Continuing the growth in social media networks in developing countries, a Nigerian version of Twitter, Naijapulse is proving a popular new micro-blogging service. It allows people  to create groups, features users and has a link for popular posts.  Suai Media Space is another social media project which aims to minimise the deep digital divide in East Timor and strives “for the voices of the youth” from remote communities like Suai to be “heard all over the world”.

Further attempts to bridge the ‘Digital Divide’ come from Mobile XL as they announce their collaboration with Nokia to start embedding an SMS-based browser in mobile phones for selected African markets. Jeffery Sachs explains why he thinks the mobile phone is the ’single most transformative technology for development’.  This week also saw the launch of a mHealth for development alliance to support the deployment of mobiles in healthcare in developing countries (via MobileActive).

Global Voices chose valentine’s day to launch a campaign asking people to ‘Teach Someone You Love to Blog’, encouraging HIV sufferers and carers affected by the disease to share their experiences. The campaign helps to provide first hand accounts of the disease’s impact globally, which affects over 33 million people around the world.