A more practical approach to tap the sub-saharan potential would be to create incentives for developers from third world countries to contribute their modifications/hacks/bug fixes back to the community at the `eureka` moment. Seeing that the incentive is obviously financial (or the prospect thereof) , the question is whether it can be met for the African developer. Or do we just leave it to those among us who have plenty of time on their hands ?
What would make any of these ideas work? IMHO, none of them pass the incentive-test. They depend too much on goodwill, they depend on undefined/unproven monetization strategies, they are gut-level responses that need much much more refining. Sorry to appear too negative, but I'd hate to see skunk-ke go down a wild-goose chase (especially if others have been down a similar path, with unpleasant results).
I honestly don't know/have the answers to these questions either. But I think it's always better to stay still and contemplate some more rather than head down a path that has a *high probability* of failure (given similar other attempts elsewhere).
I vaguely recall someone this list lament the lack of action on skunks-ke (I forget his name but I think he works with/for Zuku). I think the biggest reason is that there appears to be little or no incentive for most ppl to get behind the ideas. The ideas are great but the incentives within those ideas appear not to have been considered much.
Perhaps that's where skunks-ke should focus their energies? Not on new ideas but on refining existing ideas and properly "incentivizing" them?