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Developers and businesses who want to get involved in the creation of Web standards now have an easier and more efficient way of doing so, thanks to the World Wide Web Consortium's (W3C) launch of Community and Business Groups today.

The W3C's new Community Groups allow any developer to propose a working group for a proposed standard. As soon as there is some degree of support for the standard among peers, the group, which is free to participate in, can get started.

Who knew the Peace Corps were Web developers? Certain African farmers did anyway. Now, with its AfricaRuralConnect project the recipient of an Interactive Media Council Outstanding Achievement Award, a lot more people know it too.

ARC is a product of the National Peace Corps Association and provides a platform for Africans in the business of agriculture, and those interested in African agricultural issues to present, hear and remix each others' ideas.

Finally, it feels like the holy grail of mobile development is at hand. This problem has persisted since Microsoft released its Palm-sized PC operating system to compete with the Palm OS a decade ago: as a mobile developer, the cost of supporting multiple mobile platforms, each with a relatively small user base and massive development learning curve, has been huge. That finally seems to be changing.

As of 2012, CEO Olli-Pekka Kallasvuo wants Nokia to have 300 million service subscribers. In an aggressive first step, he's planning on expanding the Ovi applications environment. But he needs to act quickly as in the past year the company's shares have fallen by 50%. In a recent interview with the Financial Times Kallasvuo admits he is trying to change Nokia's direction from being a handset provider to a service provider. With a formidable rival like Apple, it will certainly be an uphill battle.

By July first, the web's only free application host with an in-browser editor will be dead.

That's right, AppJet's hosting service for apps built with server-side JavaScript will be discontinued in favor of its flagship product, the real time collaboration tool EtherPad.

This morning at the Web 2.0 Expo in San Francisco, Jason Grigsby of Cloud Four, a mobile and web development firm, presented at a session about the mobile web's future. Specifically, he focused on the different types of mobile applications we have today - native apps, mobile web apps, and hybrid apps - and the challenges of developing across multiple platforms.

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Use of hosted software as a service (SaaS) is growing like crazy, and most products are constantly evolving. What is the best strategy for a tech startup: share its product road map (i.e. its development plans) with the outside world, or keep its cards close to the chest?