the drop » Science & Technology

One Laptop per Child: Is Criticism Welcome?

Untouchable? OLPC, the Church, and the Red Cross

News of a tentative agreement between Libya and One Laptop per Child made headlines earlier this week. The 2B1 Children’s Machine is designed to be a low-cost, low-power laptop, targeted at developing nations. While agreements with Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria and Thailand have also been reached, India rejected participation in July. Economist Atanu Dey writes about his skepticism of OLPC and the Indian government’s reasoning in his blog.
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MoLive Returns?

Spotty service for Chinese citizen photo journalism site

Last month I linked to Dante Chinni’s article on molive.cn and the possibilities of online citizen journalism in China. The site had mysteriously gone down due to server maintenance for several weeks. Molive is up and running again.

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City’s ‘Green Lungs’ Can Be Anywhere

Go to 'Respiratory Oases' on WorldChanging

Elegant Embellishments is developing a decorative, three-dimensional architectural tile that can reduce vehicular air pollution — specifically, nitrous oxide and ground-level ozone — in urban environments. EE’s tiles respond to the priorities set by the EU Clean Air Strategy 2005, which aims to reduce pollution deaths by over 100,000, and air pollution related damages by up to 45 billion Euros annually. Emissions from combustion engines are identified as the largest contributor to air pollution in cities and often invisibly affect our breathable air. The tiles, when positioned near pollutant sources, can re-appropriate these polluted spaces for safe pedestrian use.
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EU REACH Legislation on Hazardous Chemicals

NGOs and chemical companies battle over European REACH legislation. (Photo: Photocase)

An article in the International Herald Tribune announced that the European Parliament environmental committee approved proposed REACH (Registration, Evaluation and Authorization of Chemicals) legislation. The draft rules, which are being contested by major chemical companies, still need to pass voting by the EU Parliament and member governments.

At the Chemical Policy Institute website, there’s a comprehensive rundown on the stakeholders in the fight to pass REACH. The outline analyzes the key issues of the dispute, the costs and benefits of the legislation, and the major players.
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Continuing the Dialogue Online: Blog Carnivals

Blog carnivals: Furthering community online

With so many disparate voices in the blogosphere, it can seem like dialogue is often relegated to the background. That’s where blog carnivals come in, bringing people together online to discuss specific topics, from sexual violence to the decline of democracy.
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Farming for Biofuels

Fields of Biofuel

This week on BBC’s Green Room, president of the UK’s National Farmers’ Union (NFU), Peter Kendall, argues that UK agriculture can meet the country’s demand for both food and fuel crops: “Farmers in the UK see the opportunity to provide the feedstock to biofuel producers as a way to deliver secure, low-carbon fuel to the nation’s motorists.”, he says.
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Upgrading International Development, Part II

A Talk with Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices Online Co-founder, Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law

In part two of the interview, Ethan shares his views on conquering digital divides, activism and technology, and how improvements in technology might affect us in the future. You can read the first part of the interview here.
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How can we use technology to turn apathy into action?

I think the only force that combats apathy is empathy. Until you care about a situation in another part of the world, it’s very hard to decide to pay attention to that situation and even harder to decide to act.

To get people to care across cultural, language and geographic barriers requires some sort of exposure. I knew very little about Africa and cared very little until I lived in Ghana as a student in 1993. Coming back to the US, I was suddenly interested in African politics because there were a lot of people in Ghana I cared deeply for. This discovery is what led me to form Geekcorps - I wanted to give other geeks the chance to get exposed to different parts of the world, build interpersonal ties and work on solutions to tough technical problems.

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Power Players in Net Neutrality

Proposed US legislation on Internet neutrality is being hotly debated.

At Salon, there’s an interesting read about the grassroots organizations taking on large telecom companies in the fight for Net neutrality. The Telecom Slayers provides a clear overview of the main concerns with the proposed Internet legislation, as well as a rundown on the organizations and lobbyists working for and against the issue.

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Upgrading International Development

A Talk with Ethan Zuckerman, Global Voices Online Co-founder, Fellow at the Berkman Center for Internet & Society at Harvard Law

I had the opportunity to correspond with Ethan Zuckerman, just back from a trip to Zimbabwe and the Digital Citizen Indaba conference on blogging. In part one of the interview, Ethan talks about his involvement in international development, blogging, the lack of media coverage on foreign investment in Africa, and the prospects of an African blogging conference.

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I came across your blog and Global Voices through being an avid reader of Sokari Ekine’s blog Black Looks. Now it seems that whenever there’s a topic I find interesting either you or Sokari is involved! How did you first get involved in international development and technology issues?

Sokari is one of my favorite reads as well, and one of the bloggers who’s helped convince me of the power of this medium to build friendships across barriers of nationality, race, gender and other obstacles. I’m very grateful to her for the work she did as the founding Africa editor for Global Voices.
I’ve been interested in international development since I lived in Ghana as a student in 1993. But I didn’t think about getting involved in development issues until my work on Tripod.com. Coming out of the experience of helping to run a successful dot.com, I wondered whether any of the lessons I learned could be applicable in building technology businesses in Africa. I was lucky enough to have the mentorship of Professor Dick Sabot, who was a brilliant development economist as well as an entrepreneur, and who helped encourage me to channel my interests into Geekcorps, the NGO I founded in 1999 to work on technology transfer in the developing world.

