Infrastructure development using wireless technolgy : April 2004 Issue by i4d magazine

Vol. II No. 4

April 2004

Information for development www.i4donline.net

27-28 A UGUST 2004

2nd i4d Seminar Theme

ICT for Development: Is Asia ready for the challenge? The prime concern in most of the developing world is today on expanding the digital opportunities to bridge the digital divide. The promise of the information economy— of tremendous possibilities for human development, of rapidly growing economies, of empowered communities and responsive polities—is but a dream for the vast majority in the developing world.

Wireless network in the Himalayas

The seminar will be held in conjunction with Map Asia 2004, the largest conference and exhibition on Geographic Information Technologies in Asia. Sub-themes: • ICT’s Infrastructure policy and action plans • Legal and regulatory mechanisms • Capacity building • Applications • Building public-private partnership Contacts Subsmission of paper manish@i4donline.net

15th May 2004 25th May 2004

Full Paper

15th June 2004

Participation and Presentation confirmation

30th June 2004

Registration niraj@i4donline.net Contact Information info@i4donline.net www.i4donline.net www.mapasia.org

ISSN 0972 - 804X

Abstract Acceptance

Community - based ICT

The Internet in development projects

There are several initiatives at the global, regional, national and the local levels all across the globe. But these efforts are proving to be much less than what is required to reach to downtrodden and the underserved people in the society. The requirements, such as for the basic ICT infrastructure alone, are enormous. The necessary resources will not flow automatically from the technology-rich countries to the technology-poor countries. Unless the global community responds to the challenge of the digital divide in a coordinated and determined manner, the developing world will wake up to the horrible reality of being left behind once again.

Important Deadlines

Infrastructure development using wireless technolgy Reaching farmers through mobile phones

in conjunction with Map Asia 2004

Venue : International Convention Centre, Beijing

The first monthly magazine on ICT4D

Sub-Themes

Mapping and Geospatial Solutions

V OLUME II N UMBER

A PRIL 2004

Contents Features Community Based ICT

Infrastructure development using wireless technology ................................................................................. 6 Onno W. Purbo Bringing Seeds, Not Trees

The wireless roadshow ........................................................................................................................................................... 15 Sebastian BĂźttrich The Internet In Development Projects

Reaching farmers through mobile phones ............................................................................................................ 27 Manolis Stratakis Paradigm Change

Use of mapping for WiFi connectivity .................................................................................................................... 31 Satyaprakash Serving The Underserved

Local communities- A global initiative ..................................................................................................................... 33 Peter Orne Policy And Standards

Wireless bridge to close digital divide ........................................................................................................................ 34 Deepak Maheshwari eNRICH

A community software solution framework ......................................................................................................... 37 D. C. Misra & Rama Hariharan

Rendezvous OneWorld South Asia ............................................................................................................................................................. 39 EuroIndia 2004 .......................................................................................................................................................................... 40

Columns News ...................................................................................................................................................................................................... 19 Quiz ....................................................................................................................................................................................................... 18 Insight

Wireless network in the Himalayas .............................................................................................................................. 10 David R. Hughes Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on .......................................................................................................................................................................................... 41 In Fact

Wireless fidelity ............................................................................................................................................................................ 42 Cover Image Courtesy: nepalwireless.net

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i4d | April 2004

Editorial Information for development

Leapfrogging the digital divide

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Advisory Board M P Narayanan, Chairman i4d Amitabha Pande Department of Science and Technology, Government of India Chin Saik Yoon Southbound Publications, Malaysia Ichiro Tambo OECD, France Karl Harmsen Centre for Space Science and Technology Education in Asia and the Pacific, India Kenneth Keniston Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA

When our team was researching for this issue, we came across several interesting experiments and projects that have already been put in place using wireless technology. The most exciting projects of Indonesia and Nepal are examples of entrepreneurship and local leadership bringing about community change. The technology was always there. But to make it applicable in communities requires technical expertise and some handholding. We are pleased to bring this special issue on wireless for the readers of i4d. While most of the world considers wireless the latest technology, the myth can be cleared that it was Marconi who discovered the use of wireless communication, and which has been used for shipping communications for over a hundred years now.

Mohammed Yunus Grameen Bank Bangladesh Nagy Hanna Senior Advisor, National ICT Strategy, Information Solutions Group, World Bank Walter Fust Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation, Switzerland Wijayananda Jayaweera UNESCO, France

Editorial Board Akhtar Badshah, Digital Partners Fredrick Noronha, Bytesforall Madan Mohan Rao, Consultant Editor Ravi Gupta Editorial Consultant Jayalakshmi Chittoor Senior Research Associate Manish Kumar Research Associate Gautam Navin

Group Directors

With so many new telecommunications services and convergence of technologies, it is inevitable that the world of computers and telephony are also getting merged. When mobile service companies provide Internet service to customers, they need a WAP ready phone. However, this is still an expensive choice. The exciting opportunities that the wireless technology offers to link remote communities and at very inexpensive rates is what makes this technology one of choice to leapfrog the digital infrastructure divide. At the international arena, several organizations have been advocating the rights of the public to access and use the wireless bandwidth for public use. The current delicencing by India of the “within the four walls” wireless local area networking is the beginning of the opening up of the wireless waves for development use. This also opens up opportunities for the corporate sector and the civil society sector to take the lead in finding local solutions to link far removed and remote communities to the world of Internet. This issue has several key terminologies relating to wireless interspersed for enhancing the knowledge of the readers. We hope to make i4d not only useful for the specialized readers but also to the policy makers.

Maneesh Prasad, Sanjay Kumar i4d G-4 Sector 39, NOIDA, UP, 201 301, India. Phone +91 120 250 2180-87 Fax +91 120 250 0060 Email info@i4donline.net Web www.i4donline.net Contact us in Singapore 25 International Business Park, #4-103F, German Centre, Singapore - 609916 Phone +65-65627983 Fax +65-656227984

In this regard, we are looking forward to steering national debate on the right of the consumers - be it NGOs or community organizations or local service providers to be able to access and use wireless for public purposes. However, it does raise questions on the privacy and security questions for corporate that are already using it within their own organizations. There is a need for a policy debate on wireless under the vision of universal access to ICTs. Do write in your comments and suggestions to improve i4d.

Printed at Yashi Media Works Pvt. Ltd. New Delhi, India Designed by TSA GraphicFX www.tsafx.com and Deepak Kumar i4d does not necessarily subscribe to the views expressed in this publication. All views expressed in this magazine are those of the contributors. i4d is not responsible or accountable for any loss incurred directly or indirectly as a result of the information provided.

February 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Ravi Gupta Ravi.Gupta@i4donline.net

C OMMUNITY - BASED ICT

Infrastructure development using wireless technology This article will demonstrate the path and experiences in facilitating a community movement to build its own communication infrastructure.

Onno W. Purbo Independent ICT Writer Sabbatical Leave at IDRC, Canada onno@indo.net.id http://sandbox.bellanet.org/~onno

A glimpse of the past

WiFi to bypass Telco last mile

“PaguyubanNet”, the earliest form on Internet in Indonesia was established in 1993, as a result of considerable effort and expertise contributed by a handful of national digital pioneers. “Paguyuban” is a Bahasa Indonesian word meaning “helping each other”. Prior to the establishment of PaguyubanNet, in 1986, early network development was inspired leading amateur radio pioneers. This inspiration was carried forward by similar radio experiments performed by students at the Amateur Radio Club (Institute of Technology of Bandung (ITB). As a result of financial restrictions, all experiments were run on first generation personal computers (with 64KB of RAM) and used radio for data communications. The speed of transmission was 1/10000 of the speed of WiFi today. Since 2001, the Director for Vocational Schools at the Ministry of Education has been leading the integration of more than 1500 vocational schools to the Internet through WiFi. Much ground is left to be covered with a total of 1300 colleges / universities, 10,000 high schools, 10,000 Islamic schools, 4,000 vocational schools yet to be connected. This journey towards achieving low-cost connectivity was complemented with many talented and dedicated Indonesians who enjoyed sharing their knowledge, expertise and resources for the betterment of Indonesian society. Today, the learning and development process is continued through various Indonesian mailing lists, such as, orari-news@yahoogroups.com, indowli@yahoogroups.com, and genetika @groups.or.id.

Over half of the Internet infrastructure operating costs goes for paying the Telco last mile. This phenomenon is what drives communities to seek alternate solutions to build their own network to bypass the Telco last mile. One of the easiest ways to accomplish this is to use the off-the-shelf low cost WiFi (Wireless Fidelity) technology running at 2.4GHz & 5.8GHz band. WiFi wireless Internet solutions can be found on the Web at http://sandbox.bellanet.org/~onno/, http://www.wavelan.com, http:// www.ydi.com, and http://www.wipop.com. WiFi equipment is originally designed for indoor usage. However, it is also used outdoors. Unlike indoor installations, there is an outdoor external antenna used along with a 20-30 meter tower to extend the range of coverage to reach 5-8 km distances. Building low cost homemade 2.4GHz antenna is not very difficult; a tin can with 90 mm diametre, and 215 mm length can be easily used as a 2.4GHz antenna for 1-2 km distances. It costs approximately US$5-10 per antenna. Someone with a strong Linux background may easily build a low cost gateway / router to integrate a LAN or a community to the Internet at 11Mbps.

Community neighbourhood network model The Community Neighbourhood Network model moves away from the conventional Telecentre model, which centralizes all connectivity in a single room. The new WiFi Community Network distributes connectivity throughout the neighbourhood thereby reducing monthly costs for 24 hour

i4d | April 2004

Internet access. As more houses or computers in the neighbourhood will be connected to the neighbourhood network, the operating cost as well as the initial investment cost will decline. To get a better idea of the savings one can achieve by developing an outdoor WiFi neighbourhood network, let us conduct a price comparison. Broadband 24 hour Internet access from the Indonesian Telco costs US$400-800/month/user. This price allows the user to exchange limited traffic over the network with a high level QoS (Quality of Service). In comparison, WiFi Neighbourhood Network broadband 24 hour Internet access costs US$15-45/ month1 /neighbour. This low price includes the ability for users to exchange unlimited traffic on the network with variable QoS (Quality of Service), depending on the level of traffic at that time. Currently, there are over 5000 institutions including broadband Internet cafes, schools, and residential neighbourhoods using WiFi technologies as an alternative to conventional connectivity options.

An active WiFi community shares its experiences An online virtual discussion forum in English on practical issues of WiFi and Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is currently hosted by IDRC and Bellanet at wifi4d@dgroups.org. This discussion list is open for all international practitioners to share their experiences and knowledge as well as documents. This workspace is for discussions on practical WiFi and VOIP infrastructure implementation in developing countries. This group has 122 members currently participating in the discussion. There are some interesting deliberations going on in this discussion group - both technical and pedagogical. You may like to join this group. Send e-mail to joinwifi4d@dgroups.org to become a member of the wifi4d discussion list.

Regional Networks Now that we know how to link individual communities, we can take a step back to look at how to connect the communities to one another through a broader regional network. The two (2) most common technologies to build the regional network are satellite and fibre optics. DVB-RCS satellite backbone is the cheapest solution currently available to Indonesia is selling for US$200-700 at 64Kbps, depending on the agreement on the satellite ground station. Fibre optics/microwave backbone can be rented from cellular operators. The excess capacity is used for our data traffic between cities. The local ISP (Internet Service Provider) normally rents the backbone from the cellular operators, and then resells it to the community.

Capacity building: Encouraging local knowledge producers

their own money in such infrastructure models. Once people are convinced to deploy community neighbourhood networks, they can utilize knowledge produced by the young authors to assist in building their capacities. These capacities include initial set up, operation, and maintenance of the infrastructure. With a sound knowledge base and strong network of knowledge producers, communities can become self-sustaining, by developing and maintaining their own equipment and services. Similar initiatives from large top-down institutions often result in failure because the methodology they use treats people as customers, rather than empowering them to participate in achieving a sustainable solution.

Policy influence: Liberating 2.4GHz and In creating a self-financed knowledge cycle, there are basically two 5.8GHz WiFi band (2) critical strategies, namely: transforming local youth into knowledge producers; and supply-created-by-demand strategy. Without skilled and dedicated people to drive this movement, the deployment of such innovative infrastructure would not be possible. This infrastructure model thrives only because it is invested, built, and run by the people for the people. Having easy access to low cost technology is not enough. In Indonesia, ICT knowledge in local language is limited. A key component for the successful deployment of WiFi technologies in the Indonesian context is the development of young students to become local knowledge producers. These knowledge producers (young authors) acquire WiFi knowledge from various sources, experiment with them, and then author their experiences into publications in the local language (Bahasa Indonesia). To sustain young authors to continue producing knowledge materials they are compensated with US$15-25/article and US$500-700/ book. The typical monthly living cost for a student is US$80-95 (including tuition, books, housing and meals). The impact of knowledge producers is felt on many levels. Not only do their publications educate people, but they also open peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s minds to new ideas and help reaffirm the feasibility of investing April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

The diffusion of WiFi neighbourhood networks in Indonesia not only depends on the people, but also on the government and policy regulation. This interdependency has made an impacted on the movement for quite some time. The issue at hand is liberating WiFi band (2.4GHz and 5.8GHz) from harsh government regulations. Prior to 1999, licenses for running WiFi nodes cost US$2200/ yr/node. This price was reduced to US$270/yr/node after some negotiations in 2001. However, WiFi licenses continue to be awarded only to ISPs. Those who run WiFi without a license have their equipment revoked by the government. In October 2003, the Ministry of Telecommunications wrote a Figure 1: Potential Impact of WiFi Liberation in Indonesia Impact

Current

WiFi based Internet users Potential ISP tax revenue Potential revenue from ISP VAT (Value Added Tax) Potential revenue from supplier VAT Computers 50,000 units WiFi Equipment

1 million US$120,000/yr US$800,000/yr

Future (if liberalization occurs) 17.8 million US$2.5 million/yr US$15 million/yr

US$2.1 million

US$70 million

2 million units 5,500 units

130,000 units

The Community Neighbourhood Network model moves away from the conventional Telecentre model, which centralizes all connectivity in a single room.

Furthermore, as studies have indicated, the additional revenue the government can generate from the volume of ISP and vendor taxes will be more than sufficient to compensate for the loss of revenue from WiFi licensing.

Conclusion Over the past 10 years, Onno Purbo and his colleagues have worked very hard to make all the pieces fit into the Indonesian WiFi Neighbourhood Network puzzle. This process is quite involved and requires equal amounts of attention to capacity building of the people, research of new technologies, and engaging in the policy arena.

Contacts draft decree on WiFi. The decree is still open and many Indonesians hope that the Ministry will consider the numerous benefits, both economical and social, that will emerge if the WiFi band is liberated. 1 US$400 to ISP for 24 hours/day divided by 10-30 neighbours From the chart above one can see the significant increase in WiFi equipment upon liberalization of the WiFi band. Currently neighbourhood networks encourage local SMEs (Small and Medium Sized Enterprises) to manufacture antennas and towers at a lower cost than their foreign competitors. With the increase from 5,500 units to 130,000 units, manufacturers will be able to provide a lower price to the end consumer due to the principle of economies of scale. The current demand of 5,500 units is not sufficient to provide incentive for new manufacturers to enter the market. However, the increase in demand to 130,000 units will translate into a lower per unit manufacturing cost.

For inquiries regarding the community-based ICT infrastructure, please write to Onno Purbo (onno@indo.net.id). For further information and other inquiries regarding this article, please submit your request to Frank Tulus, Senior Program Officer, Pan Asia Networking, IDRC (ftulus@idrc.org.in) or Chaitali Sinha, Research Officer, Pan Asia Networking, IDRC (csinha@idrc.ca). Acknowledgements This article has been reviewed and editorial comments made by Mr. Frank Tulus, Senior Program Officer, Pan Asia Networking, IDRC (ftulus@idrc.org.in) or Ms. Chaitali Sinha, Research Officer, Pan Asia Networking, IDRC (csinha@idrc.ca). This community initiative is fully supported by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) and the Bellanet Secretariat in Canada.

‘Wi-Fi’ying the Dal Lake - A project that was killed within days of its birth The recent reports about the Dal Lake WiFi projects in the newspapers and the Internet highly publicized it as the Lake in the world with wireless Internet Access. The project is conceived by the Dax Networks and is being implemented in partnership with Jammu & Kashmir Department of Tourism and IPEAKS, a leading ISP of the state. According to reports “it is the first such instance in the world where a lake has been converted into a hot spot.” The idea behind the project was to ensure that Kashmiris at large are not denied of what the rest of the country has access to. The promoters of the project hoped that this project would give a new dimension to Kashmir and will lead to an increase in the foreign tourists to the valley. The project conceived that , people and tourists alike can access Internet while staying in House boats as well as while moving on the very popular Shikara Boats. Enthused by the reports the author had gone all prepared with his WiFi enabled Laptop to access the Internet in the midst of the beautiful and scenic Dal Lake. However to his disappointwww.i4donline.net www.i4donline.net www.i4donline.net www.i4donline.net

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ment no such project existed. The CEO of IPEAKS, the ISP partner of the project, revealed, “Yes, we WiFied the Dal Lake, but , it is not functional anymore . I had fixed all the equipments and it worked well for 12 days. Then we got a call from the DoT (Department of Telecom, Government of India) asking to remove all the equipment immediately. According to DoT the project was illegal as it violates the policies regarding WiFi. The DoT has asked IPEAKS to obtain a WPC license to use WiFi at the Dal Lake. However according to experts there no such violation as using WiFi within a complex is allowed and Dal lake is a single complex under the control of J & K Tourism department. Irfan Raza, CEO of IPEAKS says” We were using 3 antennas which covered a range of about 4 km . Had this project been allowed to work ,we had further plans like setting up Wi-Fi in Gulmarg , mini set ups at the tourist spots ,Wi-Fi in Katra (a very popular Hindu Pilgrimage) and elsewhere in the valley .”

