Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?
Edward, Would broadband imply a higher ROI? Not necessarily. The margins for rural service are always tight. Every incremental cost counts, including the cost of a basic payphone set. Rural ROI is highly dependent on willingness and ability to pay for services offered. Rural customers are very price sensitive. Where broadband has a real chance in rural areas is where it can best respond to price sensitivity for voice telephony - e.g. voice over IP... hence the importance of the regulatory environment... which can catalyse creative technical adaptations for the rural market if convergence applications are enabled and not blocked by regulation. Look at Ghana where ISPs or operators providing VOIP can get pretty hefty fines. Don Richardson Edward Malloy [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Don et al: Given the low cost and availability of new wireless access devices, plus the steady expansion (and underutilization) of the national backbone (often fiber) in many developing nations, is the real cost of extending voice and data telecom service to rural villages any higher for broadband than for narrow band? If as I suspect the cost differential is not all that much, wouldn't then broadband imply a higher return on investment. [I am assuming, of course an ideal regulatory environment described earlier (market liberalization, open investment climate, good regulation (that supports universal access).] 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?
Njideka, This is an interesting initiative and the notion of scanning handwritten letters is a nice innovation as it permits a more direct communication of content. It's not clear from your third point, 3) The youth agents will have a customized form they will use to document the message(s). .. if this means translating or transcribing. One goal I think would be to reduce or eliminate the need for translation (with the inevitable interpretation and transformation of content, however benign the intent). Another thing to keep in mind is that the language of the letters might also be by the sender's choice - not just limited in the case people haven't learned other languages - and indeed some people may wish to use more than one language in a single communication. Is it possible that the young people involved are or could be trained in transcribing the local languages of the area (presumably mainly Igbo, but others as well)? This brings up also the degree to which the computer center is able to facilitate composing of text (e-mail in this case) in languages other than English. I.e., if one wanted to send a letter in Igbo or another Nigerian language, how easy is that (or is scanning the best option they have?). Of course the receiving end has related issues (re utf-8 mail). Another possibility that would be interesting but would require a small investment (relative to the computer cost, but not to local income or perhaps your project budget), would be to find a way to use audio e-mail. There exists good software for this but it is not terribly popular in the Northern countries - might it be interesting to users whose cultures have stronger oral traditions? To make this work one would probably have to use something like a minidisk recorder to record messages in the villages to upload and send as e-mail attachments (.wav, .mp3). Altogether, the extent to which the young people's intermediary roles are for transmission of content without the need for transformation means less work for them and increased directness of the communication they are facilitating. As one might say in one of the languages of SE Nigeria: Jisie ike! Don Osborn Bisharat.net Njideka Ugwuegbu [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: 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. ..snip... 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. 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: I would say rather that the different technologies that are available are so different and so randomly effective it's impossible to say that either low-bandwidth or high-bandwidth is better. Maybe it is because we are thinking upside down? We should not first look at the technology, but the needs (not in technology, the social needs), then identify how ICT can help address them, then build meaningful ICT use strategies and implement them with what ever technology is available to answer that question. I believe all projects should be started like this from the needs, and build a sustainable capacity to manage ICT integration/appropriation. Whatever technology is used or available. And IMHO yes, every project, ICT4D project, is somehow unique, not necessarily scalable, as ICT is just one element in the complex development process equation. yacine 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?
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] 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?
Sorry for piping up without an intro, but I just returned from Uganda. There community radio stations offer an email service to rural listeners. Friends can email you care of the radio station and, at a designated time, the radio will alert everyone who has received an email. The charge for receiving an email in this way is approximately 5 cents. I was in Uganda creating a digital bookmobile, which would download public domain materials from the net, print and bind them into books and distribute them to rural schools and families. So a form of mediation, also? But you mention mediation by societal leaders - I'm not advocating that, just the use of humans as technical conduits to information for the benefit of massively nontechnical populations. - Richard Koman Program Director Anwhere Books www.anywherebooks.org Herman Wasserman 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?
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. 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?
