The Phone has Conquered the World

But the world has not noticed this.

When I came to Costa Rica, in 2001 - the cell phone did not exist yet, down here - and to use the Internet, you had to go to special places that had their own computers and Internet connections. I bought a laptop, but to use it - I had to take two buses from our house to the Internet place - and plug it in there.

Immediately, I was drawn to blogging - that was my kind of place. But most Ticos were not interested in it - and still are not. They liked to socialize, but not to read or write.

But when the cell phone arrived, they knew it was for them - especially when it got a touch interface, and could connect to the Internet - and could entertain them, with YouTube. They thought they had died, and gone to heaven!

And this was soon true all over the world - the Phone had made them new people - connected with everyone - or at least everyone, their country would let them connect to. If they were too poor to own a Phone, they could rent one in the marketplace, and pay by the minute!

This was the beginning of a whole new way of doing business - where everything was rented, and the smarts to make everything work also belonged to everyone. A complete reversal of the way things had always been done before.

They had TV and the Phone - and for them, they were much the same - except the Phone worked both ways: it could send and receive both!