Chris Kelley: Travels

Travel: Bamako, Mali

Mon, 02 Dec 2002 07:45:16 GMT

I'm heading to Bamako, Mali today - well, overnight in Paris and then on to Bamako via Abidjan. The travel is for work - two website development projects for African judicial ministers and government ministers. I'm not sure about the connectivity in Bamako; therefore, I may be posting a little less. Lately my GoogleBox (on the right) has been featuring a search for "Mali linux."

Open IT - Govt to rewrite source code in Linux

Thu, 31 Oct 2002 09:49:39 GMT

My colleague Gordon e-mailed me this post, which is from the IndiaTimes. the title of the article is misleading - it's really about the Indian goverment's interest in promoting the use of Linux.

"The Department of Information Technology has already devised a strategy to introduce Linux and open source software as a de-facto standard in academic institutions, especially in engineering colleges through course work that encourages use of such systems."

During my last trip to Belgaum (central India), I visited the local tech college and checked out a nice Linux-based computer lab that used inexpensive black boxes that gave the user GUI sessions that were hosted on a Linux server. The campus had a t-1 connection to the internet.

Radio E-mail in West Africa: The Complete Version

Tue, 15 Oct 2002 11:47:09 GMT

I love solutions like this: using 2-way radio to build a network in Guinea, West Africa, for offices over 375 miles (600 kilometers) apart!

Why the poor need technology

Mon, 07 Oct 2002 18:47:44 GMT

Since I do alot of work in Africa and India, the issue of technology access for the poor is close to my heart. This BBC article is nice - preaching to the choir here; however, I still would like to read a more comprehensive - and convincing - analysis of why the poor need technology. Clean water and decent medicine are pretty high priorities... of course these needs are not mutually exclusive - there is no reason why technology access can't facilitate some of these more important (in my view) issues. Noted in the article is how there is an incorrect perception that the digital divide is "yesterday's issue;" my experience during a recent trip to India confirms this point. there isn't even a decent backbone connection to Europe from India - that connection is completely saturated in the afternoon, rendering web access completely useless to Europe.

Thu, 24 Jan 2002 06:01:21 GMT

New Years Eve 2001: Me, on a street in Istanbul