Distributed power, water and entrepreneurship. Could that be a winning combination for developing countries? Dean Kamen, inventor of the Segway, and Iqbal Quadir, the founder of Grameen Phone, the largest cell phone company in Bangladesh, appear to think so. I have to admit, it sounds intriguing.
Erick Schonfeld, Business 2.0 Magazine editor-at-large reports that:
An estimated 1.1 billion people in the world don’t have access to clean drinking water, and an estimated 1.6 billion don’t have electricity. Those figures add up to a big problem for the world—and an equally big opportunity for entrepreneurs. To solve the problem, [Kamen has] invented two devices, each about the size of a washing machine that can provide much-needed power and clean water in rural villages.
Kamen is not alone in his quest. He’s been joined by Iqbal Quadir, the founder of Grameen Phone, the largest cell phone company in Bangladesh…Quadir’s startup, Cambridge, Mass.-based Emergence Energy, is negotiating with Kamen’s Deka Research and Development to license the technology. Quadir then hopes to raise $30 million in venture capital to start producing the power machines.
The real invention here, though, may be the economic model that Kamen and Quadir hope to use to distribute the machines. It is fashioned after Grameen Phone’s business, where village entrepreneurs (mostly women) are given micro-loans to purchase a cell phone and service. The women, in turn, charge other villagers to make calls. “We have 200,000 rural entrepreneurs who are selling telephone services in their communities,” notes Quadir. “The vision is to replicate that with electricity.”
“Isn’t that better for democracy?” Quadir asks. “We see a shortage of democracy in the world, and we are surprised. If you strengthen the economic hands of people, you will foster real democracy.”Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 9:57 PM | Print | Comments (0)
According to muni-wireless activist Sascha Meinrath, “[t]wo bills were introduced on Friday that would radically improve unlicensed wireless access.”
Both bills would greatly improve the general public’s access to the public airwaves. The first bill, “The Wireless Innovation Act of 2006,” is a major bi-partisan effort to line up Senators to support Community Wireless. The second, “The American Broadband for Communities Act,” is led by Republican Senator Stevens and does much the same.
Both bills would open up TV broadcast bands (as proposed by FCC proceedings 04-186) within the next 180 days. These bills are particularly important because of FCC proceedings 05-312 (read the wireless communities’ concerns about the 05-312 proceedings here). The 04-186 proceedings are something that I and many other people have been actively working towards for quite some time.
In a recent post I discussed some of these issues, and cited some documents worth reading on the subject. I look forward to seeing the specific wording of the bills Sascha references, and agree with his closing comment that “it is fantastic news to see US Senators” supporting unlicensed use of DTV spectrum. I also share his hope “that we’ll finally see some reforms to make more efficient use of the public airwaves,” though my hope is balanced by doubts that any such bill could withstand the fierce opposition it would almost certainly face from broadcasters.
Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 9:06 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Telephony’s Carol Wilson picks up on a budding TV ad war between telco and cable interests on the issue of telco TV franchising.
Wilson provides some voice-over snippets from both sides’ TV commercials. As she puts it, the telco-sponsored ads “promote a feel-good approach, telling consumers that telecom companies are ready to bring advanced TV services to their doors, ‘as soon as Congress updates our telecom laws. TV Freedom – now that’s the future, faster,’ the ad voiceover states.” Wilson contrasts this message with that of the cable-backed ads:
The cable industry is taking a harder line, however, in commercials that accuse AT&T and Verizon of lying and creating phony consumer organizations to promote their cause. “Why do they really want to change the law?” one cable industry ad voiceover asks. “To raise your phone rates and be able to pick and choose what neighborhoods to serve.”
My sense is that this will be a tough issue for cable to win, both in Congress and among consumers. And, even if legislation fails to gain traction in Congress, the RBOCs have a backup at the state level, where they’ve long had legislative success, often justified in large part by the promise of new jobs. In this case they can push both the jobs issue and the benefits of expanded consumer choice. According to a recent WSJ story:
For now, the phone companies’ best bet may be in state capitals instead of on Capitol Hill. Legislation to streamline the franchise-approval process for phone companies passed in Texas last year, is gaining traction in three statehouses and is in early stages in a handful of others.Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 2:00 PM | Print | Comments (0)
Steve Perry publishes excerpts from a recent phone interview with Craig Newmark, founder of Craigslist. He also provides a link to a recent talk Newmark gave to members of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies.
Perry asks about a news project Newmark has discussed “that would involve identifying the most authoritative or trustworthy versions of the major news stories of the day.” He asks whether this whether this would involve “software algorithms, editorial judgments [or] reader votes,” to which Newmark responds “[a] combination of all three of those.”
Newmarket also talks about the need for balance between professional and citizen journalism.
