Adding to Tom Abeles' comments:
> 1) when the Internet was first opened to the public, the providers
> never, in their wildest imaginations understood that e-mail,
> peer-to-peer, was, and continues to be the killer application in its
> evolving forms. The key rests not in larger multilingual servers with
> mountains of "readily accessible" information but in lowering barriers
> between the voiceless
Having just finished the first of four electronic forums that ITC
presented, we, again, were made aware that for the developing countries,
the simple e-mail IS THE PIPE that brings the precious water needed to
grow. Many, or I dare say most, do not have computers at home. Many
have to go to the "cabinas" "Kiosk" etc. to access teir e-mail. At $1
per hour, (cheap by our standards, very expensive by theirs, not many
can afford to search for anything. You all know that if you open the
door to the Internet, you "drown" with all the information available.
What we also forget is that: even if the developing countries had
computers at home and/or at their business place, the ISP service is so
expensive that the quotas for each mail box is soon filled. What we
experienced on this last forum was that by the fourth day many messages
were bouncing back with: "Mail box full". For us, the unlimited use,
one-price per month only, for them, an unheard of luxury they can only
dream about.
Simple low-tech is still the only pineline available to many.
> 2) corporations have spent oceans of funds building knowledge portals
> and are coming to the realization that while this explicit knowledge is,
> indeed, important, the elusive tacit knowledge, as evidenced by Xerox's
> "water cooler", appears to be key. Peer-to-peer when issues go awry.
I do see the need for these knowledge portals. They are, like the huge
reservoirs from where we can draw the needed supply of water. And take
this water through whatever kind of pipelines we can devise for our own
needs. Maybe even making simple ditches at the other end. And if we
can only make a few buckets of this precious water arrive to the other
end, why, we can make a desert bloom. We are good at making do with
> 4) the origins of the "gateway". Perhaps the gateway is not needed?
> Perhaps it is not the roots in the grass that would choose this path to
> expend the 10's of millions that are being focused on this effort when
> one considers all the resources and time engaged in meeting, thinking
> and building the gateway. Consider the statistics on the net aid monies
> that reach the village from every foundation and government agency and
> ask for whom the gateway tolls, to paraphrase a noted author. Where is
> the alarum and the ground swell for such an effort?
>
> The gateway is being driven by a very powerful meme, one which set the
> World Bank and associates on the opposite side of the fences in Seattle,
> Quebec, Washington, DC and other places. One needs to think carefully
> about what happens when that large pipe gets laid from the
> industrialized world into the global village, driven, in part by the
> very parties that the disenfranchised were so concerned about. I fear
> Greeks even when bearing gifts, said some in Troy.
For the reasons I cited above do not expect us developing countries to
be able to access this reservoir directly. We cannot. Having built it,
help us now to access it- From the big reservoir, we need to take it to
smaller holding vats, and from the holding vats to smaller yet holding
tanks.
> The bottom line is, so.... is there a better solution. And the simple
> answer is yes there is but not without pain. It takes considerable
> effort when the starving have been allowed to enter the banquet room.
I visited "Tierra Prometida" a forsaken desert in ICa, that was given to
the victims of the El NiNo flooding in 1998. No water, no electricity,
no sewer. And sand evrywhere you looked. The people there were saving
the water they used to wash themselves, and dishes, etc. to pour unto
their "gardens". A spindly dry stick with a few green leaves in the
middle of a sandy place. That is the spirit of those who have little. A
hope that their "planting" will bloom even in the midst of desolation.
One last note of optimism. Tierra Prometida now has -- electricity, and
I am sure that the plant I saw then, is blooming now!
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