Third World Mobile Computing

Contributors: Mark Petrakis, Howard Rheingold, Paul Saffo, Jessica Margolin, Mike Liebhold, Steve Cisler.

Summary:
Small, inexpensive mobile computing devices will drive a host of secondary social, economic, and infrastructure changes in the Third World.

Several recently announced devices aim at providing computing into remote and poor regions of the world—among them MIT’s $100 laptop computer and AMD’s PIC.

The $100 laptop features mesh wireless, which means that one network connection could literally serve hundreds of laptops. The PIC really is quite different from Nick's laptop, as among other things, it requires the active participation/support of a local cable/internet provider which updates the software.

The network side of the equation on these devices is the big unknown. The mesh networks scenario sounds great, assuming the respective governments go along with such decentralized
access. Thenthe door opens to a wide spectrum of uses including all the mobile mobbing possibilities.

Previously difficult-to-collect information about local resources, environmental impacts, international aid distribution, human rights abuses, election irregularities, etc. might be gathered from multiple sources, consolidated and combined with other local sources to render more detailed reports of activity in previously top-down controlled regions.

There is of course, the obvious notion of online education, curricula configured at the local level--starting with the requisite "Meet your New Computer" intro guide--in your native spoken language, no less.

Or an auction/services available system like Ebay or Craigslist... where "really" local crafts are sold or work is bid upon on a world market by individual artisans... assuming the presence of some reliable shipping method. Could get a bit odd: "I got my Xmas presents (most likely iPod cases) handmade by Eligio, my Huichol Indian IM pal."

The idea of suddenly wired people using these devices to intermediate goods and services is interesting in terms of the implications for new markets. John Hagel identifies innovation in China and India among companies reaching out to the mass domestic market. As he says, "Their target customers are distributed in rural areas with very limited physical infrastructures and the customers are far less affluent than the typical customers in Western economies. They need to deliver more value at lower cost than they could with the traditional business approaches of Westerncompanies."

So effects could easily extend both up and down the local pyramid. As new individuals and clusters of individuals identify themselves, so might innovative regional businesses - already a part of the local economies, learn how to integrate and leverage these new participants.

Planning problems

The visions and technological potential exceed human competencies in many places.

Project planners underestimate the complexity of most projects, focusing less on the human and cultural issues and more on hardware, software, and connectivity.

Engage local talent before implementation. The local needs may be at odds with the outside visionaries goals. There are now cadres of in-country experts and less need for expensive consultants from donor countries—though this is usually a condition for a grant or loan.

Plan for local idiosyncrasies, constraints, and realities.

There are no short term technology projects, but most funding is. Achieving a level of sustainability means addressing political, social, technological aspects of the problem, not just money.

Lee Felsenstein (who has a competing design) criticizes the $100 laptop: http://fonly.typepad.com/fonlyblog/2005/11/problems_with_t.html

Hal Varian in the NY Times, on the $100 laptop

Varian frames the issue in an historical light. He goes back to 1853 and the introduction of the sewing machine, that allowed buyers a way to make money by taking in mending. Seeing how people were using his invention, Isaac Singer proceeded to introduce the installment purchasing plan.

In imagining the adoption of a cheap hand-powered laptop device today among the currently unwired populations of the world, Varian outlines several possible practical uses:

1) A cash register to enable cash transactions to be tracked, with or w/o a network.

2) A means to transfer funds, perhaps through an human operator,

3) A way to record and preserve contracts in areas where formal

4) A upsurge in literacy spurred by the immediate goal of making

The situation reminded me of that old movie, "The Gods Must be
Crazy." Mobile networked devices appearing suddenly in underdeveloped and remote regions may well generate some fairly
unexpected uses. What other uses might people make of such a device?

Howard Rheingold on other uses of laptop computer

What other uses? A few to start:

Farmers in Africa can get market prices for agricultural commodities:
http://www.kacekenya.com/marketinfo/sms.asp

Sell your cameraphone pix of news events to mass media: http://
www.scoopt.com/

Foment worldwide violent demonstrations: http://
www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/

Tip an election in Spain: http://www.iht.com/articles/511268.html

Paul Saffo on mesh networking with the laptop

Paul Saffo:
Overall, the experience of the AMD PIC felt a bit like using AOL -- one was grateful for the internet access, but one also felt like you were looking at the internet thru the picture frame of the PIC, much as one feels like one is looking through the AOL porthole at the larger world of cyberspace. Some users will hate this, while others (like parents) will love this. Nick's machine will also have its limits, but I expect that it will be more changeable. The bottom line of course is that each device has its own niche.

John Maloney:
Isn't the $100 laptop just the Mother-of-All "Buy-in, Follow-on" strategies,e.g., give away the razor, but man, sell those blades! It is easy to see the lifecycle cost being 10x or 100x more than the appliance cost. Not to rule it out, it is an okay idea, (personally, I like the gates cell phone idea better), but, people could get into trouble with a perfect client and no services.

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