Policy and Practice in Asian Distance Education has been designed for the orientation and training of specialists in open and distance learning methods in Asia. It is the outcome of the collaborative PANdora research and development initiative (2005-08) between 24 open and distance learning (ODL) institutions, government departments and non-governmental organisations in 13 Asian countries. The need for thrift and ingenuity in Distance Education (DE) methods in Asia has made Asian DE researchers and practitioners contemplate novel technological methods in DE--open-source software, cell-phone SMS.