Nathan Eagle gave an excellent 35-minute talk entitled Crowd-Sourcing on Mobile Phones in the Developing World, at the O’Reily Etech Emerging Technology Conference in San Jose, California earlier this month.

If you’re reading these words I presume you have at least a passing interest in modern Africa and the technology shaping it. If you’re not familiar with Nathan Eagle and his work I can highly recommend the above video. Just in case you’ve been put off by its “length”, to whet your appetite here’s a list of some of the things he talks about:

- why in 2006 an MIT research scientist moved to East Africa because he wanted to be where mobile applications are having the greatest effect on people’s lives

- why Kenya is “many years ahead” of Silicon Valley when it comes to developing cutting edge mobile phone applications

- how Africa is the fastest growing mobile phone market in the world

- why the majority of mobile phone users live in developing countries

- why competition amongst mobile telephone operators in some African countries is so great that it is not unusual to see operators giving away free SIM cards

- how you can pay for your cab ride in several East African cities with mobile phones using real time digital bearer settlements (electronic currencies), such as M-PESA

- how Nathan Eagle set up a company to enable mobile phone users to perform simple tasks for corporations in return for small cash payments or free airtime

- which African capital city has tripled in size over the last 4 years

- how examining call data records is helping urban planners design better cities

- which Sub-Saharan mobile phone operator is forecasting revenue of $1 billion in 2009

- how in “Cellphone Alley” you can get a mobile phone assembled before your eyes for 15 dollars

- how and why innovative prepaid models to provide water and electricity are becoming more widespread in Africa

- how 30 % of Rwandans buy their electricity using their mobile phones