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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."

7 of 179 comments (clear)

  1. Stanislaw Lem... by SharpFang · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...wrote in one of his books about a banana republic where a program was introduced to help every family in the country to purchase and learn to use a helicopter, because it would come out way cheaper than building the network of roads through the jungle between scattered settlements.

    So true... Often modern technology is simply cheaper than the "simple" stuff. Think cellular phones in areas without standard phone networks...

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    1. Re:Stanislaw Lem... by El+Cubano · · Score: 3, Interesting

      So true... Often modern technology is simply cheaper than the "simple" stuff. Think cellular phones in areas without standard phone networks...

      Sometimes it has to do with cost. 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. Aparently the impoverished residents thought they could get some money for the copper in the wires, so they would "harvest" the cables. This supposedly prompted a more widespread deployment of cellular service.

  2. Better than food is... by ShieldW0lf · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Education

    Really, how many teachers are motivated to help the unfortunate, but not so motivated as to live in a poor village?

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    -1 Uncomfortable Truth
  3. Re:videoconferencing? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Dude, if a community can't afford water, how is it going to afford e-anything?

    If one bothers to read the entire article, it states that videoconferencing can save the people the expense of going to other towns to see a doctor.

    Speaking of "affording water"... it is often misquoted/misunderstood phenomenon. There is plenty of water available. The issue is about storage/harnessing the ground/surface water in a cost-effective manner.

  4. Now do you understand? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting

    "It has two good aspects. The villagers can go to the kiosks to 'talk' to their dear ones, while the person who runs the kiosk can earn too. For the last two years, the villagers have been sending voice and video mails from the kiosks," Jalihal said.

    OK you (we) guys in the US who have been failing to deliver mass market videophones for decades... here is an Indian guy who does it over a crappy dial-up line. And they have a business model too. Now do you understand why your jobs are disappearing to India?

  5. High Technology and Backward Cultures Don't Mix by reporter · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Joy of joys. The Indians are now wasting millions of dollars in bringing a low-bandwidth Internet connection into the villages. How can this Internet connection possibly benefit a backward, barbaric village? Why don't the Indians spend their money on more important things like improving their culture? How does the Internet stop female infanticide or abortions targetting female fetuses? Attempts at destroying the female sex are rampant in India.

    Backward, possibly even barbaric, societies are characterized by skewed priorities in spending. The Indians spend hundreds of millions of dollars on atomic-weapons research. Witness the recent attempts at building missiles with the capability of delivering a nuclear warhead. Meanwhile, the population engages in massive female infanticide or abortions targetting female fetuses.

    Identical comments apply to China. Millions of dollars are spent on atomic-weapons research and on sending astronauts into outer space. Meanwhile, the population engages in massive female infanticide or abortions targetting female fetuses. Instead of spending millions of dollars on weapons research, why do the Chinese refuse to spend those wasted dollars on education programs that improve their backward culture?

    The evidence for this anti-female atrocity is overwhelming. Please read "Mystery of the missing women" by the "Toronto Star". The normal male-to-female birth ratio is 1.05. Japan, Canada, the United States of America (USA), and even Vietnam have this ratio. By contrast, India, China, and South Korea have a ratio of 1.15. Further, the ratio of women to men is, normally, 106. Japan, Canada, the USA, and even Vietnam have this ratio. By contrast, India, China, and South Korea have a ratio of about 95.

    It really is a big joke to read about how Indians or Chinese are bringing high technology into remote parts of India or China. They have their priorities completely backwards. First, introduce modern culture and modern notions of morality; then, worry about whether the Indian or Chinese boy can surf the web. By the way, having a modern notion of morality is unrelated to the degree of wealth in a nation. Look at impoverished Vietnam. It has a normal ratio of women to men. Look at wealthy South Korea. It has an abnormal ratio.

    The female shortage in China and India is extremely severe. It is so severe that even the Wall Street Journal (WSJ), in 1999, did a front-page story on the problem in China. According to the WSJ, Chinese men kidnap Vietnamese women and force them to be brides. When they try to escape, the Chinese men cut their Achilles tendon.

  6. Jhunjhunwala by harlemjoe · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Prof. Jhunjhunwala and his team at IIT Chennai are also the people who invented WLL (Wireless in Local Loop) cellphone technology.

    Their high bandwidth cellphone technology has been sold and deployed in both China and Brazil, but here in India our largest WLL cellphone network uses Qualcomm's CDMA2000 protocol..

    funny the way the world works ...

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    shooting is not too good for my enemies