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See also: Includer, OfflineServices, SocialNetworkingKit2003, FlashDriveContent, AssemblingComputers, Publishing
We will create software and hardware that would be optimized for those with marginal Internet access. This includes people who access outside their home or work, pay by the hour, use at limited hours, or endure slow speeds.
More than a billion people might make good use of even marginal Internet access (and the definition of good access keeps changing). They would be able to participate in online communities by downloading the week's activity and reading it with an offline computer or custom device, writing their responses and then uploading them once a week or so. This would allow them to multiply the value of 1 hour online with 10 or more hours offline. They might be available for knowledge work that they might do closer to home, to their native environment. This would include work for the global market (like translating, writing wiki pages, mechanical turk work) and also local projects (collecting stories, interviewing people, experimenting with technologies). They would be able to collect information and maintain communication for knowledge intensive activities such as rolling out a local wi-fi network or assembling computers from a combination of locally purchased and globally sourced parts. For example, in a village that is 5 km from the Internet, it would be possible to create a local wireless network where a few computers are linked up to facilitate local communication, expanding one computer and one wireless access point at a time, until within two or three years the global Internet is reached as well. (Note that the principal business and social value of networks tends to be local communication rather than long distance communication.) This would also foster offline file sharing. Simple software on the flash drives could encourage prioritizing files (text, audio, pictures, cartoons, etc.) for the purpose of facilitating copying of one's favorite files with others. This would encourage a movement of a wide variety of files among people even though they are offline. It would also encourage a culture of sharing information and helping forward information to the Internet or specific locations. Also flash drive file readers and/or writers (a display and word processor) would allow the reading and writing of texts without even having to have a full fledged computer. This would encourage all manner of intellectual participation in the world's affairs but especially with those who want to reach out to include Africans and all who are marginalized. It would also promote literacy and innovation.
Our Minciu Sodas laboratory  http://www.ms.lt (for serving and organizing independent thinkers) has strong participation in Africa with paid workers (typically 100 USD) in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, Nigeria, Cameroon as well as India, Palestine, Serbia, Lithuania and the US. We appreciate the huge costs of participation, the great need for alternatives to Internet cafes, and the obstacles to the many people who might participate but can't. We also benefit from a culture that works in the Public Domain. Our first priority is to create online software that would allow our participant to download our lab's activity (letters, new wiki pages, chat transcripts, typically 1 MB zipped per week). Next, we will create a simple way to send or upload texts written offline and they may be forwarded as needed by online assistants. We are seeking a client who values such a capability and might provide 25,000 USD of work for us to create such an open source software system. A further project is to develop a device for reading (and ultimately, writing) text files (such as emails) stored on a flash drive. Note that flash drives are available for 10 USD or less and standard computer keyboards are available for 10 USD or less. We wish to combine these with an inexpensive display (perhaps monochrome, 20 lines by 70 characters). It should be possible to source and integrate such a display for 50 USD to 100 USD even in small quantities. This is very much needed because many of our participants do not have computers and they cost typically 200 USD to 300 USD. This device might be further developed to prepare SMS messages or even to send them out by mobile phone and likewise receive them. Additional projects would help organize knowledge bases and community support for rolling out local wi-fi networks even if they are not yet linked to the global Internet, and organizing the assembly of computer parts based on what makes sense with regard to local and global markets. Various ways of funding this work include sales of flash drives, income from select publications or advertisements (such as Bibles, newspapers contents, health or educational materials) loaded onto the flash drives, global knowledge work done by participants, and involving teams in global projects as we did with My Food Story http://www.myfoodstory.info All of these would fuel local adoption and implementation. However, the most realistic funding source for our laboratory (based in Lithuania) is to work for IBM and other companies for about 150,000 USD during one year to develop this as an infrastructure for emerging markets, especially for cultivating technology expertise (including computer literacy) in areas that may have only marginal Internet access for many more years.
