About Global Mobile

Hey, welcome to Global Mobile, a new blog at NDN. I've been doing this for about a month now, and enjoying it thoroughly, so thanks for reading, and visiting, and helping me convince my boss that this is a worthwhile endeavor (I jest... this was all his idea, really).

If you're new to NDN, we're a think tank based in Washington, DC. We are dedicated to making this country and this world a better, more just, and more sustainable place to live, and we focus our work on cutting edge issues that are sometimes a little ahead of the curve.  Which is to say, everything you read here-- you'll be reading it in the Washington Post a few years from now.  Or so we like to think.

Though this blog is new, we're not particularly new to the power of mobiles. Our affiliate the New Politics Institute was writing about cell phones in politics long before Barack Obama told you he picked Joe Biden via text message. Simon and Alec Ross co-authored a paper in 2007 about the importance of the global communications network, suggesting that we better prepare our children for this new world. And last year, Tom Kalil, now Deputy Director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, wrote for our affiliate the New Policy Institute about the "Mobile Revolution." So, this blog is building on a pretty deep track record dealing with this stuff.

From now on (or at least for the next few weeks), I'll be digging old video out of our archives every Friday, to show you some of our history in this space. Below is an interview with Simon from earlier this summer, after our event with the UN Foundation and Vodaphone Foundation releasing a new report on mHealth for Development. He talks about our belief in the power of the mobile network to enable better healthcare around the world.

Thanks for stopping by, and hope to see you back here soon.  -Sam