OLPC Mali

"""
With the exception of Bamako, schools in Mali do not have electricity because class is conducted during the daylight hours and electricity is expensive. Electricity was a necessity at the school in order to charge the computers during the day and give the children a full day of computer usage.

Getting electricity meant paying for concrete poles, wires, outlets, and installation of all of this. This proved to be the largest cost of the project and quite expensive in the end.

An internet connection was originally in the plans for the pre‐pilot but set up and service through Orange Telecom Company, which has a virtual monopoly on internet service in Mali, was far too expensive and therefore not realistic at this stage.
"""
OLPC Mali final report.

Love song of the day

buzz, buzz

"leko ikea"

So true

HRP-4C

Year 2009.

Talk to talk

Sometime good ideas are strange ideas:

"""
David, a Masai herdsman from Kisumu in Kenya, answers a call on his cellphone. After listening to the message, he repeats a short phrase in his Masai dialect. He then listens to another short message, and repeats the new phrase. After 30 minutes, he ends the call, having earned enough for a week’s worth of personal cellphone airtime.
"""

If I gave half an hour per week of my work time, and considering my current salary, that would be equivalent of me paying 80 Euros per month for unlimited phone calls. Seems a little pricey, but I like the concept of direct "skill for stuff" instead of "money in the middle".

Also the concept of implanting a small technological device "in the middle of nowhere" that allows a direct flow of money from rich countries to poor individual seems very interesting. The question of "which is the highest value skill possible to be done on a small cheap mobile unit ?" seems interesting to me.