A funeral service for IE6 will be held later tonight. I will be attending. 

The future is looking bright.

A person in a rented apartment must be able to lean out of his window and scrape off the masonry within arm’s reach. And he must be allowed to take a long brush and paint everything outside within arm’s reach. So that it will be visible from afar to everyone in the street that someone lives there who is different from the imprisoned, enslaved, standardised man who lives next door.

—Friedensreich Hundertwasser

Why does this matter? Mobiles are cheap, durable, portable, network-connected data terminals, and everyone—for all practical definitions of everyone—has one. That’s 5 billion portable printing presses, 5 billion broadcasting stations, 5 billion places to access knowledge.

Unlike OLPC, mobiles have been enthusiastically adopted by rich and poor alike, by way of ordinary market forces. In other words, this is a sustainable for-profit phenomenon, not a resource-limited charity. How’s that for appropriate technology?

One billion of these little data terminals already have access to the most comprehensive network of knowledge ever created: the internet. You thought the Internet was big now? Just wait as the rest of the world—all those who have not had access to computers—joins the fray.

Mobiles, not computers will be the major platform of our lifetime.

Tip of the hat to Gruber for the link.

I prefer drawing to talking. Drawing is faster, and leaves less room for lies.
— Le Corbusier