Really interesting stuff. Thanks. Are you blogging about this stuff? -Adi
On Wed, Sep 15, 2010 at 4:34 PM, <[email protected]> wrote: > Brazil is an expanding nation. Heading West from Sao Paulo toward Assis, > the highway is dotted with construction workers expanding, renovating and > maintaining the main communication channel between distant and remote > places. Only the city of Sao Paulo numbers more than 19million people, > distance between friends in the same school can reach up to 38kms. The > country is growing, buildings are built, milkshakes at macdonalds are a > positive feature in the life of some Brazilian, WalMart and Carrefour > cheaply serve countless people. From the words of Taliso, a 21 year old > studying biotechnology, before there were desperate people - now they are > poor. The drive to improve ones social status is rampant. Television > alongside the internet is fundamental in accommodating and guiding part of > this evolution. Wireless is available on the bus from the airport to the > main station, down at Barra Funda. The family who I had the pleasure to be a > guest of lived in a tiny house 40kms from the inner city ring of Sao Paulo. > The expensive, yet organized and frequent metro could be heard on the > background while sleeping. The main income for the family was the father, a > factory worker who dreams of visiting Spain to discover his origins. In an > atmosphere of hospitality and tasteful food, the main attraction in the > house was a shiny new Sony Bravia with Internet capability. A function yet > undiscovered by the house owner, regarded as complicated and for him, > useless. Of a different mind his two children, who eager to learn English > buy pirated DVD off the numerous vendors continuously chased by the Police. > Their is a desire to know, to grow and to see the world. Internet merged > with Television has an important social potential. It would allow a kid > growing up in the outskirts of Sao Paulo to listen, hear and learn Norwegian > by streaming Nine Lives - a 1957 film about a world war two hero, something > which now still requires another piece of hardware. Also, streaming internet > to a tv set would allow open course content to be accessed - imagine a group > of students in the remote amazonian city of Manaus viewing full screen a > physics lecture from MIT just using their home set. For a teenager is not so > difficult to use a computer, but what if the same content could be accessed > - albeit with a 645kbs connection, by the house owner, who would be able to > appreciate the beauty of the net, without all the problems that a PC brings > along - small icons, urls, not responding messages, small qwerty keys and so > on. Also, this kid who buys pirated DVDs for 5$ each could benefit from > purchasing the same online at 99cents, saving money and respecting the law. > Brazil is a country in renovation, people want and work for Plasma 40 inch > tvs to replace the old tube, internet access is offered free at train and > metro stations - there are rooms with computers freely accessible by anyone > with fast Internet. A PC is still technically difficult to use for someone > who grew up farming when computers didn't even exist - but, Television > connected to the Internet with its simple remote, big screen and comfort of > position, facilitates greatly the accessibility to content which few years > ago seemed unreasonable even for people who were not completely technically > incompetent. As the models released at IFA in Berlin show, Internet and > Television have just started - or are starting, their long lasting marriage. > This marriage will bring unprecedented possibilities, liberalizing an > industry still highly locked in access costs, often organized in a medieval > corporative manner where the tv schedule is decided by share of audience - > and not, most of the times, by the content. > > Ciao ciao, > Andrea. > > _______________________________________________ > Discuss mailing list > [email protected] > http://freeculture.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/discuss > FAQ: http://wiki.freeculture.org/Fc-discuss >
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