Adrian Smith and colleagues explore grassroots innovations, their potential for development and challenges facing practitioners.

SciDev.Net reporters across the developing world describe exciting initiatives aimed at supporting innovation in local communities and remote areas.

Yojana Sharma analyses the work of a four-day meeting on access to data and information that will feed into next year’s Rio+20 conference on sustainable development.

Smriti Mallapaty looks at an attempt to overcome the difficulties of accessing and understanding environmental and societal information.

Crowdsourced environmental data can be useful, for example in measuring black carbon emissions, but concerns remain about quality, says Yojana Sharma.

The cities account for more than three quarters of emissions of CO2, are home to half the world population and will be 'highly visible' at Rio +20.

New technologies offer the promise of delivering environmental information to anyone who wants it, anywhere in the world. But we are not quite there yet.

A preparatory meeting for the Rio+20 summit will discuss open access environmental data with a focus on biodiversity, water, oceans, cities and disasters. Yojana Sharma reports.

An organic farmer has invented a mobile phone application called 'iCow', which lets farmers register their herds and receive expert advice.

As International Day for Disaster Reduction nears, Rui Pinho, who leads the Global Earthquake Model, talks to SciDev.Net.

A tiny solar-powered microscope with no lens could be a cheap and disposable alternative for malaria diagnosis

The Internet is spreading to villages in the developing world — but sometimes in unexpected ways, reports Katherine Nightingale.

Text messaging to ensure that TB patients in developing countries take their medication every day is showing promise in trials.

Researchers have devised a version of the web that requires cellphones instead of computers, targeted at people who cannot read or write

A mobile phone application called EpiSurveyor proved instrumental in monitoring and containing a polio outbreak in Kenya.

The Maldives has launched a pioneering system for its citizens to bank primarily using mobile phones.

Despite the acceleration of mobile technology in the developing world, the humble text message reigns supreme.

The digital audio medium of podcasting is being adapted by developing nations to give local people a voice. Katherine Nightingale reports.

An eminent Indian scientist believes India can close the urban-rural divide with information technology, writes Daemon Fairless.

Learning Braille can be a formidable challenge in developing countries. Supriya Kumar profiles a new device that's addressing the task.