Africa Embraces the Cloud
Landline, Internet and electricity challenges make Africa an increasingly attractive proving ground for cloud computing. Out of the one billion people in Africa, only an estimated 140 million use the Internet, but over 600 million use mobile phones. And given the lack of reliable power grids, rechargeable mobile devices are a more practical way of accessing Internet-based applications than PCs. Broad use of mobile application services in Africa is already the norm, and adoption of some types of mobile applications already dwarfs their usage in the US.
For example, Safaricom’s M-PESA mobile payment system, which allows customers to transfer money to each other via mobile phones, has largely replaced cash transactions in Kenya. Users are sticking to content within apps without realizing they’re Web-based at all. Technology development is now focused on this mobile market and serving the “un-webbed,” including ways to get applications distributed to customers using their non-Web, real-world social networks.
(Via Ars Technica How Africa is embracing “the cloud” on its own terms)
(ht ibmsocialbiz ht emergentfutures)
Novelist Douglas Coupland Designs Lamppost/Parking Meter/Microcell/EV Charging station of the Future, for Vancouver
Streetlamps, cell phone towers and parking meters lend a certain urban charm, but these unnatural forms can also get a little clunky, especially as they grow in number.
To get rid of the clutter, the city of Vancouver is planning new all-purpose utility towers that will provide WiFi, cell phone service, parking, car charging and more — all wrapped up in a Candy Land-like stripey pole.
They’re called V-Poles, for Vancouver, and they’re the brainchild of Canadian novelist Douglas Coupland. He conceived the idea after he stumbled upon something called the lightRadio, developed by Bell Labs and Alcatel-Lucent, which compresses a cell phone tower’s circuit boards and cables into a tiny cube.
The devices can be stacked up inside a tower like Legos, according to Coupland. It can serve multiple frequencies and standards, i.e. 2G, 3G or LTE, and it can work anywhere there’s a power supply and a broadband connection. Just add other services, and you’ve got a complete information and energy ecosystem on one tree.
From bottom to top, it would include an inductive coil charging pad for electric vehicles; stacked telecom boxes for various providers; a WiFi transmitter; and an LED streetlamp The poles could even power a neighborhood bulletin board.
Coupland’s idea also includes a wide array of color schemes from which neighborhoods could choose, representing anything from a pileated woodpecker to the Vancouver Canucks.
