An awesome, awesome set of papers on mobile phones and economic development.

Kenyan govt. to disconnect all unregistered phones next month. Wondering how many people with phones lack the identity docs/proof of address they need to register. My guess is, it's a lot.

"In the most amazing (and selfless) part, Richard Kiyabo, the chairman of the party in question, has said they are ready to provide technical support to other parties to teach them how to use the same system of registration."

Exactly.

"What do Hillary Clinton and Hu Jintao have in common? Check your mobile phone for the answer."

Why the Voice of America's new iPhone app for Iranians isn't all that exciting. Reason one: normal iPhones don't work in Iran.

all of Uzbekistan's telecoms companies will text Uzbek mobile phone users later this week, reminding them to vote on Sunday

Africa has 415,010,625 mobile phone subscribers, with an average growth rate across the continent of 5.4% between Q1 and Q2 2009.

"As trained observers of how people in a society live, ethnographers can help companies figure out what people need and then work with designers to meet those needs with new (or more often tweaked) products and services. In a world in which ever more people are using technology products on a daily basis, such skills are increasingly in demand."

Ugandans using phones to track crop diseases

Appfrica Labs has been getting a lot of play in the NYT lately -- kudos to them

TechMasai gives Ugandan netizens a C-

Jon's thoughts on how to improve the flow of data during crisis, based on the Kampala riots.

"We face at least three filters in the voices we hear - access, language and bias."

"Several news site and blogs such as 3vomiband209 report [fa] that a few hours before Iranian presidential election SMS is blocked in country and several political blogs are not available."

Thoughts from Erik Hersman on citizen media in "hot-flash" conflicts

Afghan villagers use cell phone video to disprove U.S. military's account of recent raid

pretty sweet example of what can be done with a little bit of cell phone technology

",,,the medium is hard to dismiss as a reporters' tool, particularly in countries where cell-phone networks reach farther than the internet. At 4:53 am local time on January 18th Juliana Rotich, a blogger in Kenya, tweeted in her own cablese, “in town n