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Rishi Chawla, Country Representative, GIPI rishi@gipi.org.in www.i4donline.net www.i4donline.net www.i4donline.net www.i4donline.net

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I NSIGHT

Wireless network in the Himalayas A personal narrative of setting up and operation of the world’s highest cybercafe and its application in the region... opening up opportunities for promoting tourism and education.

“If you can connect up by wireless from Everest, you ought to be able to connect up anywhere” Thus quipped a writer from the New York Times when she researched her story about the efforts Tsering Sherpa and Dave Hughes were going to make to operate the world’s highest ‘Cyber Café” at the 18,000 foot level Base Camp in May, 2003. This was to support climbers during the 50th Anniversary of the first climb of Mount Everest by Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay some 50 years ago. While that Everest Cyber Café operation made world news when all eyes were on the large number of climbers attempting the summit in May, a potentially far more significant wireless project was started in October further down at 12,000 feet in the Sherpa village of Namche Bazar. This article is about that effort to link up wirelessly, first, all the lodges and businesses in Namche – the last place where climbers and trekkers rest and acclimate themselves to the altitude before pressing on to their higher mountain goals. And then to launch the first very high country ‘distance learning’ venture for very poor Sherpa children whose education is very limited at best.

Beginnings

David R Hughes Colonel (Ret), Old Colorado City Communications, Colorado Springs, Colorado, USA dave@oldcolo.com

The roots of the Sherpa Wireless project were in the vision of 39 year old Tsering, a native of Namche, who had gotten part of his early education in Darjeeling, and through his travels and work in Asia and America where he saw the power and potential of the Internet. He was determined to bring that power to his home village and people, even though they lived in remote mountains where communications is very difficult, unreliable, and expensive. And some of it had already been destroyed by the Maoists who were blowing up Nepalese

government telephone company towers, destroying the last link to Namche. He already, by 2002, had taken over some communications equipment others had started to use, including a small radio-telephone network based on licensed frequencies, and completed his own ‘Cyber Café’ in Namche, with three desk top computers, and a satellite system that carried 128kbps of TCP/IP signal down to Kathmandu, 100 miles away, where it linked to the rest of the world via Worldlink Internet Service. It was in the spring of 2002 when an American named Gordon Cook, who was interested in the Himalayas, visited Namche, heard Tsering’s vision and introduced him to me over the Internet.

Evolution of an Idea I had done both community networking work in places like Montana, where I designed ways to link 114 one-room school houses to the world, and then extended wireless for the National Science Foundation to places including Ulaanbatar, Mongolia, Alaska, the jungle of Puerto Rico and my own Old Colorado City. I was more than familiar with what it would take for Tsering to realize his vision. I also knew, from my philosophy of ‘fitting technology to cultures’ and not ‘cultures to technology’ that I needed to learn a lot about the Sherpa, and Nepalese cultures, their economics, and politics as it would affect Namche if I were to be able to give the right kind of advice on how to make the networking useful to the economy, education, and culture of the Sherpas. At the simplest technical level, operating computers or radios at 12,000 feet in Nepal is little different from operating and maintaining them in high Colorado. But from that point on – the language differences, the levels of education and experience with computers i4d | April 2004

or other technical devices - in a village which had never used telephones, or had electricity, much less ‘personal’ computers, would make it a steep learning curve. I set about learning by email, which Tsering could use, writing English, although it was a chore for him, and by study of books and on the Internet about the Sherpa culture and Nepalese Kingdom, and from information from Gordon Cook from his previous trips there.

First, Base Camp In early 2003, a novel idea was hatched by Tsering Sherpa and the Namche based manager of the Sargamatha Pollution Control Committee – SPCC – a partially Nepalese-government funded NGO which had the responsibility for ‘managing’ the ‘Park’ and travellers. They wanted to set up the world’s highest ‘Cyber Café’ at the 18,000 foot level Base Camp used by all the climbers going up from the Nepalese side of Everest. It would serve, for a fee, the hundreds of climbers and their expedition parties, the press, and medical staffs that would converge on the Base Camp in May 2003. The profits, if any, would be split between SPCC, Wordlink, and Tsering’s Namche Technical Services. It would be a benefit to SPCC. Tsering recruited Dileep Agrawl, owner of Worldlink, Nepal’s largest Internet Service Provider in Kathmandu, who had much experience with Satellite Internet links and could provide the Satellite base unit. The plan was to set up the Satellite Base Station at the Base Camp, linked to the Internet via a geosynchronous satellite and provide e-mail, web browser and perhaps even voice over the Internet to the climbers and to their support personnel, camped for a month or more at Base Camp at the foot of the great Ice Fall at 18,000 feet, from where the hard technical climb of the mountain starts. Simple concept. Right? Wrong! There were plenty of obstacles. The Base Camp sits on the Khumbu Glacier that moves between three and four feet a day down the flat valley. Keeping the satellite aligned and linked would be a constant headache. Secondly, Base Camp was so low in the valley that the Nuptse and Lhotse mountain masses blocked the best line of sight to the satellite low in the southern sky. They would have to peek through the passes between them, which often would be thick with clouds – which could attenuate the signal or even block it entirely during mountain storms. So Tsering contacted me in Colorado. The solution was, to me, straight forward in concept. Place the Satellite Base unit on the other side of the Khumbu valley on higher, solid ground that sloped up toward 23,490 foot Pumori mountain, and link the Base Camp to the Satellite Base by a 4 kilometer 802.11b radio wireless data link between a radio at the satellite, and the other in the Cyber Café. Each radio would be fitted with a 13.5 dB gain directional antenna. All powered by plenty of batteries and solar panels packed up there on the backs of Yaks and Sherpa porters. I persuaded Cisco Corporation to donate three Cisco Aeronet Wi-Fi 350 Access Point radios with the antennas. They got the radios to Nepal just in time. The long and short of it was that solution worked, after taking 18 yaks to carry everything up from Namche. There were many April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Picture of Namche with wireless overlay lines

minor problems, all solved. Doing the simplest things was hard, slow, work at that altitude. The Cyber Café in the tent at Base Camp provided, at $1 a minute, the kind of digital link to the rest of the world that even costly satellite voice telephones brought by many parties could not. In one case a climber manager said the Base Camp Cyber Café saved him $10,000 in communications costs. There was tremendous world wide publicity for several months over the ‘World’s Highest Cyber Café’ operating during the two short climbing season months. Tsering became famous. And I did not even have to go there. I just give advice and evaluated feedback, by email.

Wireless Namche All the above was preparation - a sort of rehearsal, and lessons learned - for what Tsering Sherpa really wanted – which was the wireless connecting up of Sherpas in his 12,000 foot high Namche community. Which is the village on the trail to Everest, which all Trekkers and Climbers use as the stopping-over place to acclimate themselves to the altitude, rest, and organize before pressing on. Its their last place to communicate from. I had gotten to know Tsering, and his vision for his people, and understood the economic problems that Namche faced, with boom and bust tourism, overdependence on one source of revenue, and only six months of activity. And the fact that the children of Namche and the surrounding villages were still – in spite of many schools having been built by the Hillary Trust – poorly educated. Most of the children faced a life of portering heavy loads for wealthy Westerners up and down the Solo Khumbu for $5.00 a day. They had little future. So during the summer of 2003 I worked out the details with Tsering by email and occasional VOIP calls from his Cyber Café of what it would take to extend wireless broadband links to many Lodges where trekkers and climbers stayed from the location of his Namche Cyber Café and its satellite base station, and 4 desktop computers inside. Especially I studied both topographic maps of Namche and the surrounding area, and photographs from the high country, and some aircraft, from above. For the key would be the validity of my

Tsering Sherpa and David Hughes Planning wireless layout

rough, distant, ‘wireless site survey’ for how many of what type radios, connectors, cables, power supplies, and all the myriad bits and pieces I had to take in there in order to reach the whole village. It would be a two day trek with Sherpa porters, to get anything up there from the nearest small aircraft landing field, and being over 100 miles from Kathmandu would be too far to get something overlooked and needed, even if it could be procured there. My boots on the ground military experience going back 50 years to the Korean War, from reading maps to planning operations with attention to detail, and my 15 years experience specifically deploying unlicensed spread spectrum radios in remote areas helped immensely. One look at the aerial view of Namche shows its unique topography. A high bowl with buildings, including the lodges, terraced upward from the central “Tibetan Marketplace’ (thus the name Namche Bazar) with a Buddhist Stupa at one end – a drop off precipice to the valley far below behind it, and a giant very steep mountain 2km across from opening of the bowl. At once that told me that if an Access Point base radio could be placed right, radios in the lodges could ‘see’ the base radio at a pretty short range – less than a mile. It also told me the best place would be right on the sheer face of that facing mountain. A daunting proposition. And that the roofs of the lodges, being made of tin, would be bad to try and punch through from above. so the 2.4ghz signals should try to go through the concrete walls on the sides. I knew that the Cisco radios I had gotten for the one-time Base Camp project would not be the best radios for the Namche project or for future expansion in Sherpa villages by Tsering. I selected a brand I had some experience and knowledge about - Wi-Fi 802.11b radios from Smartbridges of Singapore. I picked them because: They were rated outside to -40 degrees F. The Cisco’s only went to 0. They operated with Power over Ethernet POE cabling, which could work with either battery or grid power They had excellent receiver sensitivity They could be run on 12volts DC – plain vehicle-class battery. The Cisco’s required 24 to 48v. Multiple batteries. They were simpler to configure than the Cisco’s. Nothing fancy. They had standard ‘N’ connectors right at the radio – separate

pigtails were not required to link with external antennas. Finally they were much less expensive than the Cisco family, from a high of $330 down to $107 for USB port driven client radio for use in the Lodges. From one third to one half the cost of Ciscos and similar quality corporate radios. And they could come from a closer Asian source than from US manufacturers, Singapore. I pledged to donate $3,000 worth of Smartbridges with associated hardware and fixtures including signal splitters, battery regulators, cable tools to the project. There was something else I felt we needed. If we were going to connect up a Sherpa school to the net, and try to - through ‘Distant Learning’ techniques - teach Sherpa children English, Math, Science and other subjects beyond the materials or skills of the Nepalese teachers who generally ran the schools in the high country, we needed reliable voice sound. Tsering had made it clear that unless the children learned English they could not even qualify as guides for Trekkers or climbers. So I once again contacted Cisco and asked them if they would donate four Voice over IP (VOIP) telephone sets to the cause, even though I had not bought their radios. And would they configure them for SIP (Session Initation Protocol) – point to point IP connectibility, so that the classes could have voice over speaker phones. And once the 24 by 7 wireless and satellite connections were in place, there would be no cost of ‘crossing over’ into the switched telephone networks in the US or other places. Essentially ‘free’ voice calling. Once again they came through. Cullen Jennings, an expert in VOIP voluntarily configured 4 7960 Ciscos for our precise needs, right down to the fixed IP addresses in Namche they would use. I registered their SIP protocols through IPTEL.COM voip registry in Germany – a free server service that stores the numbers for voip phones, so other SIP phone users can reach them from anywhere on the net. Finally Jim Forster of Cisco, taken with the project, offered $2,000 personally so I could buy 2 late-model Windows computers for the classroom in Kathmandu and get them to Namche for the students to use once their classes started. With two 70 pound bag weight limits for air travel from the US I could not buy them, even more cheaply, in the US and carry them to Nepal with all the other impedimenta I was going with. After frequent email and phone calls, one of my employees Marty Yazlowitz and I configured and pretested every radio and network connections, as well as the Cisco phones ahead of time in a short range shadow network. There would be little opportunity to start wrestling with IP address, netmasks, and router configurations once I got to Namche. No local help desks to call!

The Trek I also had to get my 75 year old body in physical shape for the trip. I would have to fly into Lukla, Nepal from Kathmandu, a very small and scary airport with a 20 degree slope, on the side of a mountain part way up the Solo Khumbu. And then, with hired Sherpa porters, trek for at least 2 days over 12 rough trail miles and over 6 hanging bridges up 3,000 feet more to Namche Bazar at its 12,000 feet elevation. No FedEx delivery there! But living at 6,500 feet in Colorado, thus not too worried about altitude sickness at 12,000 feet, and having long ago been a hard i4d | April 2004

walking infantry officer, I faithfully climbed daily up Barr Trail toward 14,000 foot Pikes Peak for six weeks until I was fit to tackle the trail to Everest. On 21 October, 2003 I flew through Frankfurt, Germany, and Doah, Quatar to Kathmandu with my radios and very advanced internet phones, plus my own laptop and a very small, Sony camcorder with which I could take and send pictures from and even video clips. On the trail I met interesting people from all over the world. Most were taken aback at my age making this trip. But to the Sherpas that is everyday life into their 80s. I met Apa Sherpa who has summited Everest 13 times. With Tsering who met me, and Pavan Shakya, a lowland Nepalese employee of Worldlink who desperately wanted to learn the secrets of wireless from me, we plugged away up the mountain and got there with all the technical equipment intact.

David Hughes on a Buddhist Stupa in Namche installing a radio

Training and Installation My personal method of working with people who have never installed and operated wireless devices – and very few have - is to teach them progressively what I am doing, explaining everything theoretically, then doing the first installation myself while explaining everything practical while they watch, then make them install the second one themselves, me watching and critiquing, then, expect them to do all the rest, answering questions by email, or Voice over IP. I went over what the architecture would be, what is important in terms of Line of Sight, obstacles, potential interference, possible need for relay radios, and how to do a rough walk-around site survey before starting installing anything. I want them to ‘visualize’ in their minds eye what the invisible wireless network would look like. So they would get used to looking for high points, clever alternative locations, where radio relays might go, obstacles which will attenuate the signals, and a rough idea of ‘distance’ the radios can reach, with a variety of external omni and directional antennas. We started that process the first, rainy day. It was clear to me I had, ‘visualized’ Namche properly from maps and a National Geographic aerial photo, and my years of experience to envision a practical layout of radios within the village, with its steep terraced slopes. But there remained one large question mark. Where to put the key “Access Point” radio that would have to ‘see’ the whole village from one point? And towards which all the client and relay radios would have to point. Given the 28 degree ‘fan’ from the directional antenna built into the primary Access Point Radio, I was afraid it would have to be placed across the valley on the steep side of 20,644 foot Kongde mountain, at least 2km away from the center of Namche to ‘see’ with enough strength the whole town. My calculations of radio power and antenna gain told me that would be an acceptable distance for the RF signal to go, with 15db of ‘margin’ as my benchmark for a reliable radio link. But looking directly across the deep gorge at the mountain I saw it was almost a sheer cliff. Awesome in fact. With small waterfalls trickling down its face. Tsering joked that when the water froze crazy ice climbers, would take 4 days to climb to the top. I asked him how long it would take he and other Sherpas to go around to April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

the top, and rappel down to anchor a radio, with batteries, and solar panels. He said it would take at least 12 hours just to get there. Out of the question. Too many variables. Very very risky. Then, even though Tsering knew little except what he had seen at Base Camp months before about Wi-Fi radios, he said “Why don’t you put it on the Stupa at the bottom of the Tibetan Marketplace?” I said “But that is a religious site, isn’t it? Won’t your Sherpa neighbors be offended if this crazy American puts a modern radio up on its traditional face?” His answer showed how little I still knew about the Sherpa culture and the nature of their religious icons. “Its not really a temple. No one would object. Besides, my family owns one of the four posts that surround it.” With nothing to lose, and no better suggestion, we set about to mount the Access Point Radio up about 10 feet above the ground on one of the poles, and aimed it up to the center of Namche. The 28-degree fan only subtended about half the town. I feared there would be insufficient signal power to reach the lodges to each side, up to 90 degrees away from the direction the antenna was pointed. Also after Tsering got a 220v power line run to the inner wall of the Stupa, we strung the power line from the pole right over a bank of Prayer Wheels. That looked ugly to me. But cheerfully Tsering said ‘Lets just hang prayer flags on the wire!” So he did, and nobody was offended, at any of this. Just curious. To my great relief, when I dispatched three of the Cyber Café staff members to walk with laptop computers and small USB powered Wi-Fi radios up and down each side of the Namche bowl to each lodge to see what our coverage was, everything worked! The ‘side lobe’ power that radiates out at 90 degrees from the directional antenna that concentrates the power forward was just strong enough to reach inside the lodges to the side. They were only about 150 feet away, and that helped. Then quickly we were able to put a Client, of Bridge, radio on the roof of the Cyber Café building, using a wooden post (very few usable pipes were around, and even wood is scarce), then drop the Power over Ethernet cable into the computer room, hook it to the Router, which was connected to the IP Satellite dish, and we had end to end wireless connectivity from any lodge to the Internet. Mission largely accomplished! After that fundamental ‘backbone’

link was established the tricky remaining task was to see how we could get the wireless signal, first up onto the ‘shelf ’ of land above Namche where the SPCC Park Headquarters was, then to the Army barracks close by – both of whom wanted Internet access, and then with a Relay radio from there to a Sherpa ‘middle’ school. We first were prepared to extend the link to the relatively well endowed Hillary School which lay north 2km. The headmaster had showed some interest in being connected before I got there. But in the end Tsering could not come to terms with the school. They wanted a totally free lunch. No way. Tsering was in business. The satellite service costs him $1,200 a month. So the eager Headmaster of the very poor Thame school, 4km away whose girls would travel to Namche to do traditional dances to raise money for books, jumped in to take advantage of the possibility of getting his kids educated from afar – real distance learning, where the last link to the Internet would be wireless. He would happily pay the $200 a month needed. This is where the Cisco 7960 VOIP telephones configured for SIP connectivity, came in. SIP protocol phones are IP point to IP point phones, which cost nothing above the basic net connection to use. The basic idea was to extend the wireless link to the school from Namche to Thame, requiring an intermediate relay radio, put a small router in the school, there,

connect up the two new Windows computers Jim Forster had donated, and put in one of the Cisco IP Phones with speaker there in the classroom. Then let all 9 Sherpa children and their Nepalese teacher hear distant Mingma Sherpa who grew up in Namche, and now lives in Pittsburgh, USA, use his own Cisco IP phone teach them, first, oral English, and then written English via email, and later other subjects through the very long computer connection. The only hard part from this point on would be how to set the class schedule, since Pittsburgh is 10 hours different from Nepal – a 9 AM class in Thame would require that Mingma be up at 11 PM in Pittsburgh to teach it!

