Computing pioneer Felsenstein eyes PCs for the poor By Staff, TheDeal.com
http://news.com.com/Computing+pioneer+Felsenstein+eyes+PCs+for+the+poor/2100-1041_3-6087976.html Story last modified Mon Jun 26 12:14:06 PDT 2006 The engineer who designed the first portable microcomputer and helped open the door to personal computing just got laid off. It's an unlikely turn of events for a technology pioneer like Lee Felsenstein, who designed the 24-pound, computer-in-a-suitcase Osborne 1 back in 1980. But the 61-year-old, who recently lost his job as a medical instrument designer for contract engineering and manufacturing firm Pemstar, shrugs it off. "There were some severe management problems there," he says. "It's indicative of the relative state of chaos that remains in Silicon Valley." Pemstar's woes are likely beyond the ability of an electrical engineer to fix, but no matter. Felsenstein has bigger fish to fry: providing technology solutions to third-world countries. Felsenstein's early work as a designer of an affordable computer "for the masses" has evolved into a passion for providing access to technology where, arguably, it is needed most. "I started out wanting to demystify technology and remove technological barriers before ordinary people," he says. "That's been an ongoing theme in what I'm doing." To that end, Felsenstein has designed a bicycle-powered computer that lets people in underdeveloped countries with no electricity or telecommunications infrastructure use word processing, simple spreadsheets and e-mail via a wireless connection. The impetus for Felsenstein's design came through his contact with Lee Thorn, a Vietnam War veteran whose search for reconciliation led to the development of the Jhai Foundation, a nonprofit set up to rebuild rural Laos. After years of work in refugee villages there, Thorn realized they needed a method to determine market prices for their crops and woven handicrafts. Roots at the Homebrew Club "Their stuff was being bought by traders for a pittance, and sold for much more," Felsenstein says. "They could cut out the middleman if they could get telecommunications of some sort." Felsenstein made his mark on high-tech history in 1975, when a group of computer hobbyists began meeting in a garage in Menlo Park, Calif., to discuss, among other things, the then-groundbreaking Altair 8800. The Altair was a microcomputer kit published in Popular Electronics magazine designed around an early Intel processor and viewed as the catalyst for the personal computer revolution. Members of the group, called the Homebrew Computer Club, included future Apple Computer co-founders Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs, along with Adam Osborne and Felsenstein, who led the meetings. Eventually, Osborne sketched out a suitcase-size computer with a 5-inch screen and two 5.25-inch floppy disk drives and asked Felsenstein to design it. The computer, the Osborne 1, was the first to have an integrated screen. It cost $1,795, about half that of a comparably featured computer from rival manufacturers. The Osborne was also a major success, selling more than 125,000 units in 1982. "Adam was the father of the Osborne; I guess I was the mother," Felsenstein says. As for his endeavors to bring computing and telecommunications to poor countries, Felsenstein and his organization, the Fonly Institute (whose name comes from the phrase "if only"), continue to work on developing what has become known as the Jhai computer. The Laos project was stymied by local officials who didn't want a wireless relay set up on a particular ridge. But the Navajo Nation in Arizona is now testing the system, and Invenio, a company formed by fellow Homebrew Computer Club founder Bob Marsh, has taken up much of the work on the technology. It's not the proverbial next big thing, but that matters little to Felsenstein. "It's fair-trade technology, and it's an industry in formation," he says. "There is no money in it now. You scrounge until you begin to see some growth. I've been there before." ================================================= George Antunes Voice (713) 743-3923 Associate Professor Fax (713) 743-3927 Political Science Internet: antunes at uh dot edu University of Houston Houston, TX 77204-3011 Reply with a "Thank you" if you liked this post. _____________________________ MEDIANEWS mailing list [email protected] To unsubscribe send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
