The event at the Astoria in Helsinki today was well attended with both mobile and web companies today, small and large. Clearly, being organised by Mobile Brain Bank, the event was mobile heavy, but there was a strong emphasis on digital services and their delivery to the public.

Esko Aho talked about the digital society and the rise from 10m mobile users in 1990 to the billions today.Nokias expectation was that there would be 50m mobile subscribers 10 years later. In 2000 it was actually 700m and now we are just passing 5 billion mobile subscribers. In Africa, GDP growth is now higher than in Asia, with mobile penetration expected to hit 69% by 2014. Fewer than 5% Africans used the Internet in 2008, but this is growing fast. This means the potential for new services is immense - perhaps higher than anywhere else in the World. One big change is the improved access to broadband. Steps towards to the digital society include learning and skills, open innovation and affordability.

As Esko said, if the first phase of the Nokia strategy was "Connecting People", the second phase, especially in developing nations, is "Empowering People". Nokia believes that it should try to support the development of new services in Africa - it is all about an eco-system. To support this the total cost of ownership of devices must be low.

Mr Aho said that the key drivers for digital empowerment are: 

• entertainment that drives creativity
• social media that drives participation
• knowledge and education that drive innovation (pilot of teaching kids maths developed in S.Africa is now being deployed in Finland)
• sustainability that drives responsibility
• productivity that drives wealth

Mr Aho then quoted one of my favourite books, Outliers by Malcom Gladwell. The five rules for success in the future:

• revolutionary technology
• right timing
• right talents
• risk-taking capacity
• sufficient eco-system

He concluded that if Africa wants to be successful it needs to ask itself if it has these qualities.

The next speaker was Hossein Miion, CTO from Nokia Siemens Networks. His big statement was that the "Cloud is the computer". This was music to my ears, as this is something we have believed for at least 10 years. His question was can we help Africa transform the lives of its people for the better? He asked why is it that the physical location of San Francisco/Silicon Valley creates new businesses like Twitter. He thought that it was good eduction, access to capital and ability to take risk. This kind of echos what Esko Aho said.

Miion was involved in OLPC project started by Nicolas Negroponte and the $30 mobile device started by the GSMA. While the OLPC today costs $200 and has had some limited success, the cheap mobile device has been a huge success. The OLPC project assumed WiFi, whereas with the mobile phone the network was already there. It was clear what the winner would be. A key point was that there might be "non-western" models of innovation - and that this might create really different solutions to the problems that are faced worldwide. It struck me that perhaps lack of resources might drive really, really clever ideas. The mobile money example is a key example. His point was that the west can learn from the approach to solutions in Africa.

Talks from Marlon Parker from JamiiX, South Africa and Jessica Colaco, TED fellow and iHub manager, Kenya coming up.

UPDATE: Talk from Marlon Parker @marlonparker was really insightful. He talked about some of the angles to consider in mobile innovation, like community, education and creating services that are locally relevant. He mentioned that there are key technologies that are key in the development of new services like USSD, BlueTooth, Social Networks and Apps.

His business is quite clever as well - a call centre from a mobile phone. Light, affordable and really simple. Their vision is to provide real-time support for anything.

Jessica Colaço talked about the iHub in Kenya and how it has created a focal point for the emerging digital industries in Kenya.