What has been the response to projects like BlogAfrica and Global Voices Online?

The two projects have had very different responses, probably because they’ve had very different purposes. BlogAfrica was designed to be a tool useful to a small group of people - folks who follow Africa closely and want to keep up with a large number of voices for the continent. For those folks, it’s a little rough around the edges, but functional and basically useful. But it’s not a site I spend a lot of time promoting and celebrating - the folks who would find it useful generally already know about it.

Global Voices, on the other hand, is a site that I’d love everyone to read. It’s designed to pull people into stories they’d otherwise miss, broaden their worldview and introduce them to people they otherwise would never get to know. It’s been amazingly successful - we were just honored with the Knight Batten award for innovation in journalism. Technorati ranks us as the 175th most popular blog in the blogosphere… which is pretty good for a blog that doesn’t focus on technology, popular culture or US politics.
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MoLive: A Step Towards Citzen Journalism in China?

Documenting the everyday with cellphone cameras

After reading an article about a new photo website launched in China, I was curious to find out what type of images were allowed. Molive.cn, an offshoot of the China Daily online news site, displays a collection of photos taken with cellphones by everyday people. Journalist Dante Chinni sees the site as having great potential to change the meticulously controlled media in China.
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Visualize This: Internet reading experience reinvented

The future of online newspapers

Reading a newspaper online simply can’t replace reading the printed version. It’s just not the same. Holding a newspaper feels very different from sitting in front of a computer screen, of course. But more importantly, the way one reads a printed newspaper is more engaged and intuitive. When holding a newspaper your eyes take in a much broader stream of information, and often times you end up reading something that you wouldn’t be looking for on your search engine. Well, this just may change very soon.
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“How can the Internet…serve to enhance our own communities?”

Women use the Internet cafe during a Refugees Emancipation computer course

“In order to turn that technology into something that enhances our communities, we need to direct the technology towards a specific end. We need to organize, and then technology alone won’t enable us to do that. It’s just a tool in – among many tools that have to be used to fight for that kind of vision.” - Anthony Arnove, activist, author and Table of Free Voices participant.
Fighting for that kind of vision, Eben Chu organized Refugees Emanicipation (RE), an NGO begun by asylum seekers in Germany.
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“Business Rebel” Richard Branson pledges $3 billion to combat global warming

Branson at the opening event of one of his many brands: Virgin Bride. Next costume will be green...

Story found at lime: Richard Branson, the British mogul behind the Virgin multi-brand, plans to invest the profits from all transportation sectors — including train companies and five airlines - in research and business efforts to develop and promote renewable, sustainable energy sources. From signing the Sex Pistols in his early Virgin years to offering space flights – Branson is known for audacious projects and thinking BIG. The original AP story reveals that Branson made the decision after talking with former US Vice-President Al Gore - whose movie “An Inconvenient Truth” about Climate Change changed some minds in the States.

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Reach Out and Finance Someone

Courtesy Grameen Foundation

A few weeks ago I interviewed Peter Bladin, vice president of Grameen Foundation, the US-based wing of Muhammad Yunus’s Grameen Bank – the Bangladesh institution often referred to as the first large-scale microfinance project in the world. Although the interview (published today) focuses on the connection between technology and microfinance, we also talked a bit about Village Phone, the program where locals sell mobile phone air time in their communities, and make a profit doing so.
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Beer, Chips and… Internet TV

The end of TV? Crowds create and rate their own media...

Did I mention that I studied TV but never actually watched it? Anyway, last night I tried to promote my transcriptions of Bill Joy´s answers from the Table of Free Voices, so I went to problogger for some tips, and learned that I ought to pitch the story to places like reddit, furl or digg - where real people choose which content matters. I was a good digital citizen and uploaded my photo to digg, but then I found myself overwhelmed by the real-time barrage of story suggestions every second. So then I went to see digg Offbeat News. That´s where I found out about “yruhrn – First Book Created by Global Collaboration of Over 1,000 People”. And that´s where my zig-zag tour through our lovely social web started…
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BILL JOY on our Innovation Acceleration

100 answers from Free Voices like Bill Joy now avaiable

Among the 100 questions that Bill Joy answered at the Table of Free Voices were 13 questions about “Innovation Acceleration: Science, Technology and the Future.” Read what the co-founder of Sun Microsystems, Green Technology investor, and the man Fortune magazine calls the “Edison of the Internet” has to say about the social impact of new media, local food, and why companies should insure against genetic catastrophes. Here are some (exclusive) transcribed excerpts of Joy’s answers from the “Innovation Acceleration” question session from the Table of Free Voices. Like all content from the Table, Joy’s answers are Copyleft.
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“We are in the Knowledge Age”

