A number of new models using mobile 2.0 and web 2.0 to protect consumers from the growing threat of dangerous, counterfeit and substandard products have emerged (re: mPedigree).

Counterfeit goods alone have a trade value in excess of 600 billion dollars according to leading research organisations. The trade in counterfeit pharmaceuticals is around 50 billion dollars. No one knows the extent of market share held by sub-standard products. Their impact though is becoming widely appreciated: fake vaccines in the mid-1990s killed thousands of infants in Niger. Fake heparin has maimed hundreds of Americans since last year. And melanine adulterated milk has led to 55,000 infants developing complications in China. The carcinogenic and allergenic effects of many products are known only to a few highly informed elites.

Projects that aim to use cell phones to enable consumers verify the orgins of products like mPedigree will prove a bulwark against this tide, but because they require the cooperation of governments and corporations, they are likely to take a bit of time and huge resources to cover the globe.

The proposed VCA will use the highly successful wiki model to catalogue and disseminate information about a great range of consumables to users around the world. A grading system involving the world's regulatory agencies will continually improve upon the integrity of the data.

Web 2.0 and mobile 2.0 functionalities will permit every consumer in the world with access to a cell phone or the internet to draw upon the accumulated knowledge of the global consumerand regulatory community when in doubt about the efficacy, toxicity, originality and origins of any product. In addition:

I have been an integral part of the mPedigree project in Ghana which aims to create an anti-counterfeiting platform in Africa (www.mPedigree.Net) on a territory-by-territory basis.

In the mPedigree scheme, manufacturers who agree to participate in the scheme are offered web-based tools to generate unique, one-time, codes for embossment on their products. When consumers buy these products in the market they are able to verify the authenticity of the product by sending a free text (SMS) message to a national 4-digit number. Special pacts with government, telecom operators and consumer associations make this system feasible.

As a journalist I studied and wrote about the emerging risks of product counterfeiting and other supply-chain fraud issues in East Asia. The knowledge and concern I developed motivated the launch of the mPedigree effort with colleagues.

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