[Fwd: Re: [DDN]The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Update onthe Simputer]

I wholeheartedly agree with you Steve and Arun -- I'm in London UK with a laptop all to myself and it's hugely convenient, but (1) that's all very well if you can afford it and (2) actually we could learn a lot from the way that countries like Ghana and India are solving problems of hardware acces

Re: [DDN]The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Update onthe Simputer

Hi Arun, I think you have placed your 'finger' on the essential in this discussion when in the context of your entire note you said, "Eventually, when an individual (or a family) earns enough to be able to afford something he/she may decide to 'own' it" As soon as the individual or family in th

Re: [DDN]The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Update onthe Simputer

I wholeheartedly agree with you Steve and Arun -- I'm in London UK with a laptop all to myself and it's hugely convenient, but (1) that's all very well if you can afford it and (2) actually we could learn a lot from the way that countries like Ghana and India are solving problems of hardware access

[DDN] [Fwd: Open Access News von FQS]

Hi All The forward below gives resources, some in German and some in English, about open access to content. Daniel Boos, of the committeee the Swiss Internet Users' Group , sent it to the working group on public domain, open access and media, of comunica-ch , the Swiss Pl

Re: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

John Hibbs wrote: > At 10:02 AM -0700 5/29/05, Dr. Steve Eskow wrote: > >> If the Simputer is a superior product, and mass producing it will >> dramatically lower its price, the Simputer firm might emulate >> Negroponte and >> insist on mass orders. > > > "Insist"? How? > > How much good would it

[Fwd: Re: [DDN] 2-Year OpenOffice High School Case Study]

Much the same findings about substantial financial savings and increases in reliability and useability in UK and Aus: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/software/0,261733,39191668,00.htm Still can't get schools and NGOs to use FLOSS in any numbers tho :-( -- the power of FUD. And "the world's bigg

RE: [DDN] personal vis social and the academic

Tom Abeles maintains, cogently, that the rhetoric of the "ICT" as a/the vehicle for crossing "the digital divide" has become part of a quasi-religion: <<> Indeed. That religious faith, however, seems not to respect traditional political and philosophical boundaries. In the US, one of the f

Re: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

Todd Seal wrote: > Ah, yes! The smart card! That's what I'm thinking of when I think of > sitting at a public computer for personal use. > > What's the danger, though, in losing one of those cards? Think of how > easy it is to lose a file on your computer. Isn't that problem > compounded when you

Re: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

[EMAIL PROTECTED] said: > Marvelous. The Simputer plus the idea of Public Computing plus promoting the > idea of governments purchasing a million or more at one time and seeing to > their distribution and we have a strategy for an attack on the digital divide > that might make a difference. The

[DDN] Bayosphere Host as DDN Informant

Bayosphere is "hiring": http://bayosphere.com/node/445 Thinking about issues that concern me in the San Francisco Bay Area, there's a digital divide here, too. That issue exists everywhere. Since I'm a teacher, I think of schools where students are learning computer skills and are even given l

Re: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

Dr. Steve Eskow wrote: > Marvelous. The Simputer plus the idea of Public Computing plus promoting >the idea of governments purchasing a million or more at one time and seeing >to their distribution and we have a strategy for an attack on the digital >divide that might make a difference. > > I'm

RE: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

The approach Jon Hall describes below makes much sense: there are many governments around the world that might well consider it. Steve Eskow [EMAIL PROTECTED] -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Jon maddog Hall Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 7:25 AM

RE: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

Tom Abeles points out, helpfully I think, that there are technoevangelists and technoromantics and technoutopians and, perhaps most dangerous of all, the technomarketers who use the language of technosalvation to sell goods and services. The zeal to protect us from these false prophets can be carr

RE: [DDN]The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Updateonthe Simputer

-Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Subbiah Arunachalam Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 6:54 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; The Digital Divide Network discussion group Subject: Re: [DDN]The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Updateonthe Simputer What Sub

RE: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

Mr. John Hibbs writes: dramatically lower its price, the Simputer firm might emulate Negroponte and >insist on mass orders.>> "Insist"? How?>> As I understand the Negroponte idea, by taking no orders for less than a million o

