Rethinking the term “Solar Systems”
Jun 15, 2009 ICT4D, Solar, Technology
I had a really interesting discussion at work with my boss Vijay Modi and some colleagues about the real costs of an off-grid “solar” systems. The perception is often that solar panels make up the bulk of the cost of an off-grid system. The reality, however, with any time horizon over three years is that the cost of batteries will be the biggest determining factor of cost over time. It is for this reason, that Mark Hankin’s argues that off-grid system should not be called “solar systems” but rather battery-based systems.
If you consider that most off-grid systems in Africa fail after three years, this term is unfortunately even more appropriate.
MVP ICT “Village Network” Talk
May 14, 2009 Connectivity, ICT4D, MVP, Talk, Uganda, Wifi
Matt Berg - Millennium Villages Student Research Showcase from Earth Institute on Vimeo.
Here is a brief talk I gave at a recent research showcase at Columbia. In it I discuss how we brought Internet connectivity to Ruhiira our rural community in Uganda using a large wifi network that we put in place with the help of Inveneo. The network is currently being used to connect about 5 clinics, 3 schools and several other community institutions to the nearest Internet connection 35KM away. As a local intranet, the network is adding tremendous value by enabling free VOIP calls between sites and is also being used by the clinics to facilitate a central medical records system.
In the future, I will try and provide a much more detailed overview of this project but for now it provides a glance at how wifi can be used to bring connectivity when commercial options are not currently available.
LED Lights and 12V Cell Phone Charging Mali
Apr 28, 2009 Africa, ICT4D, Mali, Mobile, Technology
Inspired by Jan Chipcase, I put together the following photo montage covering the ever increasing number of cheap Chinese LED lights that are transforming the way people access lighting. There are a lot of amazing NGOs doing work to address the issue of rural household lighting but I think they are at best a fill-gap to an existing market gap. The mass market solution (LED + small rechargeable battery + 1 W solar panel) that will really make a difference will be Chinese and at a price that will encourage extremely fast adoption rates. This is evident from the introduction of LED flashlights in Mali that completely took over the market in less then six months.
I also document the common way most cell phone charging is done in an off-grid environment. While it may not the be the most power efficient or battery safe method it works and is both cheap to the supplier and consumer. Used car batteries you can see are the “power lines” in a lot of African villages that form the basis of distributed power distribution.
12V Mali Photo Montage (sorry for the large file size 10.4MB)
Leveraging Internet with Radio
Feb 25, 2009 Africa, Case Study, Connectivity, Geekcorps, ICT, ICT4D, Mali
Within ICT4D practice, there seems to be little debate, at least when you look at implementation funding, that bringing Internet to rural areas in places like Africa that had been previously “cut off” is good idea and potentially transformative. Until recently more recently, “bringing the Internet” has meant usually plunking down a VSAT, setting up a small computer lab and hoping someday that one day it will become sustainable.
Despite being by and large, unsustainable, such projects are still difficult and are important from a symbolic standpoint and do serve as a temporary bridge in some ways for the digital divide. The problem that is even harder to address is accessibility. How many people actually get to access the Internet on the computers and when then they do are they using it in a way that’s socially beneficial?
Eventually low cost smart phones that are able to access the Internet in an acceptable way (think <$100 Chinese iPhone), will represent a paradigm shift in the way Africans connect to the Internet. Until then, a community radio is probably the best way to make the information on the Internet accessible to rural communities.
The following is a story about a project in I worked on during my time at Geekcorps Mali which helps illustrate this point.
A Weekly Connection to the Outside World
Aboubacrine Touré admits to having become somewhat of a local celebrity in Bourem Inaly, a remote community about 30 kilometers west of Tombouctou on the Niger river in northern Mali. While he is the director of the local community radio station, Radio Beeray (Respect), he is best known throughout the region as the host of Journal of Journals, a weekly radio news program that airs every Sunday night.
Using an IESC Geekcorps Desert PC equipped with an R-BGAN Satellite Modem, Aboubacrine connects to the Internet in search of local and regional news that would be of interest to his listening audience. Over the span of the week, he carefully summarizes the news which he presents in the local language Songhai during his hour-long broadcast.
