How technology is shaping society

Telecom company using text message to send cash

This is a story from Mercury News about how SMS is helping ease the money transfer process for Fillipinos. The service was developed by Smart Communications of Phillipines. Basically, if you want to send money to somebody is Phillipines, you walk into one of their partners' offices, fill a form, pay the money and minutes later the receipient gets a text message, saying your money is on the way. And it is not expensive.
What is interesting is the use of SMS to announce that the money is on the way, but more interesting is that a telecom company is using their network infrastructure to provide a service that is traditionally provided by banks.
And they are sending $50 Million per month to Phillipines.

When I have a big catch, the phone rings 60 or 70 times before I get to port

The title is a quote from this Washington Post story. Another story that describes how cell phone is changing the economic landscape of poor India. C.K.Prahalad is quoted in the story as saying, "One element of poverty is the lack of information", which I not only agree but also believe that it is the most important barrier in the fight against poverty. Although the cell phone has not yet taken the middlemen out of the loop, it has certainly reduced the waste, down times and optimized selling process, thus increasing margins for fishermen.

Gigamon University EP08 - The Art of the Start

With permission from Guy Kawasaki, we bring you a unique episode which brings a different kind of tools to your life, tools that could help you succeed in business as well as technology. Guy Kawasaki is the author of eight books including The Art of the Start, Rules for Revolutionaries, How to Drive Your Competition Crazy, Selling the Dream, and The Macintosh Way. Guy is currently the Managing Director of Garage Technology Ventures, an early-stage venture capital firm and a columnist for Forbes.com. Previously, he was an Apple Fellow and Chief Evangelist at Apple Computer where he was one of the few individuals responsible for the early success of the Macintosh computer. For more information on Mr. Kawasaki, please go to his personal website (http://www.guykawasaki.com). Original High Quality Video Podcast: http://www.gigamon.com/QuickTime.php?id=GuyKawasakiTheArtoftheStart&mov= This is not a new video, but I think it is going to be a classic. I loved every minute of it.