September 6, 2007 Dear friends and board, I hope this finds you and your family well. It feels to me as if the work we have done over the last 10 years in Laos and elsewhere is finally coming to a head. What I mean by this is that what we – many hundreds of us – perceived as nearly undo-able 10 years ago, is getting done. It is getting done by young people – at least ‘young’ from my perspective ;D - and locally all over the developing world. Poorer rural people are getting communication and information-gathering tools that will make them money from day one and enrich their community members. This will effect us all wherever we live in many good ways. I’ll get into this in detail in my next update. I, on the other hand, am slowing down. Briefly (skip around if you want!) … here’s my news: • I spoke in Ethiopia about 10 days ago. I was well received by people from all African countries. I also learned a lot. There will be good things coming from this, including tight, funded field tests for Jhai Systems and the hardware in Ghana, God willing. We have new opportunities in other African countries as well. • I have been approached by Via Systems (3rd largest chip manufacture in the world, based in Taiwan) to cooperate with them in a roll-out. I am hopeful this will work for all. • We are refocusing again. We do this periodically because I can get scattered, and also because it is good practice. o I will consult on sustainable ICT for development systems initiation and implementation where needed. Wayne Wilson, a business consultant and old friend is helping me with this. o We will do field tests in Laos, starting this month, India this Fall, and will carefully choose any additional projects. We will only take on projects that have enough overhead to cover expenses of others than me to administer. Our partners in India are key to this. o We are signing an MOU with the Lao government and World Links this Friday. Vorasone Dengkayaphichith has done Herculean work to make this so. This is mainly for curriculum development using ICT, but also includes field tests of Jhai systems in two rural schools. It is funded through World Links with funds from World Bank provided by the Japanese government. o I will get a pro bono speaking coach and agent over the course of the next six months or so. I expect to evangelize with the most unlikely people. ;D o We will begin press work soon. I’ll be in touch. o We will incubate Jhai Networks within Jhai Foundation until it can stand-alone as a business. Big thanks to board member and friend, Ravi Gopalan. o We will off-load the hardware piece. In my next update I will list all the people that I know worked on this effort since 2002.  In early July, as you know, we completed Jhai computer 2.0 and I brought one back - and the whole system (thin clients, telemedicine machine) - to my office. We still are tweaking the Open Source software I hope the Jhai machine will move out via Via Systems. If not, we will look at options that speedily get you this solution option.  We will meet with friends at Atlantic Philanthropies next week, God willing. Atlantic Philanthropies is one of the biggest foundations in the world. They are interested in the system from the point of view of telemedicine. I am also meeting with others with vast knowledge in telemedicine in next weeks. As you know, we are partnered with Neurosynaptic. o Thanks to World Links I will present and demonstrate our system at a conference in Manila, the Philippines, in about a week. This is a conference with Ministry of Education people from all over Asia sponsored by World lLinks. My special thanks to Vicki Tinio for this opportunity and to Vorasone again for his work on this from Laos and to the rest of the World Links people that