<nettime> Bicycle-powered Wifi - people offline revisited

[Martin Hardie <auskadi@tvcabo.co.mz>]

HI Nettimers
After a little break from Africa in the beautiful Basque lands I am back here 
facing the stark, dirty reality of Maputo. I haven't had a chance to read all 
things on the list yet and maybe I won't even try. But this just popped up on 
Fibreculture and not only did I go "wow" I was reminded of a thread late last 
year concerning people who live outside of the internet. 

(Re: <nettime> People offline [2x] From: "nettime's on/off connector" ... 
26/11/2003 18:16)

I thought this was relevant to that - outside but inside ... I have a vision 
of some post modern 3rd world Kevin Kostner's fighting evil by ensuring that 
the mail gets delivered!

Txao
Martin

----------  Forwarded Message  ----------

Subject: ::fibreculture:: Bicycle-powered Wifi
Date: Friday 30 January 2004 07:29
From: Chris Chesher <c.chesher@unsw.edu.au>
To: fibreculture@lists.myspinach.org

http://wifinetnews.com/archives/002839.html

Sunday, January 25, 2004
Cambodian hybrid motorcycle/WiFi network
In Cambodia, WiFi-equipped motorcyclists pull up to schools, download
all the email, drive to the next village, and dump off copies of
locally-destined mail, picking up that community's load and delivering
it along to the next town.

It is a digital pony express: five Motomen ride their routes five days
a week, downloading and uploading e-mail. The system, developed by a
Boston company, First Mile Solutions, uses a receiver box powered by
the motorcycle's battery. The driver need only roll slowly past the
school to download all the village's outgoing e-mail and deliver
incoming e-mail. The school's computer system and antenna are powered
by solar panels. Newly collected data is stored for the day in a
computer strapped to the back of the motorcycle. At dusk, the
motorcycles converge on the provincial capital, Ban Lung, where an
advanced school is equipped with a satellite dish, allowing a bulk
e-mail exchange with the outside world.



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University of New South Wales            Email: c.chesher@unsw.edu.au
UNSW Sydney 2052                         http://mdcm.arts.unsw.edu.au/
                                          UNSW CRICOS No: 00098G

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http://openflows.org/~auskadi/

"Mind you, I am not asking you to bear witness to what you believe false, 
which would be a sin, but to testify falsely to what you believe true - which 
is a virtuous act because it compensates for lack of proof of something 
that certainly exists or happened." Bishop Otto to Baudolino in Umberto Eco's 
Baudolino.

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