Backwater Journal

India's Om Prakash Fights Child Labor and Wins Children's Peace Prize

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Tue, 21 Nov 2006 03:02:00 +0000

He was taken away from his parents at the age of 5. He was turned into a child slave and made to work in the farms and tend to cattle without wages. He was given meals but frequently beaten up by his masters. After suffering the hardship for 3 years, he was rescued by an NGO called Bachpan Bachao Andolan.

Soon after that he started putting his effort on changing the lives of all the other kids who were going through the same nightmare in his home state Rajastan. On 19 Nov 2006 Om Prakash received the International Children's Peace Prize worth $100,000 for leading a campaign against child labour and child slavery. The former President of South Africa, Frederik Willem De Klerk, presented the award.

Since his rescue, the 14 year-old has helped to create a network known as ‘child friendly villages’. In these villages child labor is forbidden and children’s rights are respected. He has also campaigned for children's birth certificates. He says birth registration is the first step towards enshrining children's rights, proving their age, helping to protect them from slavery, trafficking, forced marriage or serving as a child soldier. It seems he has arranged birth registration for 500 children on his own.

In his speech during the award, he said, "This is our right - that they have to listen. This is children's right. And if they are not abiding with that right, we will work harder to make them hear."

http://www.bbasaccs.org/news/biography_om.php
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/6164134.stm
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Victory_at_last_Child_slave_gets_prize/articleshow/498510.cms

Libya to Purchase 1.2 Million Cheap Laptops

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Sun, 19 Nov 2006 13:10:00 +0000

Libya seems to have made a deal with Nicholas Negroponte's One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) for the purchase of 1.2 million laptops to equip it’s school kids. These are specially design $100 wind-up laptops. The cost is estimated to be $250 million and the delivery will be made by mid 2008. The machines will be manufacture by Taiwan’s hardware manufacturer Qanta. And the production is reported to start early 2007. With this deal Libya could be the first country to provide all school kids a laptop with internet connection.

Other countries which are showing interest in the $100 laptops are Argentina, Brazil and Thailand. India has withdrawn from the idea after talks stating that it needs schools and teachers more than such tools.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/6040536.stm
http://laptop.media.mit.edu/

Moladi's Casting Based Low Cost Housing Technology

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Sun, 15 Oct 2006 12:04:00 +0000

Moladi is a construction technology that was designed to address shortages faced by developing countries in low-cost housing. The problems are lack of resources, insufficient funds, shortage of skills and time constraint. Hennie Botes, a South African entrepreneur, is the designer and owner of the patented Moladi Construction Technology. It is specially developed to speed construction, improve quality, and lower the construction cost of residential housing.

The concept is based on casting technology. First a mould is built from plastic shutter panels in the form of the planned house and is then filled up with a lightweight mortar. The mortar takes only one day to dry and is then ready to receive a roof and other finishes like window frames and plumbing.

It is designed to speed construction, improve quality, and lower the construction cost of residential housing. The conventional brick and block method is not capable of producing an affordable quality product that is comparable to a Moladi. The houses are build better, faster and at lower cost.

Moladi’s technology has improved the lives of poor communities which were without proper housing. It could also improve socio economic development through community involvement and sharing the Moladi technology with the local contractors with little training.

Freeplay – Electricity Independent Electronics

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Sun, 06 Aug 2006 03:53:00 +0000

Freeplay is a firm that produces self energy sufficient electronic products such as radios and torch lights. Freeplay says “When Freeplay creates technologies and adapts them to products; our goal is to provide freedom and independence through reliability. The result of achieving this goal is empowerment. We conduct our business in such a way that we help to empower people; whether they are our customers, our investors, recipients of special aid from NGOs, or members of our team.”

Freeplay’s Lifeline radio, for example, is a wind-up energy and solar powered multi-band radio that could be used in rural areas without electricity. It doesn’t require batteries and developed to be used in the harshest conditions. It could play up to 24 hours with full charge and used to provide useful information to the mass and critical information during emergencies. It is something that could be operated by kids and adults and heard by groups of 40. For Freeplay, the radio has been a tool for communication, education and hope in their humanitarian projects.

