[chug2k]

The article starts to hint at one thing I think is really interesting about Africa and other developing nations: by having leapfrogged some past infrastructure-heavy tech, they're in a unique place to get huge bang for your innovation dollar, both access-wise and out-of-the-box thinking wise.

The article cites a lot of examples from South Africa, which is actually a pretty developed country. CIA Factbook has it as the 26th largest GDP in the world, ahead of countries like Greece and Austria. Obviously that's only one metric, but I would guess that some VCs will give it a look eventually. The more interesting question is what will happen to less developed Africa countries - i.e. the ones, whether for better or for worse, you imagine when you read the headline.

[Fritzinger]

South Africa is in the unique situation of having developers and business communities with access to all of the resources and education of the West living as little as 20 minutes away from townships with millions of people who are as under-resourced as any in Africa (well almost - they do still have access to a well-funded government). It is the perfect proving ground for applications for Africa.

Obstacles against success are in brief:

- Schizophrenic government policies, swinging from incredibly enlightened consumer protection legislation to, "We should establish a regulatory body for the press to prevent them from embarrassing government officials when corruption scandals occur"

- A legacy of underinvestment and draconian regulation in telecommunications. My 10Mb line costs me > 100 USD / month, and that's the fastest connection money can buy here.

Another country worth singling out is Kenya, which has produced incredible innovation like Ushahidi (http://ushahidi.com) and MPesa (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M-Pesa). Technology is a focus of government investment there, probably more so than SA.