Most of you were too young to remember but here it is: The Satellite Instructional Television Experiment
SITE,13 a massive experiment in social engineering designed jointly by NASA and the Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO), is a fantastic tale of technological cooperation between unfriendly democracies. Indian engineers placed television sets in 5,000 remote villages spread in six clusters across the subcontinent. Half of the televisions were further modified to receive programs directly from the ATS satellite, and each of which was equipped with a large, distinctive dish antenna that dominated the village landscape. ISRO technocrats, spurred by social engineering ambitions, devised a highly sophisticated computer program that chose villages specifically for their backwardness. Most villages were not electrified, and many could not be connected to the electric network within a year. Therefore, space technologists reengineered the television sets to adapt them to the rigors of rural life. Many were powered by solar energy and batteries. NASA wanted to test some new solar cells and encouraged the use of such television sets.14 For a year, from 1 August 1975 to 31 July 1976, hundreds and sometimes thousands of villagers gathered daily in front of each of these 5,000 television sets--placed outside like a processional deity of a temple--to watch educational television, which showed them.how to lead better lives and grow more food. During the day, the village school children watched science experiments on television. Not all the viewers were villagers. Often, engineers and bureaucrats watched. The American embassy in New Delhi had a SITE television set. In Sri Lanka, Arthur C. Clarke, the Jules Verne of satellite communications, was given a set to watch SITE from his home. Every major newspaper in the world wrote about SITE. After a year, NASA parked the satellite in a new orbit away from India. Clarke pleaded forcefully with NASA to continue this revolutionary experiment beyond the stipulated one-year period. Many leftist journalists voiced the disappointment of villagers. Delegations of villagers trekked several miles to meet government officials. Hundreds of postcards petitioned the government to continue the program. Several of the anthropologists stationed in villages to study the effects of SITE stayed longer to conduct post-SITE evaluations, then returned home to write lengthy reports.15 http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4217/ch16.htm On the other hand, re Linda's comments below, both Indonesia and India could easily program 20 million units. These units could be linked to the Posyandus in Indonesia http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/entrez/query.fcgi?cmd=Retrieve&db=PubMed&list_uids=2638905&dopt=Abstract. Volunteers could be trained to work with groups of children and the posyandu site could be set up as a learning centre. The US could fund these to make those opposed to ICANN http://www.icann.org/ less angry. The centres could monitor food availability and price http://www.fews.net/, sanitation http://w3.whosea.org/EN/Section23/Section1000.htm, etc. Bill Ward [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://hsc.usf.edu/publichealth/hpm/wward/index.html This is a good point.. It reminds me of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. We have a HUGE need in the world to assure that people have adequate food, medical care, safety, clothing, sanitation, etc. This in itself is an enormous undertaking that we (I use we in a general sense--not pertaining to any particular "we." ) tend to ignore--at least on any scale that would solve these problems. No one should have to go to bed hungry or afraid for his/her life. Linda Ullah Teacher in Residence Foothill College Krause Center for Innovation [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.foothill.edu/kci
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