Freeplay supports Freeplay Foundation, which is committed to providing innovative and practical energy solutions to ensure sustained access to information via radio. The fact is the first Lifeline radios were distributed to Burundian youth living in refugee camps in Tanzania by the foundation.

Links:

http://www.freeplayenergy.com/index.php?section=products
http://www.freeplayenergy.com/index.php?section=humanitarian&subsection=projects
http://www.freeplayfoundation.org

Ndiyo - Networked computing for everyone

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Tue, 04 Jul 2006 14:32:00 +0000

Ndiyo is a UK based nonprofit, which is setup to develop networked computing based on these factors.

simple
affordable
open
less environmentally-hostile
less dependent on intensive technical support

Ndiyo (nn-dee-yo), means ‘yes’ in Swahili, an African language. They’ve developed a computer network system that consists of a number of ‘nivo’, which are unltra-thin clients connected to a server PC, operating on open source software. Currently they seem to be using Ubuntu. The system is based on sharing the power of a PC between several users at once. This means, one PC serving between five to ten terminals, which operate just like PCs. Technology to support multiple users at once using a single PC is available via operating systems like Ubuntu. The ultra-thin-client allows an extra display, keyboard and mouse to be connected to the PC via a standard network cable.

Ndiyo has join ventured with GrameenPhone, a Bangladesh mobile operator, to open it’s first Community Information Centre (Fultola CIC). It’s an Ndiyo based four-screen internet cafe with internet connectivity via an Edge-enabled mobile phone. So, a mobile phone connected to one PC is giving four people access to the internet simultaneously. Newnham Research, a company created out of Ndiyo project, is producing and supplying the thin-client devices for the CIC.

Links:

http://www.ndiyo.org
http://www.grameenphone.com
http://www.newnhamresearch.com
http://www.grameen-info.org/grameen/gtelecom/index.html
http://www.grameenphone.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=3:11:1 [Bangladesh Village Phone Program]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Enhanced_Data_Rates_for_GSM_Evolution

Radio in Timbuktu

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 17:22:00 +0000

Geekcorps has setup radio stations in the remote areas of Mali which are stimulating communication and economic activities there. The radio stations are equipped with Desert PC systems, which use VIA Mini-ITX form factor as the base of a hardened, satellite Internet-connected PC. For radio programming they have digital audio broadcasting equipment and antennas made of plastic bottles and tin cans. Geekcoprs brought a wireless expert, who then developed the cheap antenna making technique. Bottlenet is the given name for this sort of cheap wireless networking. The locals have learned to make them and there is already a small company that makes these antennas for around $1.

Mali’s radio journalists used to ride for two days by bus to deliver cassettes of important recorded news to their radio stations. Same thing goes to anyone living in Mali’s remote. Geekcorps has changed this for good. Now, a villager could send a message to a friend in another part of the country via the radio stations. His message is emailed by a DJ, from a local radio station to another radio station closest to his friend. A DJ of that radio station then announces on the radio that he should come to the station to receive the message.

The stations are gaining revenue by selling ads and charging for the e-mail service. A number of them are also providing services to broadcast wedding ceremonies live. It seems a station created by the organization in the village of Boureem Inaly makes $50 a month. That’s quite a lot in terms of Mali’s standards and in the extreme remote. Plus, not so surprisingly, DJs at the radio stations have began to use their computers to answer listener questions using information found on Wikipedia or other Web sites.

This Geekcorps project has brought huge improvement in the way the people of Mali got informed and communicated.

