SolarNetOne Wants Stable Internet Connections For Developing Nations 73
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."
Jamming and network (Score:3, Interesting)
Is recording devices really the problem here? (Score:3, Interesting)
"While I agree with you, there are also some things to be gained from having access to the internet. For example how many people would care about the situation in Iran if Iran had no internet?"
They'd care even less if cell-phones didn't come with cameras.
Is it appropriate ... (Score:2, Interesting)
Let's say that you get these people online. They certainly won't be using the Internet in any manner remotely similar to how we use it. Consider the following:
1. Very few resources will be in their native language. This means that very few people in these countries can use it to learn more effective agricultural practices, learn how to obtain safe drinking water, or learn how the reduce the spread of disease. (Not to mention the millions of other things that we have access to with a keyword search.) A few people will be able to do this because they will have a second language that is used online, and will use it because they want to figure out how to solve local problems. Thing is, those are the people who would have sought out resources anyways.
2. Very few websites are designed for low bandwidth and low reliability connections. I work in a town with a satellite connection to the internet. Minimum latency on that is 0.25 seconds to go from the Earth to the satellite and back. Furthermore, satellite is expensive so bandwidth is limited. (A thousand people are served by less bandwidth than the typical Slashdotter has going into their home.) You would be surprised at how much stuff breaks (e.g. timeouts on either the client or server end) and how ploddingly slow stuff is. And that is using a relatively good connection to the outside world. Even if none of their infrastructure used satellites for any portion of the network, they would still have to deal with high latency due to most of the world's online resources being concentrated in developed nations.
Both of these issues (and a few others) means that the people who use communications technologies in the developing world will be primarily concerned with local communications. At which point you may as well ditch IP and use something that is more appropriate to their needs.
Cell Phones? (Score:1, Interesting)
I think a cell phone network and donated refurbished cell phones would have a bigger and better impact
context matters (Score:2, Interesting)