Closure With the major wireless deployment tasks completed, and after my calculating what it would take for a climber on the summit of Everest – which I could see from Namche, to send and receive email wirelessly from a handheld PDA, or to put a telescope cam at Namche to watch climbers the last few hundred meters above the Hillary Step, I returned to the US. I remain in touch by email and VOIP, including ‘Freeworldialup’ software phones which are the Next Big thing. And let Tsering, Santosh, and the little band of Internet pioneers carry on themselves.

Learn the wireless network jargons CDMA: Code Division Multiple Access. CDMA is a digital spreadspectrum modulation technique used mainly with personal communications devices such as mobile phones. CDMA digitizes the conversation and tags it with a special frequency code. The data is then scattered across the frequency band in a pseudorandom pattern. The receiving device is instructed to decipher only the data corresponding to a particular code to reconstruct the signal. Coaxial Cable: Typically used to connect a television to cable TV services, coaxial cable consists of a small copper tube or wire surrounded by an insulating material and another conductor with a larger diameter, usually in the form of a tube or a copper braid. This cable is then encased in a rubberized protective material. Ethernet: Ethernet is a standard for connecting computers into a local-area network (LAN). Ethernet is also called 10BaseT, which denotes a peak transmission speed of 10Mbps using copper twisted-pair cable. Firewall: A system that prevents unauthorized users from logging in to a private network (usually one that’s connected to the public Internet). It can also be used to keep users inside the firewall from accessing computers outside the firewall. A firewall could be a dedicated computer equipped with security measures such as a dial-back feature, a software-based protection, or a combination of both. The firewall screens incoming server requests to make sure they come from authorized sources. Internet connection sharing: Also known as ICS, this is a Windows XP function that lets home or small-office users with networked computers share one Internet connection. A computer with an Internet connection serves as the ICS host for all the computers.

Intranet: A play on the word Internet, an intranet is a restrictedaccess network that works like the Web but isn’t on it. Usually owned and managed by a corporation, an intranet enables a company to share its resources with its employees without confidential information being made available to everyone with Internet access. LAN: Local-Area Network. A local-area network is a short-distance network used to link a group of computers together, usually within a building. Ethernet is the most commonly used type of LAN. A piece of hardware called a hub serves as the common wiring point, enabling data to be sent from one machine to another over the network. Twisted pair: Telephone companies commonly run twisted pairs of copper wires to each customer household. The pairs consist of two insulated copper wires twisted into a spiral pattern. Although originally designed for plain old telephone service (POTS), these wires can carry data as well as voice. New services such as ISDN and ADSL also use twisted-pair copper connections. VPN: Virtual Private Network. A private network of computers that’s at least partially connected by public phone lines. A good example would be a private office LAN that allows users to log in remotely over the Internet (an open, public system). VPNs use encryption and secure protocols such as PPTP to ensure that unauthorized parties do not intercept data transmissions. WAN: Wide-Area Network. Take two local-area networks (LANs), hook them together, and you have a WAN. Wide-area networks can be made up of interconnected smaller networks spread throughout a building, a state, or the entire globe. The Internet could be considered a WAN. A wireless WAN is called a WLAN. Source: http://www.cnet.com/4520-7364_1-105323-1.html?tag=gloss

i4d | April 2004

B RINGING S EEDS , N OT T REES

The wireless roadshow The wireless roadshow aims at supporting civil society partners in building their connectivity in license-exempt spectrum, based on open technology and open knowledge

Sebastian Büttrich Founder and Partner wire.less.dk / Informal Denmark sebastian@less.dk

April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Wireless networking an accepted option Wireless networking has become an accepted alternative when the challenge is to build connectivity and communication infrastructure in developing countries. Especially the 802.11 family of standards, operating in free (license-exempt) spectrum, offers a number of significant advantages, when compared to traditional telecom and network infrastructure.The technology is affordable and the equipment is widely available. Wireless networks can be implemented in a flexible, step-by-step manner, avoiding big initial investments. Hardware typically has low power requirements. So wireless networks can be run independent from the electricity grid - on solar, wind, micro hydro or even bicycle power. It is possible to connect to and use today’s international communication networks, mainly built and run by the rich developed countries, without having to go through all the steps of infrastructure creation that these countries went through. The implicit qualities of the technology have an impact on the corresponding business and community paradigms: decentralization, autonomy, participation and organic growth are the keywords here. A number of successful projects have demonstrated the potential of these technologies – to name but a few: Satellife and WideRay in Uganda, DakNet and First Mile Solutions in Cambodia, SchoolNet Namibia, IDN and the Sava i Ghana, Rebel Net / The Peoples network in Indonesia, the Jhai Foundation’s Remote IT Village Project in Laos, Nepalwireless.net in Nepal – there are many more. The relevance of wireless networking in less privileged regions is not at all limited to developing countries: in rural Denmark, wireless community network Djurslands.net connects thousands of people who do not have access to broadband, due to lack of market interest from telecom providers.

Three simple examples To illustrate the uses of 802.11 technology, here are three simple cases familiar to many development scenarios: • An Internet connection exists in one central place (a larger city maybe), but its neighbours (e.g. the next towns, schools, institutes) cannot benefit from it. Or, such a central connection is too expensive for one subscriber alone, but would be possible to finance if only 10, 20 or 100 partners could share it. Here, wireless networks can close the gaps and connect locations – without running costs for the actual local connectivity and traffic. • There is an office in location A and one in location B – and they need to talk, but telephone connections are either expensive, unstable or both. Wireless point-to-point links can be established at low cost (one time setup) with no further traffic charges, up to distances of 15, 30, or even 70 km. Voice-over-IP allow you to make phone calls over such a connection, free of any charge: Wireless connectivity at its best, not necessarily with a connection to the Internet. • Temporary connectivity might be needed, but hard to come by at reasonable prices, in disaster situations or just for special events, videoconferences to remote places, etc. - 802.11 wireless offers a valuable alternative in these scenarios.

What does the wireless roadshow add? The wireless roadshow adds some specific angles to wireless networking: • Our target partner is the civil society – NGOs from the technical or non-technical field, human rights organizations, schools, libraries etc • We focus on free software / open source (sometimes tagged FLOSS). The open approach includes all parts of our project, from hardware to documentation: open technology.

Tomas Krag giving a wireless workshop at Africa Source, Namibia

Rural connectivity work in Nepal (nepalwireless.net)

• We work with community models of network building – based on participation, distributed ownership and enthusiasm. • We explore new possibilities in wireless networking, like mesh networking, innovative use of voice-over-IP telephony, and synergetic combinations between networking and e.g. power supply installations. While many technology-centric organisations have adopted and embraced wireless networking, very often the potential at hand is not yet seen by the broader civil society. Connectivity barriers are often accepted as impossible to overcome, when in fact new technologies allow for more realistically priced connections. Setting focus on open technology and digital independence is an important aspect of our work. While a certain technology (like 802.11 wireless) might offer implicit advantages, the pure shift from one standard to the other, from cable to radio waves, will not make the difference, unless combined with new ways of looking at business and non-business paradigms. Single point dependencies and inappropriate structures would still be the result, unless we look towards new approaches, sustainability and participatory models. Open technology and free software is best characterized by the ‘four freedoms’: • The freedom to run the program [or network], for any purpose. • The freedom to study how the program [or network] works, and adapt it to your needs. • The freedom to redistribute copies [of software and specifications] so you can help your neighbour. • The freedom to improve the program [or network design], and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits. While there is an impressive knowledge base in the global free and open source software community, this support base tends to be less accessible for the non-technology customer (e.g. a human rights NGO) than typical corporate support and post-sales structures. While vendors of proprietary software and hardware are capable of investing millions of dollars in marketing, education and lobbying initiatives, targeted at governments as well as development agencies, so far the free software community is clear-

ly lacking in such financial power and incentives. Open source training camps like Tactical Technology’s Summer Source and Africa Source are important steps here, as is the work being done by free software organisations around the world, such as the Free Software Foundation. There is an implicit promise of low cost in the use of free and open technology, and while low cost approaches are of course highly relevant and encouraged, it is important to keep a realistic eye on the stability requirements of network infrastructure, and on total cost of ownership. The strength of free software might be most visible for low cost systems, but it is by no means limited to these – on the contrary, some of the most mission critical and expensive systems rely on it. We work with GNU/Linux based systems and other free software not ignoring market realities and pragmatic needs, but opening new and free paths to compatibility. We look at the potential of mesh networking, use photovoltaic/solar and other renewable energy forms, and make voice-over-wireless-IP phone calls home from time to time... :)

How does the wireless roadshow work? The wireless roadshow offers expert help and enthusiastic stimulation – from creating awareness over capacity building to hands-on training. We would like to point out the possibilities and opportunities offered by wireless community approaches rather than import predetermined solutions that may or may not fit the purpose. The demands and vital interests of the local partners are the decisive factor. Wherever it makes sense, practical workshops will be held, in which demonstration modules are built, configured and documented. These hopefully can become starting points for self-sustained networking activities, supported by the open documentation and knowledge base that the roadshow produces along its way. And last but not the least, an important thing to remember: The frequency bands used by 802.11 are free in principle, or, license-exempt following the recommendation of the ITU. But, local regulation and licensing realities may be different and must be taken into account. Therefore, a key part of the wireless roadshow work is policy surveys and frequency mapping. i4d | April 2004

Team Backgrounds

Working on mobile connectivity

The wireless roadshow is a joint project of UK-based non-profit Informal - a research and implementation group for collaborative research with a focus on social development and technology – and the Danish wireless expert team wire.less.dk. The backgrounds of the core team cover a wide and diverse range – spanning from many years of professional experience in the web consultancy world to experience in ICT volunteering for Geekcorps.org, UN volunteers, and many informal projects; from quantum physics and radio frequency spectroscopy to internet programming and all aspects of web media; and with a deep involvement in European community networking initiatives (e.g. Consume.net, freifunk.net) and gatherings (BerLon, the Copenhagen Interpolation, the Freifunk Summer Conventions).

First step

References

The wireless roadshow is a new initiative, starting in April 2004. The first stop will be in autumn 2004, very likely to be in West Africa and/or Central and South Asia. The project has received first round funding from the Open Society Institute and is actively seeking partners and project opportunities. People and organizations with an interest in our activities and the approach we stand for are encouraged to contact us.

•

Motivations and Skepticism The question of the value of global connectivity is subject to many relevant discussions, especially when these values are balanced against other goods and achievements (like food, water, medicine). But in order to take part in a discussion and to make sure your viewpoints get heard, you first need to be connected to your discussion partner. And today, the Internet is without doubt one of the most important connection channels. The (self-) educational aspects of Internet connectivity are central in our view. While no technology, wired or unwired, can ever promise ‘quantum leaps into the future’, it can stimulate and support education and initiative, creating a self-accelerating process: once connected to a global knowledge base, the learning and sharing process never has to end.

• • • • • • • • • •

• • • • •

Consume, UK community network project: http://www.consume.net DakNet and First Mile Solutions in Cambodia: http://www.firstmilesolutions.com/ Free Software Foundation: http://www.fsf.org Freifunk, german community network project: http://www.freifunk.net Geekcorps, ICT volunteering: http://geekcorps.org IDN and the Sava, Ghana: http://www.idngh.com/ Informal: http://informal.org.uk Kofi Annan’s IT challenge to Silicon Valley, November 5, 2002: http://news.com.com/2010-1069-964507.html NepalWireless: http://NepalWireless.net Open Society Institute: http://soros.org/ Rebel Net / The Peoples network in Indonesia: http://sandbox.bellanet.org/~onno/some-articles/ppt-rebelnetarch-04-2003.ppt Satellife and WideRay in Uganda: http://www.healthnet.org/ SchoolNet Namibia: http://www.schoolnet.na/ TacticalTechnology, Africa Source, NGO-in-a-box and more: http://www.tacticaltech.org/ The Jhai Foundation’s Remote IT Village Project in Laos: http://www.jhai.org/jhai_remoteIT.html wire.less.dk, denmark: http://wire.less.dk

Regulatory treatment of 802.11b services in India In India, no spectrum is unlicensed, but the Wireless Planning Committee (WPC) under the Ministry of IT and Communications has been issuing licenses for the ISM spectrum, including licenses for use of 802.11b. Recently, the WPC took a positive step with respect to 802.11b, determining that everyone who applied with the requisite fee would be issued a license - except in a very rare case. Probably this was done because the government was made aware that there are no national security issues involved in the use of this band, and that the previously lengthy licensing procedures

April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

hindering growth of the Internet and ICT in the country. However, WPC charges a royalty of USD 375 per link per annum up to a limit of 5 Kilometer. Beyond that, the charges are USD1500 per link per annum. For every additional link the royalty charges are 1/4th of the above figures. This is irrespective of whether the link / network is indoors or outdoors. The license fee is very high - if it were free or very nominal, IT and Internet usage would grow even more. Rishi Chawla, Country Representative, GIPI rishi@gipi.org.in

Quiz

Wireless communication Connectivity in a limited area and an increasingly mobile workforce have fuelled the demand for wireless technologies. Wireless networks, requisite software and mobile devices are providing the needed solution. However, such technologies are yet to realise their potential for development though researchers are trying to bring these technologies to rural areas. Let us check. 1. If it is a project, claimed to be the largest of its kind in the world, what is Wireless Andrew?

13. What are the (a) number of WAP sites, and (b) number of WAP – readable pages?

2. What are the following:

14. Which was the world’s first smart phone for Web browsing?

(a) DSSS

(b) FHSS

(d) HiperLAN2

(e) wireless node?

16. Which was the first microsatellite carrying a microprocessor launched and when?

3. What is HIPERLAN? 4. Michael Swaine, writing in Webreview.com, makes a plea in suggesting and reserving different alphabets for different types of networks. Apart from well – known acronyms LAN, WAN, and MAN, and some others, he suggests, among others, the following: (a) BAN

(b) CAN

(e) HAN

(f) IAN

(g) NAN

15. What is the difference between i–Mode and WAP?

(d) GAN

17. An Indian university will for the first time fabricate a satellite. Name the university. 18. India offers space expertise and launch services to global customers. What is the name of the company, which offers it? 19. (a) If it is Wi-Fi-based pilot project in Karnataka, what is DakNet, and (b) if it is also a Wi-Fi-based pilot project but in Uttar Pradesh, what is Digital Gangetic Plain (DGP) project? 20. What are the expected handset sell through volume and the expected global handset revenue in 2003?

(h) PAN. What do they mean? 5. What is Piconet? 6. Named after the migratory behaviour of the monarch butterfly, what is the Monarch project? 7. Whose teeth are blue, so after who is bluetooth named? 8. (a) What is bluetooth technology, and (b) who developed it?

(b) DoCoMo (e) W–CDMA?

10.What is the expected size of worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market by 2005? 11. If this Mira has nothing to do with bhajans (devotional songs), what then is Mira? 12. (a) What is wireless application protocol (WAP), (b) What is the number of WAP users worldwide, and (c) How many WAP– enabled handsets were shipped worldwide?

Send your answers at the earliest to info@i4donline.net The first three all correct answers will receive exciting prizes.

9. What are the following: (a) I – Mode (d) Scoutsync

Here is an opportunity to prove your intellectual mettle!