Regarding Tony Roberts' reply to Simon Woodside: 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. This is a resonant tune and not only relevant in developing countries. In Canada, similar programs exist, including a Government subsidized program that has rolled out approximately 32,000 PC's to schools in the province of Ontario alone across a population of 5,500 schools. And, in addition, several for-profit organizations are doing very good work in this area so there is value in developed and developing countries. A pilot program is currently underway in this same region to test what is termed as a blended model. The rationale is that even urban schools with high speed Internet access use many of their computers in browser mode a significant percentage of the time. The model calls for 15% new, 65% mid life (24 to 42 months old) and 20% are over 42 months old. This allows for a natural cascading of technology rather than software compatibility-driven rollovers. To make this a more viable model, I reference a previous message where I briefly discussed the value of a remotely managed and metered content server (i.e. knowledge delivery engine). When connected to whatever local network is available, this provides reliable, network-speed access to cached applications and content, including educator-selected content (often by the Min of Ed in that country). If a network does not exist, then a simple, low-tech wireless network is set up. However, the key to this model is not the infrastructure, but rather the ability of teachers and students to interact with quality multi-modal learning resources in this low tech market. To finance this model in developing countries where local phones with dial-up capabilities, such as in a northern Canadian Aboriginal community, this Content Server also becomes the local ISP host. Affordable Internet access can fund the entire operational costs in this environment. Alternatively, in developing countries, Telecenters are the economic generator that supports local education and often the healthcare access, also. This does not dispute the necessity of having strong community leadership and the challenges of keeping quality staff and skills. Remote monitoring and management of the server environment, as well as, loading up Tony Roberts' refurbished P166+ PC's with Linux-on-the-desktop can increase the reliability and user experience. Now, the desktops and servers can be remotely managed via the Internet and satellite. This model is being implemented in Uganda, where the donation of 1 Content server and 40 P4 PC's for one school became a project for 41 schools (the PC's were upgraded with a 2nd disk drive) and refurbished PC's were donated as the classroom user devices. As in Canada, this provided immediate evidence of the power of mature PC's in technology-assisted teaching and learning where the content is locally available (and refreshed nightly) to bring learning alive and be a catalyst to life-long learning. For more information or a copy of White Papers that discuss this in more detail, contact me. Regards Bob Robert Miller EVP Global Inc. Direct: (416) 423-9100 Mobile: (416) 464-7525 Fax: (416) 696-9734 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] History teaches us that people and nations behave wisely, once they have exhausted all other alternatives Abba Eban 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?
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 Herman 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?
Since much of the Internet technology (laptops, telecentres etc) seems to be landline based, yet it is cellular telephony that is flourishing in many of the less developed countries, is there a 'disconnect' here that may be inhibiting the spread of the Internet to rural areas?...I just came back from Yemen where cellphones predominate, and coverage has been obtained over most of the country... so voice connections are now relatively normal even to remote rural districts...but Internet of course (notwithstanding the Arabic language issue) is largely confined just to cities... John Lawrence Don Richardson wrote: ..snip... The telephone is the most basic unit of telecommunications service. The policies and programs implemented in support of rural telephony services are a critical part of the supporting environment for other rural ICT initiatives. In most cases rural connectivity can best piggyback on or leverage infrastructure that is primarily intended to support rural telephony. Among rural populations, voice communications will usually be the most immediately useful and easily accessible service (application). ..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
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?
