[wsfii-discuss] What content might help one set up a wi-fi network?

Sat Aug 25 18:43:05 UTC 2007

On Sat, 25 Aug 2007 01:15:46 +0300, "Andrius Kulikauskas" <ms at ms.lt>
said:
> I want to ask, What content might we put on flash drives and distribute 
> in Africa that would be useful for people who want to try to set up 
> their wi-fi network?  In particular, we're working with Samwel Kongere 
> in rural Kenya to build a local wi-fi network there.  Andrius 
> Kulikauskas, ms at ms.lt
> 
> 
Simple question many answers..
Like the fairy tail said: If you don't know where you're going any
direction will do.
There is so much software etc. free on the Internet that you have to go
up to the people where you're sending it.
Ask them what they need. And remember that there is a huge gap between
those who have access to the Internet and to those who don't.

Gerard


> ---------------------------------------
> 
> I have purchased a dozen USB flash drives to send to our participants in 
> Africa (and potentially to other places with marginal Internet access, 
> please speak up!)  My purpose is to understand how much they might be 
> sold for and what they might be used for.  Here in Lithuania I can buy 
> 256 MB flash drives for $9 and 512 MB flashdrives for $11.  And we have 
> an opportunity to buy 300 flash drives for about $5 each directly from 
> Shenzhen, China.  Whereas in many places in Africa the cheapest flash 
> drives sell for $30.  So we want to practice selling them and learn more 
> about the market and the capability of our network.  This is also a step 
> towards organizing the manufacture of a device for displaying the 
> contents of a flash drive and editing them with a standard keyboard.
> 
> Furthermore, this is an opportunity to publish content which might be 
> shared in Africa.  What do we suggest we put on these flash drives?  
> They should include a combination of our own concerns and those of our 
> African participants.   Here is what we have considered so far:
> http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?FlashDriveContent
> Thank you to Sasha Mrkailo for helping!
> 
> I will make a CD-ROM and distribute that and portions can be put on the 
> flash drives.
> 
> We will certainly have available the activity of our lab:
> - Our email archive, about 20,000 letters and 200 MB.
> - Our wiki, http://www.worknets.org, about 3,500 pages and 100 MB.
> - Our chat transcripts, http://www.worknets.org/archive/, less than 3 MB
> - Our food stories http://www.myfoodstory.info 5 MB text plus photos
> - Our videos, or at least some of them!
> 
> Note that the materials need to be in the Public Domain or encourage 
> sharing.  Among the copyleft licenses, for the purpose of distributing 
> content, the GNU FDL license (used by Wikipedia) and the Creative 
> Commons "attribution" licenses are fine.  The Creative Commons 
> "noncommercial" and "share alike" licenses are not.  Unfortunately, we 
> can't use many good sites because of copyright restrictions.
> 
> Our African participants Samwel Kongere, Fred Kayiwa, Helen Mahoo, 
> Josephat Ndibalema, David Mutua, Wendi Losha Bernadette, William Wambura 
> have endeavors that I think reflect their interests:
> http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?Endeavors
> 
> * Health: AIDS, Malaria, Community clinic
> * ICT: Assembling computers, Internet, InternetCafe, Video, Websites,
> WiFi
> * Economics:  Aid, BottomUp economy
> * Rightful living: Brickmaking, KnowledgeWork, Shoes, Crafts
> * Inclusion: Deaf, Orphans, Refugees, Street Children, Women, East 
> Africa regional network
> * Education: Literacy, ICT for Education
> * Agriculture: Integrative Farming, Poultry, Beekeeping, Urban
> Agriculture
> * RuralUrban: Kibera, Neighborhoods
> * Local languages: Kiswahili
> * Values: Motivation, Selfishness, Sports
> 
> We should also share materials that reflect our own interests including:
> * Appropriate technology
> * Community currency
> * Global villages
> * Architecture
> * Renewable energy
> * Flu pandemic
> * Solaroof
> * EcoBnB
> * Nonviolence
> * Loving God
> This will help us engage each other.
> 
> Below are some resources that we have so far.  Please add your ideas!  I 
> especially would like to include more works on:
> * Health
> * Appropriate technology
> * Textbooks for children
> * Local languages
> * Agriculture
> * Computer tutorials for hardware (assembling computers, setting up 
> wifi) and software (using computers, making websites, simple programming)
> 
> Thank you!  I will send out the flash drives some time next week, and 
> then we'll keep adding to our collection.  If you know of any 
> collections so far that's a great help.  I was a bit surprised that One 
> Laptop Per Child doesn't have any collection yet, they are just 
> organizing themselves, I think.
> 
> Andrius
> 
> Andrius Kulikauskas
> Minciu Sodas
> http://www.ms.lt
> ms at ms.lt
> +370 699 30003
> Vilnius, Lithuania
> 
> http://www.worknets.org/wiki.cgi?FlashDriveContent
> 
>     *  Wikipedia or parts of it
>     * Bible (Public Domain), New Testament (Luo), New Testament
>     (Kiswahili)
>     * Quran in Arabic, English (which text?)
>     * Other scriptures, classics
>     * http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
> 
> also there is a CD for download with the most recommended books, lots of 
> classics there. Textbooks
> 
>     * Mit Open Course Ware
>           o Democratization in Asia, Africa and Latin America, Fall 2001
>           o 21A.460J / SP.620J Medicine, Religion and Politics in Africa 
> and the African Diaspora, Spring 2005
>           o AIDS and Poverty in Africa, Spring 2005
>           o Information and Communication Technology in Africa, Spring
>           2006
>           o 21M.293 Music of Africa, Fall 2005
>           o 12.453 Crosby Lectures in Geology: History of Africa, Fall
>           2005
> 
> Languages
> 
> Kiswahili
> 
> Lou
> 
> Luganda
> 
> MinciuSodas Archives
> 
>     * Letters - at least 178 MB for about 15000 letters, per day about 
> 20 letters =
>     * Wiki - 267 MB for 3500 pages (including all changes) for 3500 
> pages, per day about
>     * Chat transcripts -
>     * Food stories - 2000 stories
> 
> Programming Manuals
> 
>     * PHP
>     * Perl
> 
> Pictures
> 
> Sound
> 
>     * Public Domain Audio Books
>           o The Federalist Papers
>     * Interviews
>     * Gospels spoken in various languages
> 
> Video
> 
>  From SamwelKongere, KennedyOwino, ...
> 
> Software
> 
>     * Gimp - (possible moneymaker)
>     * other FOSS software
> 
> 
> 
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