The decision of the editorial team will be final. The answers will be published and the winners will be announced in the May 2004 issue of i4d. Online readers can view the same issue on www.i4donline.net in May. D. C. Misra, Former Development Commissioner, Delhi, and Chairman of the Taskforce for IT Policy, NCT of Delhi, India dc_misra@hotmail.com © DC Misra, 2004

i4d | April 2004

Vol. II No. 4

The i4d News

April 2004

Information for development

The Information and communication technology (ICT) has taken the center stage in the developmental debate. Numerous initiatives are already in action or in the pipeline. However, it has become difficult to catch up with all these developments. A need was felt to make available the information about ICT for development activities in an organized form. To address this felt need i4d has introduced news section as a regular feature in the magazine from this issue. It is available on www.i4donline.net on daily basis. We welcome your comments and suggestions on our initiative.

www.i4donline.net

Simputer hits retail shelves The Simputer is finally here for the retail buyer. From April, three versions of the simple, hand-held device, including one costing under Rs 10,000, will be available at showrooms in Bangalore and other cities. It can also be booked online at www.amidasimputer.com. It is also the first computer to be designed and manufactured in India. Bharat Electronics Ltd. (BEL) and PicoPeta Simputers launched their version, ‘Amida’, some three years after the revolutionary device was developed. BEL is one of the two companies that are manufacturing the Simputer under licence from PicoPeta. BEL signed the agreement 18 months ago to make and market the product. “It has been a long wait. But I am sure everyone will agree, after experiencing the product, that the Amida Simputer is worth

the wait,” said BEL CMD, Mr Y. Gopal Rao. Several versions of the Amida Simputer are on offer to cater to a broad spectrum of people. Amida, packs in several innovations. It enables emailing, browsing the Net, games, organising budget; it allows handwriting in any language, doodling on every screen, mailing these scribbles with a single tap, gesture technologies that allow changing a page or zooming of an image by a hand gesture. April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

“We have taken the first steps of an Indian product company building a global brand,” said Prof Vinay, Chairman, and Dr Swami Manohar, CEO of PicoPeta. They are among the four co-developers of the Simputer. BEL has a capacity of 10,000 units a month and plans to make 50,000 units in the first year. The basic Amida 1200 is priced Rs 9,950; Amida 1600 costs Rs 12,450 and the premium model, Amida 4200, Rs 19,950.

Webel launches Braille transcription system Webel Mediatronics Ltd, a West Bengal Government undertaking, on formally announced the launch of a comprehensive, computerised Braille transcription system. The system offers comprehensive solutions for the visually impaired for reading, writing, teaching, learning, printing, etc. It is a mix of hardware and software applications, also addresses the problems of conventional Braille printing systems in terms of speed, convenience and costs. The basic system has been priced at Rs 1.25 lakh. Mr Shankar N. Goswami, Director of Webel Mediatronics, said that the system covers transcription in 13 languages - English, Hindi, Tamil, Oriya, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Assamese, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam and Nepali. The Union Ministry of Communications and Information Technology and West Bengal’s Department of Information Technology sponsored the project. Work on it began in 1997. The computerised Braille transcription system has been installed and was being used in over 102 blind schools in 22 States. In West Bengal, the system has been installed in 27 blind schools and two libraries. The objective is to augment the literacy levels of the visually impaired and also assist in their communication with sighted people.There are an estimated 90 lakh visually challenged people in India and a mere three per cent of them are literate. As such, it would be critical to deploy the computerised Braille transcription system and help enhance the literacy levels among them. Several software and hardware items have been developed for specific applications as part of the computerised Braille transcription system. For instance, TextBraille facilitates the conversion of Indian language text to corresponding Braille codes and prints them through an Automatic Braille Embosser. MathBraille facilitates Braille transcription of mathematics books and scientific texts while TactBraille is a touch-reading system whereby the visually impaired can access files from the PC. The system forms an electronic library in a multi-user environment. Webel Mediatronics, which has developed studio and broadcasting systems, strategic electronic systems and systems for the disabled, has already put out the Braille-ready text on www.braille-aids.com. More than 250 general textbooks in Braille-ready form in 12 Indian languages are available on the Web site.

e-Governance 20,000 digital certificates issued in India The Government of India is fostering a PKI (public key infrastructure) regime and the four certifying authorities have already issued over 20,000 digital certificates, according to the Information Technology (IT) Secretary, Mr K.K. Jaswal. “The PKI framework is fully established and the four certifying authorities are operational under the IT Act who have issued nearly 20,000 digital certificates. The Act has placed electronic records at par with paper records and

digital signatures at par with handwritten signatures,” Mr Jaswal said at an e-business summit organised by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII). Digital certificates are electronic files that act like a kind of online passport. A trusted third party, a certificate authority, which verifies the identity of the certificate’s holder, issues them. They are tamper-proof and cannot be forged. A digital signature is an electronic signature that can be used to authenticate the identity of the sender of a message or the signer of a document, and possibly to ensure that the original content of the message or document that has been sent is unchanged.

Government is also pursuing a project aimed at delivering all international traderelated services electronically, Mr Jaswal said. All regulatory departments such as Customs, Directorate General of Foreign Trade, ports, airports and banks have been asked to gear up for the new system.

A hi-tech Assembly in 5 yrs says Delhi Government In the next five years, Delhi Assembly may become one of the most hi-tech state legislatures in the country. Speaker Ajay Maken announced his grand plans to modernise the Assembly in the coming years. The Assembly will be fitted with giant plasma screens and members will be able to make power-point presentations sitting at their seats. They will also be able to communicate discretely with each other using local area network (LAN). Unveiling his Vision document for using information communication technologies (ICT), he said: ‘‘Use of ICT will not only help the members to get IT-savvy, but also help them in quick and better grievance redressal.’’ Outlining his priorities broadly, he said that the first step will be to create a webserver as an information bank at the Assembly secretariat, only for the use of a limited group through LAN and for selective information through internet for general public. Having created LAN, each and every table would be facilitated with the usage of intranet. There will be giant screens, which will not only show the instant results of division of votes, but will also be capable of displaying graphics during a debate or special mention by members. A discrete communication system introduced between officers and the ministers, between leader of House or Opposition or chief whips with the Speaker and Assembly secretary, so that the House proceedings will not be disturbed. There are plans for better storage of clippings, Assembly records and documents to ensure longevity, as the information would be electronically stored and can be made available online. To broadcast and web cast the important events a audio-visual system would be made compatible with the public address system and website, so that telecast, will be possible, whenever necessary. i4d | April 2004

The Assembly secretariat will be consulting Delhi government’s IT department for fine-tuning of the proposals. A reputed company will be appointed as a consultant that will prepare a detailed techno-economical report and tender bids. The vision document will be implemented in a time-bound and phased manner.

AP Govt to examine best practices in e-governance Realising the importance of data standards for rapid progress in e-governance applications, the Andhra Pradesh Government has initiated a study to examine the best practices world over and suggest a way forward, according to the State Chief Information Officer and Secretary of Information Technology and Communications, Mr Subbarao Ghanta. The initiative, taken up towards standardisation of its e-governance is being claimed as the first of its kind one in the country. An apex body with the State Chief Secretary as its chairman was formed to supervise the development of data standards, e-thesaurus, a collection of all data elements used in the government repositories. A two-day workshop for various Chief Information Officers of the Government was conducted to evolve the structure for the maintenance of these standards. The objective is to make use of information and to develop interoperable solutions. A portal was also designed having provision for various stakeholders to offer suggestions. The goal is to provide one face of the government where a citizen should be able to access all services just through a single login. It is important to integrate the services provided by these projects. Integration of these projects would result in the interoperable communication between the government applications, which would result in better service delivery. Significant number of Government IT projects operates on data elements specific to the domains of the individual departments. Once they were examined and the standards were set on their structure along with the semantically similar elements available in place, the interoperability among the existing projects could be attained, resulting in reusability of them for the newer initiatives. April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Andhra Pradesh Govt to link all e-Gov portals Andhra Pradesh Government had no doubt taken one more step towards e-governance. After full computerisation and independent portals for each government department, the Andhra Pradesh government is now embarking on bringing interoperability across platforms. The objective behind this exercise is to establish a common language platform for all kinds of government services, be it obtaining certificates, registration of real estate, besides providing citizens information,” The project, a first for the country, would integrate all the e-governance solutions thus enabling registered users to access any kind of government information and service by using a single login address. The project is expected to be completed in two years, by when all the departments involved in offering these services can be brought under a single portal. The portal site, http:/ /www.aponline.gov.in, is already operational, being supported by Tata Consultancy Services. For example, if a citizen wants to apply for an electricity connection, he has to apply to Discom, go to the municipal corporation to obtain proof of residence, go to a bank to pay the fees, etc. But all these processes can be offered through a single portal site, which will process the application online and deliver the end service. At present,through the e-Seva platform, the government is offering some of the services like birth and death certificates besides receiving utility payments.

This initiative is aimed at bringing uniformity among the solutions by offering interoperable communication between the government applications, which would help the system improve the delivery of services. The state government, in association with Centre for Good Governance, is designing the architecture, enabling each of the standalone portals to be linked eventually to the aponline portal. A two-day workshop for the benefit of the ’chief information officers’ was organised by the state government recently to evolve the structure for the maintenance of these standards. There is another portal named, http:// www.cgg.gov.in/egovstandards, designed to develop schemes for various governmental data and to present comprehensive e-thesaurus and repositories of forms for the benefit of various users of government information inclu-ding the citizen, corporates, employees of various government departments. It is now a tremendous task as each of the departments has to participate actively in the project in providing information about the processes, which is necessary for drawing a common language. Andhra Pradesh has several IT projects operating independently for various departments, which need to be integrated. Therefore, there is a need for an effective ’metadata’ (data of data) besides tagging an information tool to help users navigate through the massive electronic information sources

Only ten states are active on e-Governance initiatives How long will India take to create full-fledged transaction-based e-governance services for its citizens? And when will states cross the boundary from website-based information to an interactive government-to- citizen or G2C payment and commerce information portal? Most of the people who were posed these questions by The Financial Express believe that the country has a long way to go. In fact, they feel that all grand plans could fizzle out in the absence of a definite goal. Firstly, not more than 10 states are active with e-governance initiatives. Of these, even much-hyped states like Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka have very little to do with an interactive G2C commerce planning and implementation even though some have started delivering services to citizens by introducing cash payment points. According to Mr Roopen Roy of PriceWaterhouseCoopers (PWC), the states that are implementing e-governance projects are still at the ’brochure ware’ stage - the information availability closely resembles their printed brochures. “Some departments have websites with good front-end applications delivering public utility services, but we have not reached a stage where the governments are providing transaction-oriented interactive services to citizens,” he said.

Education Open courses and e-learning Something revolutionary is happening in Kerala’s education sector. From the next academic year (2004-05) onwards, all textbooks for students of Class 10 will be available on the Internet. Textbooks for students studying in Kerala where Malayalam or English is the medium of instruction are already available online. Students and teachers can download the textbooks free of cost, provided they are used only for educational purposes. The textbooks can be downloaded from either www.keralaeducation.org or www. education.kerala.gov.in in Adobe’s portable document format (PDF), which allows for printing. The real competition today, ironically enough, is from the Internet. Who needs to shell out precious rupees and walk long distances to attend a class in a cramped room when you can get all the knowledge you need in the comfort of your own room? If e-Learning comes of age in Kerala developing from online textbooks only to entire courses and lectures freely available to anyone with access to the Internet - tuitions may well become a thing of the past.

Sarva Siksha Abhiyan offices in Kerala to be networked All offices of the Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) in the State, district and block levels will be networked in a bid to streamline and expedite the project.The was decided in a meet-

ing of the State-level monitoring committee of the SSA. The meeting evaluated the progress in the implementation of the project during the years 2002-03 and 2003-04. In the first year, Central assistance to the tune of Rs 22.51 crore was received. This was in addition to the State Government’s contribution of Rs 7.50 crore. In which, Rs 29.59 crore had been distributed among all the 14 districts of the State. Sarva Siksha Abhiyan is an integrated national education programme launched with a view to universalising elementary education. The programme aims to provide eight years of quality elementary education for all children up to the age of 14 years in a mission mode with a thrust on community ownership, disadvantaged group and girls’ quality education and alternative modes of education. All existing schemes on elementary education will converge with this scheme after the Ninth Plan and it will cover all districts in the country. The grants received were utilised to provide infrastructure facilities in schools as well as for training of teachers and for supply of books to children, free of cost. The overall achievement for the year 2002-03 was estimated at 84 per cent. The emphasis has been on making the schools more student-friendly. During the current financial year, 1.28lakh teachers in the State have been provided training under the SSA project. Over 10,000 children in inaccessible areas are being taught at different levels in 461 centres. More than 5,500 physically or intel-

BBC Worldwide Launches e-Learning Gateway BBC Worldwide has launched an e-learning gateway termed ‘bbclearning.com. This initiative will now enable Indian students to pursue distance-learning programmes in managment from several universities in UK. This is the first launch in India. e-Learning has several disadvantages in comparison to the conventional classroom learning. In an online world, there is no opportunity for peer learning or assimilating the strengths of the other students in the classroom through various interactions. But here drawbacks are minimized by creating online forums where students from all over the world can come together at a given BBC headquarter, London time and brainstorm on various management dynamics. The company has also instituted MBA scholarships for an ‘all expense paid’ course in premier universities in London.

lectually challenged children or those with learning disabilities have been identified in medical camps held for the purpose and learning aids have been distributed to them at a cost of Rs 44.45 lakh. To aid the evaluation process under the system of grading to be implemented soon in the State, guidelines have been prepared with regard to procedures to be followed for classes one to seven. Audio- visual learning materials for the study of science subjects were also ready for distribution.

Schools to get $20 m grant from Microsoft India To push local language computing in the State, Microsoft Corporation India Ltd announced the roll-out of its $20-million IT education programme for schools in India and signed an agreement on a programme with the Orissa Government. Under the programme, Microsoft will provide free software upgrades to computers donated to schools, institute scholarships and set up Microsoft IT Academies in different States, the company Managing Director, Mr Rajiv Kaul, told reporters. At Dehradun in Uttaranchal, the first IT Academy had already come up and the second one was ready for commissioning in Hyderabad. The company is planning to set up similar centres in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh. The memorandum of understanding that Microsoft signed with Orissa Government entails initially setting up basic support for Oriya language. It will be followed by development of an Oriya language interface pack for Microsoft Windows and Office.

Language matters: Windows, MS Office to be in 5 Indian languages With the aim of promoting business, Microsoft India has devised a three-pronged strategy in India this year. The company will be focussing on accelerating IT literacy, improving security and enabling local IT opportunities through vernacular language interfaces’ in and around its software packages. Microsoft has set a target of training 3.5 million students and 80,000 teachers in IT during the next five years as well as offering software interfaces in 14 Indian languages in the next three years. The company plans to launch its two i4d | April 2004

most popular products — Windows and Office — in five Indian langauges within the next six months. As we all know that the company had already launched Windows and Office in Hindi and will be introducing these in five more languages — Tamil, Kannada, Marathi, Telugu and Oriya within the next six months. The company will also piggyback on state governments to spread its education and local language initiatives. The company is now talking to Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and Orissa state governments for its IT education initiative. The company had earlier announced that it would invest $20 million in its Project Shiksha for extending learning grants to teachers and students. Microsoft will also be offering Windows operating systems free of cost for donated computers to schools. Apart from education, Microsoft will be investing in improving information security awareness and training its partners on security related issues. Enabling local IT business opportunities is also on the company’s agenda this year. Microsoft is working in creating an IT ecosystem to grow the domestic market. Microsoft has already signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the state government of Orissa for computerisation of government departments, training people and develop customised local language applications,” Mr Kaul said, adding that the company was also discussing similar tie-ups with state governments of Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal and Gujarat.

Welingkar Institute offers e-biz programme The growth of the IT industry has created a number of employment opportunities for technical and management graduates. And management institutions, quick to latch on to new trends in the employment space, have been extending and creating new courses to meet the huge demand from graduates aspiring to such positions. It was to meet this demand that the Welingkar Institute of Management Development and Research in the city launched its e-biz programme two years ago. According to Prof Pradeep Pendse, the “mixed orientation” of the course differentiates it from the usual management course. April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Tea Board of India to launch e-auctions by April The Tea Board is contemplating starting electronic auctions at the Guwahati and Coimbatore tea auction centres by April and hopes to complete the process throughout the country by the end of October, this year. The organisers of the Kolkata tea auction centre have started procuring the necessary hardware for the new system. At first, electronic auctions would start with one set of teas (either CTC or orthodox) first and once the new system stabilizes the other product will be introduced. The Tea Board has issued a licence for a new auction centre at Jalpaiguri.It may be noted that the one-man committee of West Bengal Government in its report also suggested setting up of a new auction centre in that region. “The licence was issued by the Tea Board only a couple of months back. The district magistrate of Jalpaiguri is the Chairman of the body that will oversee the new auction centre”, he said. Tea Board, however, has not fixed a deadline for completing the electronisation of the auction centers but, ideally, it would like the process to be over within six months from the beginning. Mr Shukla said production of tea in 2003 had increased by 31 million kg (mkg) to 857 mkg against 826 mkg in 2002. Last year, auctions through the Kolkata centre were 133 mkg. It is the highest quantity since 1991. Mr K.N. Desai, the outgoing Chairman of CTTA, in his inaugural speech urged the Tea Board to make certain changes in the Tea Marketing Control Order 2003. “The buyers are primarily concerned about the five per cent premium payable on division of lots and the limit on proxy bidding. The Chairman of Tea Board has decided not to reduce the prompt period in the North India centres to the sixth working day from January 2004,” he said. He thanked the Tea Board to delay the introduction of cash and carry system in North India auction centres from January, this year. The broker members of CTTA can continue to grant credit to their buyers up to the prompt date. CTTA have also requested the board to reduce the minimum qualifying percentage for samples of CTC leaf and dust tea. “This will help several buyers to retain their free trade sample entitlements without which their ability to operate in the auction will be severely curtailed,” Mr Desai said. By mixed orientation, he refers to the fact that graduates from any stream, but with an “inclination for IT,” could apply for a place on the course. As for specific job opportunities, Prof Pendse says e-biz graduates could apply for positions as analysts with software companies where they bring to bear their business basics as well as an adequate knowledge of technology aspects. End-users such as banks, BPOs and the retail sector also required people who could visualise technology along with specific domain knowledge. Further, e-biz graduates could work as change agents in an e-business or supply chain initiative, he said.