Hello, I'm happy to hear Stuart Gannes' voice on alternative means of connectivity. Stuart's Digital Vision program has been instrumental in, among many other activities, promoting the use of store-and-forward models as a way to deliver information services in advance of reliable connectivity. And as many others have said, the answer to the question How much bandwidth is necessary? is critically dependent on what your program is trying to accomplish. For closed systems of data exchange -- as opposed to open systems such as browsing the World Wide Web and accessing documents or media files -- low-cost, low-bandwidth solutions may be ideal. Jiva Institute's Teledoc project uses commercial, off-the-shelf mobile-telephone technologies to reduce costs and enable sustainable, enterprise-based healthcare to reach villages. Village-based field representatives exchange data with the central clinic using a mobile phone to access the Internet via a GPRS network. GPRS is widely available in India, with higher-bandwidth CDMA networks now being installed in the south. Custom applications written in Java 2.0 Micro-edition (J2ME) allow the phone to connect directly with a central database of patient records at the Jiva clinic. Field representatives are able to add new patients, review patient treatment histories, and describe symptoms in detail. The telephone interface has been designed to accommodate the phone's limited screen 'real estate' by providing field representatives with simple codes and sequential decision-support. At the central clinic, Jiva's expert Ayurvedic doctors analyze the data, and then prescribe medication and treatment. Medicines are compounded at a regional office, picked up by field workers, and delivered to patients in their homes-all for 70 rupees or US $1.50 per consultation. Access to healthcare in villages is extremely limited, and is one factor contributing to much higher morbidity rates in India's villages when compared to cities. Teledoc is currently in pilot tests in the state of Haryana, where Jiva is based, and is providing traditional, cost-effective Ayurvedic treatments in villages. Jiva has offered Ayurvedic care locally and internationally over the Internet (60+ patients per day) since 1995. However, we anticipate bundling other healthcare services into Teledoc as the project evolves. The combination of mobile telephones, GPRS, and J2ME results in an extremely low-cost solution. Network installation and maintenance costs are borne by the private sector. The ability to exchange data between villages and the central database combines with a solid business plan and pricing scheme, and with demonstrated demand in the villages to make the project highly scalable. Jiva's innovative, low-cost computing technology has just received the World Summit Award for eHealth for the World Summit on the Information Society. Regards to all, Edmond Gaible www.natomagroup.com | www.jiva.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
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?
The GKD 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? My name is Cecilia Matanga from Zimbabwe in Southern Africa. I couldn't agree more with what you guys are doing. I am actually glad I subscribed. I have followed the discussions on ICTs with a lot of interest but unfortunately for us here we can only dream of Telecenters. As much as I appreciate the benefits of Internet as a tool for information gathering and dissemination, we are still far from having access in the remote areas of Zimbabwe. We, at the organisation I work for, are actually trying to share the importance of the Internet as a resource through Cyber-Training workshops. Most Internet Cafes in Zimbabwe are in urban areas and even then do not have the social/community component. They are just managed, manned and owned by a few individuals for profit-making purposes. I, however, believe that sharing a single high-bandwidth connection offers a viable economic solution to a community's information needs but there is need for commitment from the recipients. They need to commit to sustenance of the projects thereafter. I have watched with a heavy heart as most projects fail to take off as soon as the donor withdraws from the forefront. A lot of training, awareness and issues of identification are necessary in the planning phase of the projects for recipients to realise the usefulness of the project. Thank you for your contributions. I have a vision of Africa where important information is just a click away. 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 Wednesday, November 12, 2003, Pam McLean wrote: 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. Pam, thanks for the insight. Satellite phones can definitely be used for internet connections. For many examples try this google search: http://www.google.com/search?q=%22satellite+phone%22+laptop There's no necessity to use a Solo computer for this ... all of the satellite phones that provide data will work with any laptop. There's definitely a difference between VSAT and satellite phone. A VSAT link is like a leased line ... it's a permanent connection to the internet that you lease by the month. For the period of the lease you may use it as often as you like, you can saturate the connection 100% of the time if you like, the price is fixed at a monthly rate. With satellite phone you're paying ... buy the minute. Probably a couple of dollars a minute. So, if your use is sporadic and for very short periods at a time, it may be cheaper than VSAT. That said, VSAT links are usually in the range of $100-$300 a month depending on where you are, that's for the slowest connections of VSAT which are still just as fast as the fastest satellite phone. Satellite phones max out at 144kbps but are more typically 9.6kbps, or 56kbps. 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. I hope you succeed, but I have to say I'm doubtful that the Solo computer will ultimately prove to be cheaper or better than a laptop. Keeping in mind that a local economy can develop around laptops too ... maybe not building but selling, servicing. And most of the world's laptops are built in just a few factories in Taiwan anyway ;-) 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?
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
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?