A very modest investment will make the Internet meaningful to more than a billion people with marginal Internet access. As we participate in our global dialogue we are all finding that our literacy improves remarkably. Such participants are able to do knowledge work that they get from around the world. They are also able to contribute to global projects (like Wikipedia) their local knowledge, experiences, wisdom, data, interviews, stories. Our offline file sharing network opens up a new kind of rhythm, a slower, more thoughtful life, that may develop an attractive alternative to the stresses of modern Western life. The software for uploading and downloading activity encourages us to think in terms of the steps in human activity because computers need clear instruction, and so a human action web language may develop that may codify many (recurring) online activities such as updating a wiki page or searching for a book. The flash drive text reader-writers may start at 100 USD and drop to 25 USD and may help us rethink the computer in terms of its essentials (one flash driver for every child) and also be simple enough to open up local innovation. The offline file sharing opens up a wild circulation of viral sharing with consequences that are difficult to foresee. This is all an infrastructure for literacy-based communication (plus sharing of pictures, audio, video) that allows for technical expertise to be accumulated and accessed even by people who are hardly touched by the Internet. The global and local business opportunities are huge, but the greatest asset is the thoughtful people who are able to participate globally even as they care locally. Our laboratory is finding that our values based approach (asking for people's deepest values and investigatory questions) is much appreciated and evokes great dedication. We are working openly on our proposal at Offline Please let us know how we might work for you and with you! Andrius Kulikauskas, ms@ms.lt
Older notes 
AndriusKulikauskas: I want to create software to help those with marginal Internet access participate by downloading activity from their online community (letters, wiki page, chat archive - typically 1 MB per week) onto their flash drive so they could read it at home, and then uploading their reponses. Then the responses could be forwarded further by online assistants (such as Sasha Mrkailo in Serbia for whom our Minciu Sodas lab provides a stipend). This opens up many business opportunities for knowledge work that could be done by people with limited Internet access (for example, writing or editing Wikipedia articles, creating websites, collecting stories). In particular, people could download information about creating wireless networks.
One strategy I'm promoting is relevant for people like Samwel Kongere who have to walk 5 km to get to the Internet. I encourage him to build a local wifi network serving his home (an access point is 100 USD) so that he can link up with neighbors. As he gets skilled at building out his network he will in two or three years make it all the way to the access point where he can link up with the Internet itself. In order for this to work they will need lots of information about wireless as it is a knowledge intensive skill. So the software system I am proposing should fuel the creation of do-it-yourself, expand-as-you-use, low capital wireless networks, as well as the necessary skill sets.
SamwelKongere is interested in "knowledge based approaches" and we discussed what that means. It's the "caring about thinking" that should be part of every task. As we do each task, we take care to discover and share the knowledge involved. And we give tasks to those who might learn the most from them, instead of to experts or to beginners.
This is very much at the heart of Marcin Jakubowski's Open Source Ecology and also the many different angles that we bring to "pattern languages" for developing "global villages". As I look for new clients, I will be writing proposals to link areas across the world that might participate in "open source" knowledge sharing. For example, Steve Bosserman's community in Columbus, Ohio and "nearby" initiatives like Marcin's in Missouri might benefit from having their innovative practices attempted in Africa and elsewhere where it might cost less to explore them and document the results. Or Samwel Kongere and others might visit and help at the farm as Marcin has suggested and also learn and document. Or others might visit Samwel as has already started thanks to CouchSurfing.org and such sites like HospitalityClub.org which we learned of from Dante Gabryell-Monson, Markus Petz, Eric Schneider, Synnove Mathe, our nomad friends.
In August, 2007 I will be focused on finding new clients. I am writing Proposals. My first proposal is to create a system for our colleagues, like Wendi in Cameroon, to download all the new content from our lab (letters, wiki pages, chat) from the past week or month so they can take it home and read it at their leisure at their own computer rather than pay $3 per hour for Internet access. And then write responses using their browser (perhaps with the JavaScript wiki TiddlyWiki) and then upload the results. I want to find somebody to pay me (and us) to work on this. I think that it is very valuable but there are also many business opportunities because people could download various kinds of knowledge work and then upload it when they are done. Perhaps Amazon might fund this work, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amazon_Mechanical_Turk
My second project would be to create a Global Villages Index for self-rating "Hubs" for Co-working along many different dimensions. My thought (or I suppose it is One Village's thought) is that "unity centers" are vibrant when people can come to them with any manner of issue.
My third project would be to encourage the documentation of a pattern language for such hubs (seeds of Global Villages) that is based on "recurring activity".
- Translation. Indeed, a few people might transform their entire village into at ThematicVillage devoted to a language and culture such as Japanese, Chinese, Arabic, Spanish and even rarer languages.