Health Torrent launches medical healthline Torrent Pharmaceuticals Ltd, in association with State Mental Health Authority, Health and family Welfare Department, launched ‘Sanidhya - Torrent Medical Healthline’ in Bhat near Gandhinagar, Ahmedabad, India. “Times are getting more competitive and there are more pressures on the human mind than ever before. This often lead people to take extreme steps. Our helpline is meant to help these kinds of people. This initiative is extention of our corporate social

philosophy to go beyond the usual call of healthcare and look at life.” said Narayan Menon, assistant general manager, marketing, Torrent Pharmaceuticals. The first phase of the programme will be target the school students of 10 and 12 standards, who will appear for their board examination this year. “It has been seen that the students are most susceptical to anxiety regarding their performances in the examinations and depression during the post-examination period when their results are announced. Failure to live up to the expectations of family and peers takes a huge toll on their mental faculties.” said Hansal Bachech, the chief programme co-ordinator and helpline incharge. The initiative aims at generating awereness about mental health related problems and providing support and counseling. Expert opinion and extensive counseling sessions from a part of Sanidhya Torrent Mental Helpline, which has been conceived and codesigned by the State Mental Health Authority along with Torrent Pharma. Anyone seeking help can call the helpline numbers 9898211331 and 9898211332 to seek expert help in mitigating their problems.

A rural healthcare revolution in the making in Bengal At a time when the Left Front Government is West Bengal faces public ire over lack of proper healthcare at the city’s governmentrun hospitals, an experiment in providing rural medicare through female health assistants might well bring about a health revolution in the country. Part of the State Government’s programme on preventive healthcare in rural areas through decentralisation, the healthcare assistants are residents of a village where they are trained to work as health workers. “The main objective is to link every village, every family to the governmental health system,” State Government sources said. Health assistants, received training from the State Health Department are equipped to give advice on routine health problems, especially those related to the welfare of the mother and the child. Each of the two or three sub-centres have both male and female workers and it is the female swasthya sahayika who is creating waves. Basic aspects of rural healthcare are covered during the training programme. The curriculum includes creating a immunisa-

tion schedule of a pregnant mother and then the newborn, nutrition of mother and child, preparation of low-cost diet for children, first-aid for snake bites, treatment of cuts, burns and other injuries and personal hygiene. Every health assistant gets a medical kit, which includes essential items of firstaid, ORS packets, antibiotic ointment, a thermometer and leaching powder. A bicycle is also given to each of them for easy conveyance. According to a report prepared by the State Government, since the launch of this initiative in June 2003, a perceptible change has been noticed in the state of the health of people living in villages. “During studies made by the Health Department, it was found that there were fewer cases of diarrhoea, pre-natal as well as post-natal care had improved, with children getting delivered in hospitals instead of homes. More toilets using sanitary facilities were being built. This was only the beginning of a process where stakeholders participate in building their own healthcare infrastructure, which might be rudimentary but is nevertheless effective.

Some of the key measures that the government will adopt to improve the lot of farmers include, the phasing out of a 5 per cent levy on cash crops over the next five years; $1.2 billion in direct subsidies to farmers and a 20 per cent or $3.6 billion increase in investments in agriculture.

Midas takes IT to rural masses via TeNET If you are travelling to Melur, a small village tucked away amidst paddy fields in Madurai district of Tamil Nadu, and your laptop runs out of battery, do not despair. You can simply go to ‘Chirag Internet Illam’ and reply to that important business mail. Well, it may not be the typical place to

General The urban-rural divide worries Beijing Alleviating the plight of rural workers is one of the key focus areas of China’s 10th Fiveyear Plan. The Plan was presented by Chinese premier Zhu Rongji at the the National People’s Congress. China has been registering blistering economic growth in excess of 8 per cent over the last few years. However, most of this growth has been concentrated in urban areas and the more industrialised coastal provinces. Rural China has enjoyed few of the benefits of this growth. A biased industrial policy has, in fact, led to a reduction in annual grain production and the proportion of arable land. This has manifested itself in income disparities. While urban incomes grew by 9.3 per cent last year, rural incomes grew by less than half as much. Urban residents today earn 3.2 times as much as farmers, compared to 1.9 times in 1978. Reducing this difference between urban prosperity and rural poverty will be a high priority area for the government going forward.

find a cyber café, but Sukanya, the owner of the facility, will tell you that it is her bread and butter. You may ask how she gets customers in a village that has all of 1,000 people? “It is important to let the users decide what they want to do with computers. We must understand that their needs are different, so instead of teaching them we simply let them develop their own business model,” said Mr K.N. Rangarajan, Senior Sales and Marketing Manager of Midas Communication Technologies Ltd, promoted by the Indian Institute of Technology, Chennai, under its TeNET programme. A virtual mascot for Midas, Sukanya says i4d | April 2004

she is able to earn nearly Rs 4,000 per month from her venture. Apart from the regular email and browsing, Sukanya’s customers use the computer for getting agricultural and veterinary advice from nearby universities. She use video-conferencing to get advice for her customers from Othakadai Agricultural University in Madurai. She even help them with expert opinion on their animals from the Veterinary University in T.T. Nagar. Others in the countryside use their computers for clicking and storing photos, charting horoscopes and even matchmaking. NLog, the service company under Midas, has been helping unemployed villagers to procure computers. and even help them in getting finance the total investment that is about Rs 50,000, but we help them get finance,” said Mr Rangarajan. NLog has already supported several hundred rural youth in South India and Gujarat by arranging finance and enabling them set up their business enterprise. Rangarajan feels that the numbers will multiply in the coming years. The use these machines can be put to is also growing, as brains from IIT Chennai develop more applications under the TeNET programme. NeuroSynaptic, another company under TeNET, has developed a tele-medicine kit that can be used to relay vital body parameters of a patient to a doctor sitting in the hospital. “The machine takes blood pressure, electro-cardiogram (ECG) and body temperature. It can be used by anyone with just a day’s training. The doctor, at the other end, will have access to the patient’s medical history and can ask the operator to position the stethoscope where he wants,” said Mr Rajeev Kumar, Chief Operating Officer of NeuroSynaptic. The tele-medicine unit costs about Rs 12,000 and is ready for commercial launch. Using a Webcam, the doctor can also examine the patient. For Sukanya at her Chirag Internet Illam, it could soon be one more facility for her customers.

Lupin Plans First Rural Convergence Centre Pharma company Lupin Ltd would set up the first of about the 100-odd rural convergence centres (RCCs) planned by the Confederation of Indian Industries (CII) across India to foster public private partnerships to accelerate rural development. April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Cell phones soon for train driver of Indian railways to make travel safe The next time you travel by train, you may see your engine driver sporting a cellular handset that will certainly be swankier than yours. It could also make your ride safer. As part of their safety drive, the Railways are set to equip their operational staff with GSMR (Global System for Mobile for Railways) equipment. Indian Railways will become the first railway system in Asia to adopt the technology that allows emergency telephone calls to supersede all other communication and a group of users to interact simultaneously. The Jammu-Guwahati trunk route passing through New Delhi and Mughalsarai will be the first to get the GSM-R based communication system and the Railways have already closed six tenders worth nearly Rs 200 crore in different Zones for the technology. The system marks a significant improvement over the present VHF (veryhigh frequency) network that the Railways have. As of now, the only communication available to the loco-pilots (drivers) and guards are the walkie-talkie sets with an extremely limited range or the “emergency sockets” placed at intervals of 1.5 km along tracks that enable the guard or the loco-pilot to contact the nearest station. “In the event of an accident, the loco-pilot or guard has to rush to the emergency socket point, access the phone using a unique key and then relay the information. The station staff would then try to alert other trains in the area. At times, that results in costly delays,” according to a senior Railway Signalling and Telecommunications officer. With GSM-R, the driver simply has to press the emergency button on his handset, and he would be immediately connected with the control office. The control office can then alert other trains instantaneously, the officer said. The GSM-R handsets are specially designed to be more rugged and have greater battery life. They communicate with the control office that is equipped with a touchscreen control panel that helps the operational staff to track different calls. It works like the regular GSM handsets that we use. Only, it has certain additional features, which require one or two days to get familiar with. Regular mobile phone users would, however, not be able to access the Railways’ system. The Railways will use their existing optical fibre cable (OFC) and microwave networks and the GSM-R system will work independently of the private cellular service providers. Siemens and Nortel Networks are the only two vendors for the GSM-R technology in the world. “Obviously, the bidding will be restricted between these two vendors.

More & more ‘SME’s embracing the ‘IT’ advantage Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) recently conducted a ‘Snap Poll’, to study the usage of Information Technology (IT) among Indian SMEs. It was specifically focused to reveal the level of IT-orientation among SMEs and to find out their e-experience so far. The report states that, all the respondents were using IT in their organisations compared to 2% respondents last year who were not using IT in their organisations. 17% (up by 5 % since last year) of the respondents rated the degree of usage of IT in their organisation as ‘Excellent’, 39% (up by 8% since last year) ‘Good’, and 31% (down by 5 % since last year) ‘Adequate’; only 13% (down by 6% since last year) of the respondents mentioned a ‘Marginal’ usage of IT in their organisation. Functional application of IT has also undergone an appreciable change - with sales & marketing attracting maximum IT usage, surpassing finance. Human resource development (HRD)/ administration, research & development and corporate affairs are also being increasingly handled through IT usage. The other functions where IT finds significant usage are operations, manufacturing and production, distribution, logistics, HRD and services. According to the survey, all the respondents indicated an increase in their turnover due to the use of IT: 55% indicated an increase of less than 5 %, 37% indicated an increase of 5-25%), 4% recorded an increase of 25-50% and 4% recorded an increase of over 50% in their turnover.

“We will set up the first rural convergence centre in the country at Bharatpur in association with CII by August end,” executive director of Lupin Human Welfare and Research Foundation (LHWRF) Sita Ram Gupta said. RCCS would demonstrate environmental, social, technological and financial viability of a large variety of rural development initiatives.RCCS, which would be set up in one core district by CII in association with different NGOs and member industries, would cater to at least six districts around it, he said adding, it would catalyse replication of these initivates and multiplication systems across the country. Local communities around these centres would over a period of time have more income generation opportunities, better living environment and quality of life.

An ‘Ocean’ of Information The Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), an autonomous body under the department of ocean development, is in the process of forming an ‘ocean information bank’ to coordinate research in satellite oceanography and provide consultancy services. A national chain of marine data centres and ocean observing systems will support the ocean information bank. These centres would simulate the oceanic data which helps prepare maps on potential fishing zones

along the Indian coastline, INCOIS director Dr K Radhakrishnan said that the oceanic data collected from the data centres will be preserved at INCOIS to suggest a framework for a future marine data centre network of INCOIS. It will set up an Ocean Development and Information Networking system which will use strategies for capacity building modelling and assimilation of data for understanding the Indian Ocean. Unrestricted and timely flow of data on oceanography will help in predicting storms and disaster management, weather forecast, monitoring of oil spill and identifying potential fishing zones. The 14 marine data centres in this network are: Geological Survey of India, Kolkata, KD Malavia Institute of Petroleum Exploration, Dehradun, India Meteorological Department, Pune, Survey of India, Dehradun, Naval Hydrograph-ic Office, Dehradun, National Institute of Oceanography, Goa, Fishery Survey of India, Mumbai, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Kochi, Central Drug Research Institute, Lucknow, Central Salt and Marine Chemicals Research Institute, Bhavnagar, Orissa Remote Sensing Applications Centre, Bhuban-eswar, Institute for Ocean Management, Chennai, National Institute of Oceanography, Mumbai and National Remote Sensing Agency, Hyderabad. An agreement has been signed between INCOIS

and Tata Consultancy Services for development of a web-based multilingual online solution that facilitates the user community to download a variety of ocean information and advisory services. These informations will be made available through kiosks planned to be set up closer to the harbour. A resource person at the kiosk will assist fishermen in acquiring the local information available in a value-added form.

Book ‘IT Experience in India’ Old India hand and close-watcher of ICTfor-development initiatives Prof Kenneth Keniston of MIT, USA has recently published a new book titled ‘IT Experience in India’, along with Deepak Kumar of Bangalore. Published by Sage in March 2004. This book explores whether modern ICTs can deliver on their promises of democracy and prosperity for the people of developing nations who comprise 80 per cent of the world’s population. In order to do this, this volume uses lessons from the Indian experience — a country where information technology (IT) has made giant leaps, but which suffers from what has been described as multiple ‘digital divides’. The contributors explore four such closely interrelated divides. The first is internal — between the digitally empowered rich and the poor. The second is a linguistic-cultural gap between English and other languages and between ‘Anglo-Saxon culture’ and other world cultures. The next gap is underscored by disparities in access to information technology and between rich and poor nations. Finally, there is the phenomenon of the ‘digerati’. This is an affluent elite possessing the appropriate skills and means to take advantage of the ICTs. Essays by V Balaji et al (Pondicherry), T H Chowdary (Indian telecom), Pat Hall (IT and diversity), Prof Ashok Jhunjhunwala and Bhaskar Ramamurthi (telecom and regulation scenario), P D Kaushik (e-gov for the poor), Deepak Kumar (digital development), Harsh Kumar (Indian languages), Rajeev Sangalet al (digital resources in Indian languages), Anna-Lee Saxenian (the Bangalore boom) and an introduction by Prof Keniston (The Four Digital Divides). i4d | April 2004

T HE I NTERNET

D EVELOPMENT P ROJECTS

Reaching farmers through mobile phones Communication technologies are quite limited in rural areas and the rural population usually ranges from technologyunfamiliar to techno-phobic when it comes to new technologies.

Accurate and timely information is essential for making right decisions. It is widely acceptable that information plays a significant role in the new economy standards, where success mainly depends on having access to the right information at the right time. Digital divide makes access to information sources a difficult and time consuming process for rural people. Additionally, the problem is bigger for mobile workers such as farmers, cattle raisers and agriculturalists. The distance between the information sources and the rural areas together with possible geographical obstacles prevents the propagation of communication facilities as well as the effective information diffusion. That situation expands the digital divide and the need for bridging that gap is more urgent than ever. The Ypaithros information platform fills this need by putting together traditional information means with new communication technologies.

Description

Manolis Stratakis Network Services Development Manager R&D, FORTHnet S.A., Greece stratakis@forthnet.gr

April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Ypaithros is a service that aims to supply information to people that live and work in rural areas. Information provided concerns business opportunities, important news, national or European Union funded programmes and news about critical sectors of the economy. The first attempt of developing an information platform like Ypaithros started a few years ago, as an ICT tool for informing the farmers. This service was implemented with the active co-operation of the Federation of Agricultural Associations of the Heraklio Prefecture and was given the name â&#x20AC;&#x153;Agro-Messageâ&#x20AC;?. Its main operation was the transmission of informative short text messages to farmers and cattle raisers on their mobile phones. Since the early stages of the Agro-Message, the idea to develop an integrated information platform started to be

considered. The evolution of the Agro-Message is, the European Union supported programme Ypaithros, started at the spring of 2003 and co-financed by the Regional Program of Innovative Actions (DG/Regio). Ypaithros aspires to evolve into an easy to use, information source for every businessman who requires accurate and up to date information but does not have the time or the means to look for it. Ypaithros is a pioneer service considering the nature of the audience that it targets. It is unusual for information technology novelties to first be applied on rural areas. Communication technologies are quite limited in rural areas and the rural population usually ranges from technology-unfamiliar to techno-phobic when it comes to new technologies. However, that is why services like Ypaithros are even more necessary and useful for the less technologically developed areas. The evolution of mobile phone networks and wireless internet, together with the development of new standards for information dissemination by conventional means like normal mobile phones, open new perspectives for the development on innovative services. Usually, most of the rural businessmen are mobile workers. This means that they are away from fixed-line phones or computers. For this reason, Ypaithros was designed to distribute information via widely used mobile communication media such as mobile phones. The information supplied by Ypaithros concerns mainly tourist, agriculture, cattle-raising, and cottage industry. Business or single businessmen may register to receive properly filtered and sorted information. Information is available as voice messages on fixed-line and mobile phones and text messages (SMS) or picture messages (MMS) on mobile phones. The World

Ypaithros’ system architecture diagram

Wide Web (WWW) is also used to disseminate information to registered users of Ypaithros.

