Why won't we see Mxit in the Developed Countries? Interestingly this is one of those technologies that has an easy fit to Africa even though it may never gain traction in developed countries.

• SMS costs nothing

The format of books is changing. As the emerging technologies converge, so too the way the world handles written text is also converging. This will affect three arenas of development – research policy communication; children’s education; and adult learning.

A new technology has crept onto the African scene that has enabled a step change in the way that the poor can access and share information. This concept note outlines why we believe that Instant Messaging (IM) through services such as Mxit can make a significant difference to the provision and impact of information services. It proposes a programme of action research

FAO have run a number of e-fora on their e-agriculture site.  I think this one is likely to be of widespread interest because it's scope is much broader than agriculture:

"This forum will examine the challenges that rural communities face in enhancing the benefits of mobile telephony, and look at some examples of interesting initiatives and good outcomes from around the globe".

Have a look at:

www.e-agriculture.org

At the GK3 recently, Steve Song pointed out that open hardware was becoming an option.  Mobile phone circuit diagrams opened up in Australia, were picked up by two small factories in China, and the designer invited to come and see them making his design.  Interesting -the factories made circuit but had not previously made phones.

Mind you the working conditions sounded a bit dodgy - soldering by dipping the board into a pan using fingertips!