On Friday, November 7, 2003, at 08:26 AM, Cornelio Hopmann wrote: Hence: if the alternative is to connect many (and through-out the country) by low-bandwidth or a few with megabyte links, go for the first. The latter will come -almost by itself- as technology costs fall and demand increases. I would say rather that the different technologies that are available are so different and so randomly effective it's impossible to say that either low-bandwidth or high-bandwidth is better. Pragmatically, a more scatter-shot approach would have more likelihood of succeeding. Launch many projects with many technologies. Some will work, some won't. Learn from the failures and repeat the successes. Every time a new technology comes along give it a chance. 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. simon 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?
Wire Lunghabo James [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: However I would also like to add that many times when we talk of connectivity, we mean having probably a connection to either the internet directly or to the telcos etc. Has some one ever thought of creating a network of villages linked together probably through wireless technologies, enabling these rural folk to communicate with each other and exchange information without having to ride a bicycle for 20 kms. Eventually, this creates a mesh of villages interconnected and one high speed connection probably links to the ISP or Telco. I believe this kind of aggregation would prove cheaper and more meaningful for our societies. Why in the first case should you try and force a villager to communicate with someone in Europe when he still has problems communicating with his in-laws 10 kms away ? Wire you have said it all. Even with these wireless solutions it can turn out to be costly and prone to many problems taking the terrain and climate of Africa into account. We have been trying to connect our offices with HF radios on which we could transmit simple text messages. This is in Ghana. The equipment cost us about $4000 per site and there were about 5 sites. For the first year we could use the equipment effectively for voice communication and once a awhile with text messages. Due to poor after sales services in the 4th year we started encountering problems with servicing of the equipment which was draining our resources. So we virtually abandoned it and tried using the email through the national telcom channels. This is only available at the regional capitals and it was impossible for us to link with our remote field offices where most of our partners work. To provide better access to information to these remote locations we are considering using FM radio with a VSAT connection to the internet and lobbying with the governments to provide at least a few lines to this radio station to their major exchanges so we could share this link. Because of the high illiteracy rate of the population in question their direct interaction with the internet is going to be minimal but this can be done through the radio presenters who will take on the requests from the villagers, reasearch the issues over the internet and other sources and then broadcast the findings over the air with some resource persons to add some clarifications and make the local connections to the issues under discussion. I do believe WIFI and the other technologies need more research to adapt them to the conditions and income levels of the vast majority of the African population. 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?
1. Are high-bandwidth connections necessary, or even important, to making a real impact on development? Or are the costs and problems inherent in establishing such connectivity too high -- and unsustainable -- for underserved areas? 1. High bandwidth: I think enough to do Yahoo! mail or Hotmail is needed for a public service. Even slow web is really essential I think. I am speaking as someone who helped to run a large FIDOnet e-mail only node in Ethiopia in the early nineties and I regret that a lot of really clever and efficient stuff (Zmodem compression, least-cost routing etc) has been thrown out as we standardise on TCP/IP. But that's how it is these days. 2. Are there cases that demonstrate the value of low-bandwidth (e.g., store-and-forward email, packet radio) solutions to provide critical information access to under-served communities? How successful have they been? 2. I work in southern Sudan and there are many low bandwidth solutions in place, but they are not for public use. These include data (e-mail) over Mini-M phone, PTC-II HF radio, Codan HF modems, data over Thuraya, even BGAN or M4 satellite toys and others. All are painful either in cost or speed. But if you need it bad enough, and you have the money, you can do e-mail anywhere. None of these are used in a telecentre context. 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? 3. Telecentres: yes, of course they are all about sharing a connection. Breaking even on the $400-500 per month for a 64K VSAT bill is the challenge. 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? 4. Are there new protocols that make more efficient use of the bandwidth that is available? For example, what role can the newer wireless technologies (e.g. Wi-Fi, MESH networks) play in bringing sufficient connectivity to underserved communities? Are the costs and maintenance demands of these technologies sustainable? 4. Wireless: yes, it's potentially a good revenue stream for the telecentres. In theory, they can offer a business class service to fixed locations beyond the telecentre and charge a healthy monthly subscription without using up seats in the centre. If the client will pay enough, they can up their VSAT bandwidth. This is what we are looking into but high street Wi-Fi kit does not go far enough and expertise in souped-up Wi-Fi is limited. Ben Parker 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?
