2006 Economic Development Award Laureate
IESC Geekcorps
| Laureate Country: United States |
| Project Country: Mali |
| Website: http://www.geekcorps.org |
| Video: 2006Videos/iesc geekcorps.mov |
Project Overview:
The IESC Geekcorps Mali Community Radio project, funded by USAID Mali's Communication for Development Special Objective, is aimed to improve access to quality information for select community radio stations in Mali. IESC Geekcorps Mali Desert improves access to quality information for community radio stations through the Desert PC system. The Desert PC provides affordable internet and information access to Mali's remote communities.
Problem Addressed:
A great divide between developed and developing nations is access to quality information. This problem is particularly acute in Mali, West Africa, a vast, multi-lingual, relatively poor, and disproportionately illiterate nation, that cannot rely on its newspapers or television to democratize information. Therefore, radios are the information dissemination medium of choice in Mali because they are relatively affordable, battery-operated, and don't require users to be literate. Radio stations themselves, however, have little or no access to internet, and therefore limit their effectiveness to present accurate and useful information. Part of the reason internet access in Mali is scarce is because computers fail in Mali's dusty climate and internet service is expensive.
Technology Solution:
Geekcorps Mali created the Desert PC, which is a sealed, fanless system based on VIA Technologies' Mini-ITX form factor. The Desert PC has a heatpipe and external fan that allows for passive and active cooling. Geekcorps Mali replaced the magnetic hard disk with a solid state disk to eliminate moving parts, and customized its own Linux distribution, Kunnafonix, to minimize the number of disk writes. The Desert PC normally consumes only 35 watts or less of power, one-sixth of the electricity required for a regular computer. To solve the problem of costly internet, the team disabled graphics and installed low band to reduce data transmission consumption to 5-to-20 percent of traditional use. That reduced the cost of internet service (which is billed per kilobyte) by 80-to-95 percent, to approximately $30 per month. Since its installation, the Desert PC has drawn considerable interest from the press and private enterprise, including a partnership with VIA Technologies.
