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Joining the Global Village

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the they'll-use-it-to-look-at-porn dept.

Sandeep writes "This article tells of an initiative in rural India, to provide internet access for farmers. The initiative is called e-choupal, a name taken from the Hindi name for village square. An incongruous image when you consider they still use bullock carts for carrying the produce..."

5 of 175 comments (clear)

  1. NYT Article!!! by j-pimp · · Score: 3, Funny

    You would think the editors would remember to add a parody of NYT, free registration required!! Then again whats wrong with me for wanting to rtfa. I must be new here.

    --
    --- Justin Dearing http://www.justaprogrammer.net/ We're just programmers.
  2. e-chopal needs a new web designer by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    cause in firebird this line: div id="Layer1" style="HEIGHT: 235px; LEFT: 383px; POSITION: absolute; TOP: 98px; WIDTH: 388px; Z-INDEX: 1" puts a whacking big flash animation in front of the text :/

  3. quickly followed by new laws... by eegad · · Score: 2, Funny

    like no surfing while driving in the front seat of your oxen cart.

  4. yes... time to make some money by segment · · Score: 4, Funny

    Once Palm gets a whiff of this they'll be selling BILLIONS of Farm Pilots... No wait. Maybe I should invest in Redhat. The potential Redhat Farmix. Wow I don't know about you but I'm excited

    --
    MoFscker
  5. Re:can't view link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny
    That page layout is so brilliant that it manages to mangle output in both Konqueror and Mozilla. Opera did nicely though, and here's the output from the front page:
    e-Choupal, the unique web based initiative of ITC's International Business Division, offers the Farmers of India all the information, products and services they need to enhance farm productivity, improve farm-gate price realisation and cut transaction costs. Farmers can access latest local and global information on weather, scientific farming practices as well as market prices at the village itself through this web portal - all in Hindi. Choupal also facilitates supply of high quality farm inputs as well as purchase of commodities at their doorstep.
    Given the literacy and infrastructure constraints at village level, this model is designed to provide physical service support through a Choupal Sanchalak - himself a lead farmer - who acts as the interface between computer terminal and the farmers. Full contents of this site are therefore made available to the registered sanchalaks only.

    Apparently, "Choupal Sanchalak" means "lead farmer who only uses Internet Explorer".