Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?
Vicram Crishna wrote: Today, villager's messages are being delivered on paper to an Internet Cafe and then transcribed into email for delivery worldwide by someone who holds an email account. This reminds me of my first encounter with the Internet in 1992 when I visited the Nicholas Copernicus University in Torun, Poland and saw students sitting at old IBM computers and transmitting messages to other universities. I had delivered a 'sophisticated' computer-based management learning center to the business school as a donation from Rotary clubs in California to teach business and entrepreneurship for the long-term purpose of creating jobs. I learned that I could far easier communicate with that university by sending a FAX from Pasadena to a professor at University of California - Berkeley who would re-type it and transmit it on the Internet to Poland. The reply would be returned to me by fax from Berkeley. It took another five years before I acquired the capability of e-mailing direct. And I live in the high-tech community of California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Jet Propulsion Laboratories (JPL)! With this GKD exchange of ideas on how to help the villager get his communication needs met, the time-line will soon compress to less than the five years it took me. And my current computer cost a small fraction of the one ten years ago. C. RAY CARLSON 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] What's on the Horizon?
Perhaps we should ask: what could be on the horizon? After all, this is a question more likely to lead to proposals for action that are feasible in terms of their possible payoff in the medium term if appropriate action would be taken now. In that connection I would suggest an examination of the proposal I put forward in a paper titled High-tech to the Rescue? that I prepared for the WB's Global Knowledge Conference and is available on my website: www.governance.uottawa.ca/miller. It seems to me that it addresses issues that are relevant to almost all of the 5 questions that the moderator has put forward as a basis for discussion. As for the timing factor, the proposed feasibility study could be undertaken at relatively low cost within the next few years and the full-scale denouement would stretch into the more distant future. Morris Miller (formerly a WB Senior Economist (with EDI, Policy Planning and operational divisions) and Executive Director) 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] What's on the Horizon?
This new set of questions is intriguing. I am not sure I agree with the direction of the questions and the focus on magic bullet technologies. First, I submit that the focus of efforts should be on policy, particularly universal access policy. IDRC's Acacia programme, DFID's CATIA programme and USAID's DOT-COM programme have all begun to focus new efforts on policy. This is where the real gains will be made. CATIA in particular is opening up opportunities to improve telecom policy across Africa in the areas of VSAT access, Internet exchange points, civil society participation in shaping telecom policy, positive policy environments for radio broadcasting (particularly community radio), and institutional strengthening for institutions that affect policy. See www.catia.ws DOT-COM is enhancing policy related synergies among its NGO, education and policy/regulatory reform initiatives - one of its programmes in southern Africa, the SADC-TRASA collaborative workshop on Rural Access and Universal Service resulted in the first formal bonding of industry, NGOs and government in an ICT coalition to consider implications of a Universal Services Fund. See www.dot-com-alliance.org IDRC's Acacia II Prospectus highlights 10 lessons learned during the first phase of Acacia. Lesson number 1: Policy is key... ICT policy development requires positive support at the highest level of political leadership, and the creation of policy frameworks - especially as regards infrastructure and rural connectivity - is key to success. See www.acacia.org.za Related to the policy dimension is the concept of technological neutrality. I am VERY wary of efforts to promote magic bullet technologies - through policy or through project funding. Technological neutrality is central to universal access policy - policies and regulations should neither unfairly advantage nor disadvantage one technology over another. Instead, technical choices should be driven by quality of service standards, not by arbitrary technical standards or the technology flavour of the month. The market is the best mechanism to determine technological solutions - it may not always select the best technologies, but it is very good at selecting technologies that people are actually willing and able to pay for. The policy environment supports the market by introducing and sustaining measures to promote a competitive, multi-operator environment. As an example, according to the European Community, the goal of the technological neutrality principle is not to impose, nor discriminate in favor of, the use of a particular type of technology, but to ensure that the same service is regulated in an equivalent manner, irrespective of the means by which it is delivered. Such a policy can go a long way to ensuring that consumers have access to such things as IP networks for voice, and other technological convergences which may emerge, which can significantly reduce