- Math Tutoring.
- Writing, editing, researching Encyclopedia Articles.
- Collecting stories.
More Business Value
- In the event of a catastrophe such as a FluPandemic, there is great advantage and resilience in being able to work effectively offline, but also in having vibrants local networks so that people can work in smaller clusters within a village area, for example, yet still coordinate activities.
- Special software can be created for flash drives and preinstalled by manufacturers.
- LonnieBHodge at RisingVoices: Fantastic work you are doing.... This initiative is exactly what is needed in our rural areas. With most of the world's USBs being produced only a few miles (Shenzhen, China) from here for about $4-6 USD a unit you have proposed a wonderful alternative....
Incremental Infrastructure
Building big, starting small by EthanZuckerman. Conteh's project (Vodacom Congo, with 3 million mobile phone users and a market valuation of $1.6 billion) offers a new model. While it's very expensive to blanket a nation in mobile phone coverage, it's quite inexpensive to build a single tower. With even one tower in a major city, Conteh found that customers would queue up to buy phones, giving him revenue to finance additional expansion. In an incremental infrastructure model, each investment starts generating revenue quickly, allowing an entrepreneur to finance more infrastructure. The availability of mobile phones has had unexpected economic impacts. Farmers check prices in the market before putting their harvests onto trucks or boats for sale. Carpenters, welders, and other technicians no longer need shops -- they have their tools and their mobile phones, and travel to work where it is available. Leonard Waverman, a professor of economics at the London Business School, has found that an increase of 10 mobile phones for every 100 people in a developing country leads to an increase of 0.59 percent in GDP per capita. The existence of a communications infrastructure benefits the whole economy. Governments that encourage foreign direct investment -- especially investment from their diasporas -- are more likely to see incremental infrastructure develop. Successful Internet and phone projects suggest that there are at least three common characteristics of successful incremental infrastructure projects.
- These projects are atomic: A small part of the infrastructure is useful by itself, like a single mobile phone tower that allows people in a single city to make calls to one another.
- The projects are financed in part by users, lowering the costs for the operator: Mobile phone users buy their handsets and Internet users purchase their own computers.
- Finally, these projects are providing capabilities that weren't available before: they're new services, not an upgrade of existing systems.
Fostering local partners
Business: China in Africa One business leader lamented the dearth of established small and medium-sized businesses with which he could partner. His preference would be to source locally as many jobs and contracts as possible, but few locals possess the core skills needed by his business.
Jeff and Andrius chat, August 5, 2007, Back to the Root
Theme: Having somebody to talk to
what is the key theme that ties them all together. the theme is "having somebody to talk to". that is a powerful thing in itself. and that involves a lot more than just "talking". get to know each other. yes and having the set of networks that let us respond to each other. telephony being just one. and supporting eachh in terms of gaining the courage to not only create but create our destiny. but also Internet, shipping, verfiability, values, Yes and so it is driven by our "courage to create" even when we are on our own and appreciating that in others as the key to understanding who and how to support
Strategy: IncrementalInfrastructure
Phase 1
a good system for participating offline rather than at Internet cafes so that it is affordable and also so that they are embedded in their own places rather than at somebody else's Internet center. a software infrastructure for managing data for uploading and downloading without a direct internet connection. to set up software where people could get our lab's activities (letters, wiki, chat from the last week, say, about 1 MB) and then look through it at home, and also upload responses. this would be similar to our lab's original 2003 proposal for the Soros fund but we've developed a lot of venues since then so it's very clear what we need: letters, wiki, chat, photos
My thought is that this first proposal would be to meet the basic software needs for our network so people can participate. The 10,000 USD for me would keep me afloat for half a year and another 10,000 USD would allow for lots of participation and small projects on the ground. That would include making sure everybody has a computer, doing computer assembly, etc. Because right now people like Fred Kayiwa or our Tanzanian group don't even have their own used computer. So these are very basic initial needs and they aren't in one place they are global.
A proposal where Andrius would earn about 12,000 USD and a similar amount for our lab's team. So Phase I would be an initial proposal for 24,000 USD to focus on the basics to get our network available for work for a client and that might already include business value as people can then download projects and knowledge work that they can then upload. and we would have 12,000 USD for the team in Africa including 6,000 USD for the team leaders, 3,000 USD for the broader team, and 3,000 USD for Internet or equipment because our focus would be on marginal Internet access so this is not yet to set up centers but rather to coordinate work with centers.
