Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] What's on the Horizon?

[Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan]

> 1. What new "high impact" technologies are on the 3-year horizon? Who
> (exactly) needs to do what (concretely) to make those technologies
> widely available?

It seems to me that most of the component technologies needed for
deploying ICT in rural areas are already in place. What really needs to
be done is to knit these together into a system that can be easily
deployed in rural areas. To give an example, Philips in India, is
looking at expanding its market by tapping the "bottom of the pyramid."
They have skills in lighting systems, power storage and solar power.
Now, they are exploring how they can combine these skills into a system
that can be deployed in rural areas. One proposal is to create
community owned solar power systems into which villagers can plug
rechargeable lamps. The lamps can be charged during the day and used
during the nights to bring light to off-the-grid locations.

This will probably need some microfinance intervention but my point is
that we don't need more technology because the components -- low cost
computers, renewable energy, VSATs etc exist as discrete pieces. We need
to spend a lot more time and effort to knit these together into
solutions that fulfil the needs of people in different locations.

Hope this makes some sense.

Venky




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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?

[Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan]

In India, we have the public call offices (PCOs) -- essentially manned
telephone booths where the revenues are shared between the telco and the
PCO operator. There are more than 600,000 of these PCOs across the
country. There are many Community Information Centres where one can
access the Internet and according to some of my friends who love
travelling across India, these cybercafes are now appearing in remote
locations too.

A couple of examples of Community Information Centres are:

www.drishtee.com
www.e-choupal.com

Venky


Herman Wasserman <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Cliff, this is a very interesting line of argument -- if this way of
> using the internet through an intermediary is a general practice in
> Africa because of the lack of connectivity, it might mean amending some
> of the theories of Internet communication from the idea of the Internet
> as a many-to-one or individualised, customised form of communication to
> one that is similar to the two-step flow of communication, where
> information is mediated by leaders or representatives in society.
>
> Can you perhaps point me to some case studies of this type of mediation,
> or to specific examples? Thanks
>
> Cliff Missen wrote:
>
>> 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.






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Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] Bringing Connectivity to Under-Served Communities

[Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan]

Dear Gary,

I wonder if the Indian experience may help. The Telecom Mission that was set
up in the mid-80s set up Public Call Offices (PCOs), essentially manned
phone booths where revenues were split between the PCO operator and the
telco. The experiment was so successful that by 2000, 650,000 PCOs were in
operation across the country. Around 117 billion metered calls were made
from these PCOs in 1998. These PCOs also provided self-employment
opportunities and jobs to people across the country, apart from creating a
very efficient and helpful public infrastrcuture for making phone calls.
Many people had never made a phone call and they could depend on the PCO
operator to help them. In Mumbai, I have seen that PCOs were handed over to
handicapped people to operate.

I have taken the data from the book "India's Communications Revolution: From
Bullock Carts to Cyber Marts" by Arvind Singhal and Evrett M Rogers, Sage
Publications, New Delhi and Thousand Oaks, London. ISBN 0-7619-9472-6.

Hope this helps.

Venky


Gary Garriott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:

> Colleagues:
>
> I have great hopes for this discussion as the topic is as relevant today
> as ever and perhaps more so, given the recent backsliding in rural
> infrastructure as a direct result of truncated privatization processes.
>
> Here in Panama we have an interesting situation. I undertook a mission
> on behalf of the UNDP country office to the remote Darién region to
> learn why the public telephones (usually only one per village of 2000 or
> more inhabitants) don´t work. To my surprise, I found that the basic
> infrastructure is not only in pretty good shape but relatively
> sophisticated as well (would support up to 9.6 kbps data). The problem
> is in the last 100 meters between the rural radio tower/antenna and the
> telephone booth where situations with relatively simple solutions cause
> 80-90% of the problems (like people getting their coins and other
> objects jammed in the coin slots, short circuits in the interconnecting
> cable because of attempts to rob service, infrequent visits by
> supervisory personnel to remove full coinboxes). We are now working with
> the multinational corporation that operates the system and various
> development programs in the region to come up with a win-win project
> design that would include community education in system care, basic
> technical training, and local management.
>
> Meanwhile, the government has levied a stiff fine on this multinational
> for similar problems throughout the country. The company maintains that
> rural telephones are unprofitable and cannot be easily maintained, even
> though they constitute a lifeline for thousands of people. This is, of
> course, only a specific example of a more generic situation, but it was
> the inspiration behind the attached draft policy position. I would
> invite comments on it as well as ideas from the community on which
> organizations/donors might be interested in developing a regional or
> even a global program to comprehensively address rural connectivity and
> access issues.
>
> (More information on PFNet mentioned in the position note is available
> at http://www.peoplefirst.net.sb/General/PFnet.htm).







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Re: [GKD] RFI: Pico Hydro Power and ICT Deployments

[Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan]

I should have been a bit more specific. What I am trying to do is put
together a chapter on how pico hydro systems can be used to power
computers (or a network of computers) in rural areas. The idea is to
provide a practical, step-by-step guide that can be used by anyone to
set up a pico hydro system. This would include things like estimating
the power load caused by multiple types of computing systems (notebooks,
desktops, network of desktops etc), the amount of power needed for each,
the specific hardware infrastructure needed (regulators, batteries, load
controllers etc) that are needed for a pico hydro + computer set up etc.

If anybody can help me describe how to assemble a pico hydro set up,
that would be great!

Venky




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[GKD] RFI: Pico Hydro Power and ICT Deployments

[Venkatesh (Venky) Hariharan]

Has anyone on this list come across a deployment of ICT specifically
meant for powering computers in rural areas? I would be interested in
hearing about this.

Thanks,

Venky




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Re: [GKD] Non-profit Local Wireless Networks

[Venkatesh \(Venky\) Hariharan]

I am with Media Lab Asia (www.medialabasia.org) and we are exploring the
use of 802.11 technology for rural networks. However, we envisage these
as small village telcos that will be set up by rural entrepreneurs.
Decades of experience with Universal Service Obligation etc makes it
clear that the big telcos are not be interested in providing
telecommunications to rural markets. I recently met someone from
Malaysia who said that his country has around $300 million earmarked for
USO but there has been little progress till date. The story in India is
also the same.

A better alternative may be to follow the growth of cable networks in
India. Most cable networks in India were set up by small local
entrepreneurs. Since cable networks were unregulated, they grew at an
astonishing rate and soon outnumbered the number of telephone
connections in India! It may not be possible to replicate this success
in the telco sector which is far more regulated than the cable networks
in India but there is a good chance that local entrepreneurs would be
far more interested in providing telco services in rural areas than the
big telecom companies. This may be a win-win for everyone -- small
entrepreneurs, large telecos and national governments -- because these
village telcos may most likely operate their services under franchise
from a larger teleco, thus providing connectivty to the disconnected,
additional revenues to larger telecos and help governments fulfill their
USO dreams.

Another advantage of this "bottoms-up" approach is that it creates a lot
of employment opportunities in rural areas. The example of India's
Public Call Offices (PCOs) is another good example that comes to mind.
These manned PCOs created a lot of employment in rural areas and brought
telecommunications closer to the rural masses. These PCOs are also
popular in urban areas and the manner in which these yellow and black
signs have sprouted up all over India in the last ten years has been eye
opening.

I look forward to hearing from other members on this list on this
subject. I am particularly interested in hearing if others on this list
have tried to apply 802.11 technology for rural connectivity and their
experiences so far.

Venky
www.medialabasia.org




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