SolarNetOne Wants Stable Internet Connections For Developing Nations 73
Posted
by
ScuttleMonkey
from the where-there-is-no-internet dept.
from the where-there-is-no-internet dept.
There are many initiatives to bring tech to developing areas of the globe; things like OLPC, Geekcorps, and UN programs. One new approach from SolarNetOne strives to allow users in those developing areas to have access to an internet connection without having to depend on unreliable infrastructure. "Each SolarNetOne kit is a self-powered communications network. Energy is produced from a solar array sized to each locale's latitude and predominant weather conditions. The generated power is stored in a substantial battery array, and circuit breakers and electronics protect the gear from overloads and other perturbations. A basic kit includes five 'seats,' implemented as thin clients connected through a LAN to a central server. The networking gear also includes a long-range, omnidirectional WiFi access point, and a Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) device. Each kit also includes all the cables and wires required to assemble the system, so few additional materials are required for an installation."
Re:Is the digital divide really the problem here? (Score:3, Informative)
The parent is correct. I've worked internationally, and very few problems can simply be solved by providing material possessions to those without them. You can donate a tractor to a village and even provide them training in how to use it, but chances are it will never see even a portion of its potential. Even the most trivial of maintenance tasks for us can become incredibly compounded and complicated out there even if they have enough of a fundamental grasp of how to perform the maintenance. Where do I get oil? What happens the first time it needs an "inexpensive" $200 part from the USA or Europe?
The most successful programs that bring change to an area focus more on teaching people how to fully take advantage of the resources already at their disposal. A singular technology or resource can be brought in and taught if its fundamentally simple (like a hand water pump; forget electric) or how to make and use soap with the materials around them. Believe me, some of those tasks are already arduous.
This project is incredibly useful though, just not for the natives or computer illiterate. Target groups would be the international companies or organizations who set up bases in country and need and know how to take full advantage of the internet as a resource.
this is part of it (Score:2, Informative)
Projects like this are part of "all of the above", part of getting food, clean water and medicine. The things needed to help people's and nations get to be better. I see a lot of comments about how useless this would be. On the contrary, given a village access to the net means they can learn about new ways to make indigenous water filters using cheap available resources. They can find out about newer methods of farming/sustainable agriculture. Look for new markets for their goods, or sources for cheaper goods they might need, tools, seeds etc. The access to just a lot of books and papers could help, from the schoolkids to the local overwhelmed medical person. It's not just one or the other that is needed in a lot of these places, it is all of it, all of the above. Civilization.
Some orgs concentrate on medicines/vaccines, others on food aid, others on..whatever. This is just another way to help, and to do it cheaper, to leapfrog the old model of very expensive centralized wired infrastructure for both power and communications, and go directly to decentralized models that are faster/cheaper and easier to deploy.
And socially, once people start to realize there is more than just the local tribe and the surrounding few square miles and whatever the local warlord or shaman dictates to them, beyond the abstract, with just a narrow and skewed jingoistic viewpoint, they can start to see we all need to get along better, because we are all human and have to share this planet, that we have more in common than what they might have been brainwashed into believing previously.
In other words, with less viewpoints being available, remaining insular and cutoff, it is easier for the local warlords and power goons to keep their populations controlled and under their thumb and doing nutso stuff. Once they see there are other ways to "think and do", at least it gets them considering saner and more rational alternatives.
We see it daily, look around at the headlines, dictatorship/regime X, the first thing they try to do if it looks like their rule might be threatened is they cut off and restrict and censor communications. This is *precisely* why we should encourage more widespread and open and free-er communications, *especially* in areas that have a rather severe lack of them to begin with.
10 years experience in Developing Countries (Score:3, Informative)
I have been working the IT related fields in Latin America for over 10 years, both rural and urban. I have also spent some time teaching in China.
One problem I see with this article is that it makes no mention of how they get the internet connectivity. Is it sat? Is it connecting to an existing upstream provider? Both are often unrealistic is developing countries even inside urban areas because of reliability issues, corruption, cost, monopolies, and so on. In rural areas there simply are not options, and because of low population with limited economic resources it is too expensive to provide it.
The other problem that is an even greater issue is when the dam thing breaks, there are very very few people to maintain them. If someone has sufficient know how to fix something like this, chances are they are working for someone that pays a lot more (in local terms) because there is high demand for very few qualified IT people. Again, in rural areas they are often none existent. Anyone with those sorts of skills leaves. I have run in to this problem, even when money was no issue. There simply is no one to provide the support.
Re:Is the digital divide really the problem here? (Score:3, Informative)
There are plenty of lectures available online. The OP underestimates the potential of Youtube and similar stuff.
See: http://www.youtube.com/user/MIT [youtube.com]
Don't like MIT? Try Stanford then.
http://www.youtube.com/user/stanforduniversity [youtube.com]
Plenty more. e.g.
http://www.youtube.com/user/ucberkeley [youtube.com]
How about seeing what people can learn in IIT, India?
http://www.youtube.com/user/nptelhrd [youtube.com]
Or UNSW in Australia?
http://www.youtube.com/user/unswelearning [youtube.com]
Or "attend" a lecture given by the Noble Prize winner Richard Feynman?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4M0e1lzB1lY [youtube.com]
Youtube is a good way to waste time for people who like to waste time.
But it is also a good way to learn stuff for people who want to learn stuff.
And it's far more efficient if students can figure out they hate a course way before they even sign up for it and thus don't waste time and money.