How next billion will shape net

Internet law professor Michael Geist looks at what doubling the number of users will mean to the net.

China will add another 250 million users over the next decade

Sponsored by the United Nations, the IGF attracted politicians, business leaders, technologists, and others interested in the global issues facing the internet.

While media coverage of the forum focused primarily on domain name issues, those concerns were overshadowed by a far more important and challenging question - what will the next billion users mean to the internet itself?

With more than a billion internet users worldwide, doubling that number, which should happen within the next decade, will obviously have a profound effect on the network, technology, the computer software industry, access to knowledge, and our environment.

Understanding the effect of another billion internet users starts with considering the origin of those users. Although some will reside in North America, Europe, and other developed countries that close their domestic digital divides, the majority of the growth will undoubtedly come from the developing world.

China is already the second largest internet-using country the world and it will likely surpass the United States, the current leader, within the next year or two, adding 250 million internet users over the next decade.

Countries such as India and Brazil should add another 200 million internet users, while the fastest rate of growth is likely to come from Africa, which is starting from a much smaller base.

The next billion will differ in more ways than just geography. Most new internet users will not speak English as their first language, which should lead to increased pressure to accommodate different languages within the domain name system.

Moreover, many new internet users will have different cultural and societal views on hot-button issues such as online free speech, privacy, and copyright. As they demand a voice in global policy making, those users will help shift the policy debate.

The $100 laptop - new users will use different technology

The next billion may also use different technology to access the internet. The recent introduction of the XO laptop - previously known as the $100 laptop - demonstrates how the developing world has different requirements and how the technology industry will have to adapt to those changing environments.

Indeed, flashy, high-end laptops with large screens, fast DVD players, and enormous hard drivers may give way to devices that are energy efficient, sturdier, and better suited to users with varying levels of literacy.

The operating systems and software installed on those machines may also be different. Microsoft and Apple may have been the preferred choice for most of the first billion, but the next billion is far more likely to use open source software alternatives that are free and offer the chance for local customisation.

Not only will the devices be different, but the next billion will employ alternate modes to access the internet. Widespread broadband may be too expensive to install in some developing communities, leading to greater reliance on wireless and satellite-based connectivity.

Users may use mobile devices as their primary way to connect to the internet, experiencing slower speeds of access and forcing e-commerce companies to adapt to a changing marketplace.

The message of the Internet Governance Forum was that the next billion is an enormously positive story. A tale of improving economic condition that will allow for much broader participation in the communication, culture, and commercial opportunities most Canadians now take for granted.

As we welcome the next billion, we must recognise that they will do more than just use the internet. They will help reshape it in their own image and with their own values, languages, and cultures.

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Businesses have designs for the poor

(CNN) -- As anyone who's fallen in love with an iPod or Wii game console can attest to, good product design matters. It can matter more, in fact, than how many (or what kind) of features are crammed into a device.

A December 2006 Hong Kong trade show examined ways technology can help the world's poor.

Consider the N-Gage game phone that Nokia launched four years ago. Despite some great features and a global marketing campaign, poor design made the product a highly ridiculed disappointment. (You had to shut down the phone, open the casing, and remove the battery simply to swap game cartridges, for starters.)

So, given the stakes, it's understandable why top product designers are a hot commodity in the high-tech arena. But for an increasing number of designers, the stakes are even higher elsewhere: global poverty.

Imagine taking the industrial design smarts behind the iPod and applying it to the far more basic technology needs of the extremely poor. In the past, few top designers would have bothered. But that's changing.

At MIT, Stanford, and other universities, young design and engineering talents are eagerly enrolling in courses that teach them how to meet the technology needs of the developing world. Stanford offers a course called "Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability." One of the teachers, David Kelley, is the founder of IDEO, the industrial design firm behind such tech classics as the Palm V PDA and the first production mouse for the Lisa and Macintosh computers from Apple.

Amy B. Smith, an inventor who lectures at MIT, said her course on design for the developing world gets about a hundred applicants, but she can only take 30.

Smith was a lead organizer behind the International Development Design Summit (www.iddsummit.org), held at MIT this summer and planned again for next year. Mechanics, doctors and farmers from around the developing world teamed up with top design talents to come up with "pro-poor" technologies that are inexpensive and effective. One, an off-grid refrigeration unit, uses PVC piping, tiny water drips, and an evaporation-based cooling method to store perishable food in rural areas.

