What technologies are bringing internet and computers to developing nations

[Nava]

@Fake_Tales_of_San_Francisco

What, really? Could I have a cite for that?

I’ve never been anywhere in the UK that didn’t have access to DSL/ADSL broadband. And the lowest broadband speed my ISP does in the UK is 10mb/s.

Wanna come visit? My speed here is noticeably slow. I’m right outside Edinburgh.

Nominal speeds aren’t the same as actual speeds. The slowest speed Telefonica sells is 10mbps, but the speed they give in my village is 2mbps. BT, same.

[Alex_Dubinsky]

@Nava

One of the ways internet access is being sold in many european countries is through “dongles,” small USB “modems” which use the cell phone network instead of the cabled network. Coverage is as wide as the ISP’s phone network; speed is worse than for fiberoptic - but much of the UK, Italy or Spain is still getting used to DSL; depending on your location, slowpoke DSL at that. Considering how much it would cost to lay fiberoptic down throughout the country and how much easier it is to get cellphone coverage, it’s perfectly possible that those countries will never get fully “fibered.” The price for my Spanish monthly dongle subscription is similar to what I’d pay for high speed DSL - which is unavailable where I live.

These aren’t 3rd world countries, but the “dongle” technology is perfectly transferable to one.

Here in the US, data costs something like $1 per MB (pre-paid). At that price, I can only see wealthy people using it. That same dollar can buy you an hour or two of internet cafe time. But maybe it is much cheaper in developing countries? (It is obviously overpriced here.) Or maybe you mean that it’s a good fall-back for Westerns who visit the poorer parts of developing countries?
I’m sorry about being wide off the mark in claiming OLPC does not run Windows. (Although it’s still sort of pathetic in regard to performance for Windows/modern Linux compared to a similarly-priced netbook.) That said, I still take great issue with the dumbed-down Sugar UI. Only adults, who have difficulty learning computers themselves, think that kids deserve an even simpler experience. Not only do kids learn computers faster than adults (as much as it hurts adults’ egos), but it is the act of figuring out a complex tool (but still an ‘intuitive’, accessible tool) that grows the mind. It’s a lot like how we don’t learn math to use it but to become smarter and to make it easier to learn technical skills later in life.

[MrDibble]

@Alex_Dubinsky

Here in the US, data costs something like $1 per MB (pre-paid).

WTF? I pay just over $6 per GIG, prepaid, and I feel I’m getting screwed somehow, as there are others getting $3/GB here.

[MrDibble]

@Alex_Dubinsky

I’m sorry about being wide off the mark in claiming OLPC does not run Windows. (Although it’s still sort of pathetic in regard to performance for Windows/modern Linux compared to a similarly-priced netbook.) That said, I still take great issue with the dumbed-down Sugar UI. Only adults, who have difficulty learning computers themselves, think that kids deserve an even simpler experience. Not only do kids learn computers faster than adults (as much as it hurts adults’ egos), but it is the act of figuring out a complex tool (but still an ‘intuitive’, accessible tool) that grows the mind. It’s a lot like how we don’t learn math to use it but to become smarter and to make it easier to learn technical skills later in life.

The OLPC, and Sugar, are based on the same education theories as Lego Mindstorms. Now, you may not agree with them, but the people behind both OLPC and the theory are not just lightweights in either the education or computer fields. So I think until you substantiate your doubts with some sort of evidence, I’ll continue to trust the MIT computer education expert as to what’s a good computer pedagogy, thanks.