One of the many things that got lost in the blur of last week was another chapter in Jeff Pulver's FWD (formerly Free World Dialup) service: the Global Communicator Project. The idea behind this project is to come up with a device that is a fraction of the cost of a $25 low-end SIP device, and not require any monthly service fees. The devices would have to cope with both rural and urban realities and scale from a few dozen to billions.

This sounds a bit like Nicholas Negoponte's vision of the "One Laptop Per Child," but instead, geared at opening and maintaining the lines of communication with a purpose-built device. It also sounds like it might encroach on the mobile phone manufacturers, who are continually working to decrease the cost of the mobile handset for deployment in developing nations. I don't think we're quite at the unsubsidized, sub-$25 mobile phone yet, but we're getting there.

Either way, it sounds like the FWD team is tackling a huge problem and I wish them the best of luck in implementing their vision.

Photo by Gaetan Lee