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WiFi Lifeline For Nepal's Farmers
bahree writes "BBC is running a pretty interesting story on how yak farmers in the mountains of Nepal, where there are no phones or other means of communication, are using wireless Internet technology to keep in touch with their families, buy/sell livestock and exchange vetinerary tips."
so has WIFI now jumped the yak? and how do students at colleges that don't yet have wireless access feel now that remote villages in nepal do?
sorry 'bout the mess...
A voice inside my car told me today
there was a song of love they would not play
he was black
she was white
a voice inside my car told me today
Black stations / white stations
break down the doors
stand up and face the music
this is 1984
black stations / white stations
feet on the floor
dance on the ceiling with us
this is 1984
When I dream my dream in black & white
trip the light fantastic through the night
dance with me
while they sleep
when I dream my dream in black & white
Black stations / white stations
break down the doors
stand up and face the music
this is 1984
black stations / white stations
feet on the floor
dance on the ceiling with us
this is 1984
If waves could speak
I wonder what they'd say
the tides are growing stronger everyday
sink or swim
let them in
If words could speak
I wonder what they'd say
Black stations / white stations
break down the doors
stand up and face the music
this is 1984
black stations / white stations
feet on the floor
dance on the ceiling with us
this is 1984
Wee! Another example of applying ridiculously advanced technology to a low-tech area in order to feel good about our meaningless hi-tech lives! Forget refrigeration or more advanced farming equipment, those are not cool!
As a matter of fact, I think we don't take this whole 'wi-fi in backward areas' far enough.
You know what would solve famines in Ethiopia? Let's send them cellphones and laptops so they can order pizza online!
I didn't know that word existed...
Veterinary...
This is something that ought to be used in more locales than just Nepal - imagine how this can be put to good use in any underdeveloped nation. Solar-powered WiFi networks and computers, teaching reading and math, and even more advanced topics. Using freely downloaded and distributed learning materials, or learning materials created by teachers.
--I am Sun Tzu of the Borg. Resistance is feudal.
First yak post...
wooooo!
First India, and now Nepal....makes us Americans feel we are in the stone age.
Not even smoke signals anymore?
Damnit! this "environmentally friendly" movement has gone too far!
-Grump
Is it true that more people vote for the winner of American Idol, than vote for the president? -Ali G.
testing
I wonder if they use IRC over their wireless so they can have a good "yak"...
Homonyms are fun!
You're driving your car, but they're riding their bikes there.
how do these people get their electricity?
I wonder what they do for power for two days?
A voice inside my car told me today
there was a song of love they would not play
he was black
she was white
a voice inside my car told me today
Black stations -- white stations
break down the doors
stand up and face the music
this is 1984
black stations / white stations
feet on the floor
dance on the ceiling with us
this is 1984
When I dream my dream in black & white
trip the light fantastic through the night
dance with me
while they sleep
when I dream my dream in black & white
Black stations / white stations
break down the doors
stand up and face the music
this is 1984
black stations / white stations
feet on the floor
dance on the ceiling with us
this is 1984
If waves could speak
I wonder what they'd say
the tides are growing stronger everyday
sink or swim
let them in
If words could speak
I wonder what they'd say
Black stations / white stations
break down the doors
stand up and face the music
this is 1984
black stations / white stations
feet on the floor
dance on the ceiling with us
this is 1984
Sounds like these people are very remote. It makes me wonder how they are even getting power for their PCs and network gear. Solar? Generators?
It's amazing the good that has come out of the internet. This setup may even save someone's life at some point since these people can now "call" for help.
or internal server error, whichever.
we must not allow kerry into the white house he is a dirty nasty frenchmen!!!! spread the word people!! WE MUST NOT SURRENDER LIKE THE FRENCH DO!!!
KERRY IS NO HERO!
A common misconception is that farmers are low tech hillbillies. In the real world more the 70 percent of farms are "online". Farmers increasingly use databases of yeild / irrigation / fertilizer to optimize their operations. Same thing goes for ranchers, where the daily milk output of dairy cattle is tracked against the feed going in. When output drops over time, the cow is sold for prize beef (dairy cattle are held to a high standard).
I would even venture to say that there is a higher percentage of farms that are internet enabled then classical brick and mortar business
Just my 2 cents
Colin McNamara
Senior Network Engineer
Openwave Systems
"The difficult we do immediately, the impossible just takes a little longer"
no really
yes!!
