Hi all, I'm probably jumping into this discussion a little late, but wanted to add that www4mail (see http://www.kabissa.org/members/www4mail/) provides functionality similar to what John describes - allowing the e-mailer to decide which search engine to use. Kabissa ran a www4mail server for a number of years, but we have found that our members (African CSOs) are not using it despite our very actively promoting it to them. There are a lot of reasons for this, including the fact that more people now do have (limited!) access to Internet-connected Web browsers as opposed to e-mail only systems - I wrote a short article on this in ICT Update: http://ictupdate.cta.int/index.php/article/articleview/183/1/31/
There are a number of www4mail servers out there, however none of us have really developed the tool far enough so it is simple for e-mail only users to understand what it does and how to use it. There is a mailing list people can join that might want to get involved in this: http://www.dgroups.org/groups/w4m And finally, there's a www4mail "powered" portal called VITA-Connect that we developed with funding from infoDev but which was never implemented - the platform is freely distributable open source available to anyone who wants to check it out: http://www.kabissa.org/members/vita-connect/get-vita-connect.php Cheers, Tobias -- Tobias Eigen Executive Director Kabissa - Space for change in Africa http://www.kabissa.org Kabissa's TIME TO GET ONLINE materials now available online! http://www.timetogetonline.org "Daniel Makundi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I was somewhat taken aback by the post below. > > Internet access in third world has populated significantly in the past > few years: hardly anyone is still using email-only system such as the > once-popular GreenNet-APC. At least for Tanzania where we have Internet > access in all major towns and cities, and spreading fast. > > > John Mullinax <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Very interesting -- one issue with this approach is that the filtering > > happens without the searcher's knowledge or control. One opportunity to > > address this may be to use a transformation gateway to compress content > > (similar to a WAP gateway, but probably not exactly a WAP gateway). The > > gateway may sufficiently reduce the amount of data sent over the wire so > > that the searcher in Malawi, or wherever, can select the items that > > would seem to be most useful. These pages could then be emailed in their > > entirety, per the system described. Just a thought.... ------------ ***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/>
