Let's say municipal WiFi and an inexpensive unit able to access that, all available for couple of weeks almost slave-labor pay.

Not that information access is a life or death thing, it's just what I'd like to see.

? How does municipal WiFi filter arsenic poisoned water?

Discarded Japanese internet-enabled cell phones perhaps? The phones can be several years old and still be quite featureful compared to American phones. And there are plenty of used ones that nobody in Japan wants anymore and nobody in the rest of the world can use but places without existing cellular infrastructure could adopt Japanese standards. On the other hand, there are also many internet capable GSM phones and you'd get many economy-of-scale advantages.

It's simply amazing to see how widely adoped cell phones and in particular SMS is in the Philippines... the number of public and commercial services available via SMS, all the kids constantly tapping away at their number pads.

The problem with wifi is that people in developing countries can't afford computers. But if they could, a cell modem would be a useful way to connect to the internet where there's no landline, much less broadband, infrastructure.

Like what kinds of SMS based services did you see there?

My thinking is that in these developing countries, they could look up easy ways to remove arsenic from their drinking water, among other things.

Not that I know anything about the digital divide, but I would think that a lot of the problems really boil down to information access.

I remember seeing both commercial (ads on billboards) and municipal uses for SMS. For example, in KL you could alert the police to something suspicious by texting them. You could easily just call them too but nowadays it seems more natural to default to sending an SMS.

I'm no expert on the digital divide either. Lack of information access is probably hindering many people. Is wifi internet access the best way to notify people of arsenic poisoning solutions? Or, since they wouldn't even know to ask (they don't realize they're being poisoned) would it be better to send out mass spam SMS alerts, perhaps targetted at just community leaders. In this particular case you want to disseminate information widely and orderly. But other times it may just be a matter of a farmer wanting some specific information about how to deal with some particular epidemic or increase yields under abnormal conditions... General internet access using computers like we use could help everyone in all these cases but where it's not feasible to provide regular PCs maybe there's a more low-tech way. Radios are a way to disseminate information broadly.

Heh, that reminds me of the Simpsons where the PD had a website where you could report crimes.

I would think that even the poorest countries have some sort of radio already in place. I suppose electricity becomes a concern too.

How about used Japanese cell phones with hand cranks, or those mini-spires. That'd be cool.

I think most poor places can acquire radios but I wonder how they are used, for entertainment, for education, for emergencies? My guess is that understanding how a community used radios could tell how much they'd take advantage of internet-enabled computers. Then there are also many, more urbanized places, which have already demonstrated utility of what limited internet access they have. Sometimes internet access is readily available in the form of internet cafes but may not be affordable to all. I have trouble coming up with cases, though, where computers themselves are ubiquitous and internet is not, in which case wifi would help. But maybe something more directed and high bandwidth to make internet cafes faster and cheaper.

That mini-spire thing is pretty cool as are any such non-grid means of powering electronic devices, like solar. Lots of developing regions have plenty of sun! I know I've heard of solar panel cell-phone chargers before. Getting costs down on solar tech would not only help us, it could help many others.

The Future of Learning group at the MIT Media lab is working on a few excellent projects that cover these topics as well.

Learning and Community Development: This project is intended as an ambitious experiment to help bring new ways of working with local communities in order to help create long-term self-sufficiency through the introduction of new methodologies and new technologies. The idea is that using computational technologies (i.e. low/alternative power and low-cost technologies) can open not only new possibilities for development, but also new ways of learning and working. These opportunities can result in a deeper understanding of the environment and of applicable innovations leading to self-sufficiency. The methods used should take a systemic view and actively encourage and support sustainability, sustainable development, active participation, ownership by and empowerment of local communities, and integrated participative evaluation processes. At its basis, self-sufficiency implies that new project initiatives, and even new development of tools and technologies, originate in the local areas. Thus, one of the primary areas upon which we will focus is learning: not learning in the abstract or in the typical school sense, but instead learning in the context of the local needs of the community, such as food production, environmental issues, and infrastructure.

Sweet, Ryan. Is that what your uncle works on? Can he get me in? Thanks dude.

Dude, my uncle owns MIT. I can get you a degree by correspondence.