Hello All, With regard to Ahmed's note and the great work he is doing by bringing Internet literacy to the students in his university in Nigeria, what if you could connect one Campus Content server to that Internet connection and locally store many times the content in the US Library of Congress? What if this provided simultaneous access for several hundred users on campus?
And what if simple low-tech Pentium II that supported Netscape or Internet Explorer were all that was required to access this Internet content, as well as, a myriad of rich content including e-Books, e-Learning courses, video and multimedia resources? etc. were also available to any student on campus, wirelessly could be refurbished Pentium II-class PC's that support either Netscape or Internet Explorer? And, what if all the content on this server were remotely refreshed nightly via satellite broadcast with any updates so that those content resources were always current as of 2:00 AM that day and were available to students, faculty, and administration at high-speed using a simple, reliable wireless campus network? Yes, this is possible and it is being done today! And, it operated on a financially self-sustaining basis by the University or a local community business person who is charged with providing this reliable service. And, when the contagious enthusiasm of turned-on Internet- savvy students demonstrate the power of technology-assisted teaching and learning to the faculty and those in the university's administration, it empowers a paradigm shift in thinking for this University. In addition, this reliable, remotely-managed Campus- wide approach can also include partnerships with international universities (from Canada and US) that currently offer world- class virtual degree and diploma programs to students on their local campus. This is an exciting time as affordable, sustainable, repeatable capabilities such as those described above can bring together world-class computing, global connectivity, content, training, teacher professional development, and virtual support in under- served and developing regions. And, as a result, the digital divide is narrowing with increasing opportunities for literate and articulate people from anywhere in the world to compete for a new breed of "virtual jobs" in the emerging global information society workforce. Regards Bob Robert Miller EVP Global Inc. Direct: (416) 423-9100 Mobile: (416) 464-7525 Fax: (416) 696-9734 Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] <mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]> History teaches us that people and nations behave wisely, once they have exhausted all other alternatives.... Abba Eban Ahmed Isah wrote: > ...The issue is not to do with selling a useless product that has no > demand. Rather, it has to do with whether the target market is really > aware of the benefits of the product to them. This then boils down to > illiteracy of the benefits of the Internet to the user. Take my case as > an example. We provide a 24 PC Internet connectivity in an academic > environment in Nigeria with about 10,000 students and 400 academic > staff. Yet, the connectivity was not maximally utilised. However, when > we embarked on Internet awareness training to the students, we now have > to plan for more PCs as the students continue to troop in. ------------ This DOT-COM Discussion is funded by the dot-ORG USAID Cooperative Agreement, and hosted by GKD. http://www.dot-com-alliance.org provides more information. To post a message, send it to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To subscribe or unsubscribe, send a message to: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>. In the 1st line of the message type: subscribe gkd OR type: unsubscribe gkd For the GKD database, with past messages: http://www.GKDknowledge.org
