Tech Podcast: Turning One PC into a Dozen

September 21, 2009

Remember that old adage that humans use only a tiny percentage of their brains? No? Well, there you go. Anyway, it turns out that the same might be said for personal computers. A California outfit called NComputing reckons that your standard $300 to $400 computer has about 95% unused capacity. So, NComputing has developed software and hardware that partitions a single computer out into, well, 10 or 12. You can see a video here, and it might help to have a visual:

Now, some of you might point out that there's nothing incredibly revolutionary about partitioning out a computer hard drive. It's just that NComputing has done for a fairly good price, and in many parts of the world, this could make the difference between one classroom sharing a PC, and all the students getting to have a workstation. Not surprisingly, NComputing is finding that its products are popular in the developing world, and so that's why I got Stephen Dukker, the company's CEO, on the line for a podcast. He started by giving the listener a description of how the NComputing set-up works:

 

Wide Angle: Open Source Electronic Medical Records for the Developing World

August 25, 2009

What a great opportunity this week to revisit a story I did a while back. Discovery Tech is delving into electronic health records, and the focus so far seems to be on the developed world. Well, as these coders at right could tell you, electronic health records may have even more impact on health in the developing world. These guys devote their time and skills to building out an open source, electronic medical record system called OpenMRS. The project has countless contributors, but the two main forces behind it are Partners in Health, and the Regenstrief Institute. Together, they make OpenMRS available, for free, via the Internet. Anyone around the world can download it, and begin to use it in their local hospital or clinic. Those local folks can also, in the true open source ethos, modify the program, and share those modifications with the rest of the community. When I reported on them last fall, OpenMRS was going strong, with users in Haiti, Rwanda, Kenya and Uganda.

So, I offer not one, but two audio podcasts for you. The first is for those of you who want a quick fix only. Here's the radio version of my piece on OpenMRS:

And if that piqued your interest, here's a longer version of my interview with Paul Biondich from Regenstrief and Hamish Fraser of Partners in Health. It begins with Paul Biondich giving a bit more background about how OpenMRS got its start:

(Photo by Clark Boyd)

Tech Podcast: Iran is All A-Twitter, China's Green Dam Reprieve, And It's a Nice Day for a Skype Wedding

July 06, 2009

The World's Technology Podcast (WTP 249) starts off with updates on two stories we've been following closely in recent weeks, Iran and China. First, an update on the use of social media tools in the wake of post-election violence in Iran. Twitter might be enabling the flow on information into and out of the country, but can you trust what you're reading? Cyrus Farivar explores that question. Also, the Chinese delay a plan to require every PC sold in China to come loaded with a piece of Internet-filtering software called Green Dam, Youth Escort. Human rights groups have criticized the software, and so too have security experts who say it's so full of holes that hackers could turn China into one huge zombie computer network. 

Ken Banks: Cell Phones on the Frontlines

June 25, 2009

I have to say, this Wide Angle assignment was a tough one. In my nearly 6 years of covering technology now, I have to say I've come across quite a few people who have very, very cool jobs. But few people with those cool jobs have the drive, energy and determination that the man at right does. This is Ken Banks, and his online home is kiwanja.net. The tagline for the site says it all: "where technology meets anthropology, conservation and the development." Ken is as close to a true "renaissance man" that I've come across in my forays into technology across the globe. His interests seem as wide and varied as his abilities. And the fact that he's managed to somehow combine those interests and abilities into a career is, even to this jaded journalist, inspiring.

Tech Podcast: Iran Elections Online, US Cybersecurity, and Emergency ICT in Pakistan

June 05, 2009

Fighting between the Pakistani Army and Taliban forces in the Swat Valley has created nothing short of a humanitarian disaster. More than two million people have been forced to flee their homes, becoming what the aid business calls Internally Displaced Persons, or IDPs. United Nations groups such as the World Food Program have been on the ground for weeks now, trying to get aid to where it is most needed. Those groups can't get that done without modern, secure communications. And that means two-way radios, laptops, GPS, and satellite data uplinks. And that's where people like Dane Novarlic come in. He's an emergency response coordinator for the World Food Program. He and his team go into areas affected by natural disasters and wars, and help aid groups get connected to each other, and to the rest of the world.