Well, this is interesting. Here is some potentially sensitive equipment placed in a rural, relatively inaccessible region. Wonder what happens if something breaks, like, say the transmitter/ap they are using? Forgive me for the paranoid thoughts, but working in support for quite some time, i have learnt that the worst things happen to you when you least expect them.
...it isn't April 1st already, is it?
Honey, I shrunk the Cygwin
Uh-oh, my tinfoil hat is on and my gun is loaded and cocked. Four consecutive Slashdot stories without a single comment... what gives?
test
this is a test.
fp
All your yak are belong to us.
Insert witty Slashdot sig here.
or am i a doofus?
log out, go kiting.
they could yak about yaks with voip!
dfgdfg
Mod me down if you insist I want FP
actually I am happy to see you, however that is in fact a banana in my pocket.
FP!
First Post you FUCKERS.
yak about yaks with VOIP!
or how about yak cam 24/7 live feed!
mmmm yak
F1r57 P057
...yak driving?
Never argue with an idiot, he'll just lower you to his level and beat you with experience.
Why don't they just set them up with mobile phones? Cheaper, easier to use, etc. Of course, not as flashy and newsworthy as Internet.
If there are no phone lines or other infrastructure, where are they getting their electricity for all this WiFi from? Do they all have solar cells as well?
Obligatory Ren and Stimpy reference
I thought everything in the post was good, except the part about it being interesting.
BeauHD. Worst editor since kdawson.
luckily now if anyone were to try to invade nepal, they could quickly mobilize their army...
He say 1 and 1 and 1 is 3, got to be good lookin' cause hes so hard to see...
Electricity in some of these areas is not easy to come by. The valley below Mt Everest shares a hydro electric generator via a community coop. The electricity amounted to slightly over one 60 watt lightbulb per house.
There are computers to be found. They do have Internet all the way to the Everest base camp now. But most of the people in the region are living very simple lives. Collecting yack dung to burn for heat and fertilizer.
Great people if you ever get a chance to visit.
aruge about who gets FP?
Oh yeah FP!
my father taught at a nepalese school as research for his thesis, and some of the comments from the students, about how long it takes to get to school, are astounding.
how about 1 weeks walk plus a 2 hour helicopter ride for one student, 3 day walk and 2 day bus ride for another. this is not just a handful of students either, very remote communities.
Many move to the school, and do not return home until completed years later, simply because it takes so long, by the time they got home they would have to return to school!
so, this has to be good for farmers in similar situations.
Few questions::
(1) How were the farmers 'educated' to use the technology?
(2) I can understand voice/video conferencing, but the article mentions they are able to send and receive 'email' messages. Are these messages localised? as in what language are they in and what about the interface to send/receive these messages?
What does vetinerary mean? Is that the itinerary of a veterinarian?
Intolerance for ambiguity is the mark of the authoritarian personality.
omgwtfbbq................fsadfgadsfwaitwaitwait
...do you lose your WiFi Lifeline or your life? Lord knows that kind of shit happens in the filthy islam infested shithole known as the continent of asia and the middle east.
GNU/yak
brent is an oaf. oafaltine. Oafeverdoes. Frodoaf.
1st anon tsop
I want a boobies link!
/oops, wrong site! :o
sgfh
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YAHOOOOOOOOO
I LOVE THIS SHIT!!!!
AAAAAA YEEEEEEE!!!!
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uPlease try to keep posts on topic.
Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads.
Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
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vfbPlease try to keep posts on topic.
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Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said.
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Goodnight d00dz!
Nepal totally sucks. Just like Linux.
postus firstionio
wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait wait
made me the first, eh?
can eye post now??
don't forget the pr0n
wtg?
The Whigs were a political party, folks.
Do they run their boxes on gas-powered generators?
Well I guess being that high getting line of sight is not a problem.
This is pretty cool/amazing: People on the top of mountains with WiFi equipment attached to pieces of trees can get high-speed (I assume it's high-speed since the article mentions video conferencing) Internet access. However, at the same time, it's kind of amazing how people in the United States can't even get high-speed Internet access when they're a couple hundred miles from a major city. Does anyone else see anything wrong with this picture? I mean, it's great to see people making these kinds of advances, but this just goes to show you that maybe we need to take a serious jump on to the WiFi bandwagon, or we need to rework some of our existing technologies.
(P.S. "we" = United States -- Since I don't live anywhere else, I can't speak for anyone else.)
Looks like Slashdot finally banned everyone that posts on Slashdot.
I really think there is a large market for WISPs in 3rd world / developing countries. I really want to get involved and learn more about mesh networking, and deploying large scale wireless, etc. Can anyone recommend any good reading on the subject? (I've seen some recent /. articles, but not much else).