An exhibit called "Design for the Other 90%" (http://other90.cooperhewitt.org) recently ran at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. The exhibit highlighted the "growing trend in design to create affordable and socially responsible objects for the vast majority of the world's population (90 percent) not traditionally serviced by designers," according to organizers.

Getting attention were items such as the StarSight utility pole, which draws energy from its solar panels to provide lighting, wireless Internet access, security surveillance and more (see www.starsightproject.com).

Meanwhile, a pioneer of pro-poor technologies is behind a new organization that will churn out even more ideas. Paul Polak, who started International Development Enterprises (www.ideorg.org) about 25 years ago to aid the rural poor, helped launch a new organization called D-Rev a few months ago. D-Rev is keeping a low profile to ensure a smooth take-off.

A non-profit organization, IDE gained recognition for encouraging the use of water treadle pumps in Asia and Africa. The pumps are made of basic materials readily available in remote areas, but reminiscent of StairMasters in that stepping motions are used to draw up groundwater for watering crops (http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/Design/bamboo-treadle-pump).

Other IDE projects include dirt-cheap ceramic water filters and simple but effective irrigation systems. The idea with each project is to "activate the markets" so that small local merchants have a profit-motive to sell such technologies to poor farmers in their area.

D-Rev, the new organization, will encourage the design of more products for low-income people, but not only for the rural poor. The organization is keeping mum on many details, but one of its projects is a "one-horse micro-diesel engine, which will do for mechanization at the village what the Prius did for the motor car," Polak said.

Another is an electro-chlorinator approach to purifying drinking water in the slums.

"One of the problems with slums is a lot of times they don't have access to a water supply, or they tap into the city water, which really makes you sick because it's got pathogens," Polak said. "I think we can do a low-cost kiosk that'll set up a slum entrepreneur on a franchise basis with $300 in capital costs that'll produce 5,000 liters of drinkable water a day." Imagine 10,000 such kiosks, he added, and you've got a big business.

Polak foresees more designers getting involved in such projects. "Most of the designers in the world spend all their time working to solve the problems of the richest 5 [percent] or 10 percent of the world's customers," he said. "Before I die I want to see this crazy ratio reversed."

He's hopeful, partly because of the reaction he sees among designers. "When they get an opportunity to do this different kind of design," he said, "many of them absolutely love it."

Another D-Rev project is a $15 computer aimed at the rural illiterate. But it's less like a laptop and more like an electronic talking book, ala the LeapFrog Leap Pad and the Fisher Price PowerTouch toys.

These toys come in the form of a flat plastic slate into which a book and electronic cartridge can be attached. When the book is opened and the user touches the page, the combined electronics in the slate and the cartridge respond by voice recordings that are relevant to the page.

D-Rev describes the interface it's designing as somewhat similar. And like the toys, the device will be highly interactive, intuitive to use (zero training required), and usable even by those who are not literate, in English or their own language.

The cartridges, which might sell separately for around $3.50 each, could teach various things in various language, depending on the local needs. One might teach rural farmers in monsoon areas who are familiar only with rice paddies how to grow, maintain and profit from other crops during the long dry season.

In the forgotten reaches of the developing world, where poverty strikes deep and many can't read in any language, such a computer might prove more useful than, say, a $100 laptop with an English-language keyboard.

"The 800 million people who can't read and write wouldn't know what to do with a laptop," said Polak. "So you've got to radically change the whole product, radically change its price and radically change its distribution, its marketing strategy. And now you have a digital revolution for the poor."

Source from: edition.cnn.com

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Businesses have designs for the poor

(CNN) -- As anyone who's fallen in love with an iPod or Wii game console can attest to, good product design matters. It can matter more, in fact, than how many (or what kind) of features are crammed into a device.

A December 2006 Hong Kong trade show examined ways technology can help the world's poor.

Consider the N-Gage game phone that Nokia launched four years ago. Despite some great features and a global marketing campaign, poor design made the product a highly ridiculed disappointment. (You had to shut down the phone, open the casing, and remove the battery simply to swap game cartridges, for starters.)

