Why worry about Internet access for poverty-stricken people in

developing countries? Because a large disparity in income causes

resentment, which may in turn lead to radicalism and to horrible

attacks, such as occurred in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

Enabling the poor to access the Internet may bring them information

to empower them to boost themselves out of poverty and become

confident, productive members of a healthy society.

At the same time that we help poor countries, we may also boost

our own suffering bottom lines.

To accomplish this goal, business people must change their basic

strategy. Instead of thinking of products with more features,

we should concentrate on more access. Several businesses have

already incorporated the switch. You may want to follow.

More Features vs. More Access

For the past couple of years I have been predicting that the

price of a computer would eventually be close to zero. All recent

events in computer technology suggest that this will happen.

Why does it not happen?

The answer is that computer manufacturers and software producers

are making sure it does not happen. How do they do this? By adding

"features". Periodically they make changes and add "features"

- most of them useless - in order to sell new "improved" products.

Of course, they need to charge you for all this extra "innovation".

This approach has worked for several "generations" of computers.

But I think we have reached a plateau. People are beginning to

realize that they do not use much of the power available from

Windows 95. Why should they buy a new XP version and spend endless

days trying to learn a new system? The rich market is saturated.

Why not turn our gaze away from the rich and focus it onto the

poor, of which there are billions. Help them gain Internet access.

For this to happen, we need to get rid of all the "features"

and produce a basic, simple device that enables a peasant in

a poor country - https://www.behance.net/search?content=projects&sort=appreciations&time=... to access and learn from people all over the world.

The device must be cheap.

The Simputer

India has a billion people, 온라인카지노사이트 - https://www.ok-bari.com a vast majority of whom live in pove

Professors and entrepreneurs at the Institute of Science

Encore Software, Ltd, both in Bangalore, have developed a dev

that they call the Simputer. The Simputer can be used by anyo

even an illiterate person. It is pocket size. It may be u

to send and receive email and to browse the Internet. It co

about $

To better serve the poor it

>A Touch Screen - Locally recognized symbols and pict

may be used to guide inputs by non-sophisticated pe

>Text-to-Audio Synthesizer - No need for the user to be

to read. The text is converted to sound and the messages

spoken out

>Smart Card - Since $200 is too expensive for many, the s

card has been added to enable several people to share one Simp

Here are 2 examples of how the Simputer can empower the p

>Farmers - It enables them to check on current market pr

for their produce, thus placing them in a better bargaining posi

>Health Care Workers - Those at remote locations can ea

look up medical informa

The Simputer technology is available for licensing to individ

and organizations in other poor countries, in addition to Ind

For more information, see web

Future N

The Simputer is a good beginning. However, there are 2 main prob

with

1 - Requires Telephone Line - In many poor countries thi

a big obstacle because of an unavailable, flawed, or expens

telephone system. We need a way to use wireless to connect

the Inte

2 - Too Expensive - At $200 it is too expensive. The s

card helps. But we need a much cheaper device. I think a dev

as good as Simputer, but with wireless access could be sold

less than

We need not confine ourselves to computers. Helping incr

Internet access may be a good philosophy to follow for ot

products - http://mondediplo.com/spip.php?page=recherche&recherche=products and servi

Let's use our imagination, not to build toys for the rich,

to enable the world's poor to live a better life. This will br

both political and economic dividends to us all.