Wide Angle: Vodafone Wireless Innovation Project

May 11, 2009

OK, so it's true that mobile telecom giant Vodafone knows a thing or two about making money. The company currently operates in more than 25 countries, and has more than 250 million customers. Many of these millions are in developing countries, where things like infectious diseases and sudden natural disasters take heavy tolls. Well, the Vodafone Americas Foundation, a non-profit arm of the company, is looking for ways to help. It just ran what it calls the Wireless Innovation Project. One hundred applicants submitted ideas that harnessed new and existing wireless technologies in pursuit of social good. The idea was to show not only great use of technology, but also a clear sense of how these products could, and would, make it to market. The three winners were recently announced at the Global Philanthropy Forum in Washington, DC.

PRI's The World Technology Podcast 234: The One with the Talking Sheep

March 09, 2009

Tech Podcast 234 begins as any good technology podcast should. Namely, with a web-surfing sheep called Shep that can't seem to reach the site he wants. Now Shep is actually Jonathan Zittrain, professor of Internet law at Harvard and co-founder of the Berkman Center for Internet and Society. For a number of years now, Jonathan's research interests have included documenting and analyzing Internet filtering globally. He helped author Access Denied: The Practice and Policy of Global Internet Filtering as part of the OpenNet Initiative (ONI). But he wanted something to complement the academically rigorous and relatively slow research done by ONI. So, he helped create something called Herdict, an effort in crowd-sourcing reports of blocked websites. "Verdict" from the "herd:" get it?

We then rove to Belgium with reporter Cyrus Farivar. No, not in search of beer or chocolate. But instead, to a Belgian University that recently ran a test of what some think might be answer to all the hanging chads that have played American elections in the past. It's called "voter-verifiable" voting, and if you know some math, you can -- all by yourself -- ensure that your vote was counted, and counted correctly. It's called Helios the brainchild of cryptography guru Ben Adida.

Moving south, we turn up in Italy to see if Italians can give up one of the their greatest addictions for Lent -- text messaging on their mobile phones. And we hear about how some Italian politicians are being given special, shall we say, dispensation in an effort to get them to sign onto a fingerprint-enabled voting system.

And we end with a check-in with Ken Banks, the man behind one of the most interesting and useful mobile phone tools I've ever written about: FrontlineSMS. Ken jokingly and lovingly calls it "software with an attention deficit disorder." He's not helping, because he just keeps adding new features. The latest one is something called FrontlineForms. If FrontlineSMS turns a mobile phone network into a mass messaging system, then FrontlineForms is designed to turn that same network into a mass data collection and storage system. It sounds like small potatoes, but in many parts of the world, it could help collect health data, agricultural data, and even human rights data. Good stuff.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Herdict.org - Web Accessibility Under Scrutiny (killerstartups.com)
• Herdict - Using the Crowd to Fight Censorship (crowdsourcing.typepad.com)
• Am I blocked or not? (crookedtimber.org)
• Join the herd! (ethanzuckerman.com)

PRI's The World: Technology Podcast 229

February 02, 2009

If you've ever wanted to be a sheriff's deputy, but not leave the comfort of your own home, then Rick Parry, the Governor of Texas, has just the thing for you. It's called BlueServo, and it's a series of webcams set up along the Texas/Mexico border. Ordinary citizens sign up, and can watch any number of the cams, which are set up at areas known for illegal drug trafficking, or spots known for illegal border crossings (see right). It's a two million dollar effort, which some are calling a successful deterrent to border crime, and others are calling a political boondoggle. On this week's Technology Podcast (WTP 229), we check in with El Paso Times reporter Brandi Grissom, who has been covering the technology and the politics behind the BlueServo project.

But wait, there's more. We also have a lengthy report on Google. We'll examine the company's past, its present, and its future. Even if you think you've heard it all before, you'll want to listen in to this report, just to get a sense of the size, scope and scale of the company's operations. Needless to say, it's a lot more than just a search engine.

And speaking of engines, or rather motors. Our next item takes a look at Better Place, a company founded by entrepreneur Shai Agassi. Better Place isn't just about making all-electric vehicles. It's about creating the infrastructure necessary to support those vehicles, including building charging stations, battery swap stations, and the software necessary to make this all as easy as possible for the user/driver. We'll have a check-in with Agassi, to find out more about his bold plan, which is not without its critics.

And from a project that relies on a steady supply of electricity, to a country where electricity is a precious commodity right now -- Nepal. Only 40 percent of the country's population has ever, ever, been connected to the electricity grid. Why do I sometimes run things like this on the technology podcast? Because too often we get caught up in the latest gadget, or gizmo, and give no thought to the fact that millions around the world go without any regular access to the juice that makes even the most basic technologies go.

