Bridging The Divide Rural India

Blogs & Blogging, Bridging The Divide Rural India, Social Media, Voices of the World
New Round of Microgrants available for Rising Voices
11.06.07 | Dina | Permalink | 1 Comment

Application Deadline: November 30, 2007
Rising Voices, the outreach arm of Global Voices, is now accepting project proposals for the second round of microgrant funding of up to $5,000 for citizen media outreach projects. Ideal applicants will present innovative and detailed proposals to teach citizen media techniques to communities that are poorly positioned to discover and […]
Bridging The Divide Rural India, Internet And Computing
OLPC in India through Reliance Communications
10.13.07 | Dina | Permalink | 1 Comment

This is great news!
The Reliance Anil Dhirubhai Ambani Group (ADAG) has collaborated with One Laptop per Child (OLPC) foundation to bring the latter’s much-hyped $100 laptop to India to promote e-learning among poor children. Under this initiative, Reliance Communications (RCom) will provide Internet connectivity, network backbone, logistics, and support to the OLPC initiative. The […]
Blogs & Blogging, Bridging The Divide Rural India, Uncategorized, Voices of the World
Rising Voices
07.05.07 | Conversations with Dina | Permalink | Comments Off

Global Voices Online has announced the first five citizen media outreach projects to receive Rising Voices microgrants.

“The overwhelming response is a testament to the global enthusiasm for
citizen media that stretches from Southern Chile to rural Nigeria, from
a village in Mali without electricity to urban Mongolia; from an
orphanage in Ethiopia to a center for disabled HIV/AIDS patients in
Kenya. The list goes on and on, but what all of the project proposals
have in common is a desire to enable their communities to tell their
own stories, to write their own first draft of history, to document
their traditions and culture before they are washed away by the tides
of globalization.”

Congratulations to all those receiving the grant - I really believe this is a huge step for blogging outreach programmes!
Bridging The Divide Rural India, Indian Culture, Internet And Computing, Uncategorized
Wifi in the Hills
06.18.07 | Conversations with Dina | Permalink | Comments Off

The Indian Express reports that a couple of Israeli geeks have set up a low-cost wi-fi network in Dharamshala, spread over 70 acres, more than 7,000 ft above sea level.

“Thirty-eight-year old David’s technological expertise and perhaps
even nimble athleticism (courtesy his Mossad training) proved useful in
setting up the network in the mountainous terrain. Antennae were
erected in the most unlikely places (in one case the tower was painted
with the insignia ‘Om’ and served as the spire of a local temple), the
Linksys routers were re-engineered to make them power-efficient(most of
them run on solar energy) and the towers were made “monkey resistant” after it was found that the primates found perverse pleasure in
dangling from them.

Other “sabotage” bids were similarly thwarted. There was one
last year in the form of a Distributed Denial of Service Attack (DDSA)
on the website of the Tibetan Technology Centre. Says Ginguld: “It is
difficult to pinpoint who did it but it started after an extensive
series of scans which happened somewhere in China. The same URLs were
loaded to access the database repeatedly…” In a written reply to The
Sunday Express, the Chinese Embassy said it was “unaware of any such
thing”.

Schools, hospitals and other NGOs have benefited immensely
from the service, though the network’s limited bandwidth means it is
not accessible to individuals and laptop-carrying tourists. Says Dawa
Tsering of the Tibetan Medical Institute: “Our earlier connection would
break down frequently and wouldn’t be repaired for long durations. The
connectivity now is more or less uninterrupted.” While the vision of
BPO centres coming up in the region might be a bit too romantic, the
network is being used to promote trade. Dolma Kyap of Norbulingka Art
Institute says they offer Tibetan art works like Thangka painting and
statutes for sale on the Net. But what Ginguld is particularly thrilled
by is the sight of children using the network. “Computer labs in Indian
schools have lots of computers but no internet connection, which is
akin to having a sleek car without petrol. Today when I see
10-year-olds logging on to sites like hi5, chatting with people, I
realise we are on the right path,” he says.”

Cool!