Links:

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/business2/business2_archive/2006/03/01/8370556/index.htm
http://news.com.com/2100-1008_3-6043635.html?part=rss&tag=6043635&subj=news
http://mali.geekcorps.org

VIA’s PHD Appliance

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Mon, 26 Jun 2006 13:42:00 +0000

The computer chipmaker, VIA Technologies, Inc., has developed a computer system called PHD Appliance, which is designed for developing and rural areas with harsh environment. PHD stands for “Power, Heat, Dust”. It’s capable of running Windows XP with a 12V car battery or solar power where power grids don’t exist or power supply is not reliable. This has been made possible by VIA’a highly energy efficient processor platforms such as VIA pc1000 processor and VIA C-Series. The system is developed for VIA pc-1 Initiative program, which seeks to bring down the digital divide by introducing and facilitating ICT in the developing world.

PHP Appliance uses no fans and this has several benefits, there is nothing to suck dust and particles inside the box. One of the new designs of PHD has outer casing that incorporates broad heat-dissipation shell which makes the system effective and reliable in extremely warm climates.

PHDs are being used by Geekcorps in Mali. Geekcorps is an international nonprofit organization that promotes stability and prosperity in the developing world through information and communication technology. One of the programs that they have developed and implemented in Mali is “Cybertigi”. Cybertigi is a mobile computing kiosk based on the VIA PHD Appliance to sell cyber services such as email, voicemail, copying, digital imaging, printing, etc. The services are offered to people in rural Mali without access to basic information or communication services.

For latest info please follow the links.

http://www.via.com.tw/en/initiatives/empowered
http://www.viapc-1.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=330&Itemid=1
http://mali.geekcorps.org/2006/06/15/cybertigi-a-recap

KickStart's MoneyMaker Irrigation Pumps

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Fri, 23 Jun 2006 03:26:00 +0000

KickStart is an international nonprofit organization that was founded in Kenya in July 1991 by Nick Moon and Martin Fisher. KickStart’s mission is to promote sustainable economic growth and employment creation in Kenya and other countries by developing and promoting technologies that can be used by dynamic entrepreneurs to establish and run profitable small scale enterprises.

In a move to teach the poor men to fish, instead of just providing them with fish, Martin and his partner Nick Moon decided to give rural Africans the information and tools they needed to start profitable businesses. They developed a low-cost irrigation tool called "MoneyMaker Pump". The inexpensive ($52-90) treadle operated pumps irrigate plots up to 2 acres in size from water pumped from hand-dug wells, rivers, streams, lakes or ponds. They provide adequate irrigation, allowing small-scale subsistence farmers to turn their land into vibrant commercial enterprises.

With irrigation the Kenyan farmers can grow and sell as many as three to four high value vegetable crops every year, and ensure that the crop is ready for market when the price is high. These "farmerpreneurs" are increasing their incomes by as much as ten-fold and making as much as 400,000 shillings ($5400) profit per year.

Impacts of KickStart MoneyMaker Pumps to date:

36,000 pumps in use by poor farmers
29,000 new waged jobs created
$39 million per year in new profits and wages generated by the pumps
More than 50% of pumps managed by women entrepreneurs
4 manufacturers producing pumps in Nairobi and Arusha
200 retailers selling pumps in Kenya and Tanzania

KickStart has a market and private-sector oriented approach. This is to ensure the impacts of its program become fully self-sustaining in local economies. Technologies are installed in the private sector and continue to be produced, marketed, and used by entrepreneurs to create thousands of vibrant new businesses and jobs, long after KickStart's interventions have ceased.

Other low-cost tools by KickStart:

A manually operated oilseed press that extracts oil from sunflower, sesame, and other oil seeds.
Action Pack Block Press, a manual press that can produce 500 rock hard building blocks a day.

Links:

http://www.kickstart.org

$100 Laptop - One Laptop Per Child

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 06:52:00 +0000

One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) is a non-profit organization that is leading the $100 laptop project. OLPC was created by MIT Media Lab to develop and manufacture the laptops. The goal is to equip every child in the world with a laptop to enable access to information and modern education.

The organization and the project was announce by World Economic Forum in January 2005. The project is funded by sponsoring companies like Google, Red Hat, AMD, Brightstar Corporation, News Corporation and Nortel Networks. A working prototype was demonstrated at the World Summit on the Information Society.

