[Its.an.education.project] The rest of the puzzle

[Edward Cherlin]

On Wed, May 14, 2008 at 10:37 AM, info at olpc-peru.info
<info at olpc-peru.info> wrote:
> From a "theory or how to organize and manage difficult things" yes,
> electricity, energy, is a whole issue.  Many NGOs in Peru has work in the
> theme.  All without success (success mean solve the problem in most of the
> villages, not developing a technical solution.  There must be strong reasons
> (economy?, publicity? opportunity?) because the available solutions (until
> today) has not reach all those forgotten villages.is

I believe that previous attempts at solutions have failed to consider
all of the factors in play. I intend to get to the bottom of the
question, and create a real solution. Here is a first cut. Volunteers
welcome in every part of the enterprise.

Requirements:

* A separate research organization, with separate funding, not part of
OLPC, able and willing to work with appropriate partners such as
engineering schools, Engineers Without Borders, the microfinance
movement, sustainable engineering and business organizations
(Practical Action, Rocky Mountain Institute? Presidio School of
Management?) and so on.

* An organization in Perú and other target countries to get the
solutions to the villages.

* A detailed analysis of the available solution technology space in
light of the further requirements below

* Appropriate technology. This means minimizing effective cost to the
target community, not first-world production optimization. Optimize
for use of local materials and labor where cost-effective. Are there
locally-made (in-country, not up in the mountains) low-power ethanol
engines, for example? I'm pretty sure Brazil makes them. A kilowatt
would be enough for a small school with up to a hundred students. XO
power peaks at less than 9 watts.

* Mapping of factors affecting solutions: terrain, weather, local
crops, locally available materials, state of small manufacturing,
legal climate, transportation grid, whatever else is relevant.

* Microfinance business plan. Can an installation pay back its costs
by the owner charging batteries for the local population? Can a school
pay for power if it becomes available in this way? What other business
opportunities arise in a village if there is a modest amount of
fuel-grade alcohol available?

I am thinking now of potato power. I assume that there is in the
villages generally the knowledge, skill, and equipment for fermenting
potatoes and distilling the resulting alcohol/water/plant residue mix
into 95% ethanol. It is my impression that the uplands of Perú are
excellent potato-growing areas. Hm, yes, potatoes originated in Perú,
which has more than 3,000 varieties. I'll need to know the market
price of potatoes in the villages, and the cost of the resulting
ethanol. We will have to help to get the ethanol from the vodka level
to the fuel level. Well, this
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethanol_purification will do to get the
conversation started.

Another possibility seems to be a hybrid system using solar power for
half the year, and microhydro in the cloudy/rainy season. Well, we
must run the numbers and find out.

I have contacts in sustainable fuels, business, and engineering, but I
wouldn't turn down any others that people here come up with. What
mailing lists, social networking sites, and other places can we ask
these questions on? I know that we can ask on LinkedIn.

We also need a grant writer. Doubtless some of you can suggest other
needs. Let's hear them.

> From a "practical" point of view... it was right (and it is) that OLPC
> worries about the lack of energy (electricity)

Yes.

> and try to develop an answer
> (without luck until this very moment).

No. OLPC has done a lot to make the XO low in power consumption, but
has done nothing, zip, nada, about creating power solutions for
customer countries. It's odd, with all of the MIT enginering talent
around, that Nicholas never asked the question, but there it is.

> IF there is no "energy solution"
> then no educational goal can be accomplished, we will not reach the poorest
> children.  Doing just the "delivery" of thousand of hundred of computers
> (without taking in account how they are used, where they are used, who are
> the ones that use them) is a failure for the ORIGINAL OLPC proposals and
> goals.
>
> IF we work JUST in what we know, JUST in what we like, then we can finish
> like been a group of "big kids" playing only the games that want to play,
> working on the projects that like to work, dealing with the issues that we
> like to deal, reinventing wheels that move a little bit better than previos
> wheels.  IF we don't address problems that affects our educational project
> then we are just BIG KIDS, selfish, isolated from real world, IF we decide
> to don't speak more about energy or other things related to the project then
> we will end like a selfish and egotist group of people.  I am sure that
> there is a ton of good hearts and good people around the OLPC idea, so let's
> don't do a mistake and don't close our eyes to the whole picture of the
> poverty (that includes the lack of energy).
>
> IF we can not reach those forgotten villages (because we are unable to
> provide an energy solution) then we are just humans.  Normal thing.  We are
> like our fathers and grandfathers that during the last 50 years.  If we
> don't have a proposal for energy problem then we MUST stop saying that we
> will reach the POOREST children.  All XOs are very welcome, for all our
> children (poor, poorer  or poorest) but, at least in Peru, my country, we
> should say that we will help some poor children, not the "poorest".
> Best regards,

I *will* help the poorest. Sooner, if the needed help is forthcoming.

> Javier Rodriguez
> Lima, Peru
>
>
> Christoph Derndorfer wrote:
>>
>> Mikus Grinbergs schrieb:
>>>
>>> --- snip ---
>>>
>>> If for instance "electricity in remote villages" MUST be addressed, set
>>> up a separate organization (with a different name) for that purpose.
>>>  Decouple the success (or failure) of *that* project from the "educational"
>>> goals identified with Sugar.
>>>
>>> --- snip ---
>>
>> +1
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-- 
Edward Cherlin
End Poverty at a Profit by teaching children business
http://www.EarthTreasury.org/
"The best way to predict the future is to invent it."--Alan Kay