BICYCLE-POWERED VOIP

More than one billion of the world's population lives without electricity and phone service, according to Ephraim Schwartz (InfoWorld; July 25, 2005; p. 8). He reports that the nonprofit group, Inveneo, brings VoIP, e-mail, and Web browsing to remote African villages through decidedly low-tech means: bicycle-powered Wi-Fi networking.

The bicycle supplements a solar-powered system, and the arrangement affords riders one hour of telephone talk-time for every 15 minutes spent pedaling the bike. Schwartz also sees an economic structure developing around this technology, providing potential jobs to villagers who might earn money pedaling for those who want to use the phone but don't "want to work so hard."

The system provides obvious health benefits to those willing bikers, while the village fat cats just keep getting fatter. Apparently, some things don't change no matter where one travels in the world.

High-tech companies such as Cisco provide the hardware, banking on the idea that they can create more than a billion new consumers as more people connect to the Web. Schwartz quotes estimates "that in 10 years, the combined populations of what we call developing nations will make up 70 percent of the consumers in the world."

And so goes the simple life, for better or for worse, as remote villagers trade in their time and energy for exposure to products they never knew they needed (as well as some things they certainly need desperately), as they now also enter the 21st century.

Thanks to Inveneo and InfoWorld for the images borrowed from their websites for this article.