[wsfii-discuss] Economic Sustainability of Community Wireless

Fri Apr 27 12:44:39 UTC 2007

Hi Vickram, all,

I would like to comment on your point. Quite flattered that you referred
to our project in Mali (thanks!). Combining an FM radio is a great thing
to do (internet access + FM). There are some natural synergies. We found
that a wireless micro-ISP + FM were quite complementary, the FM station had:
- a tower (just be careful as 100BT Ethernet is near to the same freq as FM)
- power (though analogue equipment can spike the line)
- people who know how to do cabling and understand radio propagation,
transmitters etc.
- a need for information (this is their product so it is very, very
important)
- they tend to be well located and are often focal points of communities

In all, giving a local radio station internet access is a great way to
improve the quality of information being sent to its listeners (that is
the economic boon). Unfortunately, I have seen the case where an
internet project at a radio station can bankrupt the radio station.
Putting a WISP at an FM radio is not an economic solution as a WISP is
not likely to generate much money and is risky. Co-locating a project at
a radio stations premise is often logical, but tying it financially is
not always good for the radio.

Generally, I have found that few telecentres, nor small community
wireless ISP enterprises generate real income. That is, they tend to
require continual subsidization and often do not make it on their own.
There are a few rare examples that contrast what we have observed,
though many of the WISPs installed at FM radio stations in Mali did not
follow the best-practices that we developed. Our partners ignored those
and so few of those networks still work today.

On the OneVillage site, I do see some vocabulary which I very much agree
with, that is of a telecentre, being like a locus for promoting other
activities. That it serves as an incubator. In particular the word
"demonstrate" is in keeping with the philosophies that we have been
leaning to, such as in the phrase, "Demonstrate the economic viability
of sustainable development, promoting a variety of appropriate
sustainable technologies and approaches suitable to local conditions and
preferences." We believe that some models should be simply that, to
demonstrate something, for the purpose of testing it and showing people
(training) them. Then, you later close the doors and if local people
want that network, they will build it, as they will know how (if the
project was done right).

To get back to your mention of FM, I might simply redirect your
reference to state what is most important is that the network fulfils
some crucial need of the community, such as an FM radio is hungry for
information, or that farmers need to know market info. If the network
then fulfils a real need, than the network will be kept alive by the
community. It will then have economic value.

Cheers!

