| 短信可能为非洲农民带来收入-1 How do you bring information from a market in Ghana, like here in Accra, to a text message on a cellular phone? 你怎样将加纳市场上的信息，比如阿克拉这儿的市场信息变成手机上的短信呢？ This type of technology is being fine-tuned by a staff of West Africans and non-Africans working for a company called BusyLab in the Ghanaian capital. 加纳首都一家名为“忙碌实验室”公司的员工正在调整这项技术，这家公司的员工有的来自西非，有的则不是非洲人。 British entrepreneur Mark Davies explains what market information is usually like in Africa. 英国企业家马克·大卫解释了非洲的市场信息通常是怎样一种状况。 MARK DAVIES : Those information highways have traditionally been truck routes, transport routes, camel trains through the desert, sort of single corridors of transport, and information sort of just fall off these. 马克·大卫：传统意义的信息高速公路是指卡车通道、运输通道、穿越沙漠的骆驼队、单一的运输走廊，而在某种程度上，这些东西似乎跟信息没多大关系。 That changes when a user gets information on his mobile phone. 当用户从他们的手机上获得信息的时候，一切都改变了。 MARK DAVIES : You can for the very first time in history get essentially real time information to help a farmer know today what are the prices of the commodities in the market. 马克·大卫：这是历史上第一次你可以获得真正意义上的即时信息来帮助农民了解当天市场上的物价。 The idea is to get that information and make it available through text messages when requested. 这个理念就是获得信息，使信息以短信形式传播到需要的地方。 Even though his service is only in its first year, Davies can already point to some interesting transactions . 尽管大卫还是第一年加入这项服务，他已经可以处理一些有趣的事务了。 MARK DAVIES : One of my partners watched somebody in Kaduna, in Nigeria, text in an offer to sell a product that he had, and within 30 minutes he had three telephone calls from traders in Lagos. And the deal was done in an hour. We have got people in Rotterdam that are buying shear nuts from Mali. We have got people in Yemen that are buying organic fertilizer from Nigeria. 马克·大卫：在尼日利亚的卡杜纳，我的一个搭档观察了一个用手机信息兜揽生意的人。那个人发消息告诉大家他所卖的产品， 30 分钟内他就接到了拉各斯的商贩们给他打来的三个电话。买卖一个小时内就做成了。我们知道有鹿特丹商人从马里买螺母，也有也门商人从尼日利亚买有机化肥。 Back inside a noisy market in Accra, one happy customer was easy to find. 在阿克拉喧闹的市场背后，你很容易就能找到心满意足的顾客。 |
