Helping Those in Need:
Technology, Equity, & Ethics

R. Scott Granneman

Senior Consultant, Internet Services

Bryan Consulting

© 2002-2003 Scott Granneman
Last updated 20030515
You are free to use this work, with certain restrictions. For full licensing information, please see the last slide/page.

Our Topics

Housing

Commerce

Politics

Bio-Engineering

Computing

The Durakit Instant House

Recycled, Coated & Treated Fibreboard

Quick Erect, Fixed Wall Buildings

Resists Wind, Snow, Rain, UV

Resists Mold, Mildew, Pests & Rodents

www.durakit.com

What It’s Made Of

Built from triple-corrugated ¾-inch cardboard treated to resist fire, water, & termites

Walls are 2 layers of cardboard supported by 3-inch paperboard box posts

Exterior coated with elastomeric cement

Doors & windows from recycled vinyl

Roof

100% recycled organic fibre sealed with asphaltic membrane

50 year warranty

Built To Last

Withstand wind gust speeds of 141 mph

Roof made to support rain or snow

Tested to 8.1 on the Richter Scale

Meets most North American building codes

Sell To Third World Countries

20 12 x 16-ft. cabins pack in a 40-ft. container

Easy to ship

Via air when timing is critical

To remote areas where trucking is difficult

3 unskilled workers can assemble one in a day

Typical 16’ x 24’ Layout

Other typical configurations include 12’ x 16’ & 16’ x 20’

Instant House: Family 400

More Instant Houses

Bunkhouse

512 sq. ft.

Tourist

192 sq. ft.

Cost Comparisons

$15

Fabric/Tent

$45

Metal Kit

$50

Trailer

$30

Conventional

$15

DuraKit

Cost / Sq. Ft.

All price estimates are for a shell structure without plumbing, electrical and other options.

Catalytic’s Problem

Catalytic Software's HQ in Kirkland, Washington

Looking to India for programming talent

Want to avoid immigration problems for 1000s for programmers, so they will remain in India

Need to build a small city to house all the programmers

… but how to build such a city affordably?

New Oroville

4,000+ monolithic domes

Dome is stronger than box & requires 1/3 less concrete

26 ft. High, 32 ft. diameter, 3 floors, 2250 sq. ft. for 7 people

$10,000 each

5 days to build one dome

Features

Fiber-optic connections to every home

Self-contained water supply

Reliable electricity

See www.monolithicdome.com

www.kingcountyjournal.com/sited/story/html/86268

M-vironment Exterior

Created by Michael Jantze, renowned artist & architect

M-vironment Interiors

M-vironment System

Easily movable

Endlessly expandable

Interchangeable components

Connected to a matrix of modular support frames

Frames can be assembled and disassembled

Both insulated & uninsulated panels so rooms can be exposed or heated & cooled

Self-sufficient in energy, using sun & wind for power

Good For Third World Countries

Nonflammable composite concrete panels

Can withstand 80 mph winds

Panels can be made of fabric, wood, or glass

Can be assembled or disassembled by 2 people with wrenches

Commerce

Novica

www.novica.com

Opened small offices around the world

Distribute art & handicrafts directly from the artists

Everything is one-of-a-kind, handcrafted

Novica Around The World

Novica Is Disintermediation

No middlemen, so prices are dramatically lower

Pottery at Bloomingdales: $350

Same pottery at Novica: $11

Artists make more money selling through Novica for $11 than through distribution channels for $350

The Net Makes Novica Different

Supply and demand

Artists check online inventory at the Novica offices

Allows artists to adjust work to meet market demand

Easy to sell handcrafted art

In paper catalogs, you can’t include one-of-a-kind items unless they are expensive

On the Web, it’s easy to include unique pieces & remove them when they are sold

Global Interconnections

People in India guard office buildings in California

How? Security pictures sent by satellite

Politics

Zimbabwe Voted No

Robert Mugabe, president since 1980

Fanned flames of racial chaos & mayhem

New constitution would have given Mugabe sweeping powers & lifelong immunity from prosecution

55% of Zimbabweans voted “No” in February 2000

Why Did Zimbabwe Say No?

In weeks before the election, 6 words flashed across 100s of 1000s of cell phones: “No fuel. No forex. Vote No.”

No fuel: crippling fuel shortages since 1999

No forex: country stripped of foreign exchange capital since Mugabe interfered in Congo’s civil war

Vote No: opposition parties were banned from broadcast & print, but people passed the message from phone to phone

Bio-Engineering

Zimbabwe Is Starving ...

Zimbabwe and 5 other southern African nations -- Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, Swaziland and Zambia -- face widespread food shortages due to 2 years of drought & floods

Half of Zimbabwe's 12 million residents are about to starve ... 6,000,000 people

... And There Is Corn Available ...

10,000 metric tons of corn from the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) has been shipped to a port in Tanzania

A second ship carrying 17,500 metric tons of US corn has arrived in the South African port of Durban

... But Zimbabwe Refuses It

The corn remains on the docks

President Robert Mugabe to the Parliament, 23 July 2002: "We fight the present drought with our eyes clearly set on the future of the agricultural sector, which is the mainstay of our economy. We dare not endanger its future through misplaced decisions based on acts of either desperation or expediency."

Why?

