Alone in a room in his home in Bonn, Germany, Friedhelm Hillebrand sat at his typewriter, tapping out random sentences and questions on a sheet of paper. As he went along, Hillebrand counted the number of letters, numbers, punctuation marks and spaces on the page. Each blurb ran on for a line or two and nearly always clocked in under 160 characters. That became Hillebrand’s magic number — and set the standard for one of today’s most popular forms of digital communication: text messaging. “This is perfectly sufficient,” he recalled thinking during that epiphany of 1985, when he was 45 years old. “Perfectly sufficient.

Why text messages are limited to 160 characters | Technology | Los Angeles Times

Loving the Germanic ‘This is perfectly sufficient’

What is Cell Alert? Cell Alert is an information tracking and delivery tool designed for non-profits and humanitarian aid orgs. It sends alerts to your cell phone or email when anything you want is located for you online (Grant Alerts, Regional Conflict Alerts, Genocide and Blockade Alerts, World Food Aid Alerts, Economic Aid Alerts and more!).

What is Cell Alert? | Cell Alert™

Here’s a challenge to build a movement to stop sexual violence against women in the DRC. The deadly nexus between that violence and the purchase of electronics products containing conflict minerals from the DRC is direct and undeniable. The electronic devices used by almost everyone in the North provide unique leverage to help end the scourge of violence in the DRC.

AfricaFiles | D R Congo: Cell phones, conflict minerals, and the worst sexual violence in the world

The future is not mobile or laptops. It’s an unpredictable mash-up of phones, computers, and innovative connectivity solutions. The single most important thing that needs to happen is to lower the network charges and get mobile phones and networks running over IP so that the networked innovation that we beginning to see in the developing world can really take off.

Mobiles versus Laptops at Many Possibilities

DAVID, a Masai herdsman from Kisumu in Kenya, answers a call on his cellphone. After listening to the message, he repeats a short phrase in his Masai dialect. He then listens to another short message, and repeats the new phrase. After 30 minutes, he ends the call, having earned enough for a week’s worth of personal cellphone airtime.

Cellphones tap wisdom of the crowds – 11 February 2009 – New Scientist

LG, Sony Ericsson and Samsung mobile phones have been fingered as some of the most problematic handsets available, according to a poll of users.

The research also delved into the personalities of mobile phone users and concluded that Nokia owners are “handset simpletons”, while Samsung’s clan is full of “snap-happy photo geeks”.

Nokia owners handset simpletons shocker

What is GarbageScout? The streets are full of interesting and potentially useful things that have been thrown out. If you see something good, snap a picture of it with your camera or camera phone, post it to flickr with the tag garbagescout. It will go up on the home page and others can go and get it.

GarbageScout.com – Found treasure map – a recycler’s dream, a cheapskate’s best friend, and a dumpster diver’s companion

This is an ingenious freecycle variation… which would work really well in Brighton.

Text to catch the next bus home Catching the bus is about to get even easier. A new text messaging service will ensure passengers never miss the last bus home. A simple text with the bus stop code will provide details of the next buses due – all you need to do is decide which one to catch. Brighton & Hove City Council is considering introducing the text messaging service at bus stops throughout the city. If introduced, the system will provide 24 hour up to date information for bus arrival times, similar to the details displayed at the city’s popular Real Time bus stops.

Brighton & Hove City Council – text the bus

This is my dream story – combining genuinely useful SMS functionality, buses… and Brighton!

Part of the reason is that many people are still trying to figure this out. Mobiles do present the ICT4D community with a huge opportunity to help some of the poorest and most marginalized members of society, but the “mobiles for development” sub-discipline is still a relatively new one, and people at all levels are still trying to figure out what this new mobile opportunity really means. For all the talk of shared learning and for all the conferences and workshops, to the man on the street — or the developer in the bookshop — there is strikingly little to show for it.

‘Social Mobile’ Applications: The Missing Book – Business Center – PC World

Of course, we can’t forget that in practice the primary form of coordination was from friend to friend through mobile phones; that was also the main approach used by young students for coordinating their initiatives, demonstrations, and direct actions.

How to Organize an Insurrection