This Week In Appfrica [Jul 12

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Features and Analysis

Do Cellphones Outnumber Lightbulbs in Uganda? — Low electrification rates and high demand for mobiles just might mean the answer is yes.

Should Government Force Mobile Carriers to Lower SMS Prices? — Government intervention vs. consumer groups and the invisible hand in the Ugandan SMS market.

Ethics of Online Journalism — Should TechCrunch have published Twitter’s internal documents? What are the legal implications of publication?

Comparison between On- and Off-network GSM Rates in Nigeria — Why it’s cheaper to carry 4 cellphones than just 1 in Nigeria.

News

Another Linux distro comes out of South Africa — Kongoni, a Slackware based distro from South Africa announced their first stable release.

Can Barcoding Trees Combat Illegal Logging? — A company called Helveta is experimenting with tagging with plastic barcodes to help combat illegal logging in parts of Africa, Asia and South America.

Africa’s First Chinese Newspaper Launches — The Oriental Post will be Botswana’s first Chinese language newspaper.

U.S. Bike Designer Partners with Zambians to Build Bamboo Bikes — The bikes are manufactured in developing countries such as Zambia and Ghana, and then are shipped to the US.