Ian

Vickram Crishna wrote:
> For some areas* it is very important to combine the
> installation of data networking with very local radio
> (FM) that costs peanuts in hardware terms to
> establish. 
>
> In fact, the technology is completely rudimentary, and
> it is in learning ways and means to use such local
> radio effectively that the sharing of experiences from
> different parts of the world has meaning. 
>
> I had much earlier suggested the inclusion of a
> workshop on this topic at winneba, but I personally
> have no access to funding to come there and share what
> I know. I believe Geekcorps had done a lot of this in
> Mali, and maybe Ian or someone else can take it up in
> Winneba. 
>
> (*I use the term because while Aaron's use of the word
> 'retro' in reference to fiscal barter systems is
> redolent of academic life coffee sessions, nonetheless
> the social impact of a cash system is what we live
> with, and can easily see its bitter fallout and aspire
> for a better way; similarly the use of 'nations' or
> 'countries' only reflects artefacts that are neither
> historical nor implicit necessities, but what we
> currently live with).
>
> --- jeff buderer <jeff at onevillagefoundation.org>
> wrote:
>
>   
>> Aaron,
>>
>> Yes you are correct when you think about it at the
>> most basic level yes
>> costs are low.
>>
>> However I guess some of us were coming from the idea
>> of creating
>> multipurpose community/telecenters to complement the
>> wireless networks.
>>
>> This includes considering ways to promote local as
>> well as global
>> sources of income to sustain those facilities.
>>
>> The idea is that we are not just talking about
>> wireless but a whole
>> suite ecosystem of ICT community development
>> services to promote
>> sustainability - cultural ecological as well as
>> economic. 
>>
>> And so that process of unleashing human potential
>> using ICT as augmenter
>> of that process in a nutshell is what oneVillage
>> Initiative
>> http://www.onevillagefoundation.org/ovf/method.html
>> aspires to achieve.
>>
>> Jeff
>>
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: wsfii-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org
>> [mailto:wsfii-discuss-bounces at lists.okfn.org] On
>> Behalf Of Aaron Kaplan
>> Sent: Thursday, April 26, 2007 7:59 AM
>> To: Discuss list on the World Summit on Free
>> Information Infrastructure
>> Subject: Re: [wsfii-discuss] Economic Sustainability
>> of Community
>> Wireless
>>
>>
>>
>> Hi people,
>>
>> sorry, all this talk about living without money is a
>> bit... well.. retro
>>
>> Anyay, without having read all of the mails of this
>> long thread  
>> before, I want to simply
>> point you to our sustanability answer for the Vienna
>> funkfeuer.at  
>> network:
>>
>> http://housing.funkfeuer.at
>>
>> It works very well, people put their servers into
>> our housing / co- 
>> location cellar , they have a benefit from it (good
>> inet connection)  
>> and the wireless community network (funkfeuer) gets
>> bandwidth.
>> It is neither a corporation / nor a company but
>> simply a way to make  
>> our freenet sustainable for years to come.
>>
>> voila!
>>
>> best regards,
>> aaron.
>>
>>
>> On Apr 25, 2007, at 2:22 PM, marco wrote:
>>
>>     
>>> hi thomas
>>>
>>>
>>> Thomas M. wrote:
>>>       
>>>> reading all these texts on business model,
>>>>         
>> economic sustainability,
>>     
>>>> ... I started thinking about what is the
>>>>         
>> economical model, in my way
>>     
>>>> of understanding it is model of society based
>>>>         
>> primarily on money, And
>>     
>>>> I thought isnit a way to have an alternative kind
>>>>         
>> of society based on
>>     
>>>> others values than money?
>>>>         
>>> I do agree so far but want to add that the living
>>>       
>> without money,
>>     
>>> virtual, paper or coins, is an ideal, a good one
>>>       
>> certainly. our  
>>     
>>> society
>>> is so deeply structured by markets (and markets
>>>       
>> base and  
>>     
>>> commodities as
>>> money is this special commodity for exchange) that
>>>       
>> we cannot just
>>     
>>> switch, even if all people would have this idea
>>>       
>> spontaniously. u have
>>     
>>> been implicating it - i just wanted to expilcate
>>>       
>> ...
>>     
>>> the frontline is set by economical power today. to
>>>       
>> work out something
>>     
>>> means to get independend from profitmaximisation
>>>       
>> and shareholders.
>>     
>>> people, currently bare of resources and means of
>>>       
>> production, have  
>>     
>>> to get
>>> economical power in a structured way, having
>>>       
>> short/longterm strategies
>>     
>>> to work at. the democratisation of economy is the
>>>       
>> core of what i  
>>     
>>> believe
>>> have to be done. and this means a fight against
>>>       
>> previleges,  
>>     
>>> exploitation
>>> and oppression at all levels of society ... good
>>>       
>> intentions are not
>>     
>>> sufficient. we need networking, strategies and
>>>       
>> structuring on that  
>>     
>>> behalf!
>>> have anybody seen the documentary "The
>>>       
>> Corporation"?
>>     
>>> http://www.thecorporation.com/
>>>
>>> grts, marco, berlin
>>>
>>> _______________________________________________
>>> wsfii-discuss mailing list
>>> wsfii-discuss at lists.okfn.org
>>>
>>>       
>> http://lists.okfn.org/mailman/listinfo/wsfii-discuss
>>     
>> ---
>> there's no place like 127.0.0.1
>>
>>
>>
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>>
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>>     
>
>
> Vickram
>
>
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