potentially be used) to help avert or cope with humanitarian disasters.
The tragedy of New Orleans has given [...]

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. [...]

Summary: There is a new, exciting model for programs exporting technology to the developing world. But the real issue is about education, not just setting up a rural network.

Here’s the scene: A decade after the technology-sector collapse in the highly industrialized world, a humbled tech industry has begun to take interest in exporting basic [...]

The Digital Divide Network has a wonderful, thoughtful article on the use of the internet and computers in Uzbekistan, where students and teachers face both poverty and technological illiteracy.
A recurring question in international technology development is the relevance and local meaning of the technology — what if I have never used a computer? Does [...]

ICT is Information Communication Technology, literally.
More generally, ICT is at the core of a movement that seeks to provide access to technology for people who would normally not have access to it. This, in turn, is part of a larger movement against poverty and inequality.
A great introduction comes from the (via the Digital [...]