100 USD is a lot of money for somebody in Africa, in the villages, and we have a lot of people who would like such work, well Samwel was happy to get 100 USD for two months part time work, and that's the kind of people we have access to, and that we naturally train . yes and no, for peasant farmers yes, for technical and intellectual people no, for good trainers no, then we need to figure out how to get some on the payroll constantly. my model is 1000 for one years work. we need core staff in my view. if we are going to make this work. 1000 is a fair amount for some one like Samwel. and I think he has done great work. train people to set up wireless network in their communities and eventually complete unity center type model. contingent on local needs with practical plan for sustaianbility so say pay for you and then pay for 3-6 staff in several locations in Africa and then money for equipment and office and maybe a consultant fee for me and then you might want some 100 stipends help with proposal and research and implementation assistance you could also consider some fees in so that some of the training costs are covered
Phase 1.5
get a focus point in Africa such as Kibera and to set up a center there start the center out with a few computers and modest location, maybe OVF can locate itself HQ there? also Owino and others. We start with no internet or if we have enough funding we get internet. And then we develop this system there as well as other related activities but the idea is that we train people to think about how to use their cybercafe time very wisely so it is just downloand and upload and maybe a special chat or conference every now and then.
I think we could set up centers in Kibera, we have one in Dar es Salaam, and something in Mbita. We could do experiments in wireless access, telephony, etc.
Jeff, would you like to be on the ground in Africa? i will not be able to work full time on this project of course. that is why I suggested consultant. i said 6 people @ 1000 in 2-3 locations in Afric with basic equipment rent 1-3 k 5-10k (15k max) per equip core staff 6. 6k for you and 6k for your travel? and you could be the liaison with our sites? and that would fit well with OVF work/vision for Kenya. and you would be at least 3 months in Africa? And your role might be to help people decide on good locations and arrangements for Unity Centers. so 3 x 1 month for three locatiosn? You would be a research coordinator to understand how the Unity Center would serve the people away from it. For it to work with OVF we need to go for a center in Kibera, Kenya. It is very difficult to develop an org in Kenya without an office. I think the Kibera office would be an example where it serves Mbita and we experiment how it can do that. and similarly in Tanzania and Uganda we might typically have 3 urban-rural teams so in Kenya for example Kennedy Owino in Kibera linked with Samwel Kongere in Mbita so we have 6 leaders and they are to help each other given marginal Internet access how can they be linked in different ways? including SMS, phone, wifi, travel, post, electronic publishing training, etc. That would be practical in our situation. I found a router than converts cellular to wireless
Phase 2: GlobalVillageIndex
The next stage after that I envisage as creating a GlobalVillageIndex that would let us self-evaluate our needs. So I have started a list of places: GlobalVillageIndex these are existing places that typically need just a bit of key help. So for example in Dar es Salaam, Agnese is already funding an office for Uyoga but they don't have a computer! Or in Chicago, I gave my friend David Ellison-Bey a laptop, projector and wireless but he doesn't have anybody technical who can help him with that. Or here in Lithuania we have a 2 story building but it's simply a matter of getting the local official to agree to us being there and practically that means organizing local citizens to be leaders and take over the community organization that is supposed to be doing this. Or in Hotel Karolinenhof Franz needs a good manager. Etc. And my thought is that if we can work together to solve these problems then we will see the different dimensions that make for a Unity Center, a hub for coworking. Because in each case there is one dimension: legal, communications, expertise, equipment, etc. that is hanging things up. So this would be the second project and would make for strong centers in Africa.
Phase II and III would be larger up to about 100,000 USD
Phase 3: GlobalVillage PatternLanguage
The third project would be to learn from this and develop a pattern language that could be used for Hubs old and new. And would be open source sharing across continents around small projects. And that is where telephony and Internet become very relevant, too. As we have somebody to talk too!
