Cherlin

SiliCon

I am organizing a panel discussion for the Silicon Valley Science Fiction Convention on computing for the poor around the world. The Con will be held over Labor Day Weekend, Sept. 2-4. Lee Thorn and Lee Felsenstein of the Jhai Foundation will be there, and we are waiting to hear from a few others. I'll let you know more.

The Jhai Foundation creates computer and communication systems for villages in Laos, and a Laotian-language distribution of Linux called Laonux. The villagers' first request was for phone service, which they get now using Voice over IP software. The idea is for farmers to call around for better prices, and increase their income. Then they want to build a school. We'll see what they make of the riches and the wretched excess of the Web and the rest.