"Voices In Your Hand"

Here's a nice example of making tech serve needs rather than applying pre-made solutions. Hi-tech appropriate technology. "The project is now in a field-testing phase in the favela of Recife, Brazil, and they have been smart enough to let the testing results take them in a direction they did not initially anticipate. It appears that real-time connectivity is not the biggest issue, so devices which are essentially modified mp3 players you occasionally connect to the web in telecenters to send and receive voice and text messages are good enough (and much cheaper than cell phones)."
WorldChanging: Another World Is Here: Betting On The Next Billion: "Voices In Your Hand": function, appropriate-technology, poor, development, devices, mp3_player, web, telecentres