So, given the stakes, it's understandable why top product designers are a hot commodity in the high-tech arena. But for an increasing number of designers, the stakes are even higher elsewhere: global poverty.

Imagine taking the industrial design smarts behind the iPod and applying it to the far more basic technology needs of the extremely poor. In the past, few top designers would have bothered. But that's changing.

At MIT, Stanford, and other universities, young design and engineering talents are eagerly enrolling in courses that teach them how to meet the technology needs of the developing world. Stanford offers a course called "Entrepreneurial Design for Extreme Affordability." One of the teachers, David Kelley, is the founder of IDEO, the industrial design firm behind such tech classics as the Palm V PDA and the first production mouse for the Lisa and Macintosh computers from Apple.

Amy B. Smith, an inventor who lectures at MIT, said her course on design for the developing world gets about a hundred applicants, but she can only take 30.

Smith was a lead organizer behind the International Development Design Summit (www.iddsummit.org), held at MIT this summer and planned again for next year. Mechanics, doctors and farmers from around the developing world teamed up with top design talents to come up with "pro-poor" technologies that are inexpensive and effective. One, an off-grid refrigeration unit, uses PVC piping, tiny water drips, and an evaporation-based cooling method to store perishable food in rural areas.

An exhibit called "Design for the Other 90%" (http://other90.cooperhewitt.org) recently ran at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum in New York. The exhibit highlighted the "growing trend in design to create affordable and socially responsible objects for the vast majority of the world's population (90 percent) not traditionally serviced by designers," according to organizers.

Getting attention were items such as the StarSight utility pole, which draws energy from its solar panels to provide lighting, wireless Internet access, security surveillance and more (see www.starsightproject.com).

Meanwhile, a pioneer of pro-poor technologies is behind a new organization that will churn out even more ideas. Paul Polak, who started International Development Enterprises (www.ideorg.org) about 25 years ago to aid the rural poor, helped launch a new organization called D-Rev a few months ago. D-Rev is keeping a low profile to ensure a smooth take-off.

A non-profit organization, IDE gained recognition for encouraging the use of water treadle pumps in Asia and Africa. The pumps are made of basic materials readily available in remote areas, but reminiscent of StairMasters in that stepping motions are used to draw up groundwater for watering crops (http://other90.cooperhewitt.org/Design/bamboo-treadle-pump).

Other IDE projects include dirt-cheap ceramic water filters and simple but effective irrigation systems. The idea with each project is to "activate the markets" so that small local merchants have a profit-motive to sell such technologies to poor farmers in their area.

D-Rev, the new organization, will encourage the design of more products for low-income people, but not only for the rural poor. The organization is keeping mum on many details, but one of its projects is a "one-horse micro-diesel engine, which will do for mechanization at the village what the Prius did for the motor car," Polak said.

Another is an electro-chlorinator approach to purifying drinking water in the slums.

"One of the problems with slums is a lot of times they don't have access to a water supply, or they tap into the city water, which really makes you sick because it's got pathogens," Polak said. "I think we can do a low-cost kiosk that'll set up a slum entrepreneur on a franchise basis with $300 in capital costs that'll produce 5,000 liters of drinkable water a day." Imagine 10,000 such kiosks, he added, and you've got a big business.

Polak foresees more designers getting involved in such projects. "Most of the designers in the world spend all their time working to solve the problems of the richest 5 [percent] or 10 percent of the world's customers," he said. "Before I die I want to see this crazy ratio reversed."

He's hopeful, partly because of the reaction he sees among designers. "When they get an opportunity to do this different kind of design," he said, "many of them absolutely love it."

Another D-Rev project is a $15 computer aimed at the rural illiterate. But it's less like a laptop and more like an electronic talking book, ala the LeapFrog Leap Pad and the Fisher Price PowerTouch toys.

These toys come in the form of a flat plastic slate into which a book and electronic cartridge can be attached. When the book is opened and the user touches the page, the combined electronics in the slate and the cartridge respond by voice recordings that are relevant to the page.

D-Rev describes the interface it's designing as somewhat similar. And like the toys, the device will be highly interactive, intuitive to use (zero training required), and usable even by those who are not literate, in English or their own language.

