Lee Felsenstein — creator of the Osborne PC,introducer of Steve Jobs to Steve Wozniak (thanks, Andy), moderator of the Homebrew Computer Club –is making history again. He has developed bicycle-powered, portable, Linux-based ruggedized WiFi boxes that are connecting refugee villages in Laos to the Internet and to each other.
Felsenstein has just put the finishing touches to his first prototype machine for the project. It doesn't look much like the modern American PC. Powered by bicycle, with ruggedised insides usually found inside industrial factory computers, the Jhai PC boasts a dot-matrix printer based on a 20-year old design, a screen bought from an ex-surplus reseller, and an aerial the size of a satellite dish hanging from a 20-inch coax lead. Its software is the free Linux operating system, converted into the local languages by volunteers and smooshed into a microprocessor too slow to run the latest Windows…
And it has to be practical. By the end of the year, Felsenstein's Jhai PCs will be shipped off to five Laos refugee villages, deep in the rice-growing hills of the region. Currently, the villages have no electricity, telephones or good roads between them. The PC's wireless link will connect the villages by WiFi to each other, and the telephone system.
Farmers will be able to monitor the price of crops in the town markets, negotiate group purchases with the other villages, and make business deals without having to spend days travelling away from the farm. And families will be able to make direct contact for the first time with the Laotian Diaspora – relatives who've left the war-torn area to earn money in the capital of the country, and beyond.
There's a hitch, though. The paltry $25,000 that Lee needs to accomplish this miracle won't come through from the granting agencies until after the rainy season, too late to do the installations (you try humping gear around rural Laos in a typhoon) He's raising money (Paypal link, mention "Remote IT" in the donation) from the Internet to make the project a reality. Here's what your cash gets you:
* $10 20 lbs. shipping costs
* $25 Keyboard
* $50 Headset
* $75 Antenna
* $100 Battery
* $250 Bicycle Powered Generator
* $450 CPU or Mountain Top Solar Panel
* $850 Base Station
* $1,000 One RT US-Laos Trip for One Technical Consultant
* $1,500 One Complete Jhai Computer
* $2,500 One Complete Village Set-up
* $3,000 Relay Station
* $25,000 The Full 5 Village System
Once you've made your donation, blog this. This kind of project is the future of the world, a way to connect everyone to everyone, a way to make knowledge as free as the air. I just kicked in $100, the amount I spent on the weekend on a Linksys WET-11 wireless bridge so I could put my laser-printer in a different room without tripping on the Ethernet cable. I have a feeling that the $100 I gave to Lee will be a much better investment in the long run.
(Thanks, Danny!)
