Telecom celebration ------------------- The Center for Knowledge Societies in Bangalore thought of an interesting way to celebrate World Telecom Day. It was an exhibition of photographs by Sridala Sawmi. The theme: voice and data in India. CKS is led by research scholar Aditya Dev Sood <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> and is based at B-014, Natasha GolfView, Bangalore 71. Phone: +91.80.535.3455
The Center for Knowledge Societies "affords insight into the use of Information and Communications Technologies in non-traditional and emerging market environments". It also offers research, design and strategy consultancy services to technology houses, international agencies, and governments. "Through usability research, sectoral intelligence and quantitative analysis, it drives the development and deployment of emerging technologies for the benefit of rural, non-elite and mass users," says the Centre. Given the spread and reach that telecom has achieved over the past decade or two, India does have something to celebrate... the price hikes apart! TEK project ----------- US-based Bill Thies is one of the lead developers on the TEK project at MIT. The goal of the TEK project is to build a low-connectivity search engine for use by people at the far side of a bad telephone connection. See http://cag.lcs.mit.edu/tek Says he: "In fact, we just released a new version of the software... If you're currently using www4mail (a means of downloading webpages via simple email), I think TEK will provide some advantages -- e.g., a browser interface with full color and formatting, an intelligent server that remembers what you've downloaded, and a local search engine that indexes downloaded pages." This may not *come* from India, but it could sure have a lot of utility here. Despite the advances in telecom, the reality is that hundreds of millions still know terrible a bad telephone connection can be. Back in India ------------- That well-informed friend of India, Prof Kenneth (Ken) Keniston, the Andrew Mellon Professor of Human Development and the director of MIT's India Program, will be back touring various ICT4D projects sometime around June. If you have an interesting project to point him to, send in your mail at [EMAIL PROTECTED] (more links on www.kken.net). Don't forget to send in a copy also to [EMAIL PROTECTED] Simputer plans -------------- >From Bangalore, reports in early May say the Simputer, "India's most innovative technological product in recent times, is poised for mass use in the country and abroad with one of the license holders set to sign a 100,000-units deal with an Indian company". Encore Software, the reports said, which is one of the two license holders for the Simputer launched two years ago, is also in talks with two firms from Japan and one from Singapore for the supply of a similar number of the cost-effective handheld devices that promises to bridge the digital divide. See their mailing list at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/simputer People's notebook ----------------- Thailand is to get it, but India will have to wait. HP is offering that country a 'people's notebook' that runs on Linux. Reports from the Far East say HP's budget laptop will retail for 19,500 Baht (UKP 285). It features an 800 MHz Intel Celeron processor, 128MB of RAM and a 20GB harddisk. There is no CD-ROM or floppy drive. Meanwhile, a desktop, made by local computer makers Belta, SVOA and Computec, costs 10,900 Baht (UKP 159). It sports an Intel Celeron 1GHz processor, 128MB of RAM, a 52x CD-ROM drive, 20GB of hard disk space and comes with a 15-inch monitor, speakers and a keyboard. Said one friend: "Fantastic rates for the desktop and the sub-notebook man... when do such comps come to India?" Any chance of replication in India? A senior executive at HP said in an off-the-record comment: "I asked the same question to my colleagues. Will keep you posted." Using Wi-fi ----------- >From The Hindu we learn that Wi-fi, the technology that wirelessly connects to the Internet, is being used by many rural centres across India to access important information and facilities "In the Loni-Shirdi area of western Maharashtra, over 200 villages have formed a cooperative and raised Rs 2 crore to leverage information technology for their benefit. They have set up nearly 50 wireless 'hotspots' to harness the latest wi-fi systems so that villagers can get agricultural access systems right at their doorsteps. The technology to wirelessly connect to the Internet has recently been legalised by the government," said the report. It's hard to sift the claims from the reality sometimes... http://infochangeindia.org/ItanddItop.jsp?section_idv=9#2168 -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Frederick Noronha (FN) | http://www.fredericknoronha.net Freelance Journalist | http://www.bytesforall.org http://goalinks.pitas.com | http://joingoanet.shorturl.com http://linuxinindia.pitas.com | http://www.livejournal.com/users/goalinks ------------------------------------------------------------------------- T: 0091.832.2409490 or 2409783 M: 0 9822 122436 ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ ***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/>