Architecture – Structure Ypaithros is a complete information system that consists of a web portal (http://www.ypaithros.gr) and a central database. The core of the system is the web portal which is used to evaluate, process and store the information that will be distributed later to the users. It is also used as a meeting point for rural people and the specialized personnel of academic and research institutes and other organisations involved with agriculture. They may use the web portal for communicating and knowledge sharing purposes. The content for the central database is mainly supplied by AgroCreta, the Prefecture of Heraklio, the Technological Education Institute of Crete, the National Agricultural Research Foundation and other agricultural development carriers such as the Regional Centre for Flora protection and Quality control. The development,

management and maintenance of the information platform are responsibilities of FORTHnet S.A. The main functionalities of Ypaithros are information retrieval and sorting. Information may be collected and stored automatically using RSS technology, or manually. In the case of automated collection, information (formatted with predefined standards) is automatically extracted from specific network data nodes. Example of automated information collection is weather forecast. After the information has been collected it is properly formatted as a voice or text (or both) message and then it is available for distribution. During the information formatting procedure, various filters or conditions which have been defined by the system administrators are taken into account. According to the filters and the urgency degree of the information, members of Ypaithros who may be interested in this information may be automatically informed. Once for example, the weather conditions information is loaded into the system, the sea-side businessmen will be immediately informed in case the anticipated wind force is over 7 in the Beaufort scale. Sea-side businessmen need to know as soon as possible this information, as extreme weather conditions may cause serious safety hazards for their business or their customers. In the case of manual information collection, the content providers of Ypaithros upload the information into the system by using information management applications which are accessed through the Web portal. Under the guidance of these applications, information uploaded by content authors is structured and classified according to well defined specifications. Then, the administrators evaluate the information and store it into the central database. New information which is stored into Ypaithros will be automatically disseminated to registered members according to their preferences. Users will be receiving a particular piece of information only if it has been declared in their lists of interests during their registration. For each member of Ypaithros a profile that determines

Methods used to access the Ypaithros information platform Web interface – Agricultural Development Regional Offices This interface is used for new members to register and start becoming familiar with the system. It allows specialized personnel to perform all the appropriate procedures needed to satisfy rural people needs for information, to create new registrations and to provide general information for the system organisation and operation.

Voice interface This interface is a voice portal which may easily (just by making a phone call) provide information about the system and the services available. One may use this interface to arrange meetings, to listen to the weather forecast, or to access other general voice services. Voice services may also be combined with the text message (SMS or MMS) services. In many cases text message services alert and direct users to the voice or web portal.

Mobile phone interface Most of the rural – outdoors professionals use mobile phones to communicate. The mobile phone interface utilizes the SMS and MMS capabilities of the mobile phone networks to provide information in a direct and personal manner.

Public Web interface Through this interface, rural people may search for information, register to lists for receiving text (SMS) or voice messages, or participate in discussion forums.

i4d | April 2004

his/her identity and defines his/her preferences is created on registration. Occupation and communication details of each member are considered high significant. A typical profile contains the following details: • The geographical area where the member’s activities are located • The business class • Age • Additional properties (new businessman, subsidized businessman, etc.) • Communication details • Preferred way of receiving the information Information seeking and retrieval processes are performed quite efficiently with Ypaithros’ databases thanks to advanced indexing and classification techniques. So, members or information that match specific criteria may de retrieved rapidly.

Information delivery to registered users over GSM and Internet

Implementation To effectively cope with aspects like interoperability, system upgrades and cost, Internet technologies were used for the implementation of Ypaithros. The architecture of the Information System is based on the Application Service Provision model. Following the above model, the system is accessible via a single server which provides user interfaces mainly reached through web or telephone and ensures system security, high performance and extensibility. Content management and content itself were two of the most crucial issues that had to be taken into account at the initial stages of system design. Content should be maintained in a way that makes it easily accessible. To achieve this goal, an advanced content management system was developed which evaluates and classifies content according to various criteria. Those criteria concern characteristics of rural areas such as demographic details, facts about natural resources, economic progress and environmental and cultural figures. Information classification is used to semantically interconnect different pieces of data, in order to supply complete responses to users’ requests. The format of the information stored within the Ypaithros information system follows the XML standard. To achieve high accessibility, the data format must be converted to XHTML or VoiceXML. Consequently, information can be accessed both through web browsers and the voice portal respectively. The usage of XML standard facilitates the development of an advanced and flexible data management system for content manipulation. Moreover the semantic interconnection of data items allows the development of ‘smart’ search machines which are able to respond quickly to data search queries.

Furthering enterprise development in rural Greece The main objective of Ypaithros is information provision and technology transfer to rural enterprises. By achieving this goal, new business concepts are anticipated to arise. Moreover, the efficient utilization of Ypaithros aims to stimulate rural economy. Ypaithros aims to set off new enterprising concepts based on the efficient exploitation of the particular characteristics of rural areas. Ypaithros is out to motivate the organization and development of April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

alternative tourist enterprises, such as agro-tourism and geo-tourism, in less evolved rural areas. Additionally, distant, agricultural and mountainous areas as well as areas with contrary climate conditions and peculiar terrain will have the opportunity to make known their natural sights and beauties. Business concepts such as agro-tourism and geo-tourism that are handled by Ypaithros will contribute to the creation and development of small and medium local enterprises which are involved in the production of traditional and local products, thus supporting the local economies (e.g. vintage cultivation and wine production). Moreover, vital infrastructures, such as road and irrigative networks will be created so that young people will be strongly motivated to stay and work in rural areas. Since the region of Crete was chosen as the application field of Ypaithros, a pre-existing network of regional development offices which cover the whole administrative area of Heraklio prefecture has been selected to host the human interface of the service. Specialized personnel have access to various kinds of information via Ypaithros infrastructure and may retrieve and disseminate data to small enterprises or individuals. This information may come out from government and private carriers or enterprises, research institutes or other government committees. Ypaithros collects, organizes and classifies information and then makes it available through the web portal and the network of information centers. The advantages that will come out from Ypaithros will mostly be taken by businessmen and other professionals in rural and distant areas. Most of the profits that Ypaithros brings into business will come out as results of the quick, accurate, and timely transfer of knowledge and information from urban to rural areas. Information collection and dissemination will be achieved by using Internet and mobile and fixed-line phone networks. Moreover, novel technology (such as voice portals) will be used to improve the quality of the provided services and make them accessible by people not familiar with electronic devices such as computers or mobile phones. Ypaithros will establish a framework where businessmen will have equal opportunities as the results of every research activity as well as information about new methods, techniques and issues concerning resource exploitation will become public available.

The achievement of Ypaithros’ objectives such as information dissemination, the interconnection of local authorities’ services and the development of regional offices will make able the rendering of value added services to residents of distant areas. Moreover, Ypaithros supplies a reusable information platform which can be used by other carriers to deploy new value added services for rural and distant areas population.

The Future: Moving ahead for the rural people Ypaithros as a combined mobile and web-based service is not narrowed by geographical restrictions. Ypaithros may be quickly expanded covering the ever-increasing needs of people, no matter where they live, or what their job is. Its content may be easily enriched by new information concerning new business branches or social groups with different information and communication needs.

Provided that the system produces a simple, effective, easy-to-use and easy-to-register information service, it will most probably evolve into a robust commercial service of high-usefulness and be able to generate revenues from advertisement and registration fees. Careful selection of content and user feedback will be critical factors towards the acceptance and success of such an enterprise. The content-independent nature of the system allows for fast and easy expansion beyond the boundaries of the island of Crete. Greece, Europe and the rest of the world are all full of rural and agricultural areas with similar information needs. The wide acceptance of the Ypaithros information platform may further encourage the development of new innovative applications and value-added services for the rural population. Satellite Internet together with the evolution of low-cost wireless networks establishes a perfect infrastructure for the development of geographically unlimited multimedia applications.

Learn about the Wireless Devices Access point: Wirelessly networked devices usually connect to a wired Local Area Network through a hardware device called an access point. Multiple access points, set up in various locations around an office, let users roam from office to conference room to co-worker’s cubicle while staying connected. An access point can also be one of the capabilities offered by a gateway or other networking device. ADSL: Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line. ADSL uses standard phone lines to provide high-speed data communications. Although DSL comes in several flavors, when home users say they “get DSL,” they really mean that an ordinary phone line is being conditioned for ADSL service. ADSL providers typically deliver upstream (from the user) speeds that top out at 128Kbps and downstream (to the user) speeds of no more than 1.5Mbps. Actual speeds may be much lower depending on the subscriber’s physical distance from the Telco switching station. ADSL supports simultaneous voice and data transmission, so a separate phone line is not required to obtain ADSL service. Bluetooth: Bluetooth is a wireless computing and telecommunications specification that defines how mobile personal computing devices work with each other and with regular computer and phone systems within a close range. It uses the 2.4GHz band at 720Kbps within a 30-foot range. This technology is used with PANs opposed to LANs. Dipole Antenna: A type of antenna commonly used with wireless networking devices. It has a signal range of 360 degrees horizontally and 75 degrees vertically. It works best in offices, away from exterior walls where signals could leak out. DSL: Digital Subscriber Line. Digital subscriber lines carry data at high speeds over standard telephone wires. DSL supports download speeds from 384Kbps to 1.5Mbps (the near-unattainable maximum is 8Mbps), depending on the quality of the lines and the distance your particular connection stretches from the Telco switching station. The term xDSL is used to describe the many variations of DSL, such as ADSL and HDSL.

Dual-band Radio: A radio device is dual-band if it can send and receive signals from two frequencies—in the case of wireless networking, both the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands. Hub: This piece of networking hardware serves as a central connection point for multiple PCs or other devices (usually on a wired or wireless Ethernet network). A passive hub simply transmits data from any of its connected devices to the rest of the network. An active or manageable hub can also monitor network traffic and configure its ports. Modem: An external box or internal circuitry that converts computer data into sound that can be transmitted over phone lines. First used to send telegrams, early modems alternated between two different tones. These days, modems transmit data with lots of different tones, signals, and complex mathematical processing, so modem is a bit of a misnomer. NIC: Network Interface Card. An adapter inside a computer that lets the computer connects to a network via a wired or wireless transmission medium. PC Card: A credit card-size peripheral that plugs into a special slot on portable computers (and some desktop models). The card may add RAM, a modem or network adapters, a hard drive, or another device. These PC Cards conform to several standards set by the PCMCIA and were originally called PCMCIA Cards. RAM: Random Access Memory. When you run an application such as Microsoft Word, the program is called up from its permanent storage area (like the hard drive, floppy disk, or CD-ROM) and moved into the RAM, where it sends requests to the CPU. Using faster memory means your information spends less time in line before being processed. Your computer should have as much RAM as possible so that it can work efficiently. It also pays to have lots of memory in your system because some operating systems swap applications from memory to your hard drive when the RAM gets filled. Source: http://www.cnet.com/4520-7364_1-105323-1.html?tag=gloss

i4d | April 2004

P ARADIGM

CHANGE

Use of mapping for WiFi connectivity In rural India, there is a need of cost-effective network for data connectivity where communication infrastructure is lacking.

Prologue Maps form an integral part of planning. There are different techniques by which, maps are prepared, depending upon the purpose and accuracy required. The different techniques, range from simple chain and tape measurements to optical methods and further to satellite based technologies. All the techniques have their own advantages and disadvantages. Some gives good accuracy at the expense of time and energy while some gives quicker results at the expense of accuracy. However, GPS (Global Positioning System) is a world wide navigation and timing system, which is widely being used for mapping, worldwide. This article describes the use of mapping in planning WiFi connectivity in rural India.

Introduction

Satyaprakash Project Manager CSDMS, India satya@csdms.org

April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Few villages of Dodaballabpur taluka in Rural Bangalore district, were thought of to be connected through WiFi to the nearest administrative centers, in order to facilitate information exchange between the villages and the taluka headquarters. But before the actual deployment of the technology took place, it was realized that there was a need of maps of the villages. These maps would help in finding out suitable location for the hub, where the antenna could be placed and also in deciding the most suitable route for the moving vechile (MV) through which the data exchange would take place. This planning would ensure that the information exchange between the MV and the hub could be done with maximum efficiency.

Need analysis In rural India, there is a need of cost-effective network for data connectivity where communication infrastructure is lacking.

One solution to this problem could be a hybrid network architecture, which combines physical and wireless data transfer to enable high-bandwidth intranet and Internet connectivity among kiosks (public computers) and between kiosks and hubs (places with a reliable Internet connection). Data is transported by means of the mobile vechile (MV), which automatically and wirelessly collects and delivers data from/ to each kiosk on the network. Before the implementation of such a concept, a detail map of the area under study need to be generated. Also required is the route on which the MV would travel for covering the least distance, and the region of maximum value of SNR (Signal to Noise Ratio). This required calculating the distance of MV from the hub with corresponding values of SNR. To visualize the route of MV and the location of the hub, the value of SNR need to be plotted on the generated map so that the variation in the SNR values are known, when the MV is moving and when the data transfer can start.

Developed solution One requirement was to record the SNR values at specified interval with the GPS location of the MV. The other was to prepare the map of the villages, under study. Finally, the collected values of SNR with the distance from the hub need to be plotted on the map of the village so that correct path of the MV could be decided. This would also result in deciding the location from which the data transfer should start so that there is no loss during the data transfer. Software development For the first requirement, a MS windows based software was developed which had the following features:

Figure 1(a): GPS communication port setting (b): Adding stations to the tracks Figure 2: Map of Arudhi village

Figure 1(c): Initial screen for data collection, which stores the location of the points and calculate distance from the last point

• Storing of fixed points from which to calculate distance • Real time monitoring of distance from all stored fixed points • Drag-n-drop facility to choose the points that need to be observed • Logging facility to store the points of the GPS • Flexibility to choose the communication port on which GPS is attached The software records the GPS locations of the MV and calculates the distance of the point from the hub. Trimble pathfinder pocket GPS with external antenna, was used in the study and the data was collected on a laptop installed in the MV. Fig 1(a-c) show some of the screen shots of the software used for data collection.

Glossary GPS: Global Positioning System: Global navigation and timing system which uses satellite to give location of the points MV: Mobile Vechile: The moving vechile to/ from which the data will be transferred from/ to the hub SNR: Signal to Noise Ratio: A measure of the strength of the signal over which the data will be transferred PDA: Personal Digital Assistant, a handheld computer GramChitra: Linux based GIS software for handheld computer CF Card GPS: Compact Flash card GPS 32

Figure 3: SNR map for Arudhi village

Mapping To prepare the map of the area under study, GramChitra, the Linux based GPS data collection and GIS software for handhelds, was used. The software runs on PDA, coupled with CF card GPS, PDA used was 3800 series of iPAQ and the CF card GPS was of Pretec. For mapping, the following procedure was followed: • The tracks were taken in the first pass by traversing on all the possible route of MV. This was done by running the GPS in continuous mode and GPS location data was captured at every 1sec • These tracks were then populated with the features present on the ground and were transferred to the collected track • The houses were drawn as polygon by taking two corners of the houses by GPS and extending manually it, in depth • The point features were marked simultaneously as pin-up • Final map was created on the desktop, after making necessary corrections based on the observations from the field and appropriate colour and symbol was given to specific features Fig 2 shows the map created using the GramChitra software.

Results achieved After the maps have been prepared and SNR has been collected, the SNR values were plotted on the map with respect to the distance form the central hub. Figure 3 shows the SNR map for one of the villages. The solid colour shows the range of SNR values when the MV is approaching the central hub from South-West direction along the road. The best SNR is for the region near to the central hub and is almost same for both the directions. However, the shaded region shows the values of SNR when the MV is approaching the central hub from North direction. Since the MV will not follow any other route (there is only one main road) the SNR has been calculated for the main road only.

