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Networking Technology At Work In Rural India

Posted by timothy on from the balancing-tradeoffs dept.

abhikhurana writes "Whenever a news item about a plan to offer aid to a poor community in a developing country to set up an Internet backbone or any similar story is posted on Slashdot, there is always a debate among the readers if there is any point in spending so much money on such activities when people in such communities don't have basic amenities like clean drinking water. So when I came acorss this story, I decided to post it to slashdot. It's about new software developed by Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, which allows video conferencing on low-bandwidth connections, and the impact this technology is having on the small rural communities where it has been deployed."

9 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. If you want to try it out... by loucura! · · Score: 2, Informative

    You can either go to what appears to be their main page at: http://isee.enmail.com, and register, and get spammed, or you can go here: http://tenet.res.in/isee/ and download it directly without any registration.

    --
    Black and grey are both shades of white.
  2. Census of India 2001 is an eye opener by civilengineer · · Score: 4, Informative

    The census of India 2001 ( a site Site Optimised for Netscape! )came out recently and is covered in India Today ( this article is not free however. Check your local library for a copy of the magazine. Its very interesting)
    The 2001 Census data has information on Houses, Household Amenities and Assets in India and has very interesting findings. It seems there are some 2.4 million places of worship in the country, as against 1.5 million schools and colleges and a mere 600,000 hospitals and dispensaries. No wonder there is so much unnecessary religious strife.

    The point is, there is a lot of opportunity for growth and innovative technology is greatly needed there to increase the level of education and quality of life there. The question of which technology is most needed first is very difficult to answer.

    --

    New year Resolution: Don't change sig this year
    1. Re:Census of India 2001 is an eye opener by The+Cydonian · · Score: 4, Informative
      The 2001 Census data has information on Houses, Household Amenities and Assets in India and has very interesting findings. It seems there are some 2.4 million places of worship in the country, as against 1.5 million schools and colleges and a mere 600,000 hospitals and dispensaries. No wonder there is so much unnecessary religious strife.
      My ancestral village has 121 (Hindu) temples, 3 (Muslim) mosques, one (Christian) church, and five ancient Buddhist sites, in addition to about 10 or so secondary schools, two junior colleges, and, I believe, a recently set-up engineering college. There's a government health center somewhere, in addition to a couple (may be 5 or 6) privately-run hospitals and dispensaries. And yeah, there's one police station with three constables and one Sub-Inspector.

      No, we never had riots as far as anyone can remember.

      Before you read the 2001 Census Report, or that shiny worthless rag, India Today, may I point out to a more useful site on logical fallacies? In particular, you'll note the similarity between your implied reasoning ("India has more religious structures than schools or hospitals. It also has a lot of religious strife. Therefore, the large number of religious structures causes strife.") and a logical fallacy called coincidental correlation.

      By way of proof, I recommend Ashish Nandy's excellent tome, Exiled At Home, to really understand communal strife in India. Here's a short thesis:- 'Communal' riots are among the most secular phenomena in modern India. They have more to do with oppurtunistic politicians (of all religions, obviously), and a police force badly in need of reform, rather than heightened religiosity, or even, that Great Indian Distraction, Ayodhya.

      --
      More than mere navel gazing.
  3. Re:Stanislaw Lem... by Graff · · Score: 2, Informative
    A friend of mine was in a rural part of Ecuador years ago when a US (I believe) phone company was contracted to lay a phone network. He told me that one day the workers would be there laying the cables, and they next day the cables were dug up and gone.

    This happens in the United States also. Basically crackheads will do just about anything for their next hit. One of the things they have been known to do is to use tree pruners or climb telephone poles in order to cut down telephone lines for copper. I've been in a few areas of inner city where it was almost an epidemic at times, lines would get cut down daily until the police caught the person who was doing it.
    --
    Sapere aude!
  4. RTFA? by sbwoodside · · Score: 4, Informative

    Why do the people of Slashdot ask dumb questions without reading the article?

    Since you're probably long gone I'll summarize for you:

    0. In rural India, it's often really hard to get to places due to very poor roads, that get washed out in the rain, and the population is very broadly distributed on farms.

    1. A teacher in the city can educate children in a rural area. (viz., telecommuting)

    2. Doctors can run virtual clinics for villagers to give them medical advice.

    3. Scientists can have meetings with local farmers to give them crop advice.

    All of these things are IN DEMAND by the people who had a chance to try them out.

    simon

    --
    home page
  5. Computer-aided milk collection by TheSync · · Score: 2, Informative

    One of the successes of "microcapital" in developing countries is AKASHGANGA which provides computer aided milk collectors in rural India. Automating milk tabulation and analysis in milk collectives has reduced queue times, thus decreasing milk spoilage, and provides more accurate assesments of milk contributions.