Radio Beeray’s ability to connect to the Internet is a direct result of USAID Mali’s Communication for Development objective whose aim is “to make it easier for Malians to get access to information that will enable them to improve the quality of their lives.” In partnership with USAID Mali, IESC Geekcorps set out to develop an affordable solution for providing Internet access to its partner radio stations at sites across the remote desert region of northern Mali. Based on VIA components, Geekcorps designed the Desert PC to withstand the extreme heat and dust of a harsh desert environment. Additionally, its power draw is less then a 60W light bulb, which makes the PC ideal for an environment where solar is the primary source of energy. An R-GBAN system along with bandwidth limiting software can be paired with the Desert PC to provide an affordable medium for a community to connect to the outside world.
Since Aboubacrine started the program in early 2006, its reception from the local community has been very positive. He knows of many people who even bought radios for the first time so their families could tune into his program and be connected to the outside world through the news.
When a technical difficulty caused the radio station’s Internet connection to be down temporarily, he was amazed by the number of people who wrote in to complain.
Initially, Journal of Journals was met with a lot of skepticism. Since most people in his remote village had never heard of the Internet, he was often accused of, “making the news up!” Aboubacrine explains. This was especially the case earlier this year when Radio Beeray broke the news that Tuareg rebels had attacked the northern outpost of Kidal. Most people simply did not believe that such an attack was possible and were particularly doubtful since no one from neighboring Timbuktu could corroborate the report. The next day when the Malian national press picked up the story, Radio Beeray skeptics became dedicated listeners.
While he primarily uses the Internet to email and get current news (especially stories relating to tensions in the north and the Ivory Coast civil war), Aboubacrine often has requests to look up things like telephone country codes or weather forecasts. Additionally, the encyclopedia that came installed with the computer has been very popular with local students. Mr. Touré, who also works as a teacher at the local school, admits that access to the Internet has even had a positive effect on his lesson planning. While it will likely be years before the average Malian has access to the web, Radio Beeray shows the Internet remains a powerful tool for helping to bridge the information gap.
There are some key take aways from this project that are important to share. From a technical standpoint, it was a tremendous success. Using a lot of clever engineering, we were able to limit the radio’s bandwidth consumption to about 200K/day or $6 (1MB) a week, which the Radio Director was able to use to connect his community to the outside world - certainly a lot of “bang-for-the-byte”. Despite getting the total Internet cost down to about $30-40 a month (vs. $300+ for VSAT), an amount the Radio could probably sustain, Radio Beeray currently has no Internet. The reason, which is almost always the case, once funding ends payments stop to the satellite provider. We worked so hard to engineer a solution that was affordable that we overlooked the fact that once Geekcorps was gone they would have no way of paying. This is too often the case and in many cases it is unavoidable.
The good news is that increasingly you are able to pay for data via a prepaid scratch card, the same you use to fill up your cell. 2G/3G in Africa is coming and when it gets to Tomboctou, Radio Beeray will be able to stay online.
The Geekcorps CanTV
Nov 10, 2006 Geekcorps, ICT4D, Mali, Technology
Geekcorps CanTV Project
In November, 2006 Geekcorps did a CanTV pilot in Bourem Inaly, a small village on the Niger river about 35KM from Tombouctou in northern Mali. Our hope was to pilot a new technology we had developed to see if it could be used to generate revenue for the community radio station we had been working with there.
The following is from an earlier post, I had posted originally on the Geekcorps website summarizing the project.
In the village of Bourem Inaly, Mali there are over 120 television sets powered by 12-volt car batteries, but there is almost nothing to watch. With its CanTV project, Geekcorps has helped the local radio station stream video content to the local community over WiFi. The radio station, which rents these units out, benefits from a new monthly revenue stream while the villagers benefit with an improved source of news and entertainment.
One goal of the CanTV project is to make it possible to build the CanTV receivers or TV cantennas (antennas built with cans) using locally using locally available parts, with the exception of the $25 audio/video receiver currently imported from Canada. Also, the TV cantennas have been designed so that a local technician can quickly learn how to install them without special tools. The radio station already has access to television broadcasts via satellite, and a TV over WiFi transmitter installed in August 2005 by Moussa Keita of Geekcorps.
Recently, Geekcorps successfully installed CanTV’s in fifteen different households (213 people) across Bourem Inaly. As a result, the radio station earns roughly $45 dollars a month or (22,500 CFA) on the rentals of the CanTV’s which goes a long way in helping to ensure the radio’s own financial sustainability. The radio station’s goal now is to reinvest its profits to purchase an additional CanTV each month so more of the local community can benefit from their new service offering.
The following is a video of the making of the Geekcorps CanTV. I heard later it was shown at TED Africa.
Making of a Geekcorps CanTV
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