One billion phones with access to educational apps will be given away to the world's poorest nations starting this year. The ambitious project was an initiative of the Young Global Leaders(YGL), a World Economic Forum community of 700 social entrepreneurs that address specific challenges of public interest.

The International Telecommunications Union (ITU) has launched a web portal for IT training, scholarship and ICT-related job opportunities aimed at encouraging girls and women to choose a career in technology.

If you want to tell the untold stories, if you want to give voice to the voiceless, you've got to find a language, says Salman Rushdie. Asia's Babel of more than a thousand languages spoken by 3.8 billion people is fast emerging as its greatest asset, with a little help from technology.

While the impact of technology is already immense in the Asia-Pacific, opportunity is much larger for doing more in the coming years as governments start to look at ICT to drive innovations and growth.

Kavakatu, the Sri Lankan word for compass, is also now the name of a web app. Developed by Sri Lankan IT company Infoshare, the application helps non-profit organizations manage, monitor and evaluate development projects for maximum impact.

Nine months after a devastating earthquake and a subsequent nuclear accident that claimed more than 15,000 lives, Japan is still in the process of rebuilding its Tohoku region. ICT has helped a lot in the post-disaster recovery effort.

Broadband penetration in Peru is expected to double from 4.7 percent in 2011 to 9.3 percent in 2016, driven by the government's national broadband plan to bring Internet connectivity via fiber-optic cables to isolated regions, according to a new report from Pyramid Research.

At the Accelerating Asia-Pacific conference to be held in Kuala Lumpur next month, Microsoft is showcasing its citizenship programs that have made a positive impact across the region utilizing technology to create a real impact.

Vietnam's Ministry of Information and Communications has launched a project for the improvement of computer usage and Internet access in 400 public libraries and 1,500 cultural post offices across 40 provinces.

Five million more households could afford broadband connections worldwide if the price is cut by just 1 percent, according to a new study made by analyst firm Point Topic.