MIT Media Lab working to bring
Internet to rural India
By Steve Leblanc, Associated Press, 7/14/2001 13:32
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) The MIT Media Lab is famed for
exploring technology's esoteric outer edge, from experiments
with ''electronic ink'' to the world's first automatic baseball
strike-zone detection system.
Now the lab is embarking on its most ambitious real-world
project ever: bringing the Internet to rural India.
The challenges are staggering.
Despite an academic infrastructure and strong technological
economy, India is home to a third of the world's poor, many of
whom live in the 300,000 villages without telephones.
It's there that the Media Lab and Indian government hope to
spark a technological revolution and create a populist,
self-sustaining economy using wireless devices, ''ultra-low
cost'' computers, local resourcefulness and even soap operas.
The effort promises to bring the world's newest technology to
one of its oldest cultures, opening the door for online
matrimonial services, virtual business links and e-mail contact
between far-flung family members.
For just $1,000, the new collaborative, known as Media
Laboratory Asia, can hook up a rural Indian village through a
shared Internet connection.
The government already has kicked in $12 million for the first
year and anticipates spending about $200 million over the next
decade on the project.
The project, still in its infancy, has begun deploying the
low-cost technology in about 20 villages and hopes to connect
another 1,000 villages in the next 18 months, officials said.
''In less than a year, the lab is being set up and we are
working feverishly on the whole thing,'' said Ramakrishnan
Srinivasan, director of the Ministry of Information Technology's
Education and Research Division in New Delhi.
''We find a lot of synergy between (MIT's) commitment to high
technology and our interest in using technology for the benefit
for the common people,'' he said. ''We are not underestimating
the challenge before us, but we think we are going to make a
difference.''
The Media Lab, stacked floor to ceiling with computer gadgets
and buzzing with the hum of caffeine-fueled students, may
seem far removed from the realm of social justice and
economic equity.
Not so, according to Mike Best, a research scientist who is
splitting his time between the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology in Cambridge and Media Laboratory Asia in India.
Despite its cutting edge reputation, one of the missions of the
Media Lab is helping technology reach the lives of ordinary
people.
Even an idea like electronic ink an innovation that could
transform a computer screen into a paper-like product is
envisioned as a way to make new technology
super-inexpensive, simple and available to all.
''That's the entire point here, that real out-of-the-box,
cutting-edge thinking needs to be applied to technology for
these real social issues like poverty, health care and
education,'' Best said. ''That is core to our mission.''
In India, that means trying to integrate the innovations into the
existing culture and economy.
To connect a village to the Internet, Best envisions the
creation of ''telekiosks'' where local residents could rent time
on computers to send e-mail or surf the Net.
The model is based in part on the popularity of cable television
in India, where local entrepreneurs install a satellite dish near
a village, then run wires to homes and collect monthly
payments, Best said.
The model also echoes rudimentary telephone service in some
villages, where entrepreneurs armed with a single line and a
stopwatch offer phone access to local residents.
To help raise awareness among Indians about the possibilities
of the Internet, the Media Lab is also talking to soap opera
producers in ''Bollywood,'' the nickname for Bombay, India, the
world's busiest film production center.
In a country where more people have access to televisions
than phones, the lab hopes to co-produce a soap opera
highlighting how ordinary Indians can benefit from new
technology, Best said.
The goal is help create a local market for low-cost computer
products and services within India, which already has a
booming export market.
Srinivasan compares the potential impact of Media Laboratory
Asia to the creation the Indian Institutes of Technology during
the 1950-60s. The institutes helped sustain the country's
technological boom of the past decade.
While past infrastructure changes have been spearheaded by
the government, Srinivasan sees the Media Laboratory Asia as
a change, a collaboration between academia, the private
sector and the government.
While bringing the Internet to rural India is one the initiative's
top goals, the project is looking at other ways technology can
benefit the lives of ordinary Indians.
The lab is exploring the development of new sensors and
wireless technologies that could help locate people, detect
contaminated water and avoid the spread of disease in the
wake of natural disasters.
Other innovations include small, low-cost ''telemedicine''
appliances to help nurse midwives perform simple diagnoses
and devices that can help people speaking local tongues and
with varying levels of literacy use computers.
Last year, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology
launched Media Lab Europe in Dublin, Ireland, although it drew
criticisms from local academics who resented the notion that
the country needs MIT and faulted the Irish government for
spending millions of dollars.
Zoe Baird, president of the nonprofit Markle Foundation,
considers the partnership one of the more ambitious efforts at
combining resources in academia, business and government.
''This is a very significant project,'' she said. ''Hopefully, it will
become a place where people in the region can develop the
information technology tools that meet their needs.''
MIT's project is not the first attempt to expand access to the
Internet in India, which has been connected to the web since
1995.
The Indian Institute of Technology in Madras has developed a
technology to help reduce the cost of installing one telephone
line in villages, which could improve connectivity to the
Internet.
On the Net:
MIT Media Lab: media.mit.edu |