The cartridges, which might sell separately for around $3.50 each, could teach various things in various language, depending on the local needs. One might teach rural farmers in monsoon areas who are familiar only with rice paddies how to grow, maintain and profit from other crops during the long dry season.

In the forgotten reaches of the developing world, where poverty strikes deep and many can't read in any language, such a computer might prove more useful than, say, a $100 laptop with an English-language keyboard.

"The 800 million people who can't read and write wouldn't know what to do with a laptop," said Polak. "So you've got to radically change the whole product, radically change its price and radically change its distribution, its marketing strategy. And now you have a digital revolution for the poor."

Source from: edition.cnn.com

Read More..

How next billion will shape net

Internet law professor Michael Geist looks at what doubling the number of users will mean to the net.

China will add another 250 million users over the next decade

Sponsored by the United Nations, the IGF attracted politicians, business leaders, technologists, and others interested in the global issues facing the internet.

While media coverage of the forum focused primarily on domain name issues, those concerns were overshadowed by a far more important and challenging question - what will the next billion users mean to the internet itself?

With more than a billion internet users worldwide, doubling that number, which should happen within the next decade, will obviously have a profound effect on the network, technology, the computer software industry, access to knowledge, and our environment.

Understanding the effect of another billion internet users starts with considering the origin of those users. Although some will reside in North America, Europe, and other developed countries that close their domestic digital divides, the majority of the growth will undoubtedly come from the developing world.

China is already the second largest internet-using country the world and it will likely surpass the United States, the current leader, within the next year or two, adding 250 million internet users over the next decade.

Countries such as India and Brazil should add another 200 million internet users, while the fastest rate of growth is likely to come from Africa, which is starting from a much smaller base.

The next billion will differ in more ways than just geography. Most new internet users will not speak English as their first language, which should lead to increased pressure to accommodate different languages within the domain name system.

Moreover, many new internet users will have different cultural and societal views on hot-button issues such as online free speech, privacy, and copyright. As they demand a voice in global policy making, those users will help shift the policy debate.

The $100 laptop - new users will use different technology

The next billion may also use different technology to access the internet. The recent introduction of the XO laptop - previously known as the $100 laptop - demonstrates how the developing world has different requirements and how the technology industry will have to adapt to those changing environments.

Indeed, flashy, high-end laptops with large screens, fast DVD players, and enormous hard drivers may give way to devices that are energy efficient, sturdier, and better suited to users with varying levels of literacy.

The operating systems and software installed on those machines may also be different. Microsoft and Apple may have been the preferred choice for most of the first billion, but the next billion is far more likely to use open source software alternatives that are free and offer the chance for local customisation.

Not only will the devices be different, but the next billion will employ alternate modes to access the internet. Widespread broadband may be too expensive to install in some developing communities, leading to greater reliance on wireless and satellite-based connectivity.

Users may use mobile devices as their primary way to connect to the internet, experiencing slower speeds of access and forcing e-commerce companies to adapt to a changing marketplace.

The message of the Internet Governance Forum was that the next billion is an enormously positive story. A tale of improving economic condition that will allow for much broader participation in the communication, culture, and commercial opportunities most Canadians now take for granted.

As we welcome the next billion, we must recognise that they will do more than just use the internet. They will help reshape it in their own image and with their own values, languages, and cultures.

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

Read More..

'$100 laptop' begins production

The first machines have started rolling off the production line

Mass production of the so-called $100 laptop has begun, five years after the concept was first proposed.

Computer manufacturer Quanta has started building the low-cost laptops at a factory in Changshu, China.

One Laptop per Child (OLPC), the group behind the project, said that children in developing countries would begin receiving machines this month

Last month, OLPC received its first official order for 100,000 machines from the government of Uruguay.

"Today represents an important milestone in the evolution of the One Laptop per Child project," said Nicholas Negroponte, founder of OLPC.

The organisation had reached the critical stage despite "all the naysayers," he said.

Price hike

Since Professor Negroponte first put forward the idea of distributing low-cost laptop to children in developing countries in 2002, the plan has been both praised and mocked.

Intel chairman Craig Barret described the XO laptop, as the machine is known, as a "$100 gadget" whilst Microsoft founder Bill Gates questioned its lack of hard drive and "tiny screen".

Other critics have questioned the need for the laptops in countries which, they said, had more pressing needs such as sanitation and health care.

