Update - 6th April 1999

In early January 1999 it quickly became clear that to get the pilot project to work there needs to be some serious planning and  support for it. Some organisation has to fund the control engineering work to:

Define the specification of the basic workstation, local cellphone and aerial transmitter

Establish and run an Open Source software project to produce the  standard software image for the workstation. [For the reasons why an Open Source project is the way forward see  an article called "Reliable Software and the Year 2000" in JILT (the Journal of Information Law and Technology)].

In the management sphere the organisation would also have to:

Negotiate a licensing regime with governments for the establishment of the educational cellphone data network which does not undermine the market for existing telecommunications suppliers

Work closely with schools, colleges, universities and NGOs to provide channels through which these organisations can provide education and training services

Work closely with banks and financial institutions to provide authenticated and secure financial services to citizens.

But we still do not have an organisation which will "Bell the Cat" - take up the ideas in this paper and help the emerging economies to move become full members of the Information Society.