Free sounds like a bad idea to me. Yet another band-aid on the festering wound that the west has created while raping Africa of it's resources. Instead, we should help build an economy.
For a while I've been considering trying to get a grant and working with GeekCorps to teach entrepreneurship in Africa. We would go from village to village, interview people to find those with entrepreneurial tendencies, teach them enough of the tech to build a WISP, and give them micro-loans for the hardware and connectivity that would enable this.
Read the rest of the article, he's partnering with local telcos and they'll be able to charge customers for upgraded access and faster connection speeds. "I want this to be completely self-sustaining," he says.
I think you are right in sentiment, post-colonialism (post 1960s!, I think it is important to remember it's been a relatively short amount of time), most African countries need basic infrastructure (water, power, sewage, communications) that can be built in cells.
I think you'd be really interested in Erik Hersman's blog whiteafrican.com he works on the open source project ushahidi.com, and blogs a lot on micro-entrepreneurial ventures in Africa that are mainly centered around low-tech engineering centered around problems in developing countries and cell-phone technology.
I don't think free basic access is a bad idea, as long as he is focused on a long-term communication solutions centered around basic cheap technology (cheap efficient cell phones), and providing solutions to indigenious problems -- not huge external efforts like OLPC.
Cell phones are pervasive in more developed areas such as Ghana W. Africa, where as laptops and computers are sparse, as long as cell phones can affectively access the wifi provided I think it can work..
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[ 3.2 ms ] story [ 21.9 ms ] threadFor a while I've been considering trying to get a grant and working with GeekCorps to teach entrepreneurship in Africa. We would go from village to village, interview people to find those with entrepreneurial tendencies, teach them enough of the tech to build a WISP, and give them micro-loans for the hardware and connectivity that would enable this.
I think you'd be really interested in Erik Hersman's blog whiteafrican.com he works on the open source project ushahidi.com, and blogs a lot on micro-entrepreneurial ventures in Africa that are mainly centered around low-tech engineering centered around problems in developing countries and cell-phone technology.
I don't think free basic access is a bad idea, as long as he is focused on a long-term communication solutions centered around basic cheap technology (cheap efficient cell phones), and providing solutions to indigenious problems -- not huge external efforts like OLPC.
Cell phones are pervasive in more developed areas such as Ghana W. Africa, where as laptops and computers are sparse, as long as cell phones can affectively access the wifi provided I think it can work..