the cost of providing universal access. With regard to funding programs that target specific technologies, I have yet to see one example of a promising technology emerge from such a program to achieve broad adoption. At the same time, I have seen many examples of indigenous entrepreneurs adapting themselves to the policy environment to introduce technologies that fit market conditions. If anything, we need a great deal more research directed at sharing the lessons learned and technological innovations of indigenous entrepreneurs who work in real world and real market contexts - other than policy, that's where I would put my money. US FCC Chairman Michael Powell once said, Government [this could also read the donor community!!!] is a notoriously bad investor. It tends to buy high and sell low when it comes to predicting technology winners and losers. One lesson from all of this is that we should be careful [not] to embrace too quickly any one technology or service. In essence, policy environments and program/projects environments that favour a particular technology to the exclusion of others can delay the advance of universal access infrastructure by distorting the economics of deployment in challenging markets. For example, one need only look at the experiences of donor-driven telecentres to see examples of financially unsustainable donor entities actually competing with local entrepreneurs and their home grown cybercafes. Cheers, Don Richardson, PhD. Director TeleCommons Development Group Stantec Consulting 361 Southgate Drive Guelph, Ontario N1G 3M5 Canada Tel: 519-836-6050; Fax: 519-836-2493 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web: www.telecommons.com or www.stantec.com 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
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Using Intermediaries to Facilitate Communication
On the issue of intermediaries, while acknowledging the very valid concerns pointed out by Don Osborne, I'd just like to add that some work has been done to try and get around some of these problems. The voices in their hands project by a Philips Researcher, Paul Rankin http://www.stanford.edu/~prankin/eng/, a Reuters Digital vision Fellow at Stanford 2002-2003, addresses those very issues in almost exactly the way Osborne envisions it should, i.e. use of handhelds (modified MP3 player), used as a service, a voice e-mail store and forward device, privacy, leveraging use of Telecenter. It just struck me how great minds think alike in solving problems. Admittedly there may still be technical issues to work around. It's a work in progress. Please visit the site for more information and send any queries to Paul Rankin. Other solutions could be variations on this theme. Don Osborne wrote: I'm not at all comfortable with the notion of person-to-person or web-to-individual(s) information being mediated where it's not absolutely necessary, and then only as a temporary strategy and with as few transformations as possible - i.e., if as a service, more like a postal relay (can what the sender says be recorded and transmitted exactly as such through the media to the receiver?) than like the traditional letter writer in much of Africa who hears in one language, translates into another, and writes a letter that may have to be back-translated on the other end. Maybe handhelds will help in this regard. Kind regards, Raphael Kaume Marambii Microsoft Fellow Reuters Digital Vision fellowship Program Stanford University Cordura Hall 210 Panama Street Stanford, CA 94305-4115 +1 650 724 9258 or 9259 (tel) + 1 650 861 0241 (mobile) +1 650 724 4076 (fax) [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://reuters.stanford.edu 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] What's on the Horizon?
Dear GKD Members, In response to the question asked on What's on the Horizon, to us in the developing world it is more or less provision of basic connectivity, integrating basic services in the connectivity and a lot of capacity building. I wish to concentrate on educational delivery and discuss a model that I have been toying about with as part of a process to improve the quality of the educational delivery system in the nothern part of Nigeria. The model uses a VSAT link to the internet and wireless technology to rapidly and cheaply spread access to cover many educational institutions within a radius of 40 kilometers. The VSAT is located in the University and will house educational databases and serves as an educational portal to the higher institutions, secondary and primary schools in the area. Such databases, which are to be updated periodically, will provide the much needed access to educational materials with little need for access to the net. Of course the servers will provide other services such as web based email, DNS, web servers for local content creations, course management software, etc. Once this is put in place, a lot of skills development programs ranging from basic computer skills to advanced networking and web based technologies will be mounted. The key to the success of this model is the maturity of the wireless technology. I believe this kind of model if refined and implemented can be a rapid enabler to Connectivity for All. We have already started on this project using our University as the base. VSATs and a lot of wireless devices have been deployed with very good results. For instance, our two campuses separated by a distance of 15 kilometers have been linked with wireless. We are also able to cover the two campuses with wireless signals. We are planning next to bring our Teaching Hospital into the picture and one or two secondary schools as a pilot scheme. However, the issues of funding, self sustainability and adequate planning are among our greatest problems. Any ideas that can be of help to us? You can reach me at [EMAIL PROTECTED] Ahmed Isah Chafe 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