Tired but inspired, buoyed by rousing speeches from Ralf Schmerberg, a moving ceremonial song from Angaangaq ‘Uncle’ Lyberth, and a voice from the virtual world, the participants have returned for the final session. Our circle is complete once more…
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Reef Encounter

The scene today on the Great Barrier Reef Â© WWF-Canon / JÃ¼rgen Freund

The bizarre death of Aussie naturalist and showman Steve Irwin has focussed attention on a section of the Great Barrier Reef off Australia’s north eastern coast, near Port Douglas. In 2004, after four years of steadfast campaigning by the WWF, the Reef was transformed into the world’s largest network of “Marine Protection Areas”: the zone covered increased from 4.6 per cent to 33 per cent, or 11,000,000ha.
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Design for Life

Massive Change exhibit, © Bruce Mau Design Inc 2006

What is sustainable design? Its reach is enormous. Everything from a Kinder Egg to a skyscraper is designed but sustainable design seeks to develop goods that will leave a minimal environmental footprint and not cause tricky social or economic consequences and that’s a tall order.
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I.T. Takes a Village

Villagers at Hansdehar © SmartVillages.Org 2006

The Indian village of Hansdehar has launched itself onto the net. You can read all about the villagers, the history, tourist opportunities and the problems of day to day life at SmartVillages.Org. There are photos too, and lists of the number of registered pensioners as well as detailed information on the sewage system. It’s the first featured village chosen, and the site owners promise that more will be online soon.
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Virtual Volunteering

Giving a helping hand virtually (Photocase)

As the social sector grows on the Internet, volunteer opportunities are easier to find online. From craigslist to idealist, potential volunteers can do research on positions in their neighborhood.

Connecting organizations and willing helping hands, VolunteerMatch is a free online service which lists opportunities worldwide. Featured on VM’s site, virtual volunteering is an alternative to a hands-on approach. “Virtual” positions fill in the needs of organizations that aren’t covered by traditional volunteer roles, such as fundraising and mentoring.
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SMS: Using the Influence of Text Messaging

Text messaging for a petition on women's rights in Africa

At Pambazuka News, a weekly forum for social justice in Africa, the current e-activism campaign targets the progress of the African Union’s Protocol on the Rights of Women. To encourage the ratification of the protocol and national-level implementation, visitors can sign an online petition or text a “signature” by SMS. As tech gadgets converge, text messaging is an effective way to reach mobile youth and communities with shared or limited PC use.
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The Segway Challange

Segway inventor Dean Kamen

Segway Personal Transporters (PT) are two-wheel, stand-up scooters with rechargeable batteries and an ingenious control system that responds to the direction the rider leans. Since the high-tech vehicle was launched 5 years ago, it has been mainly used by police agencies. But the Segway is gradually getting more popular amongst private users.
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Wireless in the Himalayas

A solar panel powering the mesh network soaks up sun on top of a Hindu shrine. Photo: Xeni Jardin

An article published in Wired Magazine on August 17 describes how western “hacktivists” and Tibetan refugees in Dharmsala, India built a mesh network in the Himalayas using junk parts and free software to communicate with organizations in Chinese-occupied Tibet. Shortly after the publication of the article the project’s website was attacked.

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Plugging in from the Street: Homeless Online

(Photo: Photocase)

Cisco Systems announced a grant to Vringstreff, a charity working in Cologne, Germany. The money will go to setting up two computer rooms and an Internet portal designed to help the neighborhood’s homeless population. The director of a US based advocacy group, National Coalition on the Homeless, explains in a Wired article how an e-mail address can be helpful for people living on the streets:
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features

Upgrading International Development, Part II

Upgrading International Development

Fighting Corruption: Bribe Payers Index 2006

Recycle Your Cell-Phone, Save a Gorilla

A Look Behind the Prison Walls

The Homeless World Cup 2006

Reach Out and Finance Someone

Arundhati Roy asks herself: What form of resistance is effective and acceptable?

Iranian Bloggers Joined by President Ahmadinejad

Creating A New Universe

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Science & Technology

One Laptop per Child: Is Criticism Welcome?

MoLive Returns?

City’s ‘Green Lungs’ Can Be Anywhere

EU REACH Legislation on Hazardous Chemicals

Continuing the Dialogue Online: Blog Carnivals

Farming for Biofuels

Upgrading International Development, Part II

Power Players in Net Neutrality

Upgrading International Development

MoLive: A Step Towards Citzen Journalism in China?

Visualize This: Internet reading experience reinvented

“How can the Internet…serve to enhance our own communities?”

“Business Rebel” Richard Branson pledges $3 billion to combat global warming

Reach Out and Finance Someone

Beer, Chips and… Internet TV

BILL JOY on our Innovation Acceleration

“We are in the Knowledge Age”

Reef Encounter

Design for Life

I.T. Takes a Village

Virtual Volunteering

SMS: Using the Influence of Text Messaging

The Segway Challange

Wireless in the Himalayas

Plugging in from the Street: Homeless Online