In April of 2008, I started the Technology Salon as a forum where technology and development professionals could share there opinions on emerging trends in information and communication technologies and international development in an intimate and informal discussion around:

• technology's impact on donor-sponsored technical assistance delivery, and
• private enterprise driven economic development, facilitated by technology.

Please visit the new site

A year later, as we've grown towards a community of practice, the Technology Partnership came to see the Salon as an effective way to increase the discussion and dissemination of information and communication technology's role in expanding solutions to long-standing international development challenges.

With agreement that the Salon will maintain its key attributes and its humble host, it became part of the Technology Partnership family. The Salon also got a whole new look - I created a new online presence to reflect its new status: TechnologySalon.org. Please redirect your Salon attention to this new site.

But don't get too excited - their sponsorship is just free donuts and coffee, as its our collective input that really powers the Salon. And along those lines, the views and opinions expressed on the site and in the Salon do not necessarily reflect those of the UN Foundation or the Vodafone Foundation.

Rural mobile phone entrepreneurs

So what might be the business and technology models that would allow entrepreneurs to roll out mobile phone systems to these underserved communities? And could development organizations play a role?

Which technology would be best: GSM? WiFi? WiMax? What's the business case: Handset sales? Subscriptions? Airtime only? Could voice services be augmented with data? Even broadband?

How might an entrepreneur serve 400 customers with $10 per month revenue or $48,000 per annum? And should aid organizations seed these businesses?

Please join David Ferguson on Thursday, April 2, for a lively discussion of possible micro mobile telco models and expect to hit the whiteboards with your ideas. Our gracious host is the UN Foundation and I'll have coffee and donuts for a good morning sugar rush to wake everyone up.

Designing a Micro-Mobile Telco
April Technology Salon
Thursday, April 2, 8:30-10am
UN Foundation Conference Room
1800 Mass Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20036 (map)

Do note that seating is limited and the UN Foundation is in a secure building. So the first fifteen (15) to RSVP will be confirmed attendance and then there will be a waitlist.

• technology's impact on donor-sponsored technical assistance delivery, and
• private enterprise driven economic development, facilitated by technology.

Now, almost a year later, the Technology Salon is developing into a real community of practice - a network of development and technology professionals who share a common passion for ICT4D, and through regular interaction and communication, are improving their knowledge and implementation expertise in empowering development with technology.

From its inception and reinforced through feedback from its participants, I've found there are three attributes keys to the Technology Salon success and growth:

Hot Topic: The Rise of 4P Computing

1. Conversation, not presentation
   The Technology Salon is primarily a forum for discussion, so presentations are discouraged and Power Point is generally banned. Speakers have only 10-15 minutes at the beginning to present their activity, before participants are free to ask questions, share their own experiences, and drive the conversation in a direction that interests them. This both brings forth the group's knowledge and keeps participants engaged for the full meeting.


2. Intimacy of participants:
   The Technology Salon attendance is capped at 15 people to make sure each participant has the opportunity to speak and share their experience. This cap also encourages pre-registration and subsequent attendance. Last but not least, it allows for quality pre-and post-event networking by participants.


3. Confidentiality of opinions:
   The Technology Salon employs the Chatham House Rule - what is said in its discussions can only be attributed to the Salon itself, not to any specific participant. At the same time, the Salon is not recorded nor the discussion transmitted outside its meeting place. These precautions allow participants to speak their opinions freely, thoughts that would not be shared if participants worried about attribution or out-of-context quoting.

In 2009, I look to improve on the Technology Salon's success while maintaining its three key attributes - conversation, intimacy, privacy. Its goal is to evolve beyond its current exclusive nature into a standard of discourse between technology and development professionals. To achieve this greater scale and legitimacy, and make its impact felt beyond its direct participants, the Technology Salon will need to improve its:

Hot Topic: Computers vs. Cell Phones

1. Event promotion:
   The Technology Salon has grown organically, mainly through word of mouth and a small announce-only email list I manage. It could benefit from a larger promotion in the technology and development space, reaching practitioners who as yet have not heard of it, and attracting higher-profile speakers and attendees. At the same time, this new interested needs to be balanced with the intimacy that differentiates the Salon.


