Re: [DDN] BBC story about the Divide -- in India
Interesting story and not very new.. There are a few issues though: one's not disputing that computers are if not as necessary as clean drinking water and health centres, important as wellbut what after the novelty factor of the computer has gone down. What happens after power outages, irregular maintenance and simply the daily grind of making a living makes the computer just another unused item. Journalists rarely go back to write stories about that...There are other stories that are not being covered by the world media. For instance how the Internet is being used to make women self-sufficient in villages in Tamil Nadu... It's not just about technology for the sake of it, but using it to benefit people to make a living. Ultimately that's the model that needs to be developed to bridge the digital divide. Adite Chatterjee On 5/2/05, Steven Wagenseil [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Another very useful and interesting story reported by the BBC (One of heir editors must have awakened to the issue recently.) Check it out http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/4498511.stm Steve ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -- Adite Chatterjee www.icfdc.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] Re: The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Update on the Simputer
Dear All, I have been keenly following the debate about personal vs social computer. First things first, why are we all looking at it from the point of view of first world people and also maybe some third worlders like me who are priviledged to have had good education, a stable income, blah-blah...The Divide happens when we adopt such a world view. We have to look at the whole issue from the point of view of the user at which the Simputer is targeted, the guy living in the villages of India - and other developing countries - who doesnt want to know about computers and would rather be left alone to lead his life the way he has been leading it and his father and ancestors before them have been doing it. If there has to be a buy-in for Simputer or for that matter any other device it has be to not because WE say that it is 'good for you and it will change your life' but only if the Simputer can demonstrate that it does make a difference to HIS life, and in most cases, it is not about personal convenience which most of us would give top priority for, but primarily for helping me earn an income and may be after that A BIT of personal convenience. Take the example of the telephone in India. India is one of the countries that is lowest in terms of teledensity. Yet, the smallest and remotest villages will have a PCO - a public booth - where they can connect to the rest of their world. The telephone as a personal device is too expensive for the average Indian villager. However, he is staying connected thanks to the benefit that the device offers to many entrepreneurs living in remote parts of the country who see a way of earning a living by setting up a phone booth. The same is happening with cellular phones in India - the device that most urban Indians would think of as a Personal communication tool, right? From the rural Indian's point of view, wrong...there is a company in India (private sector) that has set up a mobile phone booth service in remote parts of Uttar Pradesh! The same is true of computers and Internet cafes are the main access points for most people even in urban India, living in large cities like Delhi and Mumbai. Where the Simputer stands to gain over all other computers is in its ease of use. While price is definitely a factor, the more important thing for Simputer would be to develop a business model where the Simputer becomes as ubiquitous as the telephone in the PCO booths in the country. The Simputer has to be sold first to the service provider who can then target end-users. Simputer has to go beyond device marketing of the top brands. It has to find a new marketing model/system, call it what you may. And by the way, even if a Dell or any other of the top brands were to offer a computer for half the price that the Simputer is offering, what about service. Most multinational brands dont even begin to think beyond the top 10 cities...and even here their service is pathetic, believe me, I am talking from experience. Try to visualise this scenario: A farmer in remote Rajasthan who can just speak his mother tongue and perhaps a smattering of Rajasthani-accented Hindi acquires a Dell laptop - thanks to his son who is living in the US. His son teahces his father the basics of how to use the computer...By the way, the father will be only too happy to use it in such a case because he is not your typical villager (his son is in the US, he is obviously well off) and for him the computer is a status symbol. All his neighbours would drop in to chat with the old man only to see this wonder called a computer...Anyway to continue with the story, a few months later the computer stops functioning and he has to call up the call centre which is based in delhi/bombay/chennai/bangalore. You cant imagine how divided the two worlds are - the call centre executives are not trained to handle customer complaints from rural Indians.Period. And i don't blame them, rural Indians are not their core customers. After some hot words and total confusion, old man would forget about getting the computer serviced - status symbol - or not and it would be stored away in the 'showcase' in his drawing room, occasionally dusted like the other souvenirs that his son has brought home from the US. The whole point of giving this fictitious scenario is to demonstrate how implausible it is for a market-driven company to offer service to customers who are clearly not their priroity customers. However with a company like Simputer, this is their core target and one assumes that they have created the systems to cater to this market. Adite Chatterjee On 5/29/05, Pamela McLean [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Dr. Steve Eskow wrote: 'Some of us believe that we need to point out that there are other choices, and the social computer is one such alternative, a lower cost alternative to the personal computer ' Sandra Andrews wrote 'Who are we to make the decision as to which approach is the best? Shouldn't the people involved have
Re: [DDN] Re: Red Cross may be slow, but...
