Remote IT Village Project

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Remote IT Village Project Internet Learning
Centers in Laos
By Vorasone Dengkayaphichith Country
coordinator
Jhai Foundationhttp//www.jhai.org
First International Workshop on Open
Source Sponsored by the Swedish International
Cooperation Agency and the UN ICT Task Force 4-6
June 2003, Stockholm-Kista, Sweden
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Internet Learning Centers
Agenda for today
Introduction to Jhai Foundation

• Remote IT Village Project

• Introducing to Remote IT Village project
• Jhai PC and wireless Network
• Laonux-Lao Linux Localization

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About Jhai Foundation

• Jhai means Heart in Lao
• Based in San Francisco, USA
• Is about reconciliation
• Focus on relationship
• Help people, help themselves
• Help/assistance on different sectors
• Health
• Education
• - Internet Learning Centers
• -Our most widely known work is the
• Remote IT Village Project
• Economics development
• Weaving
• Organics farming
• Jhai coffee

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• Building good and long-lasting relationships
• Co-creation of state-of-the-art solutions for
  people who want to keep their traditions in
  remote villages, and increase their income
• An example the Jhai Computer and
  Communications System

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Conditions in rural Laos(Initiated at Phonkham
village, HinHeup District, Vientiane Province)

• No electricity, no telephone
• Low literacy rates
• 85 of economy is small farms
• Subsistence farmingis primary
• Rainy season makes roads impassable
• Extreme heat and air-borne dirt in dry season

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The Hinheup district is about 100 km north of
Vientiane municipality

• Jhai has been worked with rural villages since
  1998 to facilitate
• 10 year visions and 6 month plans
• priorities in Phonkham have included
• Clean water
• Improved schools
• Increasing business opportunities by
• Improving weaving techniques, business skills
• Increasing organic rice yields

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Phonkham villagers have requested Jhais help
with communications

• to improve economic and social conditions .

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Introduction to Jhai computer

• Jhai Server PC in Water tower
• Jhai Relay PC on the treetop
• Jhai Village PC in Phonkham village

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Jhai Computer system
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• Jhai PC and Wireless Network

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Jhai computer and communication system
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Jhai Server PC in water tower
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Jhai Relay PC on the trees top
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Jhai Village PC at the village
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Specification of Jhai system

• MZ-104 CPU board with 64 MB RAM 2 512MB flash
  card
• Audio board
• PCMCIA interface
• Cisco AeroNet 350 WLAN PCMCIA card
• 12.1 XVGA LCD display panel with power supply
• Okidata ML390 dot matrix printer
• Prowatt 150 inverter
• Hyperlink parabolic high-gain antenna, lightning
  arrestor, 20' coaxial cable
• Keyboard and trackball
• Bicycle crank battery

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The Jhai PC 12x12x15cm
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Remote IT Village Project

• Real-world conditions, real-world solutions
• The Remote IT Village pilot test will link five
  villages in the HinHeup District, in a wireless
  Wide-Area Network (WAN)
• Use Voice-over-I.P. telephony and Lao-language
  business tools to improve their standard of
  living while preserving traditions
• The network will immediately enhance business and
  trade opportunities
• Villagers will also connect by voice and email
  with family members who now live overseas.
• The system is localized to use in remote areas
• The system is owned by the villages and is run by
  literate middle school kids - literate in Lao.

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The Jhai Communications System

• No moving parts flash memory on chip,
  dot-matrix printer
• Low power demands LCD display
• Rugged, secure case to withstand water, dirt, and
  theft
• 802.11b wireless network linkage among networked
  villages
• Linkage to Internet data and VoIP
• Open-source PABX switching to Lao Telecom system
• Human-generated and solar power
• Bicycle crank to storage battery, solar power on
  relay stationLocalized Linux-based OS
• KDE with Lao-language tool suite

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Laonux
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Laonux

• The goal is to create both Linux distribution and
  KDE levels that support Lao language.
• The localization will allow more people in Laos
  access to PCs and their functions and benefits.

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Design and Implementation

• What are components
• Mandrake 9.0 (Development)
• Debian for Jhai PC(ease of installation)
• Existing Lao keyboard Layout
• Lao Unicode Fonts- Saysettha and JG Lao OT (Open
  Type)
• KDE translation tools
• Xft- X server for rendering True Type font
• Team
• Students and staffs from NUOL-Faculty of
  Engineering, and collaboration from Prof. Bjorns
  team.

