Syndicate: Fwd: Low-Cost Computers for the People

[Chris Byrne <chris@cryptic.demon.co.uk>]

>From: Rachel Anderson <rachel@benton.org>
>Subject:      The Digital Beat: Low-Cost Computers for the People
>
>
>>Low-Cost Computers for the People
>by Rachel Anderson (rachel@benton.org)
>
>Introduction
>
>>From a communications-saturated vantage point here in North America,
>sometimes it's easy to forget that the majority of the world's population
>has never made a telephone call, let alone used the Internet. In many
>developing countries, the very cost of a computer can amount to more than
>the average worker's annual salary. In an attempt to surmount the
>prohibitive cost of this increasingly essential piece of IT hardware,
>researchers in the developing world have begun to take matters into their
>own hands by designing low-cost computers that address the particular needs
>of their nations' more disadvantaged populations.
>
>The Brazilian government recently announced a project that will make
>stripped-down desktop computers, known as "Popular PCs," available for about
>$300. Developers were able to save on licensing fees by using free,
>open-source Linux as the operating system instead of Microsoft Corp.'s
>Windows. Also using Linux, but moving away from the desktop computer model,
>engineers in India have designed a hand-held computer that will enable rural
>populations to benefit from information technology -- even if they don't
>have the ability to read. Both of these initiatives illustrate the
>increasingly innovative approaches employed by developing countries to bring
>their citizens into the digital age.
>
>Popular PCs
>
>Ivan Moura Campos, chairman of the Internet Steering Committee of Brazil and
>the mastermind behind Brazil's Popular PC project, explained in a recent
>interview in Wired News that countries like Brazil will never bridge the
>digital divide if they depend solely on technologies imported from wealthier
>nations. "We realized this was not a First World problem," he explained. "We
>were not going to find a Swedish or a Swiss company to solve this for us. We
>would have to do it ourselves."
>
>Brazil is unquestionably Latin America's Internet access leader. A recent
>study by eMarketer (http://www.emarketer.com/welcome.html) found that the
>nation is home to 40% of South America's Internet users -- despite the fact
>that only 5% of Brazilians actually have Internet access. Late last year, as
>part of broader efforts to increase access to information technology, the
>Brazilian government commissioned university researchers to design the
>cheapest possible machine for accessing the Internet.
>
>In response, researchers from Brazil's Federal University of Minas Gerais
>have created a prototype of what's being called the Popular PC, or
>Computador Popular in Portuguese. The Internet appliance, which lacks a
>floppy drive or a hard disk drive, features many of the attributes one would
>expect in a moderately-priced PC: a 500 MHz-equivalent processor, 64MB of
>RAM, an Ethernet card, a 56K modem, 14-inch monitor, sound and video cards,
>serial and USB ports, a mouse and a keyboard. Consumers will also have the
>option of buying inexpensive hard disks and other peripherals for their
>computers.
>
>The first shipment of Popular PCs will go to equip schools, libraries and
>health centers to access to the Internet. The state-run bank, Caixa
>Econ?mica Federal, has agreed to provide loans to low-income households to
>purchase the computers, which will be made available to them for about $15 a
>month over the course of 24 months.
>
>While some critics have argued that Brazil has more pressing social needs
>than providing computers for the masses, the government has made it a
>priority to help low-income Brazilians reap the social and economic rewards
>of the Internet. It has announced that it will invest $400 million this year
>alone to expand Internet use in Brazil. Through its Universal Access Plan,
>the government is seeking to subsidize the deployment of telecommunications
>infrastructure to impoverished and geographically-isolated areas.
>Additionally, Brazil's postal service has launched a program call Porta
>Aberta, or Open Door, that provides the public free access to Internet
>kiosks in post offices throughout the country's largest cities.
>
>
>A Little Computer Can Go a Long Way
>
>In a country like India, where nearly 50% of the population is unable to
>read or write, simply providing access to computers and the Internet just
>isn't enough. That's what motivated a team of Indian scientists and
>engineers to create a way for people with limited literacy and computer
>skills to take advantage of the wealth of information on the Net. The team
>has developed a small, powerful computing device called the "Simputer" --
>short for "simple inexpensive mobile computer" -- that reads out the text
>found on Web pages in a number of India's many native languages.
>
>Field test with the first working prototypes of the Simputer, which will
>cost around $200, have just begun this month. Slightly larger than the
>popular Palm handheld computers, the Simputer has a built-in browser, email
>software, a text-to-speech program for several Indian languages and an MP3
>player. The machine, which should be available for sale by March 2002, runs
>on widely-available AAA batteries.
>
>A group of socially-committed academics and technologists from India's
>computing industry came together to form the non-profit Simputer Trust,
>which is offering both the software and the hardware for the appliance as
>open-source technology. Their vision is to create not only a computer, but
>also an "evolving platform for social change" throughout the world that will
>help bridge the digital divide.
>
>They are particularly excited by the possibilities of exposing India's vast
>rural population to Simputer technology. Indian farmers, for example, could
>use the devices to check local weather forecasts or the latest market price
>for various produce. Simputer's creators also point to its potential as a
>tool for accessing online governmental and health-care services.
>
>For the 99% of Indians that do not currently have access to the Internet,
>one of the most useful features is the Simputer's "smart card" port. The
>computer's low price still exceeds what most Indians can afford, so its
>creators devised a way to let many individuals share a single machine by
>each using their smart cards to activate their personal accounts. Simputers
>might even appear in country's ubiquitous public telephone kiosks, where an
>entire village could take advantage of Internet access.
>
>While global technology companies are not racing to get their products into
>the hands of people in less developed countries, it is good to know that
>there are some grassroots efforts underway to bring digital information to
>the masses. The experiments in India and Brazil might even demonstrate the
>commercial viability of developing low-cost computers for mass consumption.
>
>
>At the Digital Dividends conference in Seattle last fall, C.K. Prahalad, a
>professor of business administration at the University of Michigan, called
>for participants to rethinking the way people view the lower economic tiers
>of societies and the need for new business models to address them.
>
>"How can you go from [looking at] the poor as an intractable problem, to the
>poor as a market and a source of innovation?" he asked.
>
>
>Related Web Sites
>
>Brazilian Committee for Internet Administration
>http://www.cg.org.br/
>
>Simputer
>http://www.simputer.org/simputer/
>
>Indian Institute of Science (IISc)
>http://www.csa.iisc.ernet.in/

>


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