More Tech Salons About electrical power
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I am Anna Shaw and I recently attended a Tech Salon that really got me thinking. We spent a morning discussing, What Are the Technology Challenges in Congo Brazzaville? The conversation started out with a relatively typical examination of the challenges the ICT4D community knows all too well. The cost of mobile phones is too…
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It was not long ago that electrical power was the largest barrier to using ICTs in rural areas. Back when desktop computers had big CRT screens, each computer needed 150-200 watts of power. Just turning on a computer required a costly generator and an inverter.
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Electrical power is key for an ICT deployment – and many other basic services as well. Yet it is often the main barrier to deployment because often it simply doesn’t exist in rural and underserved areas, or “off-grid” locations. If electrical systems do exist, they can be expensive, intermittent, and unreliable. In short, there is…
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Last week I had the privilege to participate in the Humanitarian Technology ChallengeTechnology Partnership with the Vodafone Foundation.
Mark Summer of InveneoOver two days, IEEE members were encouraged to develop and implement technological responses to three humanitarian challenges in developing countries:
- Reliable Electricity: Availability of power for electronic devices
- Data Connectivity of Rural District Health Offices: Capability of exchanging data among remote field offices and central health facilities
- Patient ID Tied to Health Records: Maintain consistent patient records, including when patients visit different clinics and when they relocate
Working with them were representatives of 10 humanitarian organizations, and the brainstorming sessions where technology and development experts came together to devise solutions made the conference feel like a large-scale Technology Salon.