The information revolution is about to hit the developing world for the first time. Not because of governments or NGOs, but because there’s money in them there shantytowns. Think volume. Mobile-payment companies like Sagentia, Gemalto, and Obopay are already targeting the billions – yes, billions – of emerging-market consumers with mobile phones but no bank accounts. First, the developing world leapfrogged copper wire and went directly from word-of-mouth to GSM phones: now they’re jumping straight from the abacus to the smartphone.

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The information tsunami about to hit the developing world is going to be like our desktop, internet, and mobile revolutions all rolled into one. It will save untold thousands of lives, thanks to initiatives like Uganda’s recently unveiled Google SMS health service, vastly improve millions more, make a lot of people rich – and wreak a lot of bloody havoc. Poor countries tend to be tribal, corrupt, politically unstable, and full of angry and frustrated people. There’s a reason China blocked Twitter, Facebook and YouTube immediately after the Xinjiang violence earlier this year: good networks make insurgents far more dangerous and can amplify a single riot into citywide or even countrywide violence. Better buckle your seat belt. It’s going to be a bumpy decade.

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