In response to the question that Dan raised about how to get people to respond to issues, I truly feel that human nature, being as it is, once the 'disaster' has passed, nobody wants to think about the 'issue' anymore. During the tsunami-relief operations in India, many of the TV networks devised innovative ways of linking entertainment with disaster operations. Crass as that may sound, it actually helped fundraising tremendously. So a programme called Indian Idol (its format is very much like American Idol) had viewers sending in SMS messages - and a percentage of the revenue was donated by the networks and telcos for the relief operations. This way millions of people donated to the cause and the TV networks managed to keep the interest in tsunami operations alive for weeks after the disaster occurred. Adite On 9/3/05, Tanya Priber [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: In response: On Sep 3, 2005, at 2:01 AM, Andrew Pleasant wrote: In response to some of the general flow of the discussion ... and I didn't and wouldn't post anything about Pat Robinson ... it is clear that the hurricane ripped open not only buildings and levees but also society and perceptions of the country. These are issues that can't be separated from politics. Technology is great in its correct context and moments. But to look to technology for a 'solution' is to miss the point as much as it is to define the digital divide as if it is simply, and only, a technological issue. The solution will lie with people. They may use technology to forge a solution, or they may not. But first, you've got to get them to pay attention and to care - hopefully about everyone equally. You've got to get presidents off vacation, you've got to get participation and support rather than anger and fear, you've got to have adequate leadership emerge, you've got to quit blaming people who had no power or cars or money to leave or those who have been systematically denied access to power for being angry about the situation, you've got to replace special interests with human interests. ap Very well stated. I think that the people - including the media - took the bull by the horns and utilized technology to promote human interests when the government was slow to do so. It has been apparent that journalists are outraged (as most people generally are) by what they witnessed in the aftermath of hurricane Katrina and, along with showing viewers what has been happening, they have also broadcast a multitude of ICT resources people could use to post and access information to communicate with loved ones. Over and over again I have heard it said (on TV and radio) that the Internet has been instrumental, in fact crucial, in facilitating access to information and communications when other more traditional methods have failed. I think this is a magnificent example of how the Internet, an open and free human arena, not widelly controlled by special interests, has been a vehicle to support human interests and needs. TP ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -- Adite Chatterjee www.icfdc.com http://www.icfdc.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: RE : [DDN] Re: $100 laptop
Sure. But are companies really interested in creating audiovisual animations for the limited literate population, which is not really a very lucrative target market. Even if they are being done, isn't television a better medium to target this audience? There is less of a learning curve involved, which makes it more user-friendly than a computer. Adite On 11/21/05, Andy Carvin [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: How about because Flash can be used to create audiovisual animations for limited literate populations? -- --- Andy Carvin Program Director EDC Center for Media Community acarvin @ edc . org http://www.digitaldivide.net Blog: http://www.andycarvin.com --- De: [EMAIL PROTECTED] de la part de Adite Chatterjee Date: dim. 11/20/2005 11:36 À: The Digital Divide Network discussion group Objet : Re: [DDN] Re: $100 laptop Simputer has some good ideas, but only 32M of Flash. No room for textbooks... No Keyboard. In response to the above comment, just one tiny observation: pray, WHY would an illiterate person sitting in remote Rajasthan in India- where electricity, water, housing, food is a problem, need FLASH? Despite being a savvy computer user with a privileged educational/income background, i can do without it! Adite On 11/21/05, Terry King [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At 12:00 PM 11/20/2005 -0500, you wrote: I suppose by buying a US$100 laptop an illiterate becomes literate and exploring the Internet fulfills the curriculum of all thirty plus students in each class.!! I am of course, not under- valuing the phenomenal wealth of knowledge accessible by the same laptop but... The whole concept of the Simputer is that it was developed within the context of a 'developing' country and its design took account of the inherent priorities and encouraging/utilizing local talent. We [including the UN] should, I believe, be orienting all our energies -- and funds to encouraging that area of development in developing countries. A few thoughts: - MIT is not asking the UN or others for donations, that I heard, for the laptops themselves. Countries would buy them at the $100 figure in large quantities. - The MIT design will be mainly sold as a TEXTBOOK. It has 1 Gb Flash and will have localized language texts and resources preloaded. The Internet expands the offerings. The mesh network provides local collaboration between students and teachers at the village level. - Simputer has some good ideas, but only 32M of Flash. No room for textbooks... No Keyboard. I ran a browser and word processor on the Beta.. they were pretty darn fast on the 1/2 Ghz processor.. Regards, Terry King ...On The Mediterranean in Carthage, Tunisia [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -- Adite Chatterjee www.icfdc.com http://www.icfdc.com http://www.icfdc.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -- Adite Chatterjee www.icfdc.com http://www.icfdc.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Re: $100 laptop
Simputer has some good ideas, but only 32M of Flash. No room for textbooks... No Keyboard. In response to the above comment, just one tiny observation: pray, WHY would an illiterate person sitting in remote Rajasthan in India- where electricity, water, housing, food is a problem, need FLASH? Despite being a savvy computer user with a privileged educational/income background, i can do without it! Adite On 11/21/05, Terry King [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: At 12:00 PM 11/20/2005 -0500, you wrote: I suppose by buying a US$100 laptop an illiterate becomes literate and exploring the Internet fulfills the curriculum of all thirty plus students in each class.!! I am of course, not under- valuing the phenomenal wealth of knowledge accessible by the same laptop but... The whole concept of the Simputer is that it was developed within the context of a 'developing' country and its design took account of the inherent priorities and encouraging/utilizing local talent. We [including the UN] should, I believe, be orienting all our energies -- and funds to encouraging that area of development in developing countries. A few thoughts: - MIT is not asking the UN or others for donations, that I heard, for the laptops themselves. Countries would buy them at the $100 figure in large quantities. - The MIT design will be mainly sold as a TEXTBOOK. It has 1 Gb Flash and will have localized language texts and resources preloaded. The Internet expands the offerings. The mesh network provides local collaboration between students and teachers at the village level. - Simputer has some good ideas, but only 32M of Flash. No room for textbooks... No Keyboard. I ran a browser and word processor on the Beta.. they were pretty darn fast on the 1/2 Ghz processor.. Regards, Terry King ...On The Mediterranean in Carthage, Tunisia [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message. -- Adite Chatterjee www.icfdc.com http://www.icfdc.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
[DDN] can technology eliminate poverty?
Hi All, Businessweek has done an interview with Grameen Bank Founder Muhammad Yunus on how Grameen Bank is using technology to eliminate poverty. Do check out this link... http://www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/05_52/b3965025.htm -- Adite Chatterjee www.icfdc.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
