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ISSUE NO 69 IN SEARCH OF THE BUSINESS MODEL

MODIFIED GAME CONSOLES TO NARROW DIGITAL DIVIDE

In a creative application of technology to help narrow the digital divide, business leaders in the World Economic Forum (WEF) are developing a plan to distribute at least 100,000 high-capacity computer game consoles equipped with satellite links to schools and in homes in Third World countries. "With all the businesses of the world together we can link all of the poor countries, the schools, hospitals and health clinics of the poor countries and get them all on the Net.

That helps enormously, for example, in sending information about AIDS," said John Gage, one of the founders of a WEF committee on the digital divide in an interview at the WEF European Economic Summit here Tuesday.Information and communication technology governors representing 70 technology companies in the WEF are leading the project, including John Chambers of Cisco Systems, Eric Benhamou of 3Com, and Carly Fiorina of Hewlett Packard.

The committee is considering adapting Sony’s PlayStation console, which supports Linux and Sun’s Java programming language, and has a port for a 80 gigabyte hard disk that can store 16 hours of video or 500 hours of audio in any language in order to reach illiterate people. Acknowledging that the project will begin by targeting people with money enough to afford electricity, Gage said, "Everywhere there is a flicker of a TV screen is a target for putting one of these PlayStation things hooked to a satellite."

(source: http://www.cnn.com/2001/TECH/industry/07/06/consoles.
divide.idg/index.html)

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