Fwd: [ilug-goa] VoIP on a bike...

[Diabolic Preacher]

http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/19/30OPreality_1.html?source=rss&url=http://www.infoworld.com/article/05/07/19/30OPreality_1.html

VoIP on a bike
A bicycle-powered, Linux-based VoIP system brings developing communities
into the 21st century

Reality Check,  By  Ephraim Schwartz
July 19, 2005

A bicycle-powered, Linux (Overview, Articles, Company)-based VoIP
system: not your usual high-tech architecture. But what if you were one
of the more than 1 billion people living without electricity? No power,
no phone.

The mission of Inveneo, a nonprofit group of inveterate high-tech
adventurers, is to bring developing communities that never reached a
20th century level of infrastructure into the 21st century. Its
bicycle-powered system brings not just VoIP but also e-mail and Web
browsing to remote areas, using a combination of Linux and the Asterisk
(Overview, Articles, Company) open source PBX.

The bicycle, mostly used as a backup to solar power, gives the rider one
hour on the phone for every 15 minutes of work. In a village, a user
might trade pedaling time for phone time — or get paid by someone who
wants to use the phone but doesn't want to work so hard.

If you are interested in what Inveneo is doing, I suggest you look
around its site. I'm sure it will be worth your while in the
not-too-distant future.

--
Diabolic Preacher
As Is
BOFH of ILUG - Ponda ( http://groups.yahoo.com/group/ilug-ponda )
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