Re: [school-discuss] First the city of Atlanta, next a country!

[Doug Loss <drloss@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

On Fri, 2007-07-06 at 18:33 -0400, Daniel Howard wrote:

> I did some googling, and found schools in India that used solar arrays 
> to power a handful of PCs and I started thinking: why not use a solar 
> array to power a satellite Internet receiver, a K12LTSP or Edubuntu LTSP 
> server, and a handful of thin clients and LCD monitors (to keep 
> electricity requirements low).
> 
> What do you guys think of this idea?  Has it been done anywhere else 
> with lessons learned?  

Well, perhaps not exactly as you talk about, but here are some links
that might be interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4304375.stm
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2007/032707-africa-starts-to-tap-solar.html
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rss&id=489
http://www.inveneo.org/
http://www.australianit.news.com.au/story/0,24897,18213042-15306,00.html
http://www.self.org/sou_africasolarschools.asp
http://www.explan.co.uk/solo/index.shtml
http://www.dailymotion.com/tag/computer/video/x2e4at_recyclo-solar-computer-africa-actif
http://www.tectonic.co.za/view.php?src=rss&id=921

I hope some of these can jumpstart your idea, so you don't have to start
from scratch.  From what I saw in South Africa earlier this year,
electricity isn't the problem so much as robust communications networks.
The local telephone system isn't reliable enough for regular school
internet connection.  Cellular modems and routers are certainly
available, but when a school's *total* yearly operating budget is about
$12,000 US, there's basically no chance of affording the equipment and
operating cost of such a connection.  I'd think the cost of satellite
internet would be even higher.

The schools I saw had networks of refurbished computers from industry
and government cast-offs, donated by NetDay South Africa.  There was a
problem with availability of sufficient numbers of systems, too, as the
demand is much greater than the currently available supply.  

I'm very happy to discuss this idea, Daniel! :)

-- 
Doug Loss              Unquestionably, there is progress.
drloss@xxxxxxxxxxx     The average American pays out twice
                       as much in taxes as he formerly got
                       in wages.
                          H. L. Mencken