Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Bringing Connectivity to Under-Served Communities
Hello All, With regard to Ahmed's note and the great work he is doing by bringing Internet literacy to the students in his university in Nigeria, what if you could connect one Campus Content server to that Internet connection and locally store many times the content in the US Library of Congress? What if this provided simultaneous access for several hundred users on campus? And what if simple low-tech Pentium II that supported Netscape or Internet Explorer were all that was required to access this Internet content, as well as, a myriad of rich content including e-Books, e-Learning courses, video and multimedia resources? etc. were also available to any student on campus, wirelessly could be refurbished Pentium II-class PC's that support either Netscape or Internet Explorer? And, what if all the content on this server were remotely refreshed nightly via satellite broadcast with any updates so that those content resources were always current as of 2:00 AM that day and were available to students, faculty, and administration at high-speed using a simple, reliable wireless campus network? Yes, this is possible and it is being done today! And, it operated on a financially self-sustaining basis by the University or a local community business person who is charged with providing this reliable service. And, when the contagious enthusiasm of turned-on Internet- savvy students demonstrate the power of technology-assisted teaching and learning to the faculty and those in the university's administration, it empowers a paradigm shift in thinking for this University. In addition, this reliable, remotely-managed Campus- wide approach can also include partnerships with international universities (from Canada and US) that currently offer world- class virtual degree and diploma programs to students on their local campus. This is an exciting time as affordable, sustainable, repeatable capabilities such as those described above can bring together world-class computing, global connectivity, content, training, teacher professional development, and virtual support in under- served and developing regions. And, as a result, the digital divide is narrowing with increasing opportunities for literate and articulate people from anywhere in the world to compete for a new breed of virtual jobs in the emerging global information society workforce. Regards Bob Robert Miller EVP Global Inc. Direct: (416) 423-9100 Mobile: (416) 464-7525 Fax: (416) 696-9734 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] History teaches us that people and nations behave wisely, once they have exhausted all other alternatives Abba Eban Ahmed Isah wrote: ...The issue is not to do with selling a useless product that has no demand. Rather, it has to do with whether the target market is really aware of the benefits of the product to them. This then boils down to illiteracy of the benefits of the Internet to the user. Take my case as an example. We provide a 24 PC Internet connectivity in an academic environment in Nigeria with about 10,000 students and 400 academic staff. Yet, the connectivity was not maximally utilised. However, when we embarked on Internet awareness training to the students, we now have to plan for more PCs as the students continue to troop in. This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. 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 For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?
Mr. James, Regarding your last question about linking villages via wireless, you may want to check in with the Jhai Foundation. They have been creating WiFi networks to link villages with each other and the internet in Laos. The project website is: http://www.jhaifoundation.org/jhai_remoteIT.html Regards, Matt Wire Lunghabo James wrote: However I would also like to add that many times when we talk of connectivity, we mean having probably a connection to either the internet directly or to the telcos etc. Has some one ever thought of creating a network of villages linked together probably through wireless technologies, enabling these rural folk to communicate with each other and exchange information without having to ride a bicycle for 20 kms. Eventually, this creates a mesh of villages interconnected and one high speed connection probably links to the ISP or Telco. I believe this kind of aggregation would prove cheaper and more meaningful for our societies. Why in the first case should you try and force a villager to communicate with some one in Europe when he still has problems communicating with his in-laws 10 kms away ? This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. 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 For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Bringing Connectivity to Under-Served Communities
Sorry for the late post...hope it's not too late for this subject. I'm Jim Forster, an engineer with cisco Systems. I thought I'd describe a small effort in Nepal that I'm helping. -- Jim 1. What activities are endeavoring to bring connectivity to under-served communities? Dave Hughes, a long-time advocate of unlicensed wireless for rural connectivity, as been in Nepal helping Tsering Sherpa set up 802.11 for the main Sherpa village of Namche. Namche apparently gets a fair amount of tourist and Mt. Everest climber money, but their telephony service was cut off when the Maoists blew up the government-owned telephone relay tower. Last year Tsering set up a small PBX and supplied voice service to some lodges, and Internet service to some Internet café's in Namche. Last week Tsering and Dave Hughes setup 3 802.11 radios to provide 802.11 service to all of Namche, and via relay to the SPCC National Park HQ. They had planned to provide relay service to a nearby school but will need another radio for that service. When that happens the students will receive English lessons from a Sherpa in Colorado, using VoIP over Internet the whole way -- no PSTN whatsoever. See http://www.linkingeverest.com/gallery/learning for the original idea, and http://www.linkingeverest.com/gallery/hughes-everest?page=4 for pictures of the project underway. 2. What are the goals of these efforts? To what extent are the goals attained? Enable English language lessons and increased educational opportunities through Internet and VoIP. Preserve Sherpa culture by enabling those that must leave to find work to remain in contact with their families and village. Enable the whole village to economically share one VSAT connection. Demonstrate to to the world, through the visiblity that Sherpas have due to Everest, that Internet connectivity is feasible anywhere and economical in many places. 3. Who is being served by these connectivity efforts? Are the benefits widely distributed? Do some groups win and some lose in these connectivity efforts? 4. How do connectivity efforts seek to ensure that all groups benefit? 802.11 coverage of the entire village lowers the barriers. This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. 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 For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
Re:[GKD-DOTCOM] Connectivity Is Not The Right Word
Dear Colleagues, Broadband is a real enemy of development. One of my staff summed up the situation in the underdeveloped SOUTH way back in the 1970s when he said that Every year that goes by they get another 10 years behind. And broadband is the sort of technology initiative that helps make this a sad reality. There is nothing wrong with broadband as a step forward from other connectivity, but making broadband the standard before any other form of connectivity is universal (not to mention a lot of other basic needs) is a humanitarian disaster. Once again we have an obscene allocation of scarce development resources. We need to systemicly optimise value adding in development and end value destruction through development and foreign direct investment. I agree with Simon Woodside that connectivity is not the right focus. Export driven development has failed largely because when everyone is exporting to drive development, the supply booms and nothing happens with demand .. d .. the prices go down terms of trade tank. Development is about the quality of life in a community getting improved, and that is about value adding in the community. Having the ability to communicate LOCALLY is enormously valuable, and should be done better than yesterday, but it need not be done using broadband! Simon has described the importance of the nodes. Absolutely yes. And the key nodes in quality of life are those that relate to the living that goes on in the community. My vote is for narrowband EVERYWHERE connecting little local nodes. Improve the local infrastructure, and don't focus just on the international part of it. And my vote is for using technology to reduce the cost and price of basic communication rather than to maximise revenue for the technology producers by selling more and more complexity that adds a lot to the visual experience but not very much at all to the underlying messages being communicated. Sincerely Peter Burgess Peter Burgess ATCnet in New York Tel: 212 772 6918 Fax: 707 371 7805 [EMAIL PROTECTED] for secure messages Simon Woodside wrote: I was paying attention when the internet was first developing in the west, here in Canada in particular. I think that the history of the internet is largely ignored by those who are developing connectivity for the developing world. But ignored, at the risk of going off in the completely wrong direction. The internet is all about nodes. A node is a knot between strands, a place where many lines come together. In a computer network, it's a point of interconnection, where two data lines cross. What happens in the node, is that the data intermingles and doubles. Data that enters a node can exit in any direction, or in all directions at once. ..snip... So ... connectivity is not the right goal. The goal should be, what are you doing to build the LOCAL internet. Not just to connect people but to interconnect them by creating internet nodes? This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. 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 For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org