Very good. I'll have to take some time to reply, because I am in the middle of moving from California to Indiana.
On Mon, Nov 30, 2009 at 17:46, simonfj <simo...@cols.com.au> wrote: > >> My group, Earth Treasury, is on it. The absolute minimum requirement >> to run computers appropriately is electricity and Internet. We have a >> wide range of renewable power technologies, including solar, wind, >> water, biofuels, animal power and child power. The hand crank on the >> prototype OLPC XO was removed after Kofi Annan broke one off in a >> demo, but it was becoming clear that hand cranking was inefficient, >> and that it was necessary to be able to use any available power >> source. So users can charge XOs from anything that will charge a >> 12-Volt car battery. >> >> WiMax is the most promising broadband technology for general use, with >> an installed cost of $10 per person in whole countries, for better >> than 90% coverage. On the other hand, the XO has built-in mesh >> networking, with a range comparable to WiMax. It is necessary also to >> consider fiber optic landing points into countries, and the >> distribution system from there. Although the very first cable to >> Africa was put in only a few years ago, there are now numerious fiber >> optics projects springing up, including undersea cables, links >> overland to land-locked countries, and countries making deals with >> international companies for building up a grid to link all cities and >> towns. Plans to extend this network to villages are taking shape in >> some countries, often using point-to-point wireless technology. >> >> It would be helpful if someone would undertake to create a >> co-ordinated and funded research plan to determine the best >> combinations of available technologies for every inhabited terrain and >> climate, out to the poorest and remote villages, considering both >> available financial resources and new economic possibilities. > > Thanks Edward, > > I did mean to write to you but got hang up on reading what yu where up > to. > I take it you do mean researching this on a country by country basis. > It does happen quite consistantly, (probably) as yu know through a > whole range of similar groups in may institutions; from the world bank > (who have just funded India to take a big leap forward) to > http://www.ubuntunet.net/vision_mission (who have huge cultural > differences to address). >> >> We propose to tie all of this together with microfinance: electricity, >> Internet, education, jobs and new businesses. Preliminary study >> indicates that it should be possible to do all of this at a profit, if >> countries themselves can fund the basic education functions. In many >> countries this should be straightforward, given that XOs already cost >> less than printed textbooks in many places, and we can recruit >> translators locally. >> >> The remaining gap in the plan is then to create the digital >> replacements for textbooks in every subject for every grade level. >> Given the potential savings, it should be possible to get governments >> to fund creation of these materials for free distribution. > > If humans where logical animals and technology was all that stood in > our way, yes. > But this is a continuum, with all sorts of beliefs and value systems > which need to adapt. The primary one being, I'm a teaching > institution; if you study hard yo can have a piece of paper which will > get you a job. To give you some idea of how out of kilter this is; I'm > reading in the local Manailan paper that 200,000 trainee nurses will > graduate this year. There are a maximum of 10,000 positions > available. > >> >> To make this plan a reality requires finding the people and resources >> to do it. I hope that the possibility of employment in creating a new >> generation of digital teaching materials, superior in every way to >> books, would interest some here, and that we can network to find >> others to take part. >> >> For example, do we have anybody interested in creating materials to >> teach village power engineering and finance, and village wireless? Do >> we have anybody with access to grant writers? The US Dept, of >> Education wants to hand out $44 billion in stimulus money for projects >> in educational innovation. Politicians often have staffers available >> to help navigate the bureaucracy. I have started that conversation, >> and will have much more to say about it after I get settled in in my >> new home in Indiana. > > It's been a while since i looked at what engineers without borders > were doing. The grant writing one is one worth considering. Many of > the technical projects fall over beacuse few take the longer term view > of working through where an NREN (or a regional) RREN aims to be, and > when. Another cutural challenge (in the developing world) is, we have > this problem that the NRENs don't consider that they can be marketing > arms of commercial carriers. Most of the developing NREN tend to be > fairly thin islands surrounded by fatter commercial (mainly wireless) > carriers. The last mile problem is common. > > I think the concept of using a commercial carrier as exponents of > 'what is possible', and trading their (in kind) donations for > exposure (advertsing/promotion) in running events = streaming back to > the local NREN, and perhaps through to a local broadcast station = is > natural if we can get unis to think like media sales people. I've > noticed some events cropping up call TEDex ( a local take off of > TED.com) which is close to the idea. To be clear; preginet have (just) > enough capacity to stream out, but they have no decent connections at > the event sites. They will be talking to Sprint and Globe about this > (i hope). > >> >> > I've >> > set myself up an impossible enough task by attempting to get the >> > content creators, many of whom are OERers, and the infrastructure >> > guys, to collaborate. Or at least gain some understanding of what each >> > community is doing. Their ends do coincide, if not their language and >> > agendas. >> >> We should share resources. > Thanks. I'm interested in getting people from similar global groups > talking, using the fatter real time tools like the accessgrid to break > the ice. Most of the technical stuff is falrly simple for the NRENs. > The main thing which is required are people who can run an event like > my friend Pia. This approach