Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?
My name is Jorge Duran and i work as Senior Technology for Development Advisor at the InterAmerican Agency for Cooporation and Development of the Organization of American States in Washington, DC. The Moderator has asked: 3. Can information distribution centers (e.g., public access telecenters) offer a viable economic solution to a community's information needs, by, in effect, sharing a single high-bandwidth connection among many users, and thus spreading the cost? The answer to this one is: Yes, but as part of a concerted effort and with a sustainability component in place. We at the Agency have had several successes and failures in Telecenters. The obvious cause is that once the loan runs out or the government stops subsidizing the telecenter most either breakdown or disappear or they become Cybercafes and forget the social/community component that originated them in the first place. Considering the connectivity costs and that sometimes they are located in areas where the community in general either has no money to pay for connectivity and PC services or just not interested in maintaining it, the key here is to make the telecenter an integral part of the community so that the community not only does not mind paying to keep it up, but actually considers it a vital part for the accomplishment of several tasks. It is for this reason that several sustainability schemes are underway as pilot projects to see which of those works and where, considering the wide variety of telecenter settings. 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?
On Monday, November 10, 2003, Ben Parker wrote: The other major challenge we face in two remote telecentres UNICEF supports in southern Sudan (at least two days from the nearest telephone) is the generators. These need lots of fuel and oil and are prone to breakdown. Regular desktops are much too greedy for solar power as far as I understand, but I would be interested if anyone can share experiences on solar-powered VSAT? How much power does a VSAT use? Seems like it must be a lot. Desktops are definitely not a good idea with solar, but laptops would do fine with a solar power system, since they generally use less than 10 Watts. Whereas a desktop PC with a monitor draws maybe 100 Watts. Instead of using VSAT for backhaul, consider using Wi-Fi for backhaul connection to the internet. WiFi equipment has very light power requirements -- solar is defintely used to power Wi-Fi installations in remote locations. simon -- www.simonwoodside.com :: www.openict.net :: www.semacode.org 99% Devil, 1% Angel 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?
Simon Woodside wrote: Not only that, but the high cost of a PC or a laptop needs to be considered. A PC is expensive, whether it's connected to high-bandwidth or low. So a substantial sum of the total ICT investment isn't going to change no matter what the bandwidth plan might be. I would beg to differ. There are existing real low cost options for PCs. Computer Aid is a non-profit organisation that supplies professionally refurbished high quality PCs for a fraction of the cost of a new machine. For any given bandwidth the difference in performance between a P2 and a P4 is imperceptible (or at least insignificant). We have supplied over 25,000 PCs to 80 different countries. We have 24 staff and expenditure of circa $750,000 per year and yet no member of staff in our offices has ever used any machine on their desk higher than a (refurbished) P1 or P2. The majority of the machines that we are currently shipping are P2s. It is possible to seriously reduce the total ICT investment without performance loss of any consequence. Kind regards Tony Roberts Chief Executive Computer Aid International 433 Holloway Road London, N7 6LJ. UK. Tel: +44 (0) 20 7281 0091 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: www.computeraid.org Registered Charity no. 1069256 Registered Company no. 3442679 _ This message was sent to you using a quality Pentium PC fully refurbished by Computer Aid International. 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?
Ben Parker asked about experiences on solar powered VSAT I don't have time to give details now but can't let the question go by without brief reference to the Solo. It is designed for rural Africa. I saw the second generation prototype during field trials in Oke-Ogun. I undertand that some pre-production versions are now under assembly. Not being a techie I don't know if there is any difference between VSAT and the satelite connection that Solo was making use of then. As a potential purchaser I know I won't get hold of one until someone in Africa sets up a small, locally financed company, to do small scale assembly (about 100 units a month). The ethos behind Solo development is not just to make the *end product* available in rural Africa, but to *benefit local economies* and to *enable technology transfer through local assembly*. It is an imaginative combination of leading edge technology and cottage industry scale assembly! Hurdles to be overcome are things like problems relating to getting components through customs, and getting a critical mass of initial orders, to give a small company the confidence to go forward. That's why I keep plugging the Solo - I want one, and I want the project I support in Oke-Ogun to be able to get them - so I need other people to want them too. Pam McLean 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?
Right, Peter! You've extended my argument yet another step past the ICT solution (where I had chosen to end my examples at the border of ICT and non-ICT solutions), and I entirely agree. You can still go into markets in much of the developing world and find someone whose business it is to write letters for others. (I like to harken back to old American Western movies where the farmer strides into the Western Union Telegraph station, hooks his thumbs under his overall straps, throws back his shoulders, and drawls, I want to send me a message to Warshington...) Today, villager's messages are being delivered on paper to a Internet Cafe and then transcribed into email for delivery worldwide by someone who holds an email account. There may someday be a SERVICE that enhances this informal relationship to the point where a single griot can manage email accounts for hundreds of clients through a simple handheld device. It'll take a little tweaking of the current email and client software, but it's very possible. Cheers! -- Cliff Peter Burgess [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: I like a lot of what I am seeing on this discussion dialog and the commentary by Cliff Missen. But this got my attention: If someone needs to get a letter to another, they need a word processor and a printer. Whatever happened to the idea of pen and paper, and typewriter (manual)? When it comes to communications in poor rural areas the most cost effective might well be very old fashioned. ..snip... 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