Business Value
this is work and investment in business. the ROI depends on their business direction. for the right partner the ROI could be one year if they have knowledge work that they want done on the ground in Africa and it's not just about ROI it's about being in position for future ROI. if they don't have this set up then they will have trouble doing the community model so we're clearing the way for them and 20,000 USD is not a lot at all. if they want to have information about their routers available offline then this is a way to do that. For example, to make their help system available offline and furthermore to allow people to become in Africa to become expert in routers so that they can be helping with any discussion groups they may have etc. or do experiments under different conditions, etc. There's a lot of business value for companies here but it depends on their business needs.
the first question is What is the business value? and the business value is huge for the businessses that want access to knowledge workers and related workers. One way to think abou the Software project (Phase I) is that it allows people on-the-ground to access knowledge about wireless - which is very knowledge intensive - without having to already have a good Internet connection. right well need to develop curriculum around wiki and online chats. And it allows for the participation of the very people who wireless could reach. so that is rationale for funding local bussines development, wireless network development, local biz i mean, sustainable appropriate technologies. the global has to be connected with the local. I think more in terms of global participation. so for example imagine knowledge work where you would like to pay 100 USD for 100 hours. well here you would have that available. imagine people writing Wikipedia articles or checking them for spelling errors
MinciuSodas and OneVillageFoundation
How would Minciu Sodas be linked with One Village Foundation in this proposal? on several levels. we would source research and materials and experts on wireless networks for the training. And a practical goal for our proposal would be to make wireless information available offline including information about client's products. but also focus on the development of a more generalize knowledege based for Unity Centers
This would be a proposal from Minciu Sodas, yes and our main link with OVF would be that you would be our liaison researcher with OVF as supporting partner and you would explore how the Unity Center will likely reach beyond its locality to support urban-rural connections, global village. The basic idea is that I behalf of oVF would work with you and the MS network in Africa. There are two practical goals, one for our lab and networks is to make sure people can participate so they are available for offline knowledge work and the other is for general knowledge about wireless and specifically Accton products, knowledge base, support be available. And training to set up wireless network and unity centers or similar telecenter models. including training knowledge. we will be supporting very small on-the-ground projects in wireless and related areas where our people start to practice and we see what kind of information they need in Mbita and elsewhere and keep improving them until they can reach the Internet for example by hopping. So the goal is to allow wireless information to reach area where they will set up local networks and build them out until they can connect with the global Internet.. to set up their own "local networks". the issue is a replicable telecenter wireless network mode.
For this project Minciu Sodas would be the lead and One Village Foundation would play the supporting role and Minciu Sodas would hire you directly and coordinate with OVF regarding team and locations and work would go through Minciu Sodas, yes? so that responsiblity is clear? right i think so because you have strong network in East Africa. We have three strong places there and they are able to travel with each other. Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Uganda (with Fred). we can expand to other locations. we are developing networks that can eventually tie into MS in East africa. and for research we will involve a "control group" in West Africa (Cameroon and Ghana and Nigeria) that will get just a little bit of funding for small projects to see what they can accomplish in wireless. as we do this we'll learn how to coordinate our networks I think. Wendi is in Cameroon and Pamela is linked to Nigeria and so those are two groups that I think about for us. OVF has networks in those countries as well
Community Wireless
search Harold Feld. he is one of the leaders of the community wireless movement in USA also subscribe to wsfii. the corporate and grassroots need to be blended
Accton
Andrius: I'm writing proposals and so I would like to work for Joy at Accton but I wanted to check with you first and make a plan if you are interested. Jeff: ok we need someone to do research and design system for managing the research online to consider community development model instead of conventional telecom/WISP model understand? That will be good for accton and its emerging market business plan that Joy and I are working on.
LarryBrilliant
Jeff, that's great and so I will focus my proposal for Joy and then adapt it for others like Larry Brilliant of google.org (pandemic flu) because this software is important for catastrophe resilience, too, I believe and many other applications. But it would be best to work for you and then we could expand, too, with others we work for.
Related links
Sneakernet is a term used in Wikipedia. See the One Laptop Per Child article on Sneakernet.
TIER Technology and Infrastructure for Emerging Regions at UCBerkeley. Led by Eric Brewer who is on partial leave for Intel Research Berkeley and was Founder and Chief Scientist of Inktomi search engine. Manuel Ramos Jr. is a visiting scholar from the Phillipines with knowledge of robotics. Colleagues from Intel Research include Paul M Aoki (mobile computing and human interaction), Kevin Fall (delay tolerant networks), Matthew Podolsky (Internet architecture) and they are connecting with Intel's Emerging Markets Platforms Group ( Intel World Ahead Program), Digital Health Group ( DHeG) and Digital Home Group ( DHG). Graduate students include Michael Demmer. TierStore is a system of distributing data so that copies are kept closer to the field. Other projects include wireless and education. They have projects in India, Ghana, Cambodia, Rwanda, Phillipines, Guinea Bissau.
