The Register has a fascinating insight into the impact Google is having on history. The story begins with an article written by James Moore entitled "The Second Superpower".

Look what the phrase "Second Superpower" produces on Google now. Try it!. Moore's essay is right there at the top. And not just first, but it already occupies all but three of the first thirty spots.

If you were wearing your Google-goggles, and the search engine was your primary view of the world, you would have a hard time believing that the phrase "Second Superpower" ever meant anything else.

To all intents and purposes, the original meaning has been erased. Obliterated, in just seven weeks.

Writes NYTimes: "To veterans of past cycles in technology, the wireless world today has the look of the personal computer business in the late 1970's or the Internet in the early 1990's...The wireless convergence of phones and computers is made possible by steady progress in chip making, memory and miniaturization. Today's advanced cellphones have the equivalent computing power of the desktop PC's of the mid-1990's."

One of the reasons for the slow pace of updates has been that I have been attending a conference organised by the UNDP and IBLF on the Millenium Development Goals, and how business can engage with government and intermediaries (NGOs and others) to achieve the goals. It has been a fascinating exposure to a different world. I spoke from the context of a developing country (India) and how ICT (information and communication technologies) can play a role in sustainable development. My key theme: imagine if every village in the world had 3 computers as part of a TeleInfoCentre. What would we then do differently? I'll discuss this more later when I get some time to write out my thoughts in more detail. Have been discussing this in a narrower context (Rural India) as part of the ongoing Tech Talk series.

Writes News.com:

Next-generation cell phone networks are arriving in Africa, a region some carriers view as an enormous business opportunity, despite widespread poverty.

Less than 10 percent of the population of even the most technologically developed countries has telephone service of any kind. In Nigeria, the figure is less than half of 1 percent.

That translates into hundreds of millions of potential customers. And although trying to sell mobile phones to people who don't even have old-fashioned landline models might seem like folly, business and infrastructure concerns may give cellular the edge.

But just as in China, a huge untapped population doesn't necessarily mean instant jackpot-size revenue for phone sellers, Beckert said. Poverty is certainly one of the biggest obstacles keeping phones out of Africa's hands.

"Look at how many (customers) are in China, then look at the average income," Stephan Beckert pf TeleGeography said. "You're seeing factory workers making 60 cents per day. They aren't going to buy cell phones anytime soon."

The TeleInfoCentre fulfills a multi-centric role: it is a computing and communications centre, has a digital library of documents, complements the teachers for school and adult education, and serves as a small business office for entrepreneurs. Its real value comes, of course, from the applications that it can enable for citizen services and government interactions, making it an eGovernance touch-point for the villagers.

As was discussed in the Village Vision segment, the TeleInfoCentre caters to the needs of four constituencies: the villagers, the village administration, the district and state administrations, and the marketing organisations. The various applications available at the TeleInfoCentre can be categorised as follows: