I have been addressing "marginal Internet access" for quite some time as our laboratory Minciu Sodas http://www.ms.lt has a lot of activity in Africa and around the world. Jeff Buderer and Asif Daya are active at our lab, too.
Recently, I have explored the idea of working with manufacturers to make a device for viewing and editing text files on one's flash drive, and sharing files with another flash drive. This would allow one to work for dozens of hours for every hour spent at an Internet cafe. Also, as I write below, such devices might prove very helpful in sharing the knowledge that is needed for rolling out local wireless networks. I share my letter and I invite response and also all are welcome at our chat Thursday, August 23, 2007, 2:30 pm London time at http://www.worknets.org/chat/ Andrius Andrius Kulikauskas Minciu Sodas http://www.ms.lt [EMAIL PROTECTED] +370 699 30003 Vilnius, Lithuania ----------------------------------------------- I invite us to our chat this Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 4:30 pm Nairobi time, 2:30 pm London, 9:30 am New York at our chat room at http://www.worknets.org/chat/ Perhaps somebody can help us connect with manufacturers who would like to make a "flash drive editor"? Andrius Kulikauskas ------------------------------------------- Our Minciu Sodas online laboratory http://www.ms.lt reaches out to serve and include a wide variety of independent thinkers. We have a lot of activity in Africa where our participants have only marginal Internet access. We are exploring solutions that would allow them to leverage online work with offline work. I believe that we also have a great business opportunity to work with a manufacturer who would appreciate their basic need to view, edit and share the files on their flash drives. I share my thoughts about the potential of a "flash drive editor". --------------------------------------------------- Invitation to chat this Thursday Our needs in Africa Proposed solution - flash drive editor Related products - Palm Foleo, AlphaSmart Neo Partnerships, Manufacturers, Funders ----------------------------------------------------- I invite us to chat about meeting the computer needs of our African participants by our earning, financing, donating, assembling or manufacturing computers or alternate devices. We start at the usual time on Thursday, August 23, 2007 at 4:30 pm Nairobi time, 2:30 pm London, 9:30 am New York at our chat room at http://www.worknets.org/chat/ I hope that Josephat Ndibalema of Tanzania and Samwel Kongere of Kenya might lead this chat with me. (Samwel can come only one hour later). We may also have some synergy with Asif Daya's Trainerspod Webinar on cross-discipline communication which starts at 10:30 am New York. http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?TodaysMeeting In Africa, we have participants like Samwel Kongere who walk 5 miles or ride even further so they might access the Internet. They may pay $1 per hour at an Internet cafe for slow access. Yet they benefit significantly from participating in our email working groups. Their relationships have lead to several thousands of dollars of work, computers, video cameras, digital cameras, visitors, travel in Africa and now to Europe. Our laboratory has gained clients for worldwide projects. Many people benefit locally. Samwel is now leading a center with 15 computers where these next three years they will train 3,000 women to use computers and start businesses. ------------------------------------------- Proposed solution - Flash Drive Editor ------------------------------------------- In 2003, our laboratory addressed the problem of marginal Internet access by proposing to adapt our social software (letters, wikis, chats) so that participants might download our activity once a week, read it offline with a computer at home, and then upload their responses. http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Offline I have started creating some of this software, for example, we can download our chat transcripts: http://www.worknets.org/archive/ and I will make it easy to download on our letters and wiki. However, in Africa, many of our participants still do not have computers of their own that they can use for free. Used desktop computers can start at $180 and used laptop computers at $300. We have considered how to lower these costs by assembling computers from local and global parts. However, I am realizing that the functionality that we need might be very easy for a manufacturer to meet and good for business as well. I think we might find a manufacturer we might work for to develop this opportunity. What I think our participants need is primarily a way to work offline with our community's activity, but especially, with email and text files. They are using flash drives which we sent them (here in Lithuania we can now buy flash drives for less than $10 and in China they are less than $5 whereas in Tanzania they start at $30). What they need now is: 1) A flat monochrome text display that would let them read the content of the files on their flash drive. They could then do much of their reading offline. 2) A port to plug in a standard computer keyboard (they cost $10 USD). They could then compose their letters offline, as well as edit texts, enter data and do knowledge work. 3) 4 AA batteries to power this for 100 hours or more. If you have two sets of rechargeable batteries (a four pack is 12 USD), then one set might be recharged using a solar Battery charger for 20 USD. An adapter is then unnecessary. 4) 4 USB ports so that they could share files between two flash drives (imagine an offline file sharing network!) and so they could also add other modules, such as: 5) an optional module, connected to the USB port, that would provide wireless connectivity so that one might set up a local wireless network for local communications, and send SMS, email, attached files locally, even if yet there is no link to the global Internet. The point here is to focus on the very real needs of our participants. If we can meet them in a reliable, affordable way, then the ability to read and write text files, and share and send all files, makes for a vibrant local knowledge community. I chatted with Josephat and he agrees that the limited feature set is a good thing in Africa. He notes especially that only 8% of Tanzanians have electricity. This means that a device (like the AlphaSmart Neo word processor) which can go for 200 hours without recharging may be worth more than an old laptop which likely needs to be kept plugged into a power grid. It also seems to make sense to use readily available components wherever possible (such as $10 flash drives or $10 keyboards or $3 rechargable AA batteries) then to integrate special components. (Note that a laptop battery may cost $100 and an adapter may cost $70 and they may need to be purchased with a credit card and shipped globally!). By using readily available components like a standard keyboard it is possible to share parts, buy them separately, and have several of them so that you don't have to lug them around. The kind of display that we need for text might be the 5.7" monochrome 320 x 640 Wincor-Nixdorf customer display that is part of their cash registers. (See links at http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?WordProcessor). This is I think comparable to the original Macintosh 9" 512 x 342 display. Or consider the new technology by ZBD Displays http://www.zbddisplays.com that uses power only when it's content is being changed and is targeted for supermarkets to display product information. How much might such displays cost? And how difficult is it to create a text editor for such a display? Note that they all come with some way to edit their contents. The software for the text editor could perhaps be kept on the flash drive along with the contents. Perhaps it might be kept on a separate flash drive. A total price of $200 would make this an attractive solution. Given $20 for 2 flash drives, $10 for keyboard, $50 for rechargeable batteries, that would leave $120 for such a display plus ports. But I think the price of the display could easily go down to $50 and ultimately $20. The modularity would make this extremely practical as parts could be replaced or shared. For an additional $200 it would be very attractive to link through the USB a wireless access point that could reach 1 kilometer or so. I think there is great value to being able to send signals locally and not walk that kilometer. Indeed, I imagine there is greater business value in local communications than in global communications. Sending SMS, email, attached files is I think a good first application for unreliable local wireless networks. The flash drive editors would help Samwel and others to accumulate the content and maintain the regular communications which would allow them to take up knowledge-intensive tasks such as rolling out a local wireless network, assembling computers, customizing software and paving the way for Skype phones as Accton is producing. The flash drive editor allows a company to develop markets that nobody can otherwise because they are too remote. The flash drive editor may open up an explosive "offline file sharing" with simple routines that let people quickly fill up their flash drives with each other's favorite files. -------------------------------------------------- Related products -------------------------------------------------- There are several products that are similar to what we want, but not quite... see: http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?WordProcessor You may think of the One Laptop Per Child http://laptop.org which is striving for a 100 USD laptop. Yet the current price will be 175 USD and that's if you buy a million of them. And it is designed for children whereas I want to serve literate adults! However, thanks to the OLPC wiki, I was excited to learn of the AlphaSmart word processors. http://www.alphasmart.com These look like keyboards that include long displays at the top to view six or more lines of text. They are used primarily to encourage writing in schools and also by writers who are working on their first drafts. They have a nice group of enthusiasts who like them because of their long battery life (the 3 AA batteries last for 200 hours) and the lack of distractions (so they can focus on writing!) and they have large keyboards and are very durable. The Neo is $220 and the Dana, which is wi-fi enabled, is $430. And there are used AlphaSmarts available at eBay for $50 and up. However, they don't write to flash drives, which means instead you have to take them with you and use the USB cable and load their software on the computer you use. The Dana does write to Secure Digital cards and Multimedia cards. I look forward to connecting with the makers and their community. Jeff Hawkins, inventor of the Palm, has similar thoughts about the new Foleo, not yet available, 499 USD, which looks like a small notebook but is meant as a device for overcoming the limitations of a smartphone: http://www.palm.com/us/products/mobilecompanion/foleo/ "The concept of this product is five years old... it became clear the smartphone wasn't going to fill that role. It has a keyboard, nice display, except there's a problem. You need a full size screen and keyboard. .... When you want to introduce a new platform, a new product category, you have to find someone who really wants it, and it grows beyond that. The thing we focused initially on is that email experience. Talking about battery life... it's similar to a cellphone usage model. ... People always focus on the fastest processor... like a game machine. But its simpler, it's more fun to use. This is a fun product to use, you just like using it." http://www.engadget.com/2007/05/30/palms-jeff-hawkins-live-from-d-2007/ Note the many negative comments, but they are mainly driven by price: "Maybe now someone will see the opportunity for a display/imput accessory that's under $200." Coby manufactures several very inexpensive products that can be purchased through Amazon and offer a slightly different set of functionality but show what could be done: * Coby TF-DVD7377 7" DivX Compatible Portable DVD Player plays digital audio, video, photos including from USB drives and SD/MMC cards. Digital and Analog AV outputs. 