PeterKaminski, August 12, 2007: One software solution you could use is Socialtext. We've integrated TiddlyWiki in the front end to create Socialtext Unplugged, which lets you download a subset or all of the pages in a Socialtext wiki into a single HTML file (or a zip file with the HTML file and attachments, if you want to download attachments). The HTML file contains JavaScript that implements a customized version of TiddlyWiki which allows you to browse and edit the downloaded pages while offline. Later when you're back online, you can synchronize the Unplugged pages and the pages on the Socialtext server.
If you don't mind running an Ubuntu server, you can run your own Socialtext instance, by downloading and installing the open source
version. Socialtext Open is the same code base that runs our hosted and appliance services, minus some high-end enterprise integration features. Socialtext developer community
SashaMrkailo August 14, 2007 15:41 CET: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wizzy_Digital_Courier
http://www.wizzy.org.za/article/articleview/10/1/3
I think this is a similar software, wondering if it is open source.
WizzyDigitalCourier has a list of related projects.
Delay Tolerant Network Research Group of the Internet Research Task Force. See: Michael Demmer and his papers. Their Developer group includes Jeff Allen, Jeff Wilson, Lloyd Wood, Wesley Eddy.
Motoman in Cambodia uses transport by mail-delivery motorcycles.
Links to possible funders or partners
- Inveneo Inveneo designs computers, both hardware and software, that are appropriate for remote and rural communities in the developing world. They are designed for unreliable and expensive power, heat, dust, moisture, humidity, lack of affordable Internet or telephony, and novice users and administrators. Inveneo organizes support networks and is working towards a world of GlobalVillages. Cofounders are MarkSummer and BobMarsh, also on the team are LauraMellow, KristinPeterson, JeffWishnie. (Thank you to JerryMichalski!) GaryBolles, July 31, 2007: The Inveneo PCs that Jerry mentioned are solar-powered, and available now; OLPCs seem to be difficult to get hold of in-country, unless you're in an area that has made one of the large-scale bulk commitments they're looking for.
- ZigBee is a communication protocol using low power, digital radios. (Thank you to JerryMichalski!)
- OLPC has built-in networking. (Thank you to EdwardCherlin, JerryMichalski, ShannonClark)
- GreenWifi.org has solar-powered access points as well. (GaryBolles)
- Intel's selling a nice little laptop called the Classmate in the developing world for around $250. (GaryBolles)
- Generally, the 2.4 ghz band for 802.11a/b is open spectrum by international treaty, though there may be some country anomalies. (GaryBolles)
- What Andrius is talking about is actually USB thumb drives, so people can use PCs in their villages, then go to an Internet cafe - assuming the cafe allows thumb drives. (In New Zealand, for example, I found it common that detection software alerted the cafe manager, and I was scolded for risking introducing a virus.) (GaryBolles)
- One twist on village data transfer... Open Digital Village has a very interesting model, outfitting buses with access points and servers so that remote villagers can upload and download voicemail (using wifi handsets) and email. New approach to "store and forward." (GaryBolles)
- GaryBolles is doing some amazing things with rural wimax now, too that could change the political and technology landscape. (KevinJones)
- IBM Think Place Challenge for Africa Holistic Helping, May 14, 2007 DanBriody leads the Global Innovation Outlook Team and see their blog.
- Amazon (Mechanical Turk)
- Eureka funding in Lithuania. Nuo ko pradėti Lietuvos nacionalinis informacijos centras “Eureka”
- Lithuanian foreign ministry funding in Goro, Afghanistan
- Manufacturers of flash drives
- Manufacturers of computer parts for assembly
- Manufacturers of wireless equipment
- WorldBank
Earlier and related versions of this proposal
Please take a look at the KnowledgeWork group, at the link below. I've written up an idea called 'Income from Small Computer-Related Tasks', where people in developing countries who need to raise their incomes can earn money doing small computer-related tasks for people in the richer cities of their own country or Europe and North America.
