Cool Tools For The Third World

Villagewide Wi-Fi
Life in four African villages was transformed after San Franciscans, Bob Marsh, Mark Summer and Kristin Peterson, installed a wi-fi system. “The farmers learned on the Internet how to prevent diseases, control pests and increase plantain production,” says Summer to reach the village of Nyarukamba in western Uganda, visitors have to clamber up a thin, almost vertical dirt track. It’s not the kind of place you would expect to find subsistence farmers surfing the Web with wi-fi computers or making voip (voice over Internet protocol) phone calls. But that’s exactly what the village’s 800 or so inhabitants have been doing — thanks to a wireless, solar-powered communications system installed in the Ruwenzori mountains by Inveneo, a San Francisco nonprofit.

Inveneo was launched in 2004 by three Silicon Valley veterans — Mark Summer, 36; Kristin Peterson, 45; and Bob Marsh, 59 — who share a passion for high tech and an interest in the developing world. They had done enough volunteer work overseas to see how wireless communications might improve and save lives — through phone calls to health clinics, fast reporting of natural disasters, support for trading co-ops and better educational opportunities.

So they designed a solar-powered Internet network that is inexpensive, easy to install and nearly maintenance free. At its heart is a regional hub from which wireless relay stations — some bolted to trees — fan out for up to four miles and connect a network of PCs. Total cost, including solar panels and relay stations: $1,995.

One year later, Nyarukamba is already reaping the benefits. Village income is rising, thanks to improved access to market prices for crops and co-ops formed with other villages. Buying power has increased, health outcomes are improving, and more people are learning to read.

Since then, Inveneo has deployed systems to schools and colleges in Uganda and Ghana, and hopes to expand over the coming months to Swaziland, Senegal and the Philippines. And just in case the sun doesn’t shine, Inveneo has worked out how to power up the system with a retrofitted bicycle. — By AMANDA BOWER

A Computer For Every Child
O.K., so his big brother John is director of national intelligence and delivers daily briefings to the President. But Nicholas Negroponte, 62, is trying to reach a far more challenging audience: the world’s poorest children. The co-founder of M.I.T.’s Media Lab and former Wired columnist took a leave from academia last year to build a computer — a laptop so cheap that developing countries could buy them by the millions to help their kids leapfrog into the 21st century.

It’s an ambitious project, but the charismatic Negroponte has a persuasive pitch and a knack for fund raising. With the support of the U.N., his so-called $100 laptop quickly found backing from, among others, Google, Red Hat, Advanced Micro Devices and Nortel. His team is still making prototypes, but a finished motherboard was delivered in April. A wind-up crank has been replaced by a new foot pedal to supply power in areas lacking electricity.

“The actual decision to make millions of laptops will happen sometime in December or January,” he says, predicting that finished machines could be ready by next spring. He hopes to start in seven countries — Nigeria, India, China, Thailand, Brazil, Argentina and Egypt — with a combined total of at least 5 million orders. For the first year or so, however, the $100 laptop will probably cost $140.

Negroponte has his skeptics (including Bill Gates) but is undismayed. “The cynics can be as cynica as they want,” he says. “If this makes the industry address low-power, low-cost laptops that can be used in very remote places, that’s perfect.”

And has big brother John opened any doors? “Nepotism does help,” he says, chuckling, and adds that he has met with the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development. “But we’re trying to make this less of an American project and more of a global one.” — By JEFFREY RESSNER

Orbiting Over Nigeria
What does launching satellites have to do with lifting Africans out of poverty? Just ask Robert Boroffice. He’s the head of the space agency of Nigeria — yes, Nigeria — and he is convinced that space programs can succeed where earthbound projects have failed. Though blessed with vast oil reserves, Africa’s most populous nation has been crippled by years of military rule and mismanagement. According to the World Bank, 70% of Nigerians live on less than $1 a day.

But three years ago, Nigeria became only the second country in sub-Saharan Africa (after South Africa) to launch its own satellite. NigeriaSat-1 took off from Russia but is controlled by Nigerian scientists and engineers from a ground station in Abuja. The satellite, which was built in Britain, is part of a network called the Disaster Monitoring Constellation. Its job includes keeping an orbiting eye on Nigeria’s vanishing forest resources and often vandalized oil pipelines. It also watches for impending disasters such as fires and floods and shares the information with a consortium that includes Algeria, China, Thailand, Turkey, Vietnam and Britain.

That’s only the start of Boroffice’s ambitious plans. A communications satellite designed to give even remote villagers access to the Internet is scheduled to be launched next year, and a second observation satellite is planned for 2009. To make the space program self-sustaining, Nigeria wants to sell excess bandwidth to other nations; a United Arab Emiratesbased company reportedly has already signed a $250 million deal. “I’m very passionate about space technology, says Boroffice, 57, a former biology professor. “I see what it has done in India, and I want to do the same in Nigeria.” He is already working on plans for the first all-African satellite, with a launch window around 2025. — By SIMON ROBINSON with Gilbert da Costa/Abuja

The New Electric Lamp
Sitting in a brightly lit classroom at the Stanford Business School three years ago, Matt Scott got to wondering what it would take to light the rest of the world. Artificial lighting may not seem a necessity like food or shelter, but 1.6 billion people around the globe lack access to electricity. Inspired by the Light Up the World Foundation, which promotes the use of energy-efficient light-emitting diodes (LEDs), Scott, now 31, traveled to India and in 2004 partnered with Amit Chugh to devise a market strategy for replacing the kerosene lamp.

The result is the Mightylight, a waterproof, shockproof, LED lamp that can be used as a flashlight, reading lamp or ceiling fixture. Solar powered, capable of holding an eight-hour charge and designed to last 100,000 hours, the Mightylight is safer and more cost effective than kerosene lamps. Last November the pair began selling Mightylights for $45 each. The LED technology is so advanced, says Chugh, that “anyone in New York or Delhi would love one of these.” Chugh, 39, hopes to release a $30 model soon and even cheaper lights thereafter. With help from foundations, they’ve sold and distributed more than 4,000 Mightylights for earthquake relief in Pakistan and to the poor in Afghanistan and Guatemala. In India, fishermen and weavers are already using the lights to extend their work hours. Says Scott: “The exciting thing — more than just the light itself — is the model of using a sustainable approach to effect social change.” — By JEREMY CAPLAN