125 USD. * Coby DP772 7-Inch Widescreen Digital Photo Frame with MP3 Player 5.6 inch for 71 USD DP-562 TFT LCD @ 320 x 234, 7 inch for 76 USD, 8 inch for 108 USD. Displays JPEG and BMP image files. Plays MP3 and WMA audio files and most MP4 and AVI files from digital cameras. A/V output for use with home theater systems; integrated stereo speakers. SD, MMC, xD and CF Card compatible; USB port for fast file transfers. * Coby CX-TV1 Black White Television with AM/FM tuner for 15 USD. ----------------------------------------------- Partnerships ---------------------------------------------- My thought now is to find partners who would like to make this happen. I'm working with our participants to meet our own needs by: * developing our web interfaces (letters, wikis, chat) so that our activity can be easily downloaded and make sure that is indeed useful * encouraging entrepreneurship by shipping flash drives to Africa for resale * putting together 100 MB of content to publish on those flash drives to make them more attractive for sale, especially because we will be selling the smaller flash drives * making sure everybody has a computer, helping them earn them * learning and thinking through how best to assemble computers and set up wireless networks Italy is a center for the world's "trashware", which is making good use of old computers. I will be there for at least a week after September 27 so I hope to engage them and learn what can be done. I hope they might help to see what we can do with used AlphaSmarts or with old computer monitors and so on. Also, thanks to our participation in Communia, we will be able to invite our African participants to Europe next year and I hope that we can help them get training in trashware and wireless. I am glad that Maria Agnese Giraudo is excited to help us make these connections. I will be engaging manufacturers who we might work with, or especially, work for to develop these opportunities. I am especially interested that we might work for One Village Foundation founder Joy Tang who is at Accton http://www.accton.com and is interested that they serve emerging markets. More broadly, I am seeing that there is a wider community that we might involve, especially around AlphaSmart and OLPC. I invite all who are interested to join Samwel's group Mendenyo http://groups.yahoo.com/group/mendenyo/ at our lab which is where we'll focus our work, send a blank message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] There are also various sources of funding. Thank you to Pamela Maclean for alerting us to the MacArthur Foundation and HASTAC Innovation Awards http://charitychannel.com/publish/templates/?a=14249&z=26 where we will apply for a $100,000 grant. Also, the European Union program EUREKA fund 50% or more of research costs and I think there's a reasonable chance for that here. We need to find partners in other European countries so I'm looking perhaps for a trashware company in Italy, Denmark or elsewhere that might help us do hardware research and also a manufacturer like ZBD Displays or Siemens which I think makes the Wincor-Nixdorf customer displays, or Ricoh Europe as Greg Wolff works for Ricoh Innovations. I'm also writing a proposal to Lithuania's foreign ministry for 20,000 USD to work for three months next year in the Ghor province of Afghanistan on organizing independent thinkers and overcoming marginal Internet access. Our lab's largest project to date was My Food Story http://www.myfoodstory.info for Greg Wolff of Unamesa Association. I realized that Unamesa Association http://www.unamesa.org might play a key role here potentially as a holder of any patents that might arise in our research so that they are part of our commons. Also, Greg and I are discussing how people might help finance our colleagues in Africa so they could buy computers or other devices and then pay them back as they get related work. Greg offered to loan $1,000 for this purpose if we might match it with another $1,000, if he might earn 15% in one year, and we might try to work with TiddlyWiki and SharedRecords technologies that are relevant for us here, and we could cover any defaults with our lab's services. Steve Bosserman and I thought further about this, given that it is not very attractive to send money out of Africa, what if our lab had a community currency in Africa that somebody like Greg could be buying? Then if he wanted cash instead of services, I or others could buy his community currency, but we wouldn't have to ship that money out of Africa. Greg has inspired us to think fresh about financing and also business opportunities that computers open up for our participants. I look forward to our ideas how we might make "marginal Internet access" a reality that we are comfortable acknowledging and making the best of. More than a billion people will be within walking distance of the Internet. We can make that a digital invitation rather than a digital divide. And we can cross the last mile by serving our own local communication needs and working outwards from our homes rather than waiting for the day that somebody finally reaches us. The Internet is a network of networks! Please write how any of the above might be of interest to you and I will try to include and acknowledge and reward all of our contributions! P.S. Subsequently, I had an encouraging talk with Joy Tang, VP of Marketing in Accton http://www.accton.com, who is also the founder of One Village Foundation http://www.onevillagefoundation.org She encouraged me to look for interested partners. I am corresponding with Lonnie B. Hodge http://sinotrading.us/SEO.htm who is near Shenzhen the world center for flash drive manufacturers. I'm excited at the possibilities. Andrius Andrius Kulikauskas Minciu Sodas http://www.ms.lt [EMAIL PROTECTED] +370 699 30003 Vilnius, Lithuania _______________________________________________ wsfii-discuss mailing list [email protected] http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/wsfii-discuss
