...this article from the BBC details a different approach to the problem of taking computers to the masses - make the internet accessible through one person, who goes round villages on a motorbike with a laptop which has some pre-downloaded web pages at the villagers' request.
It seems a strange concept: you might think that the things the article mentions the service being used for (local news, crop prices, government forms etc) were already catered for through newspapers and the postal system. But then I don't live out in a rural village in India, so I wouldn't know.
What both this and the Simputer project show, is that there is demand for such a service, regardless of whether or not we, who are totally isolated from the situation, think there is.
Slashdot Mirror
...this article from the BBC details a different approach to the problem of taking computers to the masses - make the internet accessible through one person, who goes round villages on a motorbike with a laptop which has some pre-downloaded web pages at the villagers' request.
It seems a strange concept: you might think that the things the article mentions the service being used for (local news, crop prices, government forms etc) were already catered for through newspapers and the postal system. But then I don't live out in a rural village in India, so I wouldn't know.
What both this and the Simputer project show, is that there is demand for such a service, regardless of whether or not we, who are totally isolated from the situation, think there is.