The Village Telcoand

The Mesh Potatoa TEDx talk18 September 2009

Steve SongTelecommunications Fellow

Shuttleworth Foundation

email: steve.song@shuttleworthfoundation.orgblog: http://manypossibilities.net

skype: steve_l_songtwitter: stevesong

Connectedness

The average Kenyan spends

more than 50% of their disposable

income on mobile services.

Communication Networks

2Innovation1Efficiencies

1.Tinkeringis the new

inventing

“Economic growth occurs whenever people take

resources and rearrange them in ways that are more

valuable. A useful metaphor for production in an economy comes from

the kitchen. To create valuable final products, we

mix inexpensive ingredients together

according to a recipe.”- Paul Romer

http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/EconomicGrowth.html

What would happen if everyone had the freedom to tinker

and adapt their telephone networks?

2.Emergenceis the new

order

From a mechanistic metaphor...

... to a more organic, living metaphor

TelephoneInfrastructure

InternetInfrastructure

What would happen if we could deploy

telephone networks more like Internet

networks?

3.Quantityis the newquality

Google's Search Servers

Lots of inexpensive commodity technology

outperforms expensive custom

made servers.

What would happen if telephone

infrastructure were so cheap anyone could deploy it?

4. Atomsare the new

bits

The Cantenna

What would happen if we could design our own telecom infrastructure?

paradigmshift

1995Walled gardens

2009Walled gardens

expensive, locked down telecoms in Africa

++ cheap, tinkerable,

broadband technology ==

opportunity

Village telco workshop June 2008

David Rowe

Elektra

Rael Lissoos

Early 2009

2011?

Come join us!

http://villagetelco.org

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Steve SongTelecommunications FellowShuttleworth Foundation

email: steve.song@shuttleworthfoundation.orgblog: http://manypossibilities.netskype: steve_l_songtwitter: stevesong