[GKD-DOTCOM] Social Networking via Low Bandwidth Connections
Dear GKD colleagues, I'm very happy to learn of this discussion, and of the many people working on these issues. My name is Andrius Kulikauskas and in 1998 I founded Minciu Sodas http://www.ms.lt a private business, and open laboratory in Lithuania, that serves and organizes independent thinkers around the world. Our mission is to use low-bandwidth but high-customization technologies to link independent thinkers in efforts that benefit a wide range of people, including the difficult to reach, and are both economically and socially sustainable. Currently we have 50 active and 500 passive participants around the world. We work primarily through online discussion groups such as: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/minciu_sodas_en/ in English, but also in Lithuanian, Spanish and other languages. Our projects build social sustainability by focusing on the individuals and encouraging meaningful relationships. For this reason, we drew up a vision to create software that might help us make effective use of the marginal Internet access that we already have. We described the functionality that we desire as a Social Networking Kit (optimized for marginal connectivity) by which activists may be heard, found, informed, helped, integrated. (visit http://www.no-hit.com/andrius/archives/74.html) We start by customizing, by serving individuals, and overcoming the obstacles facing the individuals, which might be training, tweaking, writing scripts or macros, whatever is needed for the particular thinker to participate in global society. Generally, we apply ideas from our paper An Economy for Giving Everything Away http://www.ms.lt/en/workingopenly/givingaway.html We assume, as in Lithuania, that many people may get access to a computer ($200) but have marginal access. We suggest creating a modeling language for web activity that manages agents. It gives the user a universal interface and allows people to work offline -- contributing to a Wiki, or moderating a discussion group, or participating through a business networking site like Ryze. Then when they have a connection, their material is executed by a web service and some crude artificial intelligence. We propose that such a system might be offered by Internet Service Providers, or host services. One example of this kind of low bandwidth functionality that we're already working on is Common Channels, http://www.commonchannels.com, by which we're trying to let groups subscribe and contribute to information channels. Here's a sample letter for including people with marginal Internet access: http://www.commonchannels.com/cgi-bin/letter.py?channelID=16 These are the thoughts that bring me here. (And the sharp eye of Robin Good www.masternewmedia.org) I'm very glad to feel that I'm in the right place! I look forward to immersing myself in this discussion, considering and contributing new ideas, and finding partners. Peace, Andrius Andrius Kulikauskas Minciu Sodas http://www.ms.lt [EMAIL PROTECTED] +370 52645950 Vilnius, Lithuania 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
Aaron Sundsmo's call for low-cost, low-bandwidth email technology is exactly what VITA pushed for many years through the low orbiting satellite store-and-forward email system designed for remote areas. We had wonderful demos using this technology, but, sadly, the technology could not be commercialized on a for-profit basis. Efforts continue, however, on a humanitarian basis. For probably $100K or less, replicable ground segment (ground-based terminals) could be tweaked and field tested (major development has already occurred). For the space segment (satellites) we would either have to go piggy-back on someone else's satellites (using the UK-based Surrey Satellite Technology Ltd proven platform) or, if an underwriter could be found for about $3 million, launch a dedicated satellite. If anybody would like more info on this or would like to offer suggestions, please write me offline (and I will be happy to collate/share responses with the network). Gary Gary Garriott ICT for Development Advisor Panama SURF - UNDP PO Box 6314, Zone 5 Panama City, Panama Tel. 507 265 8168/8153 Fax 507 265 8445 Aaron Sundsmo wrote: I completely agree that there always needs to be a feedback loop built into any project. What we are currently doing is using a hub and spokes model where one site has a connection to the Internet (usually dial-up) and can email feedback, but this has generally been very expensive and unreliable. Where this is not available, First Voice is also using telephone, snail mail or face-to-face communications as appropriate. However, we are always looking for a low-cost low-bandwidth connection primarily for email use that can be used in remote areas throughout Africa and Asia and will not require excessive government licensing. If anyone has any suggestions of these technologies I would greatly appreciate it. 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