Conclusion The mapping of villages helped in finalizing the location of the hub and deciding the route of the MV for WiFi connectivity. This facility at two locations of Rural Bangalore district viz., Arudhi and Sasslu village, has helped the villagers in getting their land record details under Bhoomi project of Karnatka state, without visiting the taluka headquarters. The GramChitra software, can help the community in preparing map of the villages, as has been done in the above application. i4d | April 2004

S ERVING T HE U NDERSERVED

Local communitiesA global initiative Heeding a call from UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to extend Internet connectivity to underserved populations around the world, the United Nations ICT Task Force and the Wireless Internet Institute (W2i) jointly announced on March 24th, 2004 a series of programs to accelerate the adoption of wireless Internet in Peter Orne support of universal connectivity, the MillenEditorial Director, nium Development Goals, and the Declaration W2i, USA of Principles of the World Summit on the Inpeter_orne@yahoo.com formation Society. In his bold challenge to Silicon Valley in 2002, the Secretary-General said: “We need to think of ways to bring wireless-fidelity applications to the developing world so as to make use of unlicensed radio spectrum to deliver cheap and fast Internet access.” To respond to this challenge, the UN ICT Task Force and W2i have put together “Wireless Internet for Underserved Populations and Local Communities”, a program designed to begin to meet one of the leading development challenges of our time – universal connectivity — by involving all key stakeholders, from government and civil society to the private sector and field practitioners. Early underwriters of the program include global technology partners IBM and Intel. More than 15 conferences, seminars, and interactive workshops are currently in the planning stages for Asia, Africa, Latin America, and the Middle East to help policy makers, regulators, development experts, field practitioners, technology and service providers, and user organizations explore how to best leverage broadband wireless Internet technologies in their countries, communities, and underserved areas. Consequently, four series have been outlined to systematically complete the program agenda in time for the second WSIS summit in Tunis in 2005. They include: • National Regulator Capacity-Building Series • Global Wireless Internet and Local Authorities Series • Wireless Internet and the Arab-World Series • Wireless Internet and the African Continent Series Overseen by a multinational, multidisciplinary advisory board,

the four series will confront issues surrounding needs and applications identification, policy and regulatory framework development, backbone availability, demand aggregation, and infrastructure funding. Proceedings will be captured and published in the form of Web-based resources, books, reports and white papers, constituting the most comprehensive knowledge base available to all ICTfor-development stakeholders. Steering committees will guide the development of each, setting goals and objectives and conclusions to be presented at WSIS in Tunis in November 2005.

Answering the Call With a global reach and a multi-year agenda, the series will, in particular, meet head on the urgent issue of ensuring that local regulatory environments and policies take full advantage of the new wireless Internet technologies. Moreover, these initiatives will enable the private sector to respond to the Secretary-General’s challenge. This ambitious, one-of-a-kind program comes after one year of very successful collaboration between W2i and UN ICT Task Force. In June 2003, the UN ICT Task Force and W2i co-hosted a conference at UN Headquarters in New York called “The Wireless Internet Opportunity for Developing Countries,” featuring panelists and brainstorm sessions with wireless Internet and ICT-fordevelopment stakeholders from around the world. Then, in December, the UN ICT Task Force, W2i, and the infoDev program of the World Bank released a book of the same name at the World Summit on Information Society in Geneva, in which the Secretary General, in his introduction, wrote: “Indeed, it is precisely in places where no infrastructure exists that Wi-Fi can be particularly effective, helping countries to leapfrog generations of telecommunications technology and infrastructure to empower their people.” In addition to IBM and Intel, the UN ICT Task Force and W2i have pulled together a broad base to support the program, including international organizations such as UNDP, UNITAR, the European Commission, the World Bank, the InterAmerican Development Bank, regional and local professional organizations such as the Wi-Fi Alliance and the WiMax Forum. The first field conference is scheduled for Amman in May 2004 in cooperation with the World Economic Forum.

www.i4donline.net April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

P OLICY

AND

S TANDARDS

Wireless bridge to close digital divide Much of the recent telecom growth in India has happened out of thin air. Of course, this is no magic. It is the era of wireless communication enabled by radio spectrum and guided by robust forward-looking policy and regulatory framework.

Deepak Maheshwari Head Corporate Affairs Sify Limited, India D_Maheshwari@Sifycorp.com

Humans are sociable beings and given an opportunity, they would start communicate with their fellow beings. Though every zoological species has its own language, humans have made up their own multiple languages and the ways to express through them. Robinson Crusoe created his own language to communicate with Friday at the lonely island. History as well as folktales has numerous instances of pigeons that were fussed over and trained to send messages across great distances. Similarly, messengers traveled great distances to carry the messages of the royals. Scriptures were memorized and spread literally through the word of the mouth. Telegraph, Telephones, Radio, TV, mobile and Internet have been some of the major innovations in the past two centuries. On one hand modern technology brought progress, on the other it created further distances between the people who wanted or needed to communicate. However, the availability, accessibility and affordability of these have not been uniform. About half of the human population on this planet is yet to have the first telephonic conversation while only about one-tenth have actually used the Internet. Situation is more acute in the developing countries due to poor telecom infrastructure, low GDP per capita and high levels of illiteracy. National priorities have become more complex such that the focus is on ICT (Information & Communication Technology) access and not just on the telephones. For example, Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s National Telcom Policy, 1994 (NTP 1994) talked more about phones whereas the New Telecom Policy, 1999 (NTP 1999) expands the scope to include affordable information access as well. Indiaâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s telecom infrastructure is fifth largest in the world if one considers the number

of telephone line capacity installed. However, when we consider the sheer size of one billinon plus population the penetration level is quite low. When we include the low level of Internet subscriber base and the high cost of access with respect to the purchasing power parity (PPP) as well as other aspects, ITU places India at 117th rank in its recently published figures for Digital Access Index (DAI). The real challenge today is not to take the tele-density to 15 (as mentioned in the NTP 1999) in the country but rather to include the large population and make a significant impact on their quality of life and levels of education, thereby utilizing their innate capabilities towards socio-economic growth. Much of the recent telecom growth in the country has happened out of thin air. Of course, this is no magic. It is the era of wireless communication enabled by radio spectrum and guided by robust forwardlooking policy and regulatory framework. Earlier, to make a telephone line available at a home in urban area through copper laid underground, one required a capital expenditure of more than US$ 800 whereas now it costs just around US $ 200 per line through wireless. Radio spectrum is a natural resource and its usage is controlled and regulated by governments or bodies set up by the governments while at international levels, ITU (International Telecommunications Union) a specialized body under the United Nations (UN) carries out this function. Due to strategic nature of spectrum and the high potential of harmful interference to other users, the system of licensing was begun such that not only a radio that would talk (like a broadcast station) but also a receiver that could only listen (e.g. TV or transistor sets) required licenses. Till about i4d | April 2004

two decades back, one required a license to even own a transistor set in India! In 1995, the Supreme Court had held that the airwaves (radio frequencies) are actually public properties and hence, must be used optimally in the larger public interest. Technology has evolved such that the same wire (or, for that matter, wireless channel) coming into a home is capable of carrying the triple play of voice, video and data. In this context, it is important to assess the issues related to spectrum usage for the larger public interest. The prevailing system of piece-by-piece licensing just would not work at a large scale, given the enormous paper-work, slow decision-making and high administered costs. Considering that the spectrum is an economic resource, one would tend to place a value thereon. However, in the absence of any market mechanism such valuations are more often than not arbitrary. At the same time, due to the ‘first come, first served’ processes for spectrum assignments, there is little scope or incentive for new technologies to survive, let alone thrive. In the US, FCC (Federal Communications Commission) delicensed usage of 2.4-2.4835 GHz band in the early eighties through Part 15 rules. WPC did impose some limits on power emission. This seemingly simple but revolutionary step attracted attention of many a technologist and innovator. Microwave ovens, cordless phones, security alarms, remote car locks and many other usages appeared. However, Wi-Fi is probably the most significant of these for the discussion subject. Wi-fi is a shortened version for the term ‘wireless fidelity’ and is based on the 802.11 series of standards set up under the aegis of Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). Though Wi-Fi may operate in the 2.4 GHz band as well as in the 5 GHz band, it is more popular in the former as this band has been de-licensed in many other countries and resulting in the continuous lowering of the equipment cost over the years. Though Wi-Fi was developed as a wireless LAN (Local Area Network) technology, with slight tweaking and innovative thinking it can be adopted for long-distance outdoor usage as well. For example, IIT, Kanpur deployed such a network in its neighbourhood, aptly titled ‘Digital Gangetic Plains’ (DGP). Though indoor usage of Wi-Fi had been de-licensed in April 2003, it is highly desirable that certain frequency bands (to start with, 2.4-2.4835 GHz) are totally de-licensed, with some operative parametric limitations only. IEEE has recently standardized 802.16 (Wimax) technology which makes it possible to deploy wireless networks in a point to multipoint networks upto 25 kilometers (kms). Major semiconductor manufacturers have joined the initiative for development of chips, which can work across a range of spectrum so that the systems can be tuned to the particular frequencies authorized in different geographies. By combining the radio on the CPU (Central Processing Unit) of the upcoming devices, not only the cost would come down but also the systems will be simpler to design and

operate. As the National Frequency Allocation Plan is currently under revision, suitable provisions must be made for Wimax – both for outdoor and indoor usage, in line with the WRC-03 (World Radio Conference – 2003) resolutions. Eminent economist Arvind Virmani has also suggested differential pricing of spectrum in urban areas and rural areas rather than the prevailing system of uniform pricing. Per capita GDP of the local geography could be another variable for consideration. Of course, wireless alone cannot work. Going forward, we shall have enormous bandwidth in the core networks made largely of optical fiber cables. We shall continue to have cellular networks based on technologies like GSM and CDMA. We shall have Optical Fibre Cable or Wireless point-to-point links going to the rural areas. Beyond that, in the local vicinity it might be a point-to-point or mesh network, using Wimax. Again, inside a home, it might be a Wi-Fi network connecting various devices across the rooms while an Internet-enabled slate (tablet computer!) and speech-synthesised system is connected via Bluetooth. In 2002, when Wimax had not yet been standardized, Kofi Annan, the Secretary General of UN, urged the crème’ de le crème’ of the Silcon Valley to use Wi-Fi to make Internet access to the deprived in the developing countries using innovative solutions like Wi-Fi!

www.i4donline.net April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

eNRICH

A community software solution framework Effective communication within and among community is a necessary ingredient for empowering the communities.

D.C.Misra Senior Technical Director and Head, Rural Development dcmisra@hub.nic.in

Rama Hariharan Principal Systems Analyst rama@hub.nic.in National Informatics Centre, Department of Information Technology, Government of India

April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Today, in the knowledge age, the importance of information and communication as key enablers of economic and social prosperity has been widely recognized. A number of efforts to harness the power of ICTs for the benefit of resource hungry poor communities have been made by governments, NGOs and many international development agencies. Many projects have been undertaken by various national and international agencies and NGOs to address the needs of the underprivileged through the use of ICTs especially the use of Internet and web site development, in such community centres. Some of the limitations of these experiments are, lack of awareness and knowledge, literacy and lack of access of ICT in local languages. Solutions are often projects with setting of connectivity to Internet and setting of local language web sites. These often are time consuming and demands special skills, thus impacting sustainability of such projects. Such web sites are often managed by a single person, rather than with community participation. Effective communication within and among community is a necessary ingredient for empowering the communities. However, these web sites invariably focus more on information retrieval and less on providing facilities for community communication and participation. Searching for relevant information on the Internet is time consuming, costly, requires knowledge of English language and also requires special skill set. Even when information has been gathered, its relevancy and authenticity cannot be judged immediately. This problem is further compounded by the low standard of living and low literacy of the underprivileged section of the society. Last but not the least, research data on access habits of community members is

severely lacking. Such data, if made available, can greatly enhance the effectiveness of ICTs in improving the lot of the underprivileged. eNRICH was developed by NIC in response to the need expressed by UNESCO to address the above challenges in its crosscutting theme project ictPR (ICT for Poverty Reduction). eNRICH is a generic and yet easily customizable web based software solution that acts as a gateway to a community’s own world of knowledge, communication and empowerment. It enables communities to quickly and efficiently build their own gateway website, enriched with their own local content and connected to knowledge sources and services that are tailored according to their own information and communication needs. eNRICH addresses all of the above issues in the following ways: • Helps rural communities in generating their own portal dynamically • Generates portal in the community’s own local language • Enables content management by facilitating the community members to enrich the portal with their own local content and connect to knowledge sources and services that are tailored according to their information and communication needs • Improves accessibility to content through the use of multiple media • Facilitates knowledge management within and among the community eNRICH has been developed as a webbased community software solution framework that adapts to the needs and circumstances of the poor. Through its customizable, multi-lingual interface, eNRICH truly puts ICTs to work in the hands of the poor. Its multiple features not only enable communities to identify, build

• Post announcements and public messages such as local meetings, bartering, etc., in the electronic bulletin board (of the community portal or the community portal of other collaborating community portals) for other members to see and respond • Upload community specific content in the local database • Express their views on important community issues and also view other people’s opinion • Communicate and share information with community members both within and outside their community (Inter- and Intracommunity information sharing and communication) • Communicate with their dear and distant ones through e-mail, chat, messaging, etc. • Learn through multiple media • Communicate their information and communication needs, suggestions, complaints etc. to the manager Block community portal

and organize relevant information but also promote communication between and among communities. The framework encourages collection, preservation and sharing of indigenous knowledge. With the ultimate aim of empowering communities through a collaborative approach, eNRICH acts as a platform for voicing the thoughts and feelings of the poor. eNRICH also facilitates research and analysis of its usage pattern to understand the impact of social and technological strategies in order to further innovate and align ICT solutions as a tool for poverty reduction.

Two components of eNRICH eNRICH comprises two main components viz. Desk Manager User Interface (DMUI) and Community Browser User Interface (CBUI) which lend reusability to the entire solution framework. DMUI, the back end interface, acts as Site Manager, Content Publisher, Content Organiser and Analyser (for researchers). The Community Browser, the front end on the other hand faithfully displays what it receives from DMUI. It also has its own autonomous spaces for community people to post content and interact among each other. This is a browser-based site administration and analysis tool for managers and researchers, which is used to: • Specify the knowledge resources and services to be provided to the community users on the Community Browser site • Interact with Community members to render the Community Browser more relevant and useful to them • Identify issues for opinion poll, message of the day etc • Moderate the contents and messages uploaded by community users so as to make them more authentic and relevant • Has provision for government participation in providing information and services of the government at all levels • Provides facility for domain experts to participate in uploading information as per community’s needs • Generally administer the site Community Browser User Interface (CBUI) – also called Community Browser or CBUI, this is the interface that will be used by the community members, to: • Access various knowledge and services made available locally and/or on the Internet (if the site is connected to the Internet)

Community browser user interface(CBUI) Put together the DMUI-CBUI duo acts as a powerful framework allowing users to see the content that is most relevant & in a manner that is most suitable to them.

eNRICH deployment status Already adopted • Information and Communication technology for Poverty reduction (ictPr) Project (http://www.ictpr.nic.in) of UNESCO, No of sites: 9 Villages • Community Information Centre (CICs) Project of Department of Information Technology (DIT) at 487 Block hq locations in 8 states of N-E, http://www.cic.nic.in • Health InterNetwork India Pilot Project (http://www.hin.org.in) of World Health Organization (WHO) at 10 Primary/Community health centers locations in Karnataka and Orissa. Being introduced • DRDA Portals for more than 550 District Rural Development Agencies (DRDA) locations across the country (http:// crisp.nic.in/drdaenrich) • Akshaya Project (http://www.akshaya.org) of Government of Kerala in Malappuram District at more than 600 Akshaya Kiosk spread in more than 100 Village Panchayats

Road ahead eNRICH is an ICT based tool to empower the rual poor, and to produce cost effective technologies that address the local needs and challenges of the rural masses. One important area of research is the way people interact with eNRICH. eNRICH interface could be further enhanced by multimodal inputs and multimedia output with assisted technologies and adaptive strategies which could empower physically challenged and illiterate people. eNRICH is currently available on Microsoft Technology and runs on both Desktop as well as Server environment. The efforts are on to port the same to Open source environment and come out with an enhanced functionality framework to establish it as a truly content management tool and portal generator. i4d | April 2004

Rendezvous 11-12 M ARCH 2004, 3 RD A NNUAL M EETING , N EW D ELHI

OneWorld South Asia resolves to achieve the MDGs

“The objective was to strengthen the partnership by sharing information and exploring potential areas of co-operation towards the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We believe that Information and Communication Tools (ICTs) are a powerful tool to help NGOs achieve this goal at the grassroots, particularly by allowing local communities to have a voice in their own development. OneWorld wants to catalyze the use of these tools by our partners in collaborative ways that are really effective. The response at the meeting was very positive with a number of practical strategic alliances emerging out of the discussions,” commented Basheerhamad Shadrach, Director, OneWorld South Asia. He was speaking at the closing session of the two day “3rd Annual Meeting of OneWorld South Asia Partners’, organized in New Delhi, India from 11-12 February, 2004. The theme of the meeting was ‘Working Together to Achieve Millennium Development Goals’. The representatives of over 100 NGOs from the sub-continent that are partners of OneWorld South Asia attended the meeting. The director of One World International Foundation, Anuradha Vittachi, while speaking in the inaugural session said, “ I believe that Media for All should be included as another MDG”. This statement is April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

an indication of the critical role media can play in achieving the MDGs. She further said that communication tools are being made available in the local language with local content to reach out to the grassroots. “Mobiles, for example, are becoming the new medium for reaching out to people”, she added. The President NASSCOM mentioned how “ ICTs instead of being thought of as a tool in the hands of the oppressor could be used to empower the oppressed”, said Kiran Karnik, President of the National Association of the Software Companies, India. He cited the example of the Bhoomi project in the state of Karnataka where land records have been computerised and farmers do need not to grease palms anymore to get a copy of their land record. In his speech on the first day of the meeting, Mr. Peter Armstrong, Co-Founder of OneWorld International spoke about the aim and purpose of Open Knowledge Network (OKN) project. He also briefly mentioned about its operation at the grassroots level. Recognising the diversity and richness of initiatives to collect and disseminate local content which already exist in many parts of the South, the OKN represents an attempt to ‘join up the dots’, in order to increase their capacity and impact. It is best thought of as a flexible framework or dynamic to link and support information initiatives among poor and marginalized communities though shared standards and values: local content, local people, and local languages.Among the other eminent speakers at the meeting were Mr. Shankar Ghose, President, Charkha Development Communication Network, Mr. Dileep Ranjekar, Chief Executive Officer, Azim Premji Foun-

dation, Dr. Dennis Pain, Senior Social Development Advisor, Department for International Development, India and Mr. Sanjay Trehan, Chief Executive Officer, Internet, Hindustan Times It was suggested by the participants that the OneWorld South Asia was the appropriate platform to carry on the advocacy work. At the same time more partners were to be roped in. This would not only broaden the reach but also provide strength to the voices from the ground. The meeting saw OneWorld South Asia and its partners coming out with an agenda that will help in the achievement of Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), a series of measures that the United Nation has mandated for a better world. The MDGs, aim at the elimination or substantial reduction of poverty by 2015, by focusing on issues related to health, hunger, education, gender, environment and partnerships with the private sector. OneWorld South Asia http://southasia.oneworld.net/ based in New Delhi is a part of the OneWorld Network www.oneworld.net, an international non-profit network that aims to use ICTs for promoting sustainable development and human rights and is the world’s first online platform solely devoted to human rights and social justice worldwide. With a strong network of 260 non-governmental organizations as its partners, OneWorld South Asia works symbiotically to achieve its goals. Its key activities are Development Communications, Grassroots Communication, Capacity Building, ICT Advocacy and Partnership with civil society. To know more about partnership with OneWorld South Asia, contact jaba.menon@oneworld.net

