erika.whillas.com » Digital Democracy

ohboyobama.com

Erika — Mon, 30 Mar 2009 21:25:24 +0000

“OhBoyObama! is the grassroots think tank of the Obama administration. Created by Obama supporters during the general election of 2008, this forum now serves as an online sounding board for those who have ideas or suggestions about how the administration can lead us to become “a more perfect union.”

These types of efforts combined with the Obama administration’s approached to transparent government and community contributions to legislation are great steps towards a more digital democracy

academicearth.org

Erika — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 21:07:16 +0000

“Thousands of video lectures from the world’s top scholars.”

Lecturers from MIT and Berkeley are in there, and my fellow geeks, lots of lectures on computer science. I would love to listen to this entire series:

Biblical Religion in Context, By Christine Hayes | Introduction to the Old Testament (Hebrew Bible) Lecture 2 of 3

One Laptop Per Child

Erika — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 20:09:21 +0000

I had the pleasure of hearing Matt Keller discuss the One Laptop Per Child project which is building and distributing the “$100 laptop.” Here is a talk by Nicholas Negroponte, founder of the MIT Media Laboratory, on the same topic.

The Digital Divide: Propects and Challenges for Technology Advancement in the Americas

Erika — Wed, 25 Mar 2009 19:54:02 +0000

I had the opportunity to go to a really great panel discussion hosted by the Americas Society and Council of the Americas about rolling out connectivity technology in developing nations. A few notable points from each speaker:

Evan Hansen

Editor-in-chief, Wired.com, Opening Remarks

Connectivity provided by the “broadband” model goes against the basic nature of the internet, making us stick to the phone company model, as access is meant to be created through a series of connections, not one large controlling provider
The telephone model is dead, it’s amazing that we still pay for it considering such developments as Skype
Governments should provide a base level of connectivity, allowing for ubiquitous connectivity
FON is the largest Wifi hotspot provider in the world, and is creating a network sharing system for communities
What is the business model for ubiquitous connectivity?
The phone is the new PC, with mobile technology allowing countries to leap frog previous infrastructure costs
The future is wireless and mobile

Matt Keller

Director for Europe, Middle East and Africa, One Laptop per Child

These laptops promote rational critical thinking, and when children explore programs and programming for such fields as mathematics, rather than rote learning they are “thinking about thinking”
At first encounter, a child can open one of these laptops and have them on in 8 seconds
Children in developing nations are taking these laptops home and then teaching their parents
Currently mesh networking and adhoc networks are being used
Mesh networking allows for easy student collaboration in the classroom

Tarkan Maner

President and CEO, Wyse Technologies

In developing countries not only infrastructure is required, available content (such as current market rates of crops) needs to be digitized and made available
Radios are being used in devices to receive and share connectivity

Eduardo Saravia

Marketing Director, Telefónica International Wholesale Services, USA, Inc.

We need self-sustinable and self funding models
Visionary leadership and Political will needed for developing countries to catch up