I still recall what Nobel Laureate Yunus told Harsha de Silva during a television interview: the mobile was going to the new Aladdin’s Lamp, giving its user not one thing, but many. I don’t think he meant it would open doors, but that’s what this story documents: Front pockets and purses are slowly being emptied of one of civilization’s most basic and enduring tools: the key. It’s being swallowed by the cellphone. New technology lets smartphones unlock hotel, office and house doors and open garages and even car doors. It’s a not-too-distant cousin of the technology that allows key fobs to remotely unlock automobiles or key cards to be waved beside electronic pads at office entrances.
The Grameen village phone ladies are slowly going out of business but Davos discussion still refers on the same model. Many Are Already at Work on Fulfilling Gatess Vision – Bits – Technology – New York Times Blog Last week Mr. Gates called on the executives of the largest corporations to add social entrepreneurship to their agenda, a leopard-spot-altering exercise at best. However, in challenging his compatriots, one of the experiments he overlooked was Mr. Yunus’s stunning success at Grameen Phone in Bangladesh, an effort he has pioneered during the past decade in partnership with Telenor, a Norwegian wireless carrier.