24-26 M ARCH 2004, E URO I NDIA 2004, N EW D ELHI

Cooperation in ICTs between Europe & India “...Excellent event for bringing people together. Besides many contacts from India with whom I am still in discussion it was useful to renew European contacts as well.” Stephen Hope, Orange SA, UK “EuroIndia2004 helped in giving an overall exposure to the European market and other opportunities available, waiting to be explored.” Sid Dharth, Cyberica Net Technologies Pvt. Ltd, India These two comments offer insight into the results achieved and the general level of satisfaction of the majority of European and Indian ICT delegates at the EuroIndia2004 Co-operation Forum which registered 1,250 delegates, 800 Indian and 450 Europeans on the portal. Over 900 came together to exchange views, project ideas, technologies during three days i.e. March 24-26 in Delhi. Peter Zangl, Joint Director General of the Information Society Directorate of the European Commission and Kris Gopalakrishnan, Deputy Managing Director and COO Infosys officially opened the EuroIndia2004 Forum whilst European Commissioner for Enterprise and Information Society Erkki Liikanen presided over the closing ceremony. The Forum provided a congenial setting for presentations and discussions of innovative developments in eEnabling, Next Generation Technologies, Communication Technologies and Security and Standardisation at more than thirty thematic parallel Workshops which attracted a substantial number of delegates and participants. EuroIndia2004 also provided an excellent networking environment to discuss new ideas, share knowledge and obtain feedback from potential partners and users.

The EuroIndia2004 Exhibition was conceived as a European showcase for Research and Technology Development (RTD) projects, for SMEs and research institutes to promote and disseminate their IST activities and results. The exhibition covered a total area of 750m² (8000 sq. ft) and housed 76 booths. Over 50 European organisations as well as the EuroIndia2004 sponsors and supporting organisations created a lively blend of technologies, projects, achievements and information. at the Exhibition. The novel Get-in-Touch sessions, pre-programmed along thematic lines, provided their ‘five minutes of fame’ to 85 delegates and attracted delegates and visitors alike to the theatre style informal settings. Networking Meetings facilities gave the opportunity to delegates to arrange formal as well as informal meetings , which totalled over 450. Alcatel and Infosys lent their support and prestige as Platinum Sponsors of EuroIndia2004 and ST Microelectronics and SAP came in as Bronze sponsors. EuroIndia2004 was funded by the European Commission, supported by the Indian Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) with the participation of the Indian Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, the Indian Department of Science and Technology, the Indian National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) and the Indian Manufacturer’s Association of Information Technology (MAIT) The content of the workshops and the complete showcase of all delegates and exhibitors can be accessed on the portal www.euroindia2004.org

AN OFFICIAL PUBLICATION OF UN’S WORLD SUMMIT AWARD

E-CONTENT VOICES FROM THE GROUND

Published by Digital Empowerment Foundation, India World Summit Award, Austria Inomy.com, India Sponsored by Center for Development of Advance Computing, India

OSAMA MANZAR PETER A BRUCK E-content is supposed to be the final frontier of all the initiatives from all the world which are working hard to join the Information Society.

Co-sponsored by The Telecommunication and Computer Networks Group, India European Academy of Digital Media, The Netherlands Arekibo Communications, Ireland i4d, India Digital Partners, USA Mahiti Infotech, India

For more information and purchase of the book, please contact: Email: def@manzar.info Phone: +91-9810042862 Fax: +91-11-51829729 http://www.econtentworldwide.org

Digital Empowerment Foundation D-307, Sarvodaya Enclave, New Delhi, India

i4d | April 2004

Whatâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s on

01-03 July, 2004 The 13th Annual AMIC conference, on Media, ICTs and Development Bangkok http://www.amic.org.sg/conf2004.html

Argentina

Ghana

20-22 April, 2004 International Conference on ICT Solutions for Mediterranean SMEs Barcelona

04-06 May, 2004 AITEC Ghana, Accra

http://cv.uoc.edu~eumedis_workpac_1_05_v04/ Conf_2004/index_en.htm

Greece

Brunei

19-21 May, 2004 World Congress on IT 2004 (WCIT 2004) Athens

17-20 May, 2004 Asia Pacific Forum on Telecommunication Policy and Regulation Darussalam http://aptsec.org/seminar/meeting-2004/PRF/ default.htm

Canada 06-10 June,2004 Sharing Indigenous Wisdom: An International Dialogue on Sustainable Development Radisson Hotel & Conference Center near Green Bay, Wisconsin http://sharingindigenouswisdom.org/default.asp

China 11-15 May, 2004 Global ICT Summit Cyberport Hong Kong http://www.esdlife.com/campaign/GLOBAL-ICT

25-27 May, 2004 Scaling Up Poverty Reduction: A Global Learning Process, and Conference Shanghai http://www.worldbank.org/wbi/reducingpoverty/ about.html

26-29 August, 2004 Map Asia 2004, Beijing http://www.mapasia.org

http://aitecafrica.com/events/events.html

http://www.afitaandwcca2004.net

28-03 June, 2004 International Humanist Youth Conference Kampala, http://iheu.org/youth

New Zealand

United States

04-08 July, 2004 3rd PAN Commonwealth Forum on Open Learning Dunedin

17-22 May, 2004 The Thirteenth International World Wide Web Conference Manhattan

http://www.col.org/pcf3

http://cat.nyu.edu/www2004

Nigeria April 25-30, 2004 International Conference On African Woman And Gender Development ABUJA,FCT http://www.takingitglobal.org/opps/ event.html?eventid=4493

Sweden

23-26 May, 2004 15th Information Resources Management Association International Conference New Orleans, Louisiana http://www.irma-international.org

06-10 June, 2004 Sharing Indigenous Wisdom: An International Dialogue on Sustainable Development Wisconsin

10-13 May, 2004 Stockholm Challenge Award 2003/2004, Final Event

http://www.sharingindigenouswisdom. orgdefault.asp

http://www.challenge.stockholm.se

21- 23, June, 2004 NECC 2004 New Orleans, Louisiana

Thailand 11-12 May, 2004 Gender, Development and Public Policy in an Era ... Asian Institute of Technology (AIT) Bangkok

3-8 May, 2004 ITU Telecom Africa 2004, Cairo

5 June - 5 August, 2004 Education ICT 2004, Bangkok

http://www.itu.int/AFRICA2004/index.html

http://www.reedtradex.com/edict

April 2004 | www.i4donline.net

Uganda

http://www.worldcongress2004.org

http://www.serd.ait.ac.th/gds/asialink

Egypt

09-12 August, 2004 World Congress on Computers in Agriculture and Natural Resources Bangkok

http://center.uoregon.edu/conferences/ISTE/ NECC2004/

21-25 July, 2004 International Conference on Education and Information Systems: Technologies and Applications EISTA 2004 Orlando, Florida http://www.confinf.org/eista04

Get your event listed here. www.i4donline.net/events

I N F ACT

Wireless fidelity The growth and development of wireless communication has opened up new avenues of ICT for development. However, with this development also comes plethora of terminologies. You may be regularly following or using different technology standards, devices, networks, etc., but may not know exactly what it means. It may well be necessary to develop a dictionary of ICT terminology. Even though it is not necessary for most users to learn the various jargons, it becomes very useful to understand some of these terms. We invite our readers to share their views on this section, as well as to enquire about terms that baffle them. The editorial term will try to provide you the explanations or definitions in the forthcoming issues. It may be other way also. You might know few terms, which are not listed here. We welcome you to share your valuable knowledge in this area with us and our other readers. Wi-Fi: Wireless Fidelity. Wi-Fi originally referred to the 802.11b specification for wireless LANs, but it is now used to describe any of the 802.11 wireless networking specifications. Hot spot: In wireless networking, a hot spot is a specific part of an access point’s range in which the general public can walk up and use the network. The service may be available only for a fee, and the hot spot’s range is usually short to control the physical proximity of the user. In some parts of the world, it is called a cool spot. OFDM: Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing. A wireless transmission technique that splits a signal into smaller signals that are then transmitted at different frequencies simultaneously. It’s the method employed for wireless transmissions that use the IEEE 802.11a and 802.11g specifications. Omnidirectional antenna: This is like a dipole antenna because it radiates its signal 360 degrees horizontally; however, its signal is flatter than a dipole’s, allowing for higher gain. Router: As the name indicates, this piece of hardware routes data from one local-area network to another or to a phone line’s longdistance line. Routers also act as traffic cops, allowing only authorized machines to transmit data into the local network so that private information can remain secure. In addition, routers handle errors, keep network usage statistics, and handle security issues. WAP: Wireless Application Protocol is the de facto worldwide standard for providing Internet communications and advanced telephony services on digital mobile phones, pagers, personal digital assistants and other wireless terminals. The Wireless Application Protocol is a standard developed by the WAP Forum, a group founded by Nokia, Ericsson, Phone.com (formerly Unwired Planet), and Motorola. WAP defines a communications protocol as well as an application environment. In essence, it is a standardized technology for crossplatform, distributed computing. (Source: www.perfectxml.com/glossary4.asp)

Warchalking: The unauthorized act of physically marking the locations of wireless access points (APs) that are available for free network access, such as those at a coffee house or an airport—or an office AP with a leaky signal. The word chalking derives from the informal system of markings used by vagabonds to indicate places where one might get a meal or a place to sleep. Wardriving: The unauthorized act of seeking out and

mapping wireless access points (APs) that are available for free network access, such as those at a coffee house or an airport—or an office AP with a leaky signal. This is the new, wireless version of war dialing, in which hackers dialed hundreds of numbers to find an open modem so that they could gain access to a company’s network. WECA: Wireless Ethernet Compatibility Alliance. This is the former name of the Wi-Fi Alliance of vendors promoting 802.11 wireless networking standards and compatibility. Wireless bridging: A networking bridge is used to connect two or more separate networks. A wireless bridge functions the same way but can be used in situations in which running a wire or cable would be impractical or prohibitively expensive, such as creating a 10-mile point-to-point link. WPA: Wi-Fi protected access. WPA is a specification for improving the security of Wi-Fi networks, replacing the weaker WEP for current and future 802.11 standards. It uses 802.1x and EAP to restrict network access, and it uses its own encryption, called Temporal Key Integrity Protocol (TKIP), to secure data during transmission. WPAN: Wireless Personal-Area Network. A WPAN is specifically a PAN that uses wireless connections, but because all current PAN technologies, such as Bluetooth, are wireless, you can consider the terms synonymous. 100BaseT: A synonym for the Fast Ethernet networking standard. The 100 refer to a maximum data-transfer rate of 100 megabits per second over twisted-pair wiring. 802.11: A set of IEEE standards for data transmission over wireless LANs. The specs include 802.11, 802.11a, 802.11b, and 802.11g. All of the specifications use the Ethernet protocol. 802.1x: 802.1x is a security standard for wired and wireless LANs. It encapsulates EAP processes into Ethernet packets instead of using the protocol’s native PPP (Point-to-Point Protocol) environment, thus reducing some network overhead. It also puts the bulk of the processing burden upon the client (called a supplicant in 802.1x parlance) and the authentication server (such as a RADIUS), letting the “authenticator” middleman simply pass the packets back and forth. Source: http://www.cnet.com/4520-7364_1-105323-1.html?tag=gloss i4d | April 2004

>> Global ICT Summit 2004 From Adversity to Success - The Worldâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Best e-Content & e-Creativity Experience

Cyberport Hong Kong â&#x20AC;˘ 11-15/5/2004 Conference Details & Registration - www.esdlife.com/campaign/GLOBAL-ICT/

Do you want to tap the experience from your overseas counterparts, or extend your presence to a regional or even international level? The Summit is here for you!

THE SUMMIT

will bring together ICT experts and professionals from over 20 countries to share the best practices in e-content and e-creativity will provide an opportunity to exchange knowledge and ideas for shaping the future of global ICT development and to help bridge the digital divide on an international level will share first-hand experiences of Hong Kongâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s dynamic capabilities in the advancement of ICT and its unique role as a gateway to China

will serve as a unique platform in the promotion of investment and creation of business opportunities

HIGH PROFILE SPEAKERS About 30 speakers from Australia, Bahrain, Brazil, Bangladesh, Canada, Hong Kong, Ecuador, Egypt, Germany, India, Italy, Kenya, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Slovakia, Sudan, Uganda, the USA, etc. will be making presentation at the Summit. Some of them are:

Dr. Songde MA, Vice-Minister of Science and Technology, China

Prof. Peter BRUCK, Chairman of The United Nationsâ&#x20AC;&#x2122; World Summit Award Board

Ms. Louise van ROOYEN, Executive Director, Australian Interactive Multimedia Industry Association, Australia

Mr. Ali ABBASOV, Minister of Communications and Information Technologies, Azerbaijan

Dr. Abdul Moyeen KHAN, MP, Hon. Minister for Science and Information & Communication Technology, Bangladesh

Ms. Linda C BRIGANCE, Vice President / Chief Information Officer, Information Technology Division, Asia Pacific Division, FedEx Express, Asia Pacific

Mr. Ali RADHI, Assistant Undersecretary for Domestic Trade, Ministry of Commerce, Kingdom of Bahrain

Mrs. Patricia CHU, Chairperson, Equal Opportunities Commission, Hong Kong, China

Dr. Winnie TANG, CEO, ESRI China (Hong Kong) Ltd, Hong Kong, China

Mr. Rodrigo Ortiz ASSUMPĂ&#x2021;Ă&#x192;O, Assistant Secretary, Ministry of Planning, Budget and Management, Brazil

Dr. Elizabeth QUAT, President, Internet Professionals Association, Hong Kong, China

Ms. Effat EL-SHOOKY, Vice President of RITSEC & Director, Global Distance Learning Center, Egypt

Mr. Freddy RODRIGUEZ, Minister of telecommunication and TICs, Ecuador

Mr. Alan WONG, Director of Information Technology Services, HKSAR Government, China

Mr. Nicholas YANG, CEO, Hong Kong Cyberport Management Company Limited, Hong Kong, China

Mr. Alexander FELSENBERG, Vice President, Managing Director, Internet Multimedia Association, Germany

Mr. Osama MANZAR, Founder & Secretary, Digital Empowerment Foundation, India

Dr. Lily CHIANG, Vice-Chairman, Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce, Hong Kong, China

Dr. Sona MAKULOVA, Associate Professor, Comenius University, Slovakia

Mr. Lawrence ZIKUSOKA, Founder & Director, ICT for Development at Conservation through Public Health, Uganda

Mr. Ken LARSON, Corporate Social Responsibility Manager, Hewlett-Packard Company, USA

Mr. Thomas KADELBACH, Director, Oracle Internet Academy, Oracle Corporation, USA

Mr. C.D.TAM, Chief Executive Officer, Hong Kong Science and Technology Parks Corporation, Hong Kong, China

Prof. Vincent SHEN, W3C Hong Kong, Hong Kong, China

Ms. Adriana TICAU, State Secretary (Deputy Minister) for IT in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, Romania

Organizers

Platinum Sponsor

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Vol. II No. 4

April 2004

Information for development www.i4donline.net

27-28 A UGUST 2004

2nd i4d Seminar Theme

Wireless network in the Himalayas

15th May 2004 25th May 2004

Full Paper

15th June 2004

Participation and Presentation confirmation

30th June 2004

Registration niraj@i4donline.net Contact Information info@i4donline.net www.i4donline.net www.mapasia.org

ISSN 0972 - 804X

Abstract Acceptance

Community - based ICT

The Internet in development projects

Important Deadlines

Infrastructure development using wireless technolgy Reaching farmers through mobile phones

in conjunction with Map Asia 2004

Venue : International Convention Centre, Beijing

The first monthly magazine on ICT4D