DIYNGO: using renewable energy for ICT expansion in developing countries

[Michel Bauwens]

Via Tim Barker:

Hello everyone! I hope all are well? Since Tim and Michel have both recently asked for a quick update on DIYNGO to help disseminate our work, please find below a short text I just wrote. It was a little hurried but I think encapsulates where we are at for the time being. If you have any comments please do let us all know - you could hit "reply to all"? It would also be nice if we could please consider having a group chat or a group Skype call or some such please as soon as possible in the New Year. Events are moving quickly now and progress is good so I'd hate for anyone to be left behind as all have been incredibly supportive.

Thanks so much and we look forward to your continued involvement.

Peace,

Tim

The mission of DIYNGO is to take renewable energy powered information communications technologies to the people who really need them. This mostly includes people in Developing Countries but will also include any area of economic deprivation. Currently we have a prototype home made wind turbine and solar array which are used to power an Asus Eee PC. The Asus is a low powered Linux netbook ideally suited for work in the field. We are now focussing on more mobile devices which will ultimately prove to be more transportable. This kit is also about to be tested in the field. The intention with this technology is to provide access to healthcare, governance and education. As such a portal has been developed at www.thirdspace.mobi which offers online courses.

We are also currently experimenting with software for Personal Digital Assistants which will provide Expert Systems encapsulating knowledge in the above areas. The whole philosophy of DIYNGO is to transfer methods and NOT technological solutions in an open a manner as possible. To this end the Blog at www.diyngo.org has been well maintained. Further software and hardware solutions were proposed in our White Paper (please click on the "culture" tab at www.diynog.org) which could facilitate intra-human networking. This software development is currently hosted at www.kommunitee.org.

We are using the social networking software Webjam to loosely maintain the core DIYNGO team together with email and chat. The team is composed of members from a variety of backgrounds and includes the informal involvement of UN-GAID (www.un-gaid.org) which we hope to strengthen once this feasability stage is complete and DIYNGO is further concretised. A trip to Lake Naivasha will take place in April which, if successful, will be the catalyst for formally establishing DIYNGO. Overall, progress has been steady but with the help of untold parties has so far proven to be highly fruitful. The future therefore looks interesting and full of hope for the success of DIYNGO in terms of acheiving its mission.