Uh-huh
HAHAHWHA! i am teh winnar!
There have been no comments in several hours. Did I miss the apocalypse again?
Search first, ask questions later.
I'm a tipical British student with the standard pour education asosiated with such. How can the farmers comunicate with no line of site. There aer mountains in Nepal!!!1
woohoo
Must use GNU! Anyway, I'm happy that WiFi is being so widely adopted however why do I get the feeling someone is doing this because they can? There is no phone and yet there is supposedly a stable source of power? Possible, yes, likely, no. ANd there people are supposed to be able to buy a computer.... heck, if memory serves me correctly, the Nepalese dollar is worse than Canada's...
Back in March there was a bit of discussion on the wireless-longhaul list regarding setup in Nepal.
0 4-March.txt.gz
http://openict.net/pipermail/wireless-longhaul/
The list-archive front end seems to eat much of the text, but it's all there in the gzipped archive:
http://openict.net/pipermail/wireless-longhaul/20
go!
Agreed that the terrain is not as demanding as in Nepal (flat plains vs. extremely hilly), but the goals look similar. They also have a pretty Coverage Map
The ranges they get out of wifi links are also pretty good - 5kms is on ordinary antennas, while with properly aimed parabolic antennae (antennas?) they get upto 40 kms (25 miles)
US is now divided as the "Red" and "blue" states. Red States = communist countries. Coincidence? I think not
... But somebody's going to have to explain to them that http://yakse.cx/ is *not* a veterinary resource.
Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
they have given india a break. take it away Nepal.
The best planning can be done after the project completes.
So this part of Nepal is basically working like a bunch of AP's? That's pretty awesome. When will the United States or somewhere do something like this. If they can afford it in Nepal, how expensive could it be to set up something similar in at least every major city, or even most of populated US. This'd be the most useful thing since sliced bread.
It looks like this is being implemented by a local (Mahabir Pun). This is a Very Good Thing because people will not reject it automatically out of culture-shock, as a foreign attack on their culture.
Conversely, progress and changes implemented directly by Westerners are just temporary intrusions at best, alien-induced rifts into the local culture at worst. Changes must come from within to have good effect.
I can almost picture a neighboring yak herder perched just over the ridge, with an antenna made from a Pringles can, stealing bandwidth...
Its good to see wifi finally being used for something good, something useful. Something other than the ability to surf and drink your starbucks at the same time..
I wonder what their range on thoes things is?
snowulf.com
Now, if they can recieve internet to their village, I wonder how stable it is. If it is stable enough, wouldn't they be able to setup VOIP for the villagers to use phones? On the other hand, if the connection sucks, I wouldn't think they would want to rely on it for making phone calls. If they can afford computers, using voip would be cheaper than a landline phone anyways!
PersonalTelco has an excellen review on Open Source Wi-Fi software. Could be something for Nepal's farmers!
In the real world more the 70 percent of farms are "online"
With all due respect I'd beg to differ. This may be true of the "North" (USA, Europe, Australia, NZ), but if you mean '70% of the total number of farms / farmers in the world' , I'd guess to disagree. Sub-Saharan Africa, India, China...
Indeed many have problems gaining regular and guaranteed access to water.
Communication is great, as long as you know how to use it.
I think what the author of your parent message was getting at is that it is pointless to throw technology at people without teaching them how to use it. People that have never used laptops and Internet before wouldn't have a clue about what to do if something broken, or why you shouldn't open attachments from 5qh2iotigosd@aol.com as, even though they didn't order any prescription drugs, there's a really important document they have to read...
This "hi-tech solution" may greatly improve the quality of life for those people if they were given the means to learn how to do this themselves ("give them a well") instead of giving them technology ("give them a bucket of water").
--
The trouble with pedants is that they're always right.
Packet Shepherd! :)
Viva Nepal!! Viva Nepal!! and my dear brother Noompsi!
of what Hillary and Norgay think of this accomplishment
See also http://nepalwireless.net/ as indicated on the BBC page.
2004-05-25 12:06:46 Wi-fi lifeline for Nepal's farmers (articles,wireless) (rejected)
Great, now I can swap more Robin Sharma songs. His music is incredible. If you're looking for some Eastern tunes, without the "High Pitch" whining sound, then Robin is the man!
He's the 5th Sexiest Man in Nepal for his "his roving eyes, wet lips and flirtatious manners."