But Professor Negroponte has always maintained that the project is about education not technology.

However, the green and white XO machines pack a number of innovations which make them suitable for use in remote and environmentally hostile areas.

The machine has no moving parts and can be easily maintained. It has a sunlight-readable display that allows children to use it outside and, importantly for areas with little access to electricity, it is ultra low power and can be charged by a variety of devices including solar panels.

Although OLPC eventually plan to sell the machines for $100 or less, the current price is $188 (93).

Christmas gift

Initially OLPC has said that it required three million orders of the XO to make production viable.

Uruguay is the first country to order the machines

Governments were originally offered the machines in lots of 250,000.

So far, however, the organisation's only confirmed order is from Uruguay. The South American country has ordered 100,00 of the machines with an option to purchase a further 300,000.

Other governments have expressed interest in the machines.

For example, the government of Mongolia has announced that it plans to launch a pilot project providing 20,000 laptops, to children aged six to 12.

OLPC has also allowed a limited number of the machines to be bought by people in North America through its Give 1 Get 1 programme (G1G1), which will allow members of the public to buy a machine for themselves as well as one for a child in a developing country.

The programme will offer laptops between the 12 and 26 November. OLPC said that the start of production means that people participating in the scheme will receive their XO by December this year.In pictures Point and shoot Fibre-optic future

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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Uruguay buys first '$100 laptops'

The laptop was designed to be used in developing countries

The first official order for the so-called "$100 laptop" has been placed by the government of Uruguay.

The South American country has bought 100,000 of the machines for schoolchildren aged six to 12.

A further 300,000 may be purchased to provide a machine for every child in the country by 2009.

The order will be a boost for the One Laptop per Child (OLPC) organisation behind the project which has admitted difficulties getting concrete orders.

"I have to some degree underestimated the difference between shaking the hand of a head of state and having a cheque written," Nicholas Negroponte, the founder of the organisation, recently told the New York Times.

However, he said he was "delighted" with the first deal.

"We commend Uruguay for being the first country to take concrete actions to provide laptops to all its children and teachers and look forward to other countries following this example," he said.

Rumour factory

The XO laptop, as the machine is known, has been developed to be used primarily by children in the developing world.

It is durable, waterproof and can be powered by solar, foot-pump or pull-string powered chargers. It includes a sunlight readable display so that it can be used outside and has no moving parts.

OLPC aims to sell the laptop for $100 or less. However, over the last year, the machine's price has steadily increased and now costs $188 (93).

Governments were initially offered the green and white machines in lots of 250,000. However, this has since changed and there are now a variety of ways that the laptops are sold or distributed.

For example, from 12 November, members of the public can buy a machine for themselves as well as one for a child in a developing country.

The Give 1 Get 1 (G1G1) programme will initially distribute laptops to Cambodia, Afghanistan, Rwanda and Haiti.

Other schemes allow donors to purchase lots of 100 or more of the machines for a country of their choice. Prices start at $299 (145) per machine.

Connected country

However, the main focus for OLPC has been selling the machines direct to governments.

The $100 has already been tested in many countries

In July, hardware suppliers were told to ramp-up production of all of the components needed to build the low-cost machines.

Many believed that the decision meant that the organisation had met or surpassed the three million orders it need to make production viable. However, the latest news suggests this was not the case.

Previous reports had also suggested deals with the governments of Libya, to provide a laptop for every child, as well as Peru and a sponsorship programme with Italy to provide 50,000 machines to Ethiopia.

A spokesperson for OLPC said none of these were confirmed deals.

Instead, Uruguay is the first country to sign up for the scheme.

The order for 100,000 machines was placed by the state-run Laboratorio Tecnolgico del Uruguay (Latu) which runs a large scale education and communications project known as Ceibal.

The scheme will also provide connectivity to all of the schools involved.

Before placing the order, Latu had also evaluated the rival Intel Classmate PC.

Initially the XO laptops will be distributed in eight to nine of the country's 19 regions. A further 300,000 machines will provide machines for all of the country's children.

"We will also cover the rest of the country later in 2008 and Montevideo in 2009," said Miguel Brechner, president of the organisation.Bearing fruit Day in pictures Jerusalem diary

Source from: news.bbc.co.uk

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