Hello Dr. Eskow, I am quoting below what you wrote: >There are, however, "proximate" as well as "ultimate" goals, there are "appropriate" and "intermediate" technologies as well as "advanced" technologies--there are, that is, advantages to using bicycles rather than automobiles for certain situations calling for transport. As far as I understand, the Simputer from Amida is with the focus for the needs of a particular environment ... India to start with. But I think it is also for a certain group of people that are perhaps not that advance in using a PC. I understand your arguement here, but I think we also should look at the needs of the target audience. For a farmer that perhaps have limited education, what this person might need is a simple tool that can help him with storing contact information, simple calculation of the goods he needs or prices etc. etc. Perhaps the environment of this person can only supports the usage of ' a bicycle/Amida Simputer'. Giving him an 'automobile/100 USD PC' would not only be a waste of money, but an eye-sore. He might not have the electricity to power his PC, a key-board might become a scary thing to look at, a mouse is another worry. If the PC dosen't work he might have a problem to transport the thing to have it fix etc. etc. There is no such thing as what is good or what is bad, but it can be good or bad for certain situation. Sometime we forget, since most of us, such as yourself, are highly educated and live in the first world, we tend to forget some of the things that seems so simple for us is actually VERY complex to many people in this world (even in the first world). Complexity can be seen as motivation for learning, BUT it can also deter some people and scare them away. I have an elderly friend who is a very well educated mechanical engineer but have such bad experience with the mouse (he has problem to control the movement of the mouse with his hand!) he just refused to use a PC. Instead he is using an old fashion type-writer. Is Amida Simputer or Dell PC a better tool is really something depends on the users. I think what we should look at is: is it a good tool? Granted at this point the Simputer seems to be expensive as compare with a PC or a lap-top. BUT I am sure anyone has some idea of product life-cycle would have no problem to understand the reasons. Cindy
_______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list [email protected] 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.