It would suit people...
a) In a developing country with very few well-paid jobs
b) People who are keen to learn about computers
c) Groups with friends, friends-of-friends, relatives or contacts in the other cities or countries to provide them with work, who share some connection, such as people who emigrated there, the same sport, hobby, aid organization, club, farming interests, etc. Alternatively, they could be put in touch.
http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?KnowledgeWork
I've listed some other ways of earning an income in the AssemblingComputers page, in the section...
'Some suggestions for earning money for your project'.
See...
KnowledgeWork (the top-level list of computer work pages)
IncomeFromSmallComputerRelatedTasks (computer-work for people in wealthier cities and countries)
MoreWaysToEarnExtraMoneyViaTheInternet (various ideas)
GetPaidToCreateEbooks (local people are paid by supporters, NGOs, gov, etc).
AssemblingComputers (links to related pages)
ricardo 29-sep-2007 England ricardoolpc@yahoo.co.uk
A Sneakernet could be used as the basis of an Offline File Sharing Network.
In areas with marginal internet access, it could link people to a place with internet access and allow them to send and recieve emails and file-attachments to other Worknets users and anywhere else in the world. This would allow people to receive the latest updates to this Wiki and asks a friend to post entries to it.
The term 'Sneakernet' comes from people moving files while walking in their sneakers (cheap sports shoes). See Wikipedia: Sneakernet article http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sneakernet
People could also use the service for general email messages, and to ask a friend occasionally to send eBooks, eMagazines, public domain software, copies of web-pages, MP3 files, video files, updates to offline libraries, etc.
A while ago, I wrote a page for the One Laptop Per Child project's Wiki site, that outlines a design people could use for a 'Sneakernet' email and file-attachment service. People would take files from school-to-school on USB Flash Drives, on foot, bicycle, bus, etc, or by mail.
See http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Sneakernet
A Sneakernet could create a large network, linking all the sites, people or schools in a region and can also take emails and files to and from a place with internet access to connect with the rest of the world.
Sneakernets have been used for a long time, especially before the internet. However, they usually just linked 3 or 4 sites, such as university buildings, and served a small group of people. A much larger Sneakernet could provide a local replacement for the internet, for anyone that wants to use it, and link to the internet. The people that transport the messages could be volunteers or paid a small amount to do it by the users.
A Sneakernet provides a cheap communication network that almost anyone can afford. Low capacity 128MB USB Flash Drives cost about $10 in 2007 and are falling all the time. People could also use re-writeable CDs/DVDs for less than $1, even sharing that cost among several people.
One feature of the scheme is that people only move files along one link of the network, to the next school or village, then pass them on to someone else for the next link. Each person doesn't go far from home. There isn't a single 'postman' visiting all sites, so you don't need an organization with vehicles to set it up. It can be rolled out anywhere by local people, just following a printed guide.
The files can either be copied to other people's flash drives to route them to their destination, or physical flash drives can travel long distances. The only real requirement is good organization, following an agreed procedure, not lots of expensive high technology. Different groups can easily adapt the scheme to local conditions.
Since email messages are usually quite small (1 page of text is about 4K bytes), a 128MB flash drive, 700MB CD or 4.7GB DVD can hold thousands of messages.
In areas with no internet-access at all, there is sometimes a postal service, so people could send and receive flash drives, memory cards or CDs by mail to/from a friend in a town with internet access, in their own country or another country.
In some parts of the world, organizations such as KioskNet provide village computer-service Kiosks or Information centres. The Sneakernet could link to these instead of a direct internet access point. See the FlashDriveEditor page, which mentions this. In this way, internet access spreads out from the internet, to Kiosk, to Sneakernet, to computer/flash drive editor users.
I haven't created a separate Sneakernet work goup, as it's similar to this group, just a Sneakernet resource page. Please let me know via comments here if you know any group that may like to use the Sneakernet idea, and send me an email as well if you could to get me to look at them. I can then help the group set it up.
People may think that a Sneakernet isn't the latest high-technology, but someone once said "Never underestimate the bandwidth of a station wagon full of quarter-inch tapes, or a 747 filled with CD-ROMs".
ricardo 18-sep-2007 England ricardoolpc@yahoo.co.uk
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http://www.firstmilesolutions.com/documents/DakNet_IEEE_Computer.pdf