I would like to throw in my 20 ounces of salt ... and support Pam McLean. Stories from my life: When changing the German National Research Center for Computing in 1985 for the Engineering University of Nicaragua I felt like I was transported to the moon - dark side. Whereas in Germany I had already access to uunet and email, a simple letter exchange from Nicaragua back to Germany required 3-6 weeks. Therefore I was extremely happy when I succeded in 1988 to connect by long distance phone calls (Nicaragua--Vermont) 3 times a day Nicaragua as Blue Internet Node (.ni) to UUNET...Suddenly affordable turn around time was 48 hours -instead of 3 weeks- and more over the usenet Newsgroups provided an excellent mechanism for getting help from technical communities and their volunteers. (all by phone-calls and compressed email transfer). In 1994 we went online as a country (!!) sharing with Costa Rica a 64K link (!) to the IX in Miami. Again a substantial change as from there on we had not to pay for connection time -as in the phone-times- but rather the limit of what is transferable was defined by mean time between failure ie. it was possible to send everything (or to get everything) if only the transmision-time did not exceed a couple of hours. We even had software to schedule up/down-loads to low-traffic hours during the night. (In that respect: there are hundreds of proven solutions still around from those times where Usenet was a Dial-Up connected Network, yet covering the whole globe with already hundreds of thousands of users and hundreds of nodes. Many of those are still shipped as unknown parts of FreeBSD or Linux with BSD compatible solutions, such that there is no need to re-invent the wheel. These include Batched Mail-transfer not the extremely resource intensive SMTP peer-to-peer email. Scheduled transfers, the whole usenet-news mechanism with decentralized multi-origin feeds yet locally made consistent etc. etc. etc.) Obviously today with a Cablemodem at my homeoffice -still in Nicaragua- and effective 8-9 KB/s it's nice to chat with my son using WEB-cam (He is on a 7 month visit to Germany). Likewise downloading 20 MB in minutes facilitates ... but it's only a gradual change compared with the jumps before. Concluding Remarks: If WiFi and other Broadband Technologies cut connection costs substantially, they may be extremely useful. However I suspect -except true Broadband online comunication- that in 99% of the cases a mix between distributing bulk information using DVD/RW as media and combining it with a low-bandwidth connection will solve the problem. (As an example: communication of medical information from remote places can be split into burning lots of Info onto an DVD/RW and have it shipped by what ever means are available combined with text-chat with the counseling central hospital once the DVD arrived there. Assume you get 3.6 GB of information this way in 12 hours to the hospital, it would need almost 9 hours to send the same content through a 1 Megabit/second direct connection). Likewise 99% of eLearning-materials can be shipped as DVD/RW -as it does not change day by day- and then locally combined with either character-email or character-chat. Hence: if the alternative is to connect many (and through-out the country) by low-bandwidth or a few with megabyte links, go for the first. The latter will come -almost by itself- as technology costs fall and demand increases. Yours Cornelio 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?
My name is Sandra Roberts, I work with a project designed to support ICT initiatives in the SADC (Southern African Development community) region. We are represented currently in 12 of the 13 countries in SADC and have nodal points in Tanzania, Zambia and South Africa. Recently we conducted research on telecentres in SADC. Here are my answers to the questions. KEY QUESTIONS: 1. Are high-bandwidth connections necessary, or even important, to making a real impact on development? Or are the costs and problems inherent in establishing such connectivity too high -- and unsustainable -- for underserved areas? Connectivity costs in Africa are too high, whether it is in urban or underserved rural areas. High bandwidth connections largely a dream in many areas. Also importantly there is not enough support for individual telecentres who are often in very isolated areas. 2. Are there cases that demonstrate the value of low-bandwidth (e.g., store-and-forward email, packet radio) solutions to provide critical information access to under-served communities? How successful have they been? 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? Telecentres and community multimedia centres have not fared very well in Africa, this is due, in part to exorbitant connection costs, but also because they need dynamic leadership. Management and technological skills, yes, but leadership which is adaptive to the various conditions which a telecentre/ CMC will face during its lifespan. Unfortunately practical barriers include high staff turn over - people with the skills to run telecentres could get relatively high paying jobs elsewhere, and have more security than telecentres can offer. The practical reality is that many telecentres are donor dependent and have no plans to become self sustaining, or possibly have plans and haven't implemented them. So, yes, they can, but practically they often don't. 4. Are there new protocols that make more efficient use of the bandwidth that is available? For example, what role can the newer wireless technologies (e.g. Wi-Fi, MESH networks) play in bringing sufficient connectivity to underserved communities? Are the costs and maintenance demands of these technologies sustainable? New technologies require new skills sets and new support mechanisms. They should be adopted, but possibly not immediately as soon as the technologies are available. I think universities should be key in experimenting with new technologies and slowly developing plans for incorporation into their countries. Please look at our site, it will be launched on the 17 November 2003. www.cinsa.info Sandra Roberts Research and Information Coordinator CINSA Project SANGONeT Tel: 27 11 838 6943/4 Fax: 27 11 492 1058 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Website: www.cinsa.info; www.sangonet.org.za 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?