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Look of Laonux Spreadsheet
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Console
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Browser
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Email
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Benefits

• Includes access to the following programs in the
  Lao language
• Email
• Internet Browser
• Word Processing
• Spreadsheets
• Desktop Environment
• Website design
• And more

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• Internet Learning Centers
• in Lao P.D.R.

First International Workshop on Open Source Kista
June 4-6, 2003 Stockholm - Sweden
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Community context Collaboration

• Jhai Foundation and Schools Online organization,
• The partner schools in four provinces of Laos.
• Collaborated -created unique facility for
  students/staff called Internet Learning Centre
  (ILC).

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• Jhai Foundation received funding from Schools
  Online and
• With collaborations with various ministries in
  Laos including
• Prime minister office,
• Ministry of foreign affairs,
• Ministry of education,
• Provincial departments of education,
• Lao Telecom company and etc.

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Objectives

• The goal of Jhai Foundation is to
• Link the high school students to the world.
• The purposes of ILC is to
• Provide Internet access/facility and technology
  for students, teachers, staff, parents and local
  people in the surrounding areas.
• The help schools gain effective access to the
  communication and information resources of the
  Internet

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• To facilitate teachers professional development
  and support for integrating information
  technologies
• To provide teachers who demonstrated the desire
  and facility to engage their students in
  collaboration projects with the technology tools
  to enhance their teaching and their students'
  opportunity for learning.
• To develop sustainable and replicable models of
  good practice that use technology for learning
  and collaborations

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Impact to the schools and society

• The Internet Learning Centre is the first kind of
  project in the High schools of Laos.
• The schools face and reputation of using
  high-tech equipment such as Internet computers,
  digital camera, scanner and information flowing.
• The school, the students, teachers, staff and
  people around this areas are very happy and have
  chance to access to Internet facility.
• The name of their schools are promoted and well
  known to the local society as well as to the
  country-wide
• The school has included the computer training to
  its curriculum

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• The schools collaboration/ communication with
  the outside world.
• The issue of flowing and exchanging information
  is on the Internet and that is the day-to-day
  connection to the world.
• Helping in economics development for the
  communities, societies, schools, education
  sectors

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What is in an ILC ?

• Each ILC received the following equipment
• 10 Intel based PCs
• Windows 98/2000/Xp
• Hub/LAN
• Digital camera
• Printer
• Scanner
• 10 Ethernet Cards
• Office Suite, graphics software, website
  development tools etc.
• Lao Instruction manuals and some English manuals
• Internet connectivity

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Sustainability

• The ILC become the property of the school, they
  operate by themselves
• We receive monthly report from each ILC.
• ILC represents a serious investment for donor
  like Schools Online organization and the partner
  schools
• The equipment and the Internet connection carry a
  high cost of ownership.

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• Therefore, a sustainability plan needs to be
  developed by each school to ensure the continued
  effective operation of the ILC.
• The sustainability plan for the ILC needs to show
  operational costs, as well as the future growth
  of the program will be supported.

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• To bare the operational costs, each school set
  their own policy for sustainability e.g.
• Membership fees or hourly fees for both student
  and teacher use after school hours and
  holidays
• Parent Association raises funds to cover
  operating costs
• School management, teachers and students conduct
  fundraising activities
• Schools (teachers and students) can use the ILC
  to hold training/seminars for community members
  and other organizations after school hours for a
  fee.
• Provide service to the public during after
  school, weekend, school holidays
• etc.

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Lessons learned

• Before starting the project we should
• Have done proper survey
• The managing team of ILC is the key to the
  success and sustainability,
• Help identifying managing team.
• This team must compose of different kind of
  persons who have different skills of technical,
  business, planning, marketing and cooperative.
• Train the team with the business planning and
  management techniques

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• Setup the clear criteria for giving the ILC to
  any school before making any commitment to
  implement the project.
• Draft a very-well defined rules/articles to
  manage the ILC before hand-over to the school.
• English is most difficult issue for situation of
  Lao users/students.
• Should have very good English training plan
  curriculum design for the students

..THANK YOU..