2. Meeting regularity:
   Owing to its informal nature and my hectic travel schedule, the Technology Salon meeting have been ad-hoc - scheduled with speakers are available or a topic of interest presents itself. The only regularity has been its timing - on a Thursday from 8:30am to 10am. For it to become a fixture in professional life, it needs to have a regular schedule, but one that can be balanced against the opportunity for guest speakers and capturing of fast-moving topics.


3. Publication of outcomes:
   Until recently, the Technology Salon has been forcefully off-the-record. Few if any details of the Salon or its conversation points have been documented or shared publicly. For the Salon to have a larger impact, it needs to publish more of its outcomes - be they points of consideration and interest vs. formal pronouncements or conclusions. Yet this grater transparency needs to be balanced carefully with the need for confidentiality for individual participants - which if anything, seems to be the key success metric to date.


4. Sponsorship:
   To date, the Technology Salon has enjoyed informal sponsorship by its host, the UN Foundation. For it to gain greater legitimacy as a professional forum, it needs to have a formal organizational sponsor that allows the Salon affiliation and yet autonomy in topics and conversation - so that the Salon remains driven primarily by its participants.

And in the spirit of its participant-driven organization, I encourage your ideas and suggestions for improvement, especially if they can help me with the four areas I want to focus on for 2009: publicity, regularity, publication, and sponsorship.

Better yet, are there topics of ICT4D interest you'd like to see at an upcoming Salon, where you can also provide the speaker?

Mobile-empowered healthcare

How can this access to mobile technology, radically improve healthcare services - even in some of the most remote and resource-poor environments?

Please join Inveneo's Eric Blantz and Vital Wave Consulting's Dr. Karen Coppock in a discussion around mHealth - how technology can empower better and more efficient healthcare services throughout the developing world, with an emphasis on mobile and cellular technologies.

Of special focus is the recent United Nations Foundation and Vodafone Foundation Technology Partnership report, mHealth for Development, authored by Vital Wave Consulting

Opportunities for mHealth in Development
March Technology Salon in San Francisco
March 3rd, 8:30-10am
@ Inveneo
972 Mission Street 5th Floor (map)
San Francisco, CA

Please RSVP as we only have seating for 15 and after that, there will be a waitlist.

The primary development platform?

Please join us for a spirited debate where Troy Etulain of USAID will push us to envision a future where development objectives are achieved on mobile phones, while Wayan Vota will back computers, desktops even, as the true tool of choice to accelerate development with technology.

Katherine Townsend of State will moderate the discussion with an eye to finding realistic recommendations for the development community.

Our gracious host is the UN Foundation and I'll have coffee and donuts for a good morning sugar rush to wake everyone up.

Mobile Phones vs. Computers: a False ICT4D Choice?
February Technology Salon
Thursday, February 12th, 8:30-10am
UN Foundation Conference Room
1800 Mass Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20036 (map)

Do note that seating is limited and the UN Foundation is in a secure building. So the first dozen (12) to RSVP will be confirmed attendance and then there will be a waitlist.

I was skeptical about the XO at first but was pleasantly surprised by its ruggedness, screen quality, antenna sensitivity, and software, which treats every app as an invitation to collaborate. Yes, it's great that OLPC wants to sell these in bulk to kids in developing nations, but I'd like to see a consumer company license its innovations to make an adult-safe version (with a real keyboard) for the price of an iPod classic.

Now doesn't that sound like he's really asking for a 4P Computer? A highly portable, power -efficient, appropriate performance laptop with a reasonable price? I would like to present Steven with his perfect 4PC now. May I introduce the HP Mini Note Netbook. This is the 4P Computing category killer we have all been waiting for. Recently, I bought one as an adult XO experience, and I'm quite impressed.

1. The 1035NR version has the look and feel of a real laptop, just shrunk. Its case and keyboard are stylish - well past the cheap plastic feel of the Asus and approaching a Vaio.
2. The 8Gig solid state drive, expandable with SD cards, can withstand heat, dust, and shocks better than spinning hard disks.
3. It runs Windows XP or Ubuntu 8.10 with ease. I even have it dual booting - XP for her, Ubuntu for me.
4. At $400 it is within the price range of business people in the developing world, and close to the XO laptop's G1G1 price.
5. Sadly, its 3 hour (max) battery life is nothing like the XO, and its screen is too glossy and weak for sunlight reading.

