This Week in Global Mobile | October 29, 2010

At times it's difficult to keep pace with the latest global mobile developments. I hope this selection of news stories from the past week will help you navigate the growing global network of connectivity:

  • Google’s Eric Schmidt and Jared Cohen (formerly a member of Secretary Clinton’s innovation team) wrote an op-ed in the New York Times about technology’s emerging role in political activism, and a longer piece in Foreign Affairs. Sam responds here.
  • Ahead of Sunday’s presidential elections, Tanzanian officials on the island of Zanzibar are using mobile phones to tell citizens where their assigned polling station is.
  • Jackson Diehl of WaPo reminds us of the importance of pushing for Internet Freedom in authoritarian countries around the world.
  • Dayo Olopade writes in Foreign Policy about Google’s growing role in African affairs, exploring the various success and failures the tech giant has had so far.
  • The 2010 World e-Parliament Conference opened in Africa this week in an effort to highlight the importance of incorporating modern technology in developing countries.
  • As Facebook’s popularity grows worldwide, Tim Wu at explores the extent to which the social media site might adopt a foreign policy agenda.
  • Earlier this week at George Washington University, Facebook and Politico teamed up to discuss how social media are transforming campaigns.
  • The African Union designated various heads of state, including South African President Jacob Zuma, to champion information communication technology across the continent.
  • A Cisco Visual Networking Index Usage survey released on Monday reveals how broadband is dramatically changing the way and amount we access the Internet, with the average connection generating 15GB of Internet traffic monthly (up 30% from last year).
  • Google announced a $5 million donation to be awarded to innovation in digital journalism.
  • Cecilia Kang at WaPo compares and contrasts the U.S. and E.U.’s varying approaches to dealing with claims of privacy violation by Google’s Street View service.
  • In Cuba state-controlled access to Internet is leaving many in the technological dust and widening the digital divide, reports Laritza Diversent.
  • The Internet adds $159bn to the UK economy each year, with small business online sales growing by 43% a year in the country, according to a new report released yesterday.