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My TEDx talk on the Village Telco and the Mesh Potato Project: http://villagetelco.org Event site: http://www.tedxnewtown.co.za/ More about TEDx: http://www.tedx.com
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The Village Telcoand
The Mesh Potatoa TEDx talk18 September 2009
Steve SongTelecommunications Fellow
Shuttleworth Foundation
email: [email protected]: http://manypossibilities.net
skype: steve_l_songtwitter: stevesong
Connectedness
The average Kenyan spends
more than 50% of their disposable
income on mobile services.
Communication Networks
2Innovation1Efficiencies
1.Tinkeringis the new
inventing
“Economic growth occurs whenever people take
resources and rearrange them in ways that are more
valuable. A useful metaphor for production in an economy comes from
the kitchen. To create valuable final products, we
mix inexpensive ingredients together
according to a recipe.”- Paul Romer
http://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/EconomicGrowth.html
What would happen if everyone had the freedom to tinker
and adapt their telephone networks?
2.Emergenceis the new
order
From a mechanistic metaphor...
... to a more organic, living metaphor
TelephoneInfrastructure
InternetInfrastructure
What would happen if we could deploy
telephone networks more like Internet
networks?
3.Quantityis the newquality
Google's Search Servers
Lots of inexpensive commodity technology
outperforms expensive custom
made servers.
What would happen if telephone
infrastructure were so cheap anyone could deploy it?
4. Atomsare the new
bits
The Cantenna
What would happen if we could design our own telecom infrastructure?
paradigmshift
1995Walled gardens
2009Walled gardens
expensive, locked down telecoms in Africa
++ cheap, tinkerable,
broadband technology ==
opportunity
Village telco workshop June 2008
David Rowe
Elektra
Rael Lissoos
Early 2009
2011?
Come join us!
http://villagetelco.org
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Steve SongTelecommunications FellowShuttleworth Foundation
email: [email protected]: http://manypossibilities.netskype: steve_l_songtwitter: stevesong