Hello Ben. Great that you are joining the forum. You have some put forward some very important points here - the importance of the user, the processes behind the technology, capacity, localization, etc. I hope you will bring these issues to the forefront in the ongoing discussions which are now taking place in "[url=http://www.e-agriculture.org/550.html?&no_cache=1&view=single_conf&cat_… 1 - Day 1[/url]" and in "[url=http://www.e-agriculture.org/550.html?&no_cache=1&view=single_conf&cat_… 1 - Day 3[/url]". cheers, Michael (FAO)

Hello Sotiris, it's great that you have joined this forum and thank you for your support to e-agriculture! It sounds like you have interesting experiences to share. Please look over the discussion under topic Week 1 if you have not already done so. Also if you would not mind, please consider posting links (either to full text or abstracts - depending on how those journals publish online) of your publications in the "additional materials" section of this forum. That way anyone interested will be able to find it. cheers, Michael (FAO)

Hello Helen! Nice to "see" you and glad that you have joined the forum. Your thoughts on linkages between mobile telephony and other technologies would be most welcome. If you haven't had time to look yet, please see the ongoing discussion under "Week 1". Another issue will be raised tomorrow (Wed.). cheers, Michael (FAO)

Hi Deborah. As far as I can tell the search function is working correctly. I just did a search on "Ethiopia" and the results gave 3 posts from you (this one and 2 earlier posts). I also tried a few others, so I think the function is working correctly. It is possible there was a transient problem with our servers that has passed in the time between when you tried and when I did this test. Please try again and let me know if there are still problems and we'll keep working on it. Be sure that the search term is typed in the "keywords" box, and that "Search all available categories and conferences" is selected in the Advanced options. Let us know how it goes :) Michael (FAO)

Hi Pam and thanks very much for sharing this with the forum. I hope you will join in the discussion on the 2nd question (opened today) about what innovative uses are being made with mobile phones, or things that you are doing better with mobile phones than could be done with other tools. cheers, Michael

Hi Monjul. What you have said here is very interesting. Thank you for sharing it with the forum. Would you share more with us about why you find community information centers do not have so much impact but mobile telephones might have more impact? Michael (FAO) :)

Hello Robert. Thank you for this very detailed discussion on information content that are of importance, and for reminding all of us that ICT tools do not work in isolation. To build on this, can you share any thoughts on when or why a mobile phone might have an advantage over other methods of information sharing? Or if there is anything that mobile phones are uniquely able to do? Please share your thoughts with others :)

Sapna thank you for all that you are sharing :) On the idea of advertisements being used, are you suggesting this as a new innovative approach or are there existing systems in which mobile phones provide content with ads to rural areas? (I have seen it in some networking applications used mainly in G3 environments, but would be very interested to learn about existing cases in rural areas.)

Hi Jimmy, these are very interesting points you raise. Next week will we be focusing the discussion more on what needs to be done to improve the use of mobile phones going forward. I hope you will bring these points up again at that time, and add your insights on how we might encourage better usage of mobiles. cheers, Michael (FAO)

Hi Bulbul Ahmed, this is an interesting point you make. I want to confirm that it is the fact that mobile phones transmit a human voice that is a key innovation factor - is that correct? If I understand correctly, can you explain a bit more why this is important to the successful use of mobile phones in rural areas? Thanks! :)