Sound too good to be true? According to some compelling trends and metrics, elements of this transformation are under way. Over the past 20 years, wireless technologies and the Internet have become ubiquitous, affordable, and available to almost everyone.

Africa has skipped a technological generation, bypassing the telephone landlines that stripe our American skies for the wireless way. Mobile phone penetration in Africa is growing exponentially, from 2 percent in 2000 to 28 percent in 2009 to an expected 70 percent in 2013. Folks with no education and little to eat have gained access to cellular connectivity unheard of just three decades ago. Soon the vast majority of humanity will be enmeshed in this same World Wide Web of instantaneous, low-cost communications and information. We are now living in a world of information and communication abundance.

Projections indicate that the number of smartphones in use will skyrocket. London economists found that adding 10 phones per 100 people boosts a developing country's GDP by 0.6 percent.