Steve Song's TEDx talk discusses the potential for innovative telecommunications in Kenya, emphasizing the need for low-cost, adaptable infrastructure that can be deployed widely. He highlights concepts such as 'tinkering' in tech development and compares traditional telecom structures with more organic, flexible internet-like systems. The talk advocates for a shift from expensive, locked-down telecom services to affordable, user-driven solutions that promote connectivity.

1. The Village Telco
and
The Mesh Potato
a TEDx talk
18 September 2009
Steve Song
Telecommunications Fellow
Shuttleworth Foundation
email: steve.song@shuttleworthfoundation.org
blog: http://manypossibilities.net
skype: steve_l_song
twitter: stevesong

2. Connectedness

5. The average
Kenyan spends
more than 50% of
their disposable
income on mobile
services.

7. Communication Networks
12
Efficiencies Innovation

8. 1.
Tinkering
is the new
inventing

9. “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

11. What would happen
if everyone had the
freedom to tinker
and adapt their
telephone networks?

12. 2.
Emergence
is the new
order

13. From a mechanistic
metaphor...

14. ... to a more organic,
living metaphor

15. Telephone Internet
Infrastructure Infrastructure

16. What would happen
if we could deploy
telephone networks
more like Internet
networks?

17. 3.
Quantity
is the new
quality

19. Google's Search
Servers
Lots of
inexpensive
commodity
technology
outperforms
expensive custom
made servers.

20. What would happen
if telephone
infrastructure were
so cheap anyone
could deploy it?

21. 4. Atoms
are the new
bits

24. The Cantenna

25. What would happen
if we could design
our own telecom
infrastructure?

26. paradigm
shift

27. 1995
Walled
gardens

28. 2009
Walled
gardens

29. expensive, locked down
telecoms in Africa
+
cheap, tinkerable,
broadband technology
=
opportunity

30. Village telco
workshop June 2008

32. Elektra
Rael Lissoos David Rowe

36. Early 2009

37. 2011?

38. Come
join us!
http://villagetelco.org

39. Creative Commons
Spice Market by GavinBell WRT54G by pabojon
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gavinbell/35089898/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/pabojon/85742230/
BY NC ND BY NC SA
Eric Schmidt, Sergey Brin, and Larry Page by Joi Linksys WRT54G Hacking by RobotSkirts
http://www.flickr.com/photos/joi/2505321929 http://www.flickr.com/photos/hackaday/1455548596/
BY BY SA
before the Internet... by Esthr Day 107 – Tinkering by JonSaunders
http://www.flickr.com/photos/edyson/232866145/ www.flickr.com/photos/jonpsaunders/3452950823/
BY NC
network neurons 2 by gerard79
Mosquitoe http://www.sxc.hu/browse.phtml?f=download&id=104392
www.uhh.hawaii.edu/.../images/joe-mosquito.jpg BY
BY NC
With Age Comes Complexity by Ecstaticist Google Server by NiallKennedy
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BY NC SA BY NC

40. Creative Commons
Paradigm shift keyboard USB hub installed into ASUS eeepc by ©h@n
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BY NC SA BY NC ND
Internet Map hello, world by oskay
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Internet_map_1 http://www.flickr.com/photos/oskay/472097903/
024.jpg BY
BY
Eyes of Fubuki, #2 by krazydad / jbum Informal Settlement - by imraani
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BY NC SA BY NC SA
time by ŽakQ100
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zakq100/1576540418/
BY NC SA

41. Steve Song
Telecommunications Fellow
Shuttleworth Foundation
email: steve.song@shuttleworthfoundation.org
blog: http://manypossibilities.net
skype: steve_l_song
twitter: stevesong