Re: [GKD] Should Developed Countries Subsidize the Internet for LDCs?
I enjoyed reading your post, Peter, as my organization, Youth for Technology Foundation, is currently exploring some of these possibilities. The shared bandwidth problem is never as easy as it sounds to implement. In Nigeria, this is the so-called revenue generating model of several cybercafes - rural or urban. The problem, though, is that the primary subscribers of the VSAT oversubscribe their service out to other neighboring subscribers (other internet cafe's, businesses etc). At the end of the day, the service of secondary subscribers is incredibly bad, but the primary subscriber gets the revenue at the end of the month regardless of the service quality. Njideka Ugwuegbu Harry Founder/Executive Director Youth for Technology Foundation email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] phone/U.S: 425-681-3920 phone/Nigeria: 8038665843 web: http://www.youthfortechnology.org On Thursday, January 6, 2005, Peter Baldwin wrote: We are working with exactly the model that Jeff Buderer described: a central VSAT, with the connection shared by many through a local wireless network. We have found that it is economically feasible on paper at least, and are in the process of rolling out such systems in several locations in Mali. The relevant constraint is how to share the bandwidth with enough people (meaning, efficiently) to make it affordable for each one without completely bogging down transfer speeds. (It is a classic maximization problem: maximize number of subscribers, subject to a bandwidth constraint.) ..snip... ***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/
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?
I am a Digital Vision Fellow at Stanford and the focus of my work is to develop a rural messaging service that will give villagers a voice to the world. What I am proposing is a youth-led process to help villagers that don't use computers or the Internet, but want to communicate with their loved ones outside the village (in other towns or even in the Diaspora). The process will begin at the Owerri Digital Village, a community technology and learning center in eastern Nigeria. For an easier read, the steps in the process are summarized in numerical form below: 1) Villages and families will be identified. Each family will have their own email account at the center. 2) Youth agents will be trained to go out into these communities on a given schedule to take communication from these families for their relatives living outside the village. 3) The youth agents will have a customized form they will use to document the message(s). 4) In some instances if the locals speak and write only the local language and have chosen to write their own letter, the youth agent will take the handwritten letter. 5) On returning to the Owerri Digital Village, the youth agent will type up the letter or scan the letter (depending on which option was performed - 3 or 4). 6) The letter will be sent via email to the recipient and an e-post log will be completed by the youth agent. 7) When and if a response is received, the youth agent will then return to the family with the message... The cycle continues. What the program hopes to achieve is the promotion and empowerment of marginalized youth through ICT skills training for creation of socially responsible citizens, access to computers and most of all the satisfaction of doing something that the community places a significant value on. There are several other process related issues that are involved with this project including how we deal with confidentiality, what nominal price to charge and who (the local villager, their family member in the Diaspora or both), how to minimize the length of communication (with attachments, especially if we are using a BGAN where the cost is dependent on amount of data transmitted)... etc, etc. I'd be excited if there are others on this list who may be interested in working with me on the project team, or if there are any other global examples to share as we move forward with this project. Please let me know. Best, -- Njideka Ugwuegbu Reuters Digital Vision Fellow Stanford University http://reuters.stanford.edu/ Founder, Youth for Technology Foundation http://www.youthfortechnology.org (425) 681-3920 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. 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?
Mark Lediard [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Here is a bandwidth sharing option I have been thinking about. I plan to deploy this in Indonesia soon. The idea is to get a business, (perhaps a bank?) that has some bandwidth in a district setting, to share its bandwidth with a health center through a wireless access point placed somewhere near the health facility. If a local business is willing to share bandwidth with a health facility, the base costs of a router and wireless access point to enable that are around 125 Euros. Security software and routines exists to make sure that no one at the health center can hack the host. Then, in pleasant and practical public-private collaboration, the health entity that gets to connect wirelessly via the on-all-the-time connection at no extra charge to the host, can have free bandwidth to use for their ICT needs. This gives a local business an easy and low-cost way to act in a way that is socially responsible. There may also be a way for the health unit to recover some costs by charging some fees for offering VOIP (Voice over internet protocol) services such as the use of SKYPE or www.net2phone for contact. Think about how you might apply such a voluntary Robin Hood scheme. It's technically feasible. I have done it already on a small scale. In fact, this note comes to you via a wireless setup... Mark, interesting scheme. The most challenging part, I think, will be convincing the bank that sharing their bandwidth with a local health center will be a socially responsible thing to do, especially if they are aware that the health center will then turn around and use their new connected state to make money. I think even the banks will want to set up a monthly payment plan with the health center where the center pays for their bandwidth usage - even a nominal fee. Njideka Ugwuegbu Reuters Digital Vision Fellow Stanford University http://reuters.stanford.edu/ http://www.youthfortechnology.org 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
