John Kearney says: Jonas, How do those in developing countries access this network? Over the Internet that those who really need it, don't have?

Jonas Lagneryd says: Hi John,
Of course you are right, all internet based services exclude very many people. According to http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm only 23.8 % of the world’s population has access to internet and all its fantastic resources and services that we can appreciate.

To bridge the digital divide is a goal shared by the global community and lots of entrepreurial initiatives are taken in the right direction. Here two examples I know of:
+ http://laptop.org/en/vision/index.shtml
+ https://www.connectedindians.com/

How the state of the world changes, I try to follow in an interesting annual report ”The E-readiness ranking” by The Economist Intelligence Unit. Here is a direct link to the 2009 version: http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/bus/pdf/e-readiness_rankings_june_2009_final_web.pdf

Kind regards,
Jonas

Georges Dyer says: Hi Jonas - Great work! And good luck. With regard to the digital divide, my partners and I at Aedi Group (www.aedigroup.com) (including another MSLSer, Archie Kasnet '05) are working on the launch of Village Corps (www.villagecorps.org) - a central component of which is connectivity, followed by sustainability training - of just the kind Card Coop is developing. We should talk more soon.

Hope all is well,
Georges

Jonas Lagneryd says: Hi Georges, Your www.villagecorps.org looks like a very praiseworthy initiative! Looking forward to getting in touch.
All the best,
Jonas