Some known basic design requirements are as follows.

minimal power consumption, with a design target of 2-3 W total power consumption
minimal production cost, with a target of $100 per laptop for production runs of one million units
a cool look, implying an innovative styling in its physical appearance
eBook functionality with extremely low power consumption
the software provided with the laptop be open source and free software

For more info please visit.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One_Laptop_Per_Child
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/$100_laptop

Some criticism found here.

http://fonly.typepad.com/fonlyblog/2005/11/problems_with_t.html

Solo Computer runs on 8.5 Watts

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 03:01:00 +0000

Fantsuam Foundation from Nigeria have developed a computer which runs on 8.5 watts of power as compared to an average computer which consumes 300 watts. It's called "SOLO". It's build to withstand rough conditions in the third world nations such as Africa. Also, for very remote areas without electricity supply. ExpLAN Lmt, which is based in UK is manufacturing SOLO. Given below is how they describe SOLO.

"The Solo is an ultra-low power, transportable computer designed to operate from a number of different power sources including solar panels and lead-acid vehicle batteries. Its ultra-low-power design enables it to be used indefinitely away from sources of mains electricity."

"Solo is a transportable rather than a portable computer. The entire device can be solid state, having no disc drives or moving parts. The base operating system is in ROM, applications in Flash RAM and the usual RAM for workspace. For certain software requiring ongoing disc-access, a 1-inch microdrive replaces the internal Compact Flash. It uses a TFT Liquid Crystal Display, which may optionally be touch sensitive, removing the need for a separate keyboard and mouse. It may be supplied in a variety of configurations and screen sizes depending on the location of the manufacturer and their intended market."

For latest info refer as follows.

http://www.explan.co.uk

Simputer - Bridging the Digital Divide

noreply@blogger.com (Luchman) — Mon, 19 Jun 2006 17:13:00 +0000

Simputer is a low cost hand-held computer developed by a group of engineers in India. The word "Simputer" is an acronym for "simple, inexpensive and multilingual people's computer". It was designed to bring computing power to the Indian rural masses and other parts of the poor world. Imagine a farmer in a remote village using a computer in the simplest form to go online and check the latest price of crops, hence, avoids duped by the greedy middle men.

Well, Simputer runs on Linux operating system and equipped with a range of software, which include, internet browser, scheduler, spreadsheet, voice recorder and so on. It has a touch sensitive screen and operated by a stylus. As such, it’s also equipped with handwriting recognition software.

Some recognized large scale use of Simputer are as follows.

Govt. of Karnataka – Automate the process of land records procurement.
Chattisgarh for the purpose of e-education.
Mahindra & Mahindra - automobile engine diagnostics
Dempo, Goa - tracking of iron-ore movement from mine pithead to shipping point
Microcredit (Sanghamitra, Mysore) - electronic money transfer between UK and Ghana (XK8 Systems, Kenya)

Picopeta Simputers Pvt Ltd of India is commercially producing Simputer, which is branded as Amida Simputer. It comes in a number of models with slightly different specification. Below is a general hardware specification list.

Specification

32 bit Intel StrongARM 206 MHz processor (Although current Simputer models are using the Intel PXA255 processor)
64 megabytes of RAM
32 MB of flash memory
Can use cheap removable smartcards, each able to hold from 8 kB to 1 MB of data.
33.6/56 kbit/s V.90 Modem (external) Encore offers this as an internal option.
Display Interface 320x240 LCD+ (Encore also offers a 16x4 character monochrome display in its lowest end version.)
Accelerometer Only on the Amida.
Built-in USB (Amida has support for 2 USB Masters and 1 USB Slave), speaker, and microphone (Builtin and Jacks provided), Legacy technology like CFII are also supported in Encores Simputer
Infrared Option available on the Amida that conforms to the IrDA 1.0 Standard.

For the latest info please refer as follows.

http://www.simputer.org
http://www.amidasimputer.com
http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Simputer&oldid=58457751