  6. Pictures and Scientific American by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    This topic is covered in an article in the August edition of Scientific American, Demistifying the Digital Divide.

    I found a site on the "hole in the wall" computers. Enjoy the site while it lasts, it doesn't look too promising.

  7. The computers used are Pentium PCs with... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Informative
    The computers used for the kiosks are all Pentium PCs with color monitors and multimedia support. The operating system is Windows(TM) (9x/NT) and the Internet browser is MS Internet Explorer(TM).

    As you might imagine, deploying Internet kiosks in economically backward parts of India is not quite simple. Besides the lack of infrastructure, the other challenges include providing a low-cost solution that can withstand harsh conditions like dust and extreme temperatures, and a kiosk that can be remotely administered. These and other similar requirements have led to the design for a Cognitive Kiosk for Rural, Outdoor, Tropical Environment (patent pending).

    Internet Connectivity

    Internet connectivity to the kiosks has been provided using various methods including leased lines, ISDN lines and Dial-up connections. Internet access in India is at a nascent stage due to inadequate telecommunications infrastructure. Some kiosk installations have been at places that don't even have phone lines. In such cases, the computers use cached web content to simulate web access. Besides this, a host of edutainment software is installed that has actually proved to be quite popular. Future design includes experimenting with remote connectivity with Wireless LAN and Wireless Telephone Line Extender.


    Input Device

    Keyboard
    There is no keyboard available to the users. This is due to the concern of vandalism. Also, it is anticipated that there would be high level of wear and tear of keys as the device is susceptible to dust, especially as the dust particles have an abrasive quality here. All this meant that the cost of maintenance of a keyboard were unacceptably high. Trials are on to see if virtual keyboards can be used.
    Pointing Device
    Touch pads were used as the pointing device during the early experiments. The touch pads were found to be wearing out quite fast or being accidentally broken by the kids. On an average the life of a touch pad was approximately 1 month. To avoid this frequent replacement of touch pads, a JoyStick Mouse was devised at CRCS. This device has a joystick control for the movement of the cursor, and a button each for left and right click. This JoyStick Mouse is quite a sturdy pointing device that is low-cost. Moreover, it requires little maintenance as compared to the touch pads.

    Administration

    Though remote administration software tools have been used in some cases, by and large, the task of administering the kiosk is accomplished manually at this point in time. But work has already begun on a Central Control Website through which it will be possible remotely administer all the kiosks that are online. The plan envisages kiosks that have embedded controllers connected to the computer giving details of the ambient variants such as temperature and humidity. The kiosks will also record the status of UPS/batteries. These records will be put on the Central Control Website, where the central observer can take actions according to the requirements. The idea of a kiosk reporting it's own "health problems", is what drives this effort.

    Heat and Dust

    To cope with the high summer temperatures, the computers are housed in a brick enclosure with thicker-than-normal walls. The enclosure that has dust filters, also minimises the dust from the dry winds. Initial experiments tried air-conditioning for tackling the heat but that turned out to be too expensive an option. It has been observed that the computers' performance is affected only marginally by the high temperatures. Therefore, for the moment, only ventillating fans have been used to maintain ambient temperature. The ventillating fans also serve to maintain positive air pressure inside the kiosk. Blowing air with high pressure checks the entry of dust particles in case of minor cracks or holes in the kiosk.

    Security

    The kiosks are unmanned and, therefore, require means for the safe-keeping of all the expensive hardware. The Hole-In-The-Wall kiosks have in-built security system the details of which cannot be divulged for obvious reasons.

    http://www.niitholeinthewall.com/kiosk.htm

  8. Re:You don't get it... this just means... by vsprintf · · Score: 2, Informative

    To old timers among you, I ask this... have you made any breakthroughs lately? If not, I doubt tenure will keep you around these days. Unless you're a teacher. Tenure nowadays just means a higher pay job to eliminate and a bigger bonus to get for some CEO somewhere.

    Well, I can't speak for the original AC poster, and your's was certainly was an "angry rant", but what made you suppose that the AC was an "old timer"? First, tenure only applies to academic teaching positions, which is a tiny portion of IT-related jobs. Second, old-timers are the primary victims of outsourcing and offshoring. Age discrimination is rampant in U.S. companies, and they admit it, because they can claim it reduces costs, which is acceptable under the current laws. Companies prefer youngsters and foreigners, whom they believe will be cheaper and more docile. Please point your future rants in the proper direction.