Researchers at the University of Washington have put together a software stack for Android that allows the collection of data in the absence of significant infrastructure. It is a simple idea, but one that is made possible by the open nature of the Android platform. This kind of innovation is possible when you provide the tools and documentation to make it possible. I hope to see a lot more of this type of innovation from the Android project: http://arstechnica.com/open-source/news/2009/11/getting-developing-world-data-with-android-and-open-data-kit.ars
