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Welcome to Digital Planet, the weekly BBC World Service programme that reports on technology stories from around the globe.
This week's programme looks at the 20th anniversary of
GSM, a website the help promote new bands and discusses the findings of
a conference looking at the future of interactive entertainment.
GSM
GSM has helped transform the mobile industry
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The Global System for Mobile Communication (GSM) is 20
ears old this month and is widely regarded as one of the greatest
technological achievements of our age.
The mobile communications industry that has since
developed today serves more than 2.5 billion people across 218
countries and territories.
Mike Short, a former chairman of the GSM Association and
now head of Research and Development at the mobile phone operator O2,
tells Digital Planet about this historic agreement in the history of
telecommunications.
NGO Mobile
Kiwanja.net, a mobile technology organisation, has just
launched their latest non-profit mobile initiative ? nGOmobile, a
competition to help grassroots NGOs take advantage of text messaging.
Text messaging has proved itself to be remarkably
versatile; helping remind patients to take their medicine, providing
market prices to farmers and fisherman, distributing health
information, allowing the reporting of human rights abuses and
promoting increased citizen participation in government.
Micheline Ntiru, head of Social Investment for Nokia
Middle East and Africa, is one of the competition judges. She joins
Gareth Mitchell to talk about how mobile technology can work in
developing countries for positive social and environmental change.
SELLABAND
Sellaband is a music website which helps aspiring
musicians produce professional sounding albums by getting fans to
contribute to their costs.
The concept is that bands set up a profile on the site
and post up some of their music. Users can then pledge some money
towards recording the tracks in a proper studio.
Despite murmurings in some quarters of the press that it
would never work, seven bands have raised the required £50,000 needed
to make it to the recording studio.
There are many more bands on their way. Sellaband
recently made it to its first birthday and gathered 2,000 "believers",
the fans that fund the albums, together to celebrate. Our reporter Jo
Keown joined the anniversary festivities in Amsterdam.
FUTURE OF ENTERTAINMENT
Last week, Perth was host to the Digital Interactive
Media Entertainment Arts Conference, which featured the latest games
and interactive media technology - from game sketching using puppets
and actors to virtual reality learning in Singaporean primary schools.
The BBC's Ben Sutherland gives presenter Gareth Mitchell his thoughts on some of the highlights.
Remember you can e-mail the programme about anything you've heard or a digital technology story you've found interesting at digital.planet@bbc.co.uk
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