Dear Colleagues, Greetings from San Francisco. Since I last wrote to this List I've returned from travelling to China, Laos, India and the Navajo Nation; we've finished version 1.6 of the Jhai PC and communication system, and we at Jhai Foundation are ready to go to the Navajo Nation with a proof of concept. I just got back from a preparatory week there.
I have no idea if a $100 computer is possible this year. I am told our price for a developed Jhai PC, if industry experience is valid for us, should drop by about a factor of eight when we go from v.1.6 to v.2+, that is, when we go from a hand-build, off-the-shelf-parts prototype to a one card version in quantity. I think Jhai will get there this year. We at Jhai Foundation are preparing both for a field test in the Navajo Nation of the Jhai PC and communication system, and also for a version 2+ where the entire low power computer is on one board. Cisco and Intel are helping us with the field test. We believe we are well positioned to create a Jhai PC v.2.0 with a Pentium 4 or equivalent with the help of very experienced, well-positioned partners. ***We will have important announcements on both aspects soon.*** To date we have spent slightly more than $200,000 on development, excluding most of the initial engineering work which was done by volunteers. Much of this money has come from individual donors and family funds, and some came from World Bank/IFC/Soros IDEAS fund, IDRC, SIDA, and Cisco. Although our solution is: 1) comprehensive, 2) holistic (including business and social-economic elements identified by villagers as requirements and solved by us with help from villagers and Stanford engineering and business students), 3) was developed with the significant help of Lao villagers and, now, Navajo engineers, 4) can allow for voice and data communication off the landline phone, mobile phone and electrical grids, 5) is technologically solid and basically simple, 6) and is open source, open design.... in the process of the development we have identified two significant areas for further research. We, of course, have workable solutions in these areas, but we definitely want to develop better ones. These areas are: 1. very low power, inexpensive display 2. cheap, rugged, 'greener' storage batteries Can you help us identify solutions in either regard on an open design partnership basis? We possibly can help you field test prototypes and help you get publicity for your design. We do not have 'deep pockets'. We are a small NGO. We are not in a position to fund you. We know, however, many great solutions come from people a bit like us working on their home computers and messing around in their garages. (We moved out of my garage a year ago. I'm not sure I like the new arrangement or not. My wife certainly likes that I'm not underfoot ... literally. ;-) ) What I do know is that I do appreciate all the help great people literally all over the world have given us and will similarly appreciate any help you can give Jhai, now. Thanks! yours, in Peace, Lee Thorn chair, Jhai Foundation 350 Townsend St., Ste. 309 San Francisco, CA 94107 1 415 344 0360 www.jhai.org [EMAIL PROTECTED] bcc: Lee Felsenstein, chief volunteer designer and engineer ------------ ***GKD is solely supported by EDC, a Non-Profit Organization*** To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: <http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/>