worked well in the gov.au space. Maybe > you'd consider a series of thes kinds of events as an Innovation in > teaching. > http://www.katelundy.com.au/2009/07/24/public-sphere-3-australian-ict-creative-industries-development/ >> >> > Most of the global infrastructure developments in the edu/research/gov >> > domains can be seen through this euro centric >> > portal.http://global.dante.net/ >> >> Another important source is WiserEarth.org. >> > Thanks. I should be clear about my intentions here. You'll notice that > Dante is JUST about the technical aspects of networks funded by the > EC. There are others like Gloriad (us-russia). These guys don't even > consider the social networks, or even content as a collaborative > thing. They are engineers not media people. So let's be clear that I'm > talking cheese and you're talking to chalk. And we need to bridge the > agendas of each community. Better still we need to encourage their > groups to the collaborate on their strategies. >> >> > So far as the language in this technical space is concerned, the main >> > language revolves around what is called "Middleware"; the software >> > layer that helps apps talk to one another and sits above different >> > operating systems. The apps are what content creators just want access >> > to. We need a user name & password, usually issued by single >> > institution to their version of an app and content = duplicate ad >> > infinatum. This is something the OER Foundation is addressing >> > fundamentally. >> >> > At the moment, throughout the (mainly developed) world, there is a >> > push on by all NREN to create federations. Rather than going into >> > great detail, let me just point you at this Aussie initiative. Take >> > for granted with a bit of work i could point at a similar initiative >> > in your country.http://www.aaf.edu.au/index.php/services/ >> >> > Long story short, we are getting to the point whare the NREN are >> > reconfiguring to support global groups (taskforces/ committees) rather >> > than national institutions. All the groups tend to be subject specific >> > in their interests and the bandwidth, apps - in short, the 'network >> > services' - which their global community will want to use. The >> > middleware guys in each NREN understand that the only way they can >> > satisfy these disparate needs is to try and talk to each community, >> > which is a bit like herding cats on a global basis = impossible >> >> I have some experience in herding cats. The secret is to convince them >> that where you want them to go is where they wanted to go in the first >> place, and it has nothing to do with you. This requires good >> listening, questioning, and translating skills, among other things. > > OK >> >> > So we have a catch 22. Communities like wikipedia and wikiedicator. >> > i.e. passionate people who prefer to use one tool to produce open >> > content often duplicate wonderful stuff in their attempts to acheive >> > their related visions. Rarely do they have an opportunity to >> > contemplate what other ICT services may be identified which could be >> > shared between communities. (I noticed the Connexions Google group as >> > another duplication) Meanwhile, the Middleware guys who must allocate >> > resources, and try and figure out what service may be demanded and >> > when, are simply bamboozled. >> >> There is no way to avoid substantial duplication of effort in >> currently unconnected islands. Better connections will necessarily >> arise, and most islands will join in. But compare this with the >> mindless duplication of effort that we get by assinging the same >> homework from the same book to every child of a certain age in a >> school system. We can actually have schoolchildren work on some of our >> local and global necessities, as part of their studies of particular >> subject matter and of languages. Children can collect data in >> otherwise inaccessible places for aggregation, analysis, mapping, and >> sharing with the community. There are many other such opportunities. >> >> >> >> > OK. That the rave. I'm sorry for it. I'm sitting in Manila after >> > talking to their preginet, after taking for years with the likes of >> > aarnet, karen, internet2 (do a google search on NREN if yu want the >> > list), and it seems like the right time and place to start looking at >> > this. Let me bring it down to something concrete. If you're in the >> > APac region, this is the hub of the geekly get together. >> >http://www.apan.net/meetings/Sydney2010/schedule.php >> > My interest is in the e-culture thread, cause the WP community has it, >> > and APAN members have a clue but no experience of it. >> >> > I'll be be talking to terena's taskforces who look at this convergence >> > and be pushing to have a VC link up between Euro sites and Sydney. It >> > would be great if we could get the ice broken here to run, not just >> > for a singular event, but a series of get togethers which might help >> > welcome a few nearsiders to the e-culture fold, and give us an >> > opportunity to see which basic tools (services) many global OER >> > communities could share. >> >> I will be fascinated to hear what you can come up with, and I can >> recommend a number of groups to bring into the discussion, many of >> them listed in the EarthTreasury Web site under Replacing Textbooks. > > Than you edward. Let's hasten slowly. > I don't know if this may be of interest to you. It's an outline of the > Dutch National Strategy to do this; next year ( I believe). > http://openedconference.org/archives/1069 > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google > Groups "WikiEducator" group. > To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org > To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator > To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com -- Edward Mokurai (默雷/धर्ममेघशब्दगर्ज/دھرممیگھشبدگر ج) Cherlin Silent Thunder is my name, and Children are my nation. The Cosmos is my dwelling place, the Truth my destination. http://www.earthtreasury.org/ -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "WikiEducator" group. To visit wikieducator: http://www.wikieducator.org To visit the discussion forum: http://groups.google.com/group/wikieducator To post to this group, send email to wikieducator@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to wikieducator-unsubscr...@googlegroups.com