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 come to you via a wireless setup... Mark Lediard 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
Re: [GKD-DOTCOM] How Much Bandwidth is Necessary?
Mr. James, Regarding your last question about linking villages via wireless, you may want to check in with the Jhai Foundation. They have been creating WiFi networks to link villages with each other and the internet in Laos. The project website is: http://www.jhaifoundation.org/jhai_remoteIT.html Regards, Matt Wire Lunghabo James wrote: However I would also like to add that many times when we talk of connectivity, we mean having probably a connection to either the internet directly or to the telcos etc. Has some one ever thought of creating a network of villages linked together probably through wireless technologies, enabling these rural folk to communicate with each other and exchange information without having to ride a bicycle for 20 kms. Eventually, this creates a mesh of villages interconnected and one high speed connection probably links to the ISP or Telco. I believe this kind of aggregation would prove cheaper and more meaningful for our societies. Why in the first case should you try and force a villager to communicate with some one in Europe when he still has problems communicating with his in-laws 10 kms away ? 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?
Hi List, I will attempt to provide my views on the questions posed: 1. Are high-bandwidth connections necessary, or even important, to making a real impact on development? Or are the costs and problems inherent in establishing such connectivity too high -- and unsustainable -- for underserved areas? High bandwidth connections are not a pre-requisite to impact on development. In a country like Uganda where I happen to come from, one of the biggest prohibiting factors to dev't is information. So many citizens fail to take advantage of possible opportunities, corruption is exacerbated (since officials rely on our ignorance), delivery of public services is hindered etc. The kind of information I am talking about can always be relayed even on the slowest links possible coz its all about the content (even though its text based). The issue of high speed connections in my view comes in after the society has been exposed to the bottomline and thereafter, when they realise the need for more information and complexity in delivery, usually these folk can even contribute towards the sustenance of the improved system. 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? Community access centres are the way to go. In many third world countries, there is little chance to find individual ownership of all sorts of ICTs. Even mobile phones, I always come across scenarios in rural Uganda where 2 or 3 people own phones and are forced to offer public commercial calling services as a result of need. Tele Centres create an agregation of ICTs and enable the general public access them at a nominal fee and yet benefit from the advantages that they have to offer. I have also learnt that because a number of rural folk are not exactly financially liquid, it would be good for one to explore the possibility of accepting payment for services using alternative methods e.g farmer X brings a heifer to the telecentre, valued at an amount xyz and getting the service for the equivalent. However I would also like to add that many times when we talk of connectivity, we mean having probably a connection to either the internet directly or to the telcos etc. Has some one ever thought of creating a network of villages linked together probably through wireless technologies, enabling these rural folk to communicate with each other and exchange information without having to ride a bicycle for 20 kms. Eventually, this creates a mesh of villages interconnected and one high speed connection probably links to the ISP or Telco. I believe this kind of aggregation would prove cheaper and more meaningful for our societies. Why int he first case should you try and force a villager to communicate with some one in Europe when he still has problems communicating with his in-laws 10 kms away ? Just my thoughts regards -- Wire Lunghabo James M.D Linux Solutions / Data Networks Uganda Limited Kagga Hse Plot 2 Bandali Close, Bugolobi P.O.Box 26192 Kampala Off: 256 41 505033 / 256 31 263033 Cell: 256 71 726609 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