Solid.
lcr012157@yahoo.com
It needs to be said that this might not last long now. Communists who are ravaging our country have destroyed most of the communication infrastructure (telephone, radio, tv towers etc). I suppose it was ok while it was under the radar, but these people will now be targeted. The Maoists have a lot of support among college kids in the US (I am sure there are a few on slashdot as well). The fact that it was on the BBC, here and probably countless other sites does not help. While it is nice to talk about these things, the media should be careful when publicising some things particularly when dealing with the saftey of the people involved.
The war with islam is a war on the beast
The war on terror is a war for peace
Not knocking the coolness and geek apeal of being able to surf the net in a remote location, but it seems if they needed to be able to communicate plain old voice radios would be cheaper (both in money and power) than computers, hubs, and wireless nodes.
. there used to be a sig here.....
...and exchange vetinerary tips.
What does lord Vetinary to do with WiFi?
I think you are underestimating the quality of life improvement provided by internet porn.
It's almost like there is this whole group of luddites here that DO NOT WANT people to utilize our increased communication. Why?
Seriously, answer me this: why do you not want these poor areas of the world to get online and have the ability to communicate with the rest of the world? Does it hurt you somehow? I just don't get it.
Is a vetinerary what you get when your veterinarian has an itinerary?
Do yaks run GNU?
I'm in the hole of the broadband donut.
Well, the Republicans and war mongers start rioting every time you mention the name "Jane Fonda". What a bunch of politically correct losers.
Not that I want to make you feel old or anything, but WTF does a person who made workout videos have to do with the Republican party?
That being all I know about Jane Fonda. Truth.
to prefer thinking of the mountains of nepal as not needing this stuff?
isn't it possible to look at regions of the world not as potential markets, but also as places where people live (happily) without the baited hook of western consumerism dangled in their noses?
there are places where the music is folk music, and you can tell what region it's from. places where each village has its own recipes, over 1000 years old. places where a person need not work 50 hours a week just to support his mortgage, toys, wife's wardrobe and car, with its 20 gallons of arab blood in the tank. there are places where people are happier with less. there are places where most of a person's time is free time, where life is simple, and the stress of paying ten bills each month isn't enslaving the population. places where the divorce rate is almost zero, and advertising is so rare that it's an oddity.
who thinks the west has the right answer for them? wifi to the mountains of nepal.
God help us.
who knows, maybe there's no harm done.
"Forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us." -Jesus Christ The Lord's Prayer
For Nepal WiFi is prefect with it's mountainous terrain a digital repeater would have huge coverage.
http://www.gobpl.com
Sounds good to me being a Nepali, but I hope its not just another publicity stunt.
We had few such networks perviously, even upto the villages below Everest Base Camp, and some are still operational, but the general people are yet to take advantage of it. Only a handful of western tourists and mountaineers who pay about US$10~20 an hour have access to the Internet via those network but the poor people cant sustain the cost of the network (eg. running cost of VSAT connectivity). Nepal is one of the poorest country, and the people living in the Mountains are some of the poorest in Nepal. Just to sustain a months cost for VSAT bandwidth 100s of people have to spend their years of savings, let alone the cost of buying and air-lifting the equipments to the mountains. Most of such network are funded by donors. Such networks close soon after the donors get enough publicity and stop funding.
It has to be economic and self sustained. Which is very hard for anyone to do. Most of the people are illiterate and need assistant even to use a phone. You can imagine how much help would they need to use computer and internet for their benefit. And on top of all that, there a huge cost for running the network. It's just not economic to spend $1500 to sell a Yak costing $300?
I would be happy to see some real benefit for the people, and some self-sustainable economic framework so that such networks dont exist for the sake of donors' publicity, but stay there for real benefit of the general people.
Equally, they may believe that your friend lived in polluted and decadent conditions disconnected from nature and that everyone in your friend's home country aspired to live under the same ungodly conditions because that was the best they could hope for and a cleaner and simpler way of life is not accessible to westerners.
A friend of mine visited Switzerland and bought me a Swiss Army knife. I was excited about it too because it's a Swiss Army knife. I can buy one at the mall down the street, not cheaply, but this was a gift, and it was cheaper to buy it in Switzerland than in the US, cheaper by 80%.
If I could live far from the city in a less environmentally polluted area with a slower pace of life, I would, but I can't afford it. I made a compromise. Nepalese may think we are less advanced for trading clean and healthy living for money. You apparently think the opposite.
Linux before Windows, we can only hope.
The article says they are using NetMeeting. They are going low tech before they go high tech on the OS and software side.