So while Steven Levy might continue waiting for the perfect adult XO, I would recommend the rest of us go with a HP Mini Note. You'll not find a better "netbook" out there. I know, looked till the wife called out "just buy one already!"

Communicating community security

Yet one brave organization is connecting remote Malian communities to reduce the threat of banditry or worse. Geekcorps Mali is building links between caravans, villagers, and local government - with information and communication technologies.

Geekcorps Mali has developed an innovative ICT intervention that marries FM radio broadcasting with Internet-enabled computers and digital audio recording to give a voice to local communities. The radio stations have become beacons of objective information and a de-facto early warning system for northern Mali and even the country as a whole.

Please join Olivier Alais, Director of Geekcorps Mali on Thursday, December 18 for a discussion of this Internet-enabled radio station model and its impact on northern Mali's security and society.

Our gracious host is the UN Foundation and I'll have coffee and donuts for a good morning sugar rush to wake everyone up.

Fighting Terrorism with ICTs in Mali
December Technology Salon
Thursday, December 18th, 8:30-10am
UN Foundation Conference Room
1800 Mass Avenue, NW, Suite 400
Washington, D.C. 20036 (map)

Do note that seating is limited and the UN Foundation is in a secure building. So the first dozen (12) to RSVP will be confirmed attendance and then there will be a waitlist.

How much does this really cost?

How much does it really cost to introduce and sustain computers in schools? A discussion of Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and models of affordable computing for schools in developing countries.

"Total cost of ownership" (TCO) is often underestimated, sometimes grossly, when calculating costs of ICT in education initiatives in developing countries. Estimates of initial costs to purchase equipment to overall costs over time vary widely; typically they lie between 10-25% of total cost. That said, there is a dearth of reliable data, and useful tools, to help guide education decision makers in their assessments of the true costs of educational technology initiatives.

A recent whitepaper from Vital Wave Consulting, "Affordable Computing for Schools in Developing Countries: A Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) Model for Education Officials", and accompanying case study of ICT in education initiatives in India, provide further insight and perspective on this important and often controversial issue. The white paper discusses key issues related to technology use in education and presents several major findings.

At the same time, we now have an update to the TCO Tool for schools developed by the Global e-Schools and Communities Initiative (GeSCI) and Mr. Camfield. This tool, "Deploying 1:1 educational models in large scale: a practical budgeting tool based on TCO", is currently being utilized as part of planning processes in Rwanda, drawing on lessons learned from its earlier use elsewhere in Africa, most notably in Namibia.

Come join what we hope to be a lively presentation and discussion of the findings of both activities, their potential implications, and the underlying methodologies and assumptions underpinning the models explored in this work.

Speakers:

• Karen Coppock, VP of Consulting Services, Vital Wave Consulting
• Brendan Smith, Senior Consultant, Vital Wave Consulting
• Jon Camfield, Director of ICT, Youth Service America

11am to 12:30pm - 6 November 2008
The World Bank "J" Building,
701 18th Street, NW, room J-B1-075

While this Technology Salon promises to be larger than usual, seating is still limited, so please RSVP to Lorelei Lacdao, with the subject line: "Attend ICT/ed TCO meeting"

Let's solve his ICT4D challenges

Akin to the contests that had Lindbergh cross the Atlantic and Rutan/Branson cross into space, ICT4D challenges (contests, makeovers, and competitions) will leverage user-driven innovation to create ICT-based solutions for major development challenges, with the incentive of cash prizes and possible inclusion in a USAID project.

These challenges will spur innovation at the nexus of development and technology while forging new connections between the technology and development communities.

What better forum to explore where USAID is going with these challenges and help shape that path than the Technology Salon, our intimate and informal discussion of technology and development?