If you’ve read my blog lately, you’ll notice I’ve been emphasizing recently a balance and merging of professional and citizen journalism. The deal is, there’s no substitute for professional-level writing and fact-checking and editing. One of the tenets of the effort I’m involved with is to drive more traffic to professional news sites. People have gotten too excited about citizen journalism, and they’re not addressing the balance well.
He also discusses his interest in promoting investigative journalism and how best to deliver the sometimes unpleasant truths it uncovers:
Me, I’m focusing on—one of the main thrusts of what I’m doing is to try to promote investigative journalism. I’ve been working with people at the Center for Public Integrity. And I had a meeting a couple of hours ago with a guy from the Center for Investigative Reporting. The deal is, how do we promote it better in an environment where people need to know why they’re hearing about things. I have some ideas along those lines. The idea is that—there’s this Oscar Wilde quote, If you want to tell people the truth, make them laugh, otherwise they’ll kill you. That’s why, frankly, I get a chunk of my news from—I use CNN and NPR and I read the Chron pretty religiously, but the best source of commentary and unpublished news I have is The Daily Show and The Colbert Report. They will often use stuff that reporters have told me they’re afraid to print.Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 1:16 PM | Print | Comments (0)
The Wall Street Journal broke the story yesterday that Amazon is working on an online music service to rival Apple’s unshakeable iTunes, a subscription option that is seemingly embraced by the record industry. The New York Times today has this piece by Saul Hansell that discusses Amazon’s proposed subscription model and delves deeper into the purported plans that Amazon has for developing a portable music player in conjunction with an electronics maker.
The Mercury News has this piece on the A-Pod in which analyst Richard Doherty speculates that Amazon might join forces with Microsoft, which has its own plans to mount an online music service.
Microsoft is a likely candidate to join hands with Amazon, given its recently ramped-up efforts to partner with service providers in the mobile device and music arena. Andy Reinhardt of Business Week has this analysis of Microsoft’s push to gain space for its software on new mini-platforms, and it sure sounds like the Redmond giant might be willing to work with Amazon despite its own efforts to become an online music provider.
A curious evolution has happened along the way, though. Sure, Microsoft (MSFT ) is still urging handset makers to adopt mini-Windows — known today, after innumerable rebrandings, as Microsoft Windows Mobile 5.0 — as the core operating system for their phones. But now it’s chasing an even juicier prize: central position in a whole spectrum of mobile applications, from portable music, to wireless e-mail and messaging, to mobile TV.
The real question is: with so many online music vendors, and given Apple’s superb grip of the market, is it worth it to spend gobs of capital on yet another music venture? Many of the reports on this rumor speculate that the record companies are ginning up the prospect of an Amazon music service to put pressure on Apple to relent on its $1.99/download stance.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:42 PM | Print | Comments (1)
Shortly after securing a $6 mil. round of funding led by Dawntreader Ventures, SIPphone has announced an intriguing new service. Company founder Michael Robertson describes it as “an innovative service…that combines the flexibility and cost efficiency of VoIP…with the ubiquity of the mobile and land-line world” and allows users to “decide where to receive calls (PC, WiFi phone, mobile, land line)…who can call them and who they will talk to and how they’ll get notification and voicemail.”
As Ed Sim, Managing Director of Dawntreader Ventures, suggests in his blog post announcing the $6 mil. funding, Robertson has a knack for developing and marketing standards- and web-based consumer products and services that target established but relatively inefficient industries by delivering new elements of value at relatively low cost and at market-disrupting price points. The new service, called Area775, appears to fit into this category.
Area775 provides a free US telephone number that you can link to a traditional phone number and any PC. You can then use this as your primary number to receive calls from any phone…When someone dials your number, your computer (or computers) will ring along with whatever phone number you designate. (For $3.95 per month you can select a different area code than the free area775.) We call this Dual Ring. You will see caller ID on your PC and phone and can answer the call from either location.
The service also has some additional features that give users more control over their telephone experience:
Another unique feature for all Area775 numbers is the option to screen calls - similar to how a home answering machine works. On either Gizmo Project or your phone, when you answer the call the caller won’t hear you pick up. Instead they will hear a voicemail greeting as if you did not answer. If the caller leaves a message, you will hear it as they are speaking in real time. To speak with them you can tap the #1 key and you will be immediately speaking with the person. If you do nothing, it will be a typical voice mail experience, and the resulting message will be sent to your email address as an audio attachment.
At anytime during a call, tapping the #2 key will seamlessly transfer the call to the other dual ring location without the caller being able to detect the transfer. For example, you might take a call at your PC, but then later realize you need to drive somewhere. Just click the #2 key and the call will be transferred to your mobile phone.
Robertson concludes with:
We’re moving to a new era of VoIP. The first wave was all about free or cheaper calling. But since voice calls are just another form of data traveling along the net, eventually all calls will be free just as all email messages or IM messages are free. The long-term impact of VoIP is shifting power towards consumers so you have more control over your calling environment.Posted by Mitch Shapiro at 12:41 PM | Print | Comments (1)
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