How can the Third World receive internet access? The answer might lie in a cool project from First Mile Solutions which I was turned onto a few months ago by a friend who specializes in extending internet access to individuals in Third world countries. Essentially they provide asynchronous, internet based communication media such as email and video messaging (which may be especially important for non-literate populations) to rural villages to which it would be impractical or unprofitable to extend the communication infrastructure. They do this by using wifi technology mounted in vehicles that drive past kiosks in remote areas which then transfer their stored messages to the vehicle’s storage device. Later when the vehicle comes within range of an internet connected hub it transfers the data from the vehicle and picks up any incoming messages. In short, they’ve created a digital postman. For a demonstration see the video here.
While one of the capabilities that this technology is the ability to view cached webpages, a majority of their promotional material focuses on interpersonal, dyadic exchanges. However, a question that needs to be asked is whether it is possible to create a web based “networked” community that can perhaps help villagers exchange information more efficiently? Technologically the capabilities are there for a bulletin board system but how effective would this be among a non-literate population?
Labels: digital divide, india, wireless
