[Note to moderation: this didn't make it through, it seems, but I've been replying only to the DDN list (I checked my emails), and I think that this particular email is of importance. Please don't moderate this one out, as it did not CC Eskow]
Taran Rampersad wrote: >Pardon my late response, I've been a bit busy to answer this properly. I >just had the time. > >Just a brief intro. > >I love caramel. I always have. One day, growing up, I learned how to >make caramel by boiling cans of condensed milk for 4 hours at low heat >in a cast iron pot. I learned how to make what I needed, and I spent >less money buying it and invested my time in making it instead. I saved >some money, and I could spend money on computer parts and magazines. So >learning how to meet my own 'need' helped me to become somewhat computer >literate, enough so that people still pay me to do things related to >computers. > >Is making caramel from condensed milk going to decrease the digital >divide? Probably not (though it is a neat trick that requires some >experimentation). What will is people being able to focus their time, >energy and money on more technical pursuits. > >Dr. Steve Eskow wrote: > > > >>(Disclaimer: I have interest,commercial or otherwise, in Dell Computers. I >>have great interest in machines and practices that will narrow the digital >>divide.) >> >>Nicholas Negroponte preaches the values of the "personal" computer: each >>child,each parent, each farmer,each soldier should have a private computer. >>Thus his quest for the $100 computer, thus the search for the Simputer. >> >>I believe that the universal "personal" computer should be the ultimate >>goal. >> >> >> >> >I partially agree. I believe that the 'ultimate goal' in this context is >really to have a personal computer that can be maintained locally, and >doesn't require maintenance (the hidden cost). > >I've heard a lot of echoes of Negroponte's words. From these echoes, I >can only surmise that Negroponte understands less than half of the >problem quite well (I welcome his correction on this) - since his push >*seems* to be to create a system which does not allow local people to >repair and maintain their own systems. > >Attacking the problems of power cells is a big problem, but is hardly an >issue which much effort has to be expended upon considering the vast >amount of research that is happening outside of the Digital Divide. The >battle for better batteries is a commercial issue, as well as an issue >for the regions of the world where dependable electricity is a problem. >The commercial entities are spending lots of money on R&D - and there >has been progress. As far as solar powered, or wind-up powered - these >are not new things either. A simple DC dynamo can be used to power many >things; I've personally set up a desktop system that ran off of solar >power as an experiment. > >The screen technology the laptop project brags of - well, that remains >to be seen, but unless there's a drastic (greater than 30%) reduction in >power requirement of the screen, I don't see what the big deal is. If >it's such a quantum leap, I expect the technology will be deployed in >commercial products that will lower the cost of the commercial products. > >Wait. Maybe this is just to market a commercial product. That makes sense. > >Answers to questions like, "Who is funding the MIT Project?", "What will >the minimum order be?", "What are the specifics of these technologies >that will advance computing for the developing world?", "Who will own >these technologies?", and, "If you can get a Dell Laptop for $289 now >with Windows XP, couldn't it be closer to $100 with Linux instead?" >remain unanswered, and in not being answered they seem to have an >uncanny likeness to a commercial product. > >Maybe this article will be of some use: >http://infotech.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1116359.cms > >And what about this? http://openflows.org/article.pl?sid=05/01/27/1339254 > >Then there's the Mobilis, for $230: >http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=12067&hed=%24230+Portable+PC+Hits+Market > >(incidentally, this would be a better comparison against that Dell, Steve) > >And, unless you missed the article in Red Herring about MIT's $100 >laptop: >http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=11203&hed=The+hundred-buck+PC > >"Only orders of 1 million or more units will be accepted." > >To a farmer in the developing world, this is a $100,000,000 laptop. And >the odds of him finding 999,999 friends who want one and will mass order >with s/he is probably somewhere near the range of impossibility (unless >they get a website, start a discussion board, buy some GoogleAds, and >maybe even do a few SPAM attacks). > >My mother has a word for this that upon discussing this, I finally >understand: "Peh." > > > >>There are, however, "proximate" as well as "ultimate" goals, there are >>"appropriate" and "intermediate" technologies as well as "advanced" >>technologies--there are, that is, advantages to using bicycles rather than >>automobiles for certain situations calling for transport. >> >> >> >> >Well, if you want to sell fish, that's fine. I'd rather that the world >used to learn to use their own resources to fish. We can decorate our >statements, I suppose, but Logic of a Set can only be demonstrated to >work within a Set. > > > >>So: a village, on the wrong side of the digital divide, deserves access to >>computers and the benefits they bring. >> >>One possibility is that we--a donor agency-- generate some $10,000 US and >>purchase 20 Amida Simputers for 20 of the villagers. >> >>Another possibility is that we spend $300 US or $600 or $900 and put one, >>two, or three entry level desktop computers in a school or church or other >>public space. >> >> >> >> >I'd rather that the country that the villages exist in develop their own >infrastructure to supply their own demand. Until a PC costs the same >amount as one stick of sugar cane, or one hand of bananas, or whatever >these countries produce - they will always be economically >disadvantaged, they will always be technologically disadvantaged, they >will always suffer brain drain (unless all these lovely immigration laws >continue to change the way they have been - or really smart people who >could do the world some real good will be cultivating crops), and they >will always suffer being on the wrong side of the digital divide. > >Cost? We're really talking about economics. That's the logic that exists >outside of the set. And that logic exists only if there is demand for >the products. > >And do we really expect to create computer literate people and expect >them NOT to want to work in their own country dealing with the latest in >technologies? > > > >>Negroponte explicitly resists the idea of shared and public computing, and >>wants immediately to move to personal computing. >> >> >> >> >Good for Negroponte. I hope he enjoys whatever he's doing. I have yet to >be convinced that he's not just advancing the technology of the Digital >Divide. > > > >>The down sides of personal computing are obvious, and extend well beyond the >>matter of initial cost. Personal computing tends to make maintenance and >>repair problems and costs also personal, for example, while social computing >>allows a community of users to share such costs. >> >> >> >> >I'm of the opinion that societies of made up of individuals, and that >personal computers in a network can be social computing. Frankly, >without support within a country for the machines that MIT Media lab is >allegedly trying to create, I think it's pretty anti-social computing. >I'll revise my opinion with sufficient data, of course. > > > >>Personal or social computing: which is the right road for those without >>computers and their benefits to get access to them? >> >> >> >> >It goes beyond computing; it's the ability to self-sustain computing >within contexts of countries, regions, languages, specializations - and >in some very obvious places, even gender. > >This is where the Simputer can be used... to train and develop an >infrastructure that can build, maintain and service the Simputer and >it's evolutions (or machines like the Simputer). It was developed with >this in mind! It was developed so that local companies around the world >could build and modify it. It's completely open! > >And as far as the caramel... as soon as I figure out how to grow a >mobile coffee tree, I'll be sure to spread the word. :-) > > > -- Taran Rampersad Presently in: San Jose, Costa Rica [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.knowprose.com http://www.easylum.net http://www.digitaldivide.net/profile/Taran "Criticize by creating." — Michelangelo _______________________________________________ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