The corn is a patented hybrid of conventional varieties & bio-engineered kernels bred to protect against insects

Issues With The Corn

Genetic contamination of local crops

Intellectual property

Farmers not allowed to save patented seeds gathered from harvest for replanting in following years

Subsistence farmers cannot afford to buy new seed every year

"If these crops get in, then farmers basically lose their rights to their own agricultural resources." (Carole Collins, senior policy analyst for the Africa Faith and Justice Network)

More Issues

Some European countries want to ban the importation of cattle fed bio-engineered corn

How would Zimbabwe sell cattle abroad?

Others contend that bio-engineered exports, done for humanitarian reasons, are part of a strategy to spread such crops around the world & further American control of agriculture

This Has Happened Before

India previously balked over a humanitarian shipment of gene-altered food

One U.S. official was quoted: "Beggars can't be choosers."

Ethical Solutions?

Perhaps the US should pay for milling costs?

Neil E. Harl, professor of economics at Iowa State University: "It is highly unethical not to just cover the costs for milling. Tell me how much it costs to drop one bomb on Afghanistan. Who is starving whom here?"

Computing

Cost Per Month For Internet Access

Note: As of June 2000

Is Broadband a Right?

Kentucky Housing Corporation has listed broadband Internet access among the inalienable rights of its low-income housing residents

All new housing units funded more than 50% by KHC must be equipped with access to high-speed Internet service

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,57249,00.html

KHC Knows That's Not Enough

KHC also working on programs to provide poor families with ...

Low-cost computer hardware

Subsidized Internet service

Special online portal where they can ...

Search for jobs

Learn about available health-care & financial resources

Jhai Foundation

Bringing computers & Internet to Phon Kham village on the outskirts of Vientiane, Laos

Currently, no phones, no electricity, no Internet

Allows villagers to ...

Monitor rice & vegetable prices

Sell handicrafts

Email relatives

Problem: how do you power computers in a remote village without electricity?

The Solution

Headman Tavee Pularmjit pedals a bike-powered generator that brings electricity to the computer in foreground

One minute of pedaling = 5 minutes of power

Ghana Takes the Other Tack

On 8 February 2003, Ghana Telecom put all Ghana ISPs on one-way circuits so they can no longer dial out

Effectively, GT shut down Internet access in Ghana

Why? GT claims it is losing money due to citizens using the Net to make VOIP (Voice Over IP) calls

http://lists.elistx.com/archives/interesting-people/200302/msg00189.html

Maybe, Maybe Not

GT has lost money

Used to earn $42 million/year on int'l phone traffic

Lost $14 million over the last 4 years

VOIP seems like a convenient but poor excuse

Other reasons GT is losing money:

Email

Competition from Westel, the 2nd national carrier

Cell phone usage

The Lesson?

Government-sanctioned monopolies, or near monopolies, will act to preserve their businesses in the face of threats to their traditional ways of doing business

The "Hole in the Wall" Project

Sugata Mitra, IT researcher in New Delhi, launched the project

Imbedded a PC with a high-speed Net connection into a concrete wall in a poverty-stricken area

Left computer on at all times

Anyone could use the computer

All activity was filmed

Who used the computer the most?

http://www.greenstar.org/butterflies/Hole-in-the-Wall.htm

"Hole in the Wall" Results

Most avid users? Ghetto kids aged 6-12

Most have little or no education

Did not speak English

Within days, they figured out how to draw & surf the Net

They later figured out how to ...

Play MP3's of Hindi music

Create documents using the Windows character map

"Hole in the Wall" Lessons

Children "get base level computer literacy almost instantly"

Didn't know it was a computer

Develop own metaphors: instead of an hourglass, it's a "damru" ("Shiva's drum")

The adult reaction?

"What on earth is this for? Why is there no one here to teach us something? How are we ever going to use this?"

Asked children to do tasks for them (look up Hindi horoscopes)

Simputer

What Is The Simputer?

"Simple, inexpensive, multilingual computer."

Designed to meet the needs of rural villagers in countries like India, Malaysia, Nigeria & Indonesia

Many potential users are illiterate & have never seen a computer

Simputer will sell for about $250 ($300 for a color screen)

Aid An Entire Village

A village can buy one device

Everyone in the village could ...

Access the Internet

Perform transactions

Keep track of agricultural prices

Educate the children

Simputer Specifcations

Intel Strong-ARM processor (low power consumption)

64 MB of RAM

Modem

Runs on Linux (free, powerful, & customizable)

Touch-sensitive screen that uses a stylus for input: no keyboard or handwriting-recognition

How Will Illiterate People Use It?

Simple interface

Each page shows only a few commands

Users will learn by trial and error the purposes of icons & buttons

Text into speech software

Simputer holds a database of phonemes (basic sounds) that it can read aloud

Will work for various Indian languages, including Hindi, Kannada, & Tamil

Loaves and Fishes

This is not

the age of information.

This is NOT

the age of information.

Forget the news,

and the radio,

and the blurred screen.

This is the time

of loaves

and fishes.

People are hungry,

and one good word is bread

for a thousand.

-- David Whyte

Thank You!

Final thought: How do we address these issues?

Email me: scott@granneman.com

Visit my Web site: www.granneman.com

Join GranneNotes, my listserv for people interested in technology & the Internet, by visiting www.granneman.com & signing up

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Questions? Email scott@granneman.com

Scott Granneman

2001-11-24T17:13:30

Scott Granneman