Cell Phones, Android, and Poverty

[Woody Evans]

I wonder if Google's Android will work like (we might hope) the OLPC project will, to give the power to write the code for the info machines to the people who need the power. Some might argue that it's the tool (almost any tool, particulars don't matter) that the people need -- Vista, Excel, Thunderbird, anything is fine. But I was impressed with a talk by Douglas Rushkoff (at the Personal Democracy conference - link, video in Notes section) where he talks about the way we always miss the real tools, the real power, of media revolutions (the old McLuhan thing about driving while looking in the rear-view).
The promise of Android, of Linux flavors, is that we can learn how to create our own info tools and collaborate with others in community to make better tools.
How will these issues play out in 20 years for a Liberian taxi driver who runs a side business renting out minutes on his cell phone? How does it imrove micro-lending platforms through phones?

[cglusky]

you may be interested in this http://www.openmoko.com/

open hardware and running linux. i hope to start using it as a test platform.