Alphabet soup - AED, AAP, PDA

Perhaps in contrast to my post on the digital war on poverty, I just noticed an interesting article on the website of AED - the Academy for Educational Development. They are using a technology called the African Access Point (AAP) in combination with personal digital assistants (PDAs). From the article:

...to increase connectivity, AED is employing a new technology, called the African Access Point, or AAP. This technology links inexpensive PDAs to a computer hundreds or even thousands of miles away using an existing wireless telecommunications network.

Health clinic workers in Uganda and Mozambique are using PDAs to gather information. Using infrared technology, they “beam” the data to a centrally located AAP, which sends the information on to a server in the capital city. Each time a health worker uploads data, she or he simultaneously downloads information such as medical articles, updated protocols, and current data about other villages.

Both the PDAs and the AAP are solar-powered, which bypasses the need for reliable mainline electricity. And each AAP uses only one cell phone number for as many as 100 users, making it a very cost-effective solution.