Download - Tech4Africa - The Village Telco
The VillageTelcoor
3 pieces of kit for a neighborhood network
Steve SongShuttleworth Foundation12 August 2010
an easy-to-use, scalable, standards-based, wireless, local, do-it-yourself, telephone company toolkit
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=it_net_user_p2&idim=country:KEN:ZAF:ZWE:EGY:TUN
Africa
http://www.google.com/publicdata?ds=wb-wdi&met=it_net_user_p2&idim=country:KEN:ZAF:ZWE:GBR:MYS:KOR:EGY:TUN
World
http://siteresources.worldbank.org/EXTIC4D/Resources/5870635-1242066347456/IC4D_2009_Overview.pdf
2InnovationInnovation
1Efficiency
Communication networks are potentially enablers of both efficiency and innovation
50%50%Percentage of Percentage of disposable disposable income spent income spent on mobile on mobile services in services in Africa.Africa.
http://www.cbc.ca/spark/2009/11/full-interview-clay-shirky/
...lower the cost of failure
To enable innovation...
When failure is expensive, the lesson learned is to stop wasting money.
It's the economy,
Stupid!
Bill Clinton famously captured the essence of necessary change in 1992
It's the cost of access,
Stupid!
What an inspired African leader might say about change needed in communication networks
Yesterday Today
trial and error is the new planning
command& control
build it and you can come
complexityuncertainty
unpredictability
1995 2010
Walled Gardens
Q. What do these two things have in common?
A. You don't have access to the recipe.
trial and error is the new planning
quantity is the new quality
quantity is the new quality
United States Uganda
hardware is the new software
hardware is the new software
what's needed is a paradigm shift in how we think about telecom networks
June 2008 – The Birth of the Mesh Potato
telephonydevelopment
toolkit
payg voice billing system for Asterisk
mesh management and mapping
Afrimesh
embedded Linux
powered by Open Source
DavidRowe
Elektra
RaelLissoos
What really drives the Village Telco.... people
trial &
error
planning
is the new
quantityqualityis the new
hardware
softw
are
cost of access
is the new
it's the
it's the
stupid!
Looking for...
✔ Volunteers✔ Partners✔ Investors
Steve SongFounderVillage Telcohttp://villagetelco.org
email: [email protected]: http://manypossibilities.netskype: steve_l_songtwitter: stevesong
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