AMD’s innovative 50×15 program is determined to accelerate the adoption of the Internet to 50% of the world’s population by the year 2015. The program has been around since 2004 and has already helped countries considerably with a variety of robust partnerships and technical solutions. The 50×15 program has worked with countries from Brazil to Uganda.
China (Internet penetration: 8.5%*). Early last year AMD, Lenovo and Dawning came together to answer the call of the Chinese government. After a successful deployment of 26,000 AMD Sempronâ„¢ processor-based computers in schools across the Hebei province, the Chinese government awarded the trio of partners additional contracts to deploy technology solutions across an additional 17 provinces. To date, millions of students have been connected with more than 210,000 PCs deployed.
Connecting people to the Internet across the globe will obviously take a while with issues such as hardware pricing, the lack of network infrastructure and power in some countries. However, it is definitely worth the effort and I applaud AMD for helping out. I just can’t imagine what people are missing out on without Internet access.
It reminds me of the time when the famous hacker Kevin Mitnick was released from jail, where he was controversially denied Internet access during his stay. When he got out of jail the Tech TV show The Screensavers had Kevin on to go online for the first time after 8 years and experience Google, Slashdot, et cetera. It was amazing to see his reaction at how the Internet has evolved in such a short time. Try to put that in terms of a person that has never even used a computer. (For the record, Kevin Mitnick’s books, the Art of Intrusion/Deception, are great reads.)
AMD isn’t the only one helping with global Internet adoption. Intel recently jumped on-board with the One Laptop Per Child foundation, more commonly known as the non-profit creating the $100 laptop for under-privileged children. I got to have a hands on with the second beta of the OLPC laptop a few months ago.
The $100 Laptop
Going by some of the comments on my OLPC post linked above, people have differing views regarding whether it is worth the effort to develop affordable computers and Internet access to undeveloped countries and children. Let me give you a prime example of what is possible with this technology. A 19 year old named William Kamkwamba first used the Internet to search Google to find out how to build a windmill. He successfully built a windmill and was able to power his family’s house in a small village in Africa. He even has a blog. Amazing.
Thanks to JBS for bringing AMD’s 50×15 program to my attention by saving it on del.icio.us and tagging it with “for:pstamatiou”.
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Hey, isn’t Personal Internet Communicator (PIC) a 2 years old AMD project?
Wow that is really cool. I guess I take for granted the fact that I have just a plethora of information in my pocket at all times. Even though I watched it evolved, it still amazes me how the Internet and the concept of the Internet has changed this world.
I saw a segment on 60 Minutes a few weeks ago about this story. AMD and Intel have actually have been going at this for years, visiting several Third World Countries in an effort to spreading computers and internet globally, basically getting their brand more recognized on the ever-expanding market.
AMD’s CEO actually stated that he doesn’t even get any days off from work. Only a weekend-length of vacation time for the whole year! Now that shows he is dedicated to this project.
I think its mainly about competition for this project. Helping others comes second to them. I guess it helps their company sound better, and gives their investors a good excuse to provide support.
Can’t see how anyone can question the benefits of providing technology to the developing nations. Is the modern day equivalent of:
Give a man a fish you feed him for one day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him forever.
True, but the CEO himself said that its an effort to win over the competition (Intel).
So how is this going to work in relation to the OLPC project now that Nick Negroponte has brow-beaten Intel and given them a seat on the board?
I imagine Intel will want something out of this, and ousting AMD would be top of their list…
@ Chris: Personally I prefer the alternative proverb; “Give a man a fire and he’s warm for a day, but set fire to him and he’s warm for the rest of his life.” – Terry Pratchett.
My brother is in South Africa on a gap year, working in a small school. He was responsible for the business of getting the internet put into the school building, and from his phone-calls the internet has amazed the children in the school- many of whom have never used a camera let alone a computer before.
It is always worth remembering that although we might get rather annoyed when we are deprived of checking our gmails for a few hours, or even worse there is an outage and we can’t get online for a day or so… at least we generally have access to mankind’s greatest achievement- the Internet. That and Rolos anyway.
Nicely put Adam.
@Adam – very funny!!! :-)