CFP: AI in ICT for Development

By
Muneeb Ali
on July 11, 2006 12:37 AM | | Comments ()
The call for papers for the "AI in ICT for Development - Workshop" is up. The workshop would be held with Twentieth International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence.

Important Dates
Abstract: September 1, 2006
Submission: September 25, 2006
Notification: October 23, 2006
Camera-ready: November 15, 2006
Workshop: January 6-8 (exact date TBD), 2007

WiMAX Rollout in Pakistan

By
Muneeb Ali
on June 9, 2006 5:37 PM | | Comments ()
Developing countries, like Pakistan, have slow-Internet speed (mostly dialup connections) and less number of users covered (as a percent of the overall population). Long-distance WiFi technologies, like Digital Gangetic Plains, are proposed as a solution to rural connectivity. Long-distance WiFi has been used in rural healthcare applications like the famous Aravind Eye Hospital. Read this HotNets 2003 paper for an overview of long-distance WiFi.

However, things may change with the arrival of WiMAX. It has the potential to simply override all previous efforts of 802.11 mesh-networking and long-distance WiFi. WiMAX can be an ideal last-mile solution specially in third world countries, where telephony connectivity is less in numbers and of low-quality. Deploying a WiMAX network in developing countries, like Pakistan, seems like a profitable venture. And now we have our first mover! Recently, Motorola has a press release saying "Pakistan to roll out the largest mobile WiMAX network yet".

Read the complete story from ZDNet here. 		    WiMAX.jpg

Next Generation Sensor Hardware

By
Muneeb Ali
on June 7, 2006 12:27 PM | | Comments ()
36sunSPOTkit550x506.jpg     2006 brings new technology jumps in hardware for sensor network nodes. Sun released their SUN SPOT system (image on the left). It uses a 32-bit processor and IEEE 802.15.4 compliant radio. See their June 2005 white paper for details.

Intel Mote 2 is also a 32-bit sensor platform using the PXA271 INTEL XScale Processor and 802.15.4 radio.

Wireless Networking in the Developing World

By
Muneeb Ali
on June 7, 2006 12:12 PM | | Comments ()
wireless_book_cover.jpg     "Wireless Networking in the Developing World", a free book released under a Creative Commons license. They also have a Wiki for case studies, useful-sites, and translations.

The Four Digital Divides

By
Muneeb Ali
on April 25, 2006 4:34 PM | | Comments ()
Some interesting bed-time readings (mainly by Kenneth Keniston):

    Digital-Divide1.gif

Dritte Mailing List

By
Muneeb Ali
on April 12, 2006 12:47 PM | | Comments ()
mailman.jpg     The Dritte mailing list has been created. You can subscribe to it.

Kindly, keep in mind that this is a closed list, which means your subscription will be held for approval. You will be notified of the list moderator's decision by email. This is also a private list, which means that the list of members is not available to non-members.

Bill Gates Mocks MIT's $100 Laptop

By
Muneeb Ali
on March 17, 2006 9:31 PM | | Comments ()
MIT-100.jpg           CNN reports on "Bill Gates mocks MIT's $100 laptop".

"If you are going to go have people share the computer, get a broadband connection and have somebody there who can help support the user, geez, get a decent computer where you can actually read the text and you're not sitting there cranking the thing while you're trying to type," Gates said.

Also, see a related story "The Lessons of the $100 Laptop". Apparently, they changed the hand crank design after Bill's comments!

Microsoft Research (MSR) Funding

By
Muneeb Ali
on March 17, 2006 4:53 AM | | Comments ()
MSRLogo.gif     One of the early good news for Dritte includes funding from MSR for one of the projects titled "Poor Man's Broadband: Peer-to-Peer Dialup Networking". It is interesting to note that this is the first time ever that MSR has funded a project in Pakistan. Here are links to some of the related press releases:

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