Digital Divide

The Economist has it right in its identification of the mobile phone as the best near term option for addressing the digital deficit.

One key obstacle to successful spread of mobile phone technology is the lack of markets without moats. The U.N. should focus its services on creating market conditions that welcome private investment, and should work with developing countries to break through neglected and state-owned telecom systems and cushion their transition to the free market.

Sounds like the U.N. would prefer to dump loads of money into an inefficient set of programs with no real means to measure success or assign accountablity. Not shocking.

Mobile technology can be a transformational societal force. There is a real threat that transformative technology can destablize established order and the construct of power. This dynamic is critical to bear in mind in today's global threat environment, particularly as the fate of the developing world tracks much closer to the fate of our own.