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The Village Telco and The Mesh Potato ...
Connectedness
The average Kenyan spends more than 50% of their disposable income on mobile services.
Communication Networks 12 Efficiencies Innovation
1. Tinkering is the new inventing
“Economic growth occurs whenever people take resources and rearrange them in ways that are more valuable. A u...
What would happen if everyone had the freedom to tinker and adapt their telephone networks?
2. Emergence is the new order
From a mechanistic metaphor...
... to a more organic, living metaphor
Telephone Internet Infrastructure Infrastructure
What would happen if we could deploy telephone networks more like Internet networks?
3. Quantity is the new quality
Google's Search Servers Lots of inexpensive commodity technology outperforms expensive custom mad...
What would happen if telephone infrastructure were so cheap anyone could deploy it?
4. Atoms are the new bits
The Cantenna
What would happen if we could design our own telecom infrastructure?
paradigm shift
1995 Walled gardens
2009 Walled gardens
expensive, locked down telecoms in Africa + cheap, tinkerable, broadband technology = opportu...
Village telco workshop June 2008
Elektra Rael Lissoos David Rowe
Early 2009
2011?
Come join us! http://villagetelco.org
Creative Commons Spice Market by GavinBell WRT54G by pabojon http://www.flickr.com/photos/g...
Creative Commons Paradigm shift keyboard USB hub installed into ASUS eeepc by ©h@n http:...
Steve Song Telecommunications Fellow Shuttleworth Foundation email: steve.song@shuttleworthfoundation.org blog: http:/...
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
Village Telco - TEDx Newtown
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Village Telco - TEDx Newtown

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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

Published in: Technology, Travel
License: CC Attribution-ShareAlike License
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Village Telco - TEDx Newtown

  1. 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. 2. Connectedness
  3. 3. The average Kenyan spends more than 50% of their disposable income on mobile services.
  4. 4. Communication Networks 12 Efficiencies Innovation
  5. 5. 1. Tinkering is the new inventing
  6. 6. “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
  7. 7. What would happen if everyone had the freedom to tinker and adapt their telephone networks?
  8. 8. 2. Emergence is the new order
  9. 9. From a mechanistic metaphor...
  10. 10. ... to a more organic, living metaphor
  11. 11. Telephone Internet Infrastructure Infrastructure
  12. 12. What would happen if we could deploy telephone networks more like Internet networks?
  13. 13. 3. Quantity is the new quality
  14. 14. Google's Search Servers Lots of inexpensive commodity technology outperforms expensive custom made servers.
  15. 15. What would happen if telephone infrastructure were so cheap anyone could deploy it?
  16. 16. 4. Atoms are the new bits
  17. 17. The Cantenna
  18. 18. What would happen if we could design our own telecom infrastructure?
  19. 19. paradigm shift
  20. 20. 1995 Walled gardens
  21. 21. 2009 Walled gardens
  22. 22. expensive, locked down telecoms in Africa + cheap, tinkerable, broadband technology = opportunity
  23. 23. Village telco workshop June 2008
  24. 24. Elektra Rael Lissoos David Rowe
  25. 25. Early 2009
  26. 26. 2011?
  27. 27. Come join us! http://villagetelco.org
  28. 28. 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 http://www.flickr.com/photos/ecstaticist/2969032490/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/niallkennedy/102932643 BY NC SA BY NC
  29. 29. Creative Commons Paradigm shift keyboard USB hub installed into ASUS eeepc by ©h@n http://www.flickr.com/photos/askpang/327577395/ http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffreychan/2736451852/ 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 http://www.flickr.com/photos/krazydad/39759836/ flickr.com/photos/la_grasse_matinee/2446701046 BY NC SA BY NC SA time by ŽakQ100 http://www.flickr.com/photos/zakq100/1576540418/ BY NC SA
  30. 30. Steve Song Telecommunications Fellow Shuttleworth Foundation email: steve.song@shuttleworthfoundation.org blog: http://manypossibilities.net skype: steve_l_song twitter: stevesong

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