You can listen to WTP 229 by clicking below, but we invite you to subscribe to the podcast, either via RSS or via iTunes. You can also get a behind the scenes look by following us on Twitter, or joining us on Facebook.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Shai Agassi Goes Canadian, eh, With Better Place in Ontario (greenprophet.com)
• Hawaii adopts the BetterPlace electric car/infrastructure (cnewmark.com)
• Better Place Denmark to plug electric cars by 2011 (news.cnet.com)

Pop!Tech '08

October 23, 2008

I'm not big on conferences, tech or otherwise. There's never a coherent story that comes out of most conferences. And if there's no coherent story, then I can't deliver the goods. And that means I don't get paid. Bummer. However, here I sit in Camden, Maine at Pop!Tech '08. Why? Well, first of all it's not that far from Boston, where I'm based. And second, there are some interesting global tech stories being featured here that are just on the cusp of being worth covering. Some of them I've already written about, either on the blog, or on the radio. At left is Ken Banks, the man behind FrontlineSMS, a system that combines cell phone text messages (SMS) and the web to do things like monitor elections, or improve health care. I bumped into Ken on the street last night. It was the first time we'd ever met in person, despite having carried on a virtual correspondence for months now. The picture of Ken was taken by Erik Hersman, one of the driving forces behind two projects that are getting alot of play here at Pop!Tech: AfriGadget and Ushahidi. Follow the links and you'll see that, for once, I was ahead of the curve.

The theme of this year's Pop!Tech conference is "Scarcity and Abundance." Ken and Erik work on projects that embody one half of that theme: scarcity. Neither one of them has much money to carry out their respective projects. At the same time, each of them have created tools that are proving useful in climates of scarcity, economic and otherwise. Just check out some of the things people are doing with FrontlineSMS, and then click on over to AfriGadget to readjust your notion of what it means to recycle.

If you dig around on the FrontlineSMS and AfriGadget websites long enough, you'll realize that the solutions they highlight (be they high-tech, low-tech or in-between) have their places not just in the developing world, but all over the world. And while I often get accused of working on tech stories that are too "worthy," in this case, I embrace the accusation.

After all, given the current economic crisis, we might ALL have to know how to build a house out of food bags. And soon. Necessity, as they say, is the mother of invention. And I guess that's why I'm here in Camden.

Even if you're not here, you can join in. Pop!Tech is being streamed live on the Interwebs.

 

(Photos courtesy of Erik Hersman and AfriGadget)

MobileActive08: Not Just for Phone Calls

October 13, 2008

The mobile phone is the top piece of technology in many parts of the world, but especially in Africa. In fact, a recent report put the number of mobile users in Africa nearing the 300 million mark. And when I say users, I'm not just talking about people making phone calls. I'm talking about text messaging, snapping photos, taking video, doing banking, and accessing the Internet -- the full spectrum of what the mobile phone is capable of these days. And if you really want to see what a cell phone can do, then a good place to look to is Africa. Johannesburg is therefore a fitting spot for a 3-day conference called MobileActive08.

The event has been co-organized by a group called MobileActive, and the Southern African NGO Network (SANGONet). The theme is "Unlocking the Potential of Mobile Technology for Social Impact." In brief:

Participants will include NGO/nonprofit practitioners using mobile phones in innovative and creative ways; mobile technologists; researchers studying the use of mobile phones; government officials; donors, and representatives from the telecommunications industry.

At MobileActive08 participants will explore how mobile phones are used to advance civil society work, assess the current state of knowledge in the use and effectiveness of mobile technology to advance social action, and investigate trends, needs and investment opportunities.

Looking down the agenda, I'm kicking myself for not booking a ticket to Joburg. The use of mobiles in the developing world is a big part of what I cover. A few things just from today really caught my eye. Check out Learning about Living, which is using mobile phones to teach young Nigerians about HIV/AIDS prevention. I'd also love to learn more about Hello Citizen!, a free text-messaging service offered to low-income communities in Brazil. The idea here is send out information on things like job postings, free health campaigns, etc. directly via SMS. And then there was a session about how mobile phones are being used in all the border areas around Burma to not only document human rights abuses inside the country, but also to coordinate activist response. This is similar to another project called Ushahidi, which I first reported on in Tech Podcast 180.

MobileActive08 runs through Wednesday.

(Photo courtesy of Erik Hersman of AfriGadget)