My new main squeeze. Isn't her display gorgeous?
Where do you think the NGO community that is NetHope is focusing most? Can you guess? That's right: Africa. In yesterday’s session representatives here voiced the same thing: Africa is the number one focus of their humanitarian and other efforts. Africa is getting a lot of attention these days and it’s not just the NGO NetHope community paying attention to the continent. I’ve heard economists talk about how low-end manufacturing (textiles and the like) will soon be shifting from Asia to Africa as infrastructure builds out there. That bodes well for the continent and its people. More affordable broadband access is in the works there too I hear. And to my eternal happiness, Intel too is finally beginning to increase its activities there (although it took us a while to get our focus focused).
So, this is day two, what I’m calling “Intel Day” because we’re here showcasing our emerging market technologies. They include the Classmate PC, Rural Connectivity Platform (RCP)
and the newest wireless standard called WiMAX. I hear we just announced a major investment in this technology, BTW.
Back to the summit: Representatives from both Intel’s World Ahead and Emerging Markets Platform Group (EMPG) are here to support our technology demos. They’re really great guys, but my heart's enamored with the RCP. That’s because it is helping my program help organic coffee growers in Tanzania learn how to grow better, higher quality coffee thereby enabling them to sell more coffee, which equates to increased revenue, which equals a higher standard of living for the coffee grower families and the opportunity for them to buy gas guzzling minivans, civilian versions of military vehicles and consumer goods that serve no useful purpose, just like people do in the United States. I’ll write about that project later. But if you haven’t read it already, we in the CSR blog have covered the RCP before and you can get details on it there.
But my love affair with RCP is being wooed by a new suitor as of this morning. I’m usually not so fickle, but I just had the chance to fondle our new CMPC for the first time. What a lovely functional device. What lovely curves. And not only is it a fully functional platform, it has a robust ecosystem surrounding and supporting it. I can see why kids love it and why it’s penetrating markets. It’s just hard to keep my hands off the thing. I mean, go back up and look at that display!
In the interest of ending this post, I’ll wrap up with a bunch of pictures. Enjoy….
The backbone of our demos today: WiMax server and base station.
This is Lenovo's new notebook, the X300. Watch out MacBook Air.
A bevy of new platforms all networked via WiMAX