[DDN] Job Opening, New York City: Youth Technology Specialist

Job Title: Youth Technology Specialist Role: Provide instruction and lead technology activities for youth ages 5 – 14 Jacob A. Riis Neighborhood Settlement House located in Long Island City, Queens is seeking a part-time Youth Technology Specialist for our summer day camp for youth ages 5

Re: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

Tom Abeles wrote: > There is an essay with a title, something to the effect, "The Fear of > God and the Need to Acquire" where there is a line, paraphrased, which > says that there is a problem when the only way a person can show love > for his/her spouse is to go to bed with them or BUY them some

SV: [DDN] Rotary & Cooperating Organizations working to reduce the DD

Dear Dough, I am from Denmark, president for non-profit "ITUL - ICTools for Development" and we have several times organised container transports exactly like you describe it. At the moment we are in need of PCs for a large ICT education project in Cameroon involving 31 schools and 8.200 students.

[DDN] Networking event for nonprofit techies in Massachusetts (USA)

Dear Colleagues, The Boston 501 Tech Club is the local professional networking group for nonprofit techies in Massachusetts; it's affiliated with the national Nonprofit Technology Enterprise Network (http://www.nten.org), and meets every month. TechFoundation (http://www.techfoundation.org) is ba

RE: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

Taran Rampersad, presently in Panama City, writes: <> There is no necessary conflict between the "public" and the "private." Those who can afford private automobiles should be allowed to have them, until the world's pollution problem becomes so great that we have to consider limiting that right.

RE: [DDN] personal vis social and the academic

I am not grasping how having the tools to participate in economic, educational, social and civic life is either liberal or conservative? It seems to me that this list needs to focus on the issues of bridging the digital divide, not on politics. Janet Salmons VISION2LEAD, INC. Site- http://www.v

Re: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

There is an essay with a title, something to the effect, "The Fear of God and the Need to Acquire" where there is a line, paraphrased, which says that there is a problem when the only way a person can show love for his/her spouse is to go to bed with them or BUY them something. One must realiz

RE: [DDN] Update on the Simputer

Todd Seal writes about the perils of "the smart card": <> If the public computer is in a church, or library, or office, the cards can be kept there rather than taken home. And note how easily we overlook the difficulties associated with the personal computer. When 20 people each own a person

Re: [DDN]The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Update onthe Simputer

> If the advantages of the Simputer at $480 are so much greater than that of > the desktop at less, let's urge small churches or cafes or schools in the > poorer nations to buy one or two or three and share them, until such time > as the folks in the community can afford to buy their own. > This

[DDN] languages on the list (was Open Access News von FQS)

Hi Claude, The general rule on the list is that content may be posted in other languages besides English as long as an English-language version is included. So list members are welcome to share content in other languages as long as there's an English translation. thanks, andy Claude Almansi

RE: [DDN] personal vis social and the academic

You've hit a topic that is still too largely ignored. Technology promises to realize the social liberal vision of transparent government, policy, program, business and development. Yet The Academy is notoriously technophobic. Diane Ravitch, in the US, has recently taken up the argument against smal

Re: [DDN] Re: The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Update on the Simputer

Thank you, Aditie, for giving us a look at a plausible scenario in rural India. Frankly I do see Taran's work as investigating such scenarios as he travels, and I am eager to hear what he finds. Perhaps he will find some places where a simputer would be appropriate, and others where it would not

[DDN] Update on the Simputer

At 10:02 AM -0700 5/29/05, Dr. Steve Eskow wrote: If the Simputer is a superior product, and mass producing it will dramatically lower its price, the Simputer firm might emulate Negroponte and insist on mass orders. "Insist"? How? How much good would it do to set a date ceartain - as Earth Da

Re: [DDN]The Personal vs the Social Computer Was: Update onthe Simputer

I agree with you Steve. At each one of the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation Knowledge Centres in Pondicherry in southern India we have a few computers - not more than five in any centre, and one of them is out of bounds for all but the centre volunteers. But these are common assets for the e