Leading the conversation will be Seema Patel, Alliance and Management Specialist for DAI, who is consulting with USAID on the Global Development Commons Initiative - the sponsor of the ICT4D challenges. Our gracious host is the UN Foundation and I'll have coffee and donuts for a good morning sugar rush to wake everyone up.

September Technology Salon: USAID ICT4D Challenges
Thursday, September 25th, 8:30-10am,
UN Foundation Conference Room
1800 Mass Avenue, NW, Suite 400,
Washington, D.C. 20036 (map)

Omatek Computers is a Nigerian company with a computer assembly factory in Ghana. This allows Omatek to produce computers tax free for Ghana and Nigeria, within certain quotas, giving it a competitive advantage over international vendors.

Add in the reference designs shared freely by the chipset manufacturers and local companies like Omatek are the next wave of real innovation the in 4P Computing market - more creative than Intel or OLPC, and over the long term, more game-changing.

As soon as one of these vendors realizes the true untapped market - parents who want to give their children an educational edge - you will see an explosion in local design and assembly. Just the employment, investment, and empowerment that the developing world needs.

Recently, I've been looking at OLPC News in a whole new light. I'm seeing it as more than just a blog. In fact, when you bring in the OLPC News Forum and how both integrate with the OLPC Wiki, I see a three part system that is the community of practice around the One Laptop Per Child program.

First, a definition of a community of practice:

A community of practice is a group of people who share a common passion for a subject and through regular interaction and communication, improve their knowledge and expertise in the topic area.

Communities of practice differ from teams and networks in that they are bound by a shared desire to learn, and implement the learning through practice.

I believe that the triumvirate of OLPC News, OLPC News Forum, and OLPC Wiki serve to accomplish four goals typical of a community of practice:

Exchange and interpret information between participants

When you look at the success of OLPC News in being an independent source for news, information, commentary, and discussion of the "$100 laptop" initiative, with almost 900 posts and 10,000+ comments, you quickly realize that there is a massive exchange and interpretation of information at all levels of ability. Add in the 3,200+ members of the OLPC News Forum and their 25,000 posts and you realize the conversation is greater than any single domain.

Yet, there is not other platform where OLPC insiders like Walter Bender and Mary Lou Jepsen to technology visionaries like Lee Felsenstein and Steve Cisler, to the many thousands of interested and committed supporters can express their thoughts and hope to change others (and their) minds as equals.

Participating in OLPC discussions

Retain the collective knowledge of participants

From the beginning of the One Laptop Per Child initiative, the OLPC Wiki has been the supreme knowledge resource and official knowledge repository for the OLPC community. With sections managed by OLPC directly, yet an open architecture that lets the community publish its own learning's, the Wiki has grown organically to be the final arbitrator of fact from fiction, even if those facts first came from OLPC News instead of OLPC itself.

Even better, community members have made the direct link between the wiki and OLPC News & Forum. Wiki pages have developed directly from OLPC News posts or Forum conversations, and the Wiki also drives new thoughts and ideas for posts and conversations. One of the best examples is How Laptop delivery Breaks, where an OLPC News reader, using the OLPC News Forum to collect and analyze data from the community, created the best known knowledge base around a major OLPC issue.

Raise the competencies of each participant

From the feedback I've received since the inception of OLPC News, I am confident that the conversation on it and the Forum, combined with references to the Wiki, has educated thousands of OLPC supporters on everything from the need for a defined implementation plan, to the actual costs of the OLPC program, to the steps to add Ubuntu on the XO laptop. In the process, the level of conversation has also increased, with basic questions giving way to investigative reports on deployments and intense debates on the basis of education itself.

I think the impact of this discourse is best expressed by Lee Felsenstein:

"[OLPC News] was the missing link we needed - constant journalism and analysis from an expanding group of interested and intelligent (most, at least) readers. Attention integrated over time, with an active audience. I shifted most of my blogging effort over to OLPC, somewhat to the detriment of my own blog but much to the enhancement of my profile."

Lee Felsenstein in OLPC action

Create a shared identity and purpose for participants

A dozen writers, at least 50 contributors, and countless commenters spread across the globe - few even know real names or have seen photos of each other. Yet every single one of these people considers themselves an OLPC supporter in one way or another. This is what OLPC News, Forum and the OLPC Wiki have created. User groups from Washington DC to Vancouver, each with on and offline activities that forge inter-personal links and informal support networks that reinforce the online community.

In fact, participation in OLPC News and Forum has created such strong identities for several participants, they are now recognized experts on topics they once led in obscurity. Personally, my identity with OLPC News has led to opportunities and employment I once thought well beyond my reach.

And that is the whole purpose of a community of practice - to improve your knowledge and expertise in a topic area of interest through regular interaction and communication.

This heretical bombast upset the longstanding computer manufacturing tradition to keep adding functions to maintain high prices in the developed world, while ignoring the developing world. The revolution was lead by One Laptop Per Child and its visionary founder, Nicholas Negroponte, and we now have a whole plethora of revolutionaries - from the upstart Asus to the goliath Intel - who are developing "4P Computers" in response to OLPC's iconic XO Laptop.

4P Computing is a new class of appropriate technology - computing power, performance, portability, and price specificity designed for the realities and markets of the developing world.

Now join Wayan Vota, an expert on ICT in the developing world, in an overview of this revolution, the resulting 4PC's, and their impact on the whole information and communication technology industry:

The future bank teller in Mali

In some countries, text messages cannot be used as evidence in court - a problem if that's all you have to show for a money transfer. In other regions, cross-border and multi-currency transactions is the domain of banks, not mobile operators. In either situation or more, what is the development community's response to facilitate m-Banking?

Please join Michael Tetelman of AED, and Ann Casanova of CARANA, at the UN Foundation headquarters for a vibrant discussion of their work in overcoming legal and regulatory barriers to make local and intra-regional m-Banking a reality in the developing world.

July Technology Salon: Empowering m-Banking, Legally
Tuesday, July 15th, 8:30-10am,
UN Foundation Conference Room
1800 Mass Avenue, NW, Suite 400,
Washington, D.C. 20036 (map)

• Ann Casanova is a lawyer with fourteen years of combined experience in multilateral trade negotiations, institutional strengthening, and management of USAID and IDB projects in Latin America and the Caribbean, Africa, and Asia. Ms. Casanova joined CARANA Corporation in 2004 as Vice President of the firm's Trade Practice.
• Dr. Michael S. Tetelman is director of the dot-ORG program at the Academy for Educational Development (AED), and designs and manages innovative ICT infrastructure and applications projects that stimulate economic growth and improve the service delivery of governments and other institutions.

• technology's impact on donor-sponsored technical assistance delivery, and
• private enterprise driven economic development, facilitated by technology.

Now that may surprise those that know me as a One Laptop Per Child fanboy, but as I told the Economist in its article "The rise of the low-cost laptop":

By raising the very possibility of a $100 laptop, the XO presented the industry with a challenge. Wayan Vota, founder of OLPCNews.com, an independent website that follows the project, calls the XO a "harbinger of an entirely new class of computers".

Asus has. It took Nicholas Negroponte's basic "$100 laptop" idea, and according to PC Magazine's "Asus Makes Another Eee PC Wave" article, commercialized it beyond anyone's expectations:

"We forecast sales of Eee PCs to double to 10 million units in 2009 with growing demands from both developed and emerging countries," said Jerry Shen, the CEO of Asus. According to a recent report from IDC, Asus shipped around 1.4 million notebooks in the first quarter of 2008 and ranked No.8 in terms of market share.

"In terms of worldwide shipments, it is the first time for a Taiwan IT brand to create such a huge impact in the global market by a single product," said Dickie Chang, the Personal Computing Solutions Analyst for IDC.

Rabi Karmacharya

For the next Technology Salon on June 3 at 5:30pm, we'll move pass the headlines and into the field with two special guests:

• Aaron Kaplan, of OLPC Austria, will talk about how he's leveraging wireless mesh networking initiatives to facilitate one laptop per child
• Rabi Karmacharya of OLE Nepal, will explain how he is developing lasting educational advantages within the Nepalese school system

June Technology Salon
Tuesday, June 3 @ 5:30pm
Hosted by RTI International - DC
Main Conference Room
701 13th Street, N.W.
Suite 750 (map)