Open Village: answering people needs via IT

Apologies

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Sun, 03 Jun 2007 15:20:32 +0000

This is a short message to apologize myself for the lack of recent posts. Unfortunately, I’m still in Cuba quite busy, and waiting for my visa for traveling to Spain. I will not talk too much about this situation, rather to invite you to a new blog (mainly in Spanish) where I’ll talk about this and other issues.

Anyway just to mention that next week VIA Technology Forum 07 will take place. I haven’t see any reference about VIA PC-1 in the agenda, but definitively the connected devices (thin clients and relatives) will be quite covered.

OLPC Theft peril.

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 21:03:41 +0000

I haven’t visit OLPC News for a while, but there are a lot of interesting posts, like this one written by Eduardo Villanueva Mansilla, from Peru. He highlights the lack of protection system for properties (even phone cables!!!) in his country. Not only a relevant issue for OLPC but for any project involving IT for developing countries.

OLPC Analyst Meeting

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:55:18 +0000

A real gem in OLPC News is the transcription of the OLPC Analyst Meeting, where you could find a link to OLPC Talks in order to know what was said exactly at this meeting.

What 1 Euro can do?

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:53:06 +0000

If you want to know another example of the real value of money in developing countries, you should check this article from “El País” (in Spanish) about what you could do with 1 Euro. Just for your information: a family could buy a chicken and a half in Ecuador, or one day of drinking water for a population of 2600 in Angola.

In a previous post I talk about the idea of a kind of a Fair IT trade (people in developed countries paying a bit extra money for the services, ensuring the development of specific IT projects in developing countries). With these figures it has sense to make it. Perhaps some cents would be enough (the “missing” cent in the price of some products: 39.99 turns to 40 and so on).

India: Broadband free for everybody

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Sun, 29 Apr 2007 20:49:04 +0000

My friend John Plate sent me this link. The Indian government proposes to offer all citizens of India free, high-speed broadband connectivity by 2009, through the state-owned telecom service providers BSNL and MTNL. Another issue in the article is the reorganization of Internet traffic, in order to ensure that the traffic for Indian destinations remains inside the country

OLPC and… Microsoft

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 12:49:05 +0000

For me was a surprise to read about the agreement between Sun and Intel. OK, you never swim twice in the same river, things change and all of that. And now is the time for OLPC. Negroponte disclosed that XO’s developers have been working with Microsoft so a version of Windows can run on the machines as well. It’s fresh on my mind when Bill Gates criticizes XO (with a different name at that time, never mind) and the Negroponte’s answer (BTW in Linuxworld last year).

The concerns about OLPC remain: there are more contradictions and actions that look crippled. What is trying to do Negroponte? What will be the impact on millions of youngsters in developing countries? Sorry, but trial-and-error is not an option. There are a lot of buzz around Second Life and Web 2.0, but in this case we are talking about the life of real human beings.

Hopefully governments and civil society will be conscious and will adopt a savvy approach to use IT for enhancing education and, better life for the children in developing countries.

And XO will be the 176 USD laptop and perhaps won’t be limited to developing countries.

Bill Gates: Unlimited Potential?

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Thu, 19 Apr 2007 23:48:03 +0000

Microsoft is also cooking its “bridging the digital divide” pie. BBC News published Today that the firm wants to bring computing to a further one billion people by 2015. Governments in developing countries can purchase the cut-price software, if they provide free PCs for schools.

We could say that this particular initiative is something good –personally I don’t think so for the technical limits for the people– but as in the case of OLPC and other projects, technology by itself cannot solve the problem. It is not only a technological issue but rather cultural, economical and sociological. The technology should be close to the needs and the manners in poorest regions, and not the other way around. Of course that people in these regions should learn and adapt themselves a bit to the technology, but just a bit, not a leap-frog change. They also must get real benefits from the use of computers.

At least they are “open” and clear: “This is not a philanthropic effort, this is a business,” Orlando Ayala of Microsoft told the Reuter’s news agency.

Ox(D)P*: One x Device Per Anybody

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Wed, 04 Apr 2007 11:47:07 +0000

Recently a friend sent me an email talking about a new project supported by Steve Jobs and Metalab: “One Macbook Per Child“. In the same place they mention “One Zune per Teen” Project. I hope that all these projects count on the reality of children and teenager with economical and social disadvantages and make a real effort in opening new opportunities for them. They are entering in the arena of other projects like the famous OLPC from the MIT Media Laboratory, and the World Ahead Program from Intel Corporation. Hopefully this means competition, and usually competition drives to lower prices and high quality products and services for end users. A bit early to say, but definitively sounds as a good news.

And the names…well I prefer a different “branch”, not a OxP*: One x Device per Anybody

Airjaldi Summit

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Fri, 30 Mar 2007 21:12:08 +0000

Some months ago I mentioned that Airjaldi Summit would take place in October 2006. Visiting their website I found that there are a lot of interesting materials online. It worth to look at these resources.

I am back

Mario Diaz Laguardia — Wed, 28 Mar 2007 22:13:24 +0000

Sorry for the huge gap. All these months I’ve been away for personal, technical, and professional reasons.

Some important changes in my life right now are:

Moving to Barcelona, Spain.
Stop working for University of Havana.
Beginning a start-up for bridging the digital divide.

Nevertheless, there are a lot of interesting news related to the digital divide. I will post some of them in the next days.