USAID profiles Geekcorps Mali BottleNet
30 October 2005 in Programs, News, Mali, Partners by Geekcorps
USAID recently profiled the Geekcorps Mali BottleNet on www.usaid.gov
BottleNet is a do-it-yourself (DIY) antenna design using $2 in locally sourced equipment that can provide gains and directionality equivalent to low-end commercial antennas which cost about $40 each within the US. These locally produced antennas could satisfy the needs of most of the WiFi antenna market in Mali, as well as, in the longer term, the demands of an important segment of the global wireless antenna market.
Link: http://www.usaid.gov/stories/mali/pc_ml_geekcorps.html
Papou Coulibaly is young boutique owner in Ouélessébougou. Previously, Geekcorps partnered with Papou to create a Cybertigi - an Internet access point for the local community via a wireless link to a Community Information & Learning Center (CLIC).
May 12th, 2007 at 6:09 pm
[…] I missed this writeup from a little while ago. It is a good description of what Geekcorps is doing in Mali. Some of their really interesting projects are the Water Bottle Antenna, which provides a powered wifi antenna for about $3 (compared to $100) and the Desert PC which is basically a fanless, sealed machine designed for tough conditions (running a version of Linux of course — customized to minimize hard drive writes for durability!) What is not to love about a custom Linux distro for the developing world? In the village of Bourem Inaly, Mali there are over 120 television sets powered by 12-volt car batteries, but there is almost nothing to watch. With its CanTV project, Geekcorps has helped the local radio station stream video content to the local community over WiFi. The radio station which rents these units out benefits from a new monthly revenue stream, while the villagers benefit with an improved source of news and entertainment. […]