DIGITAL DIVIDE
Brazil Attacks Digital Divide With $300 Volkscomputer (WSJ)
Putting Faith in the Net, Church Plans to Wire (WSJ)
SATELLITES
Intelsat Moves to New Orbit (WP)
DIGITAL DIVIDE
BRAZIL ATTACKS DIGITAL DIVIDE WITH $300 VOLKSCOMPUTER
Issue: Digital Divide
Late last year the government of Brazil commissioned the Federal University
of Minas Gerais to design a low-budget machine as a response to worries
about worsening the country's social and economic inequalities by starving
the poor of information technology. Now, a prototype is ready and later
this year, once software glitches have been smoothed out, the government
plans to install the stripped-down machines in public schools and sell them
to low-wage earners on installment for as little as $15 a month.
Installation in public schools alone will give Internet access to seven
million children. The computers have no hard drives, floppy disks, or
Windows. Each machine, however, will have a modem, a color monitor,
speakers, a mouse and simple Internet-browsing software, and have to be
modular so users could later add a printer or disk drives. "If everything we
are planning becomes reality, and we manage to produce this at 600 reals
[US$300] per unit, we will be creating a new base of some millions of new
computer users in Brazil," said Ivan Moura Campos, the project's mastermind.
"What we did was imagine a PC and strip off the fat."
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Online), AUTHOR: Associated Press]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB983829533844067393.htm)
(requires subscription)
PUTTING FAITH IN THE NET, CHURCH PLANS TO WIRE PHILIPPINE VILLAGES
Issue: Digital Divide
In a remote Philippines island called Samar, the connection to the outside
world is a Catholic matter. The church plans to set up Internet centers in
79 dioceses across this nation of 7,000 islands, to join aid groups, private
firms and governments at the forefront of connecting rural areas in
developing countries. The unusual scope of the project illustrates how
technology can drive old religions to reshape themselves to fit a new age.
In attempting to cope with online pornography and violent games, while at
the same time trying not to exclude non-Catholics from its initiative, the
church has had to become decidedly pragmatic to meet its goals. "I really
think that the rural areas should benefit from what we do in urban areas,"
says Monsignor Pedro Quitorio. He adds that the church is in the Internet
business by default, connecting the country's rural corners simply because
nobody else is. The private sector has little interest in low-density areas
such as Samar, and any national tech agendas have been overshadowed by the
corruption scandal that recently led to President Joseph Estrada's ouster.
[SOURCE: Wall Street Journal (Online), AUTHOR: Sofia Mcfarland]
(http://interactive.wsj.com/articles/SB983804247150232898.htm)
(requires subscription)
SATELLITES
INTELSAT MOVES TO NEW ORBIT
Issue: Satellite
Born of the Communications Satellite Act of 1962, for decades Intelsat was
the only U.S. satellite link to the rest of the world. At first a show of
political and technological power by the Kennedy administration, Intelsat
soon became a critical piece of the broadcasting infrastructure. Intelsat
beamed the live pictures from Neil Armstrong's 1969 moonwalk and, starting
in 1972, from the Olympics. Today however, Intelsat no longer is the
dominant satellite player in the field - it is only a single player in the
competition for worldwide high-speed digital communications. On July 18,
Intelsat will once again reinvent itself as a private company with plans to
sell stock to the public within a year. Analysts believe the company's
history and scope position it well for the move. Intelsat has a reach of 214
countries and clients such as AT&T Corp., WorldCom Inc., France Telecom,
British Telecommunications PLC, and Cable News Network.
[SOURCE: Washington Post (E01), AUTHOR: Yuki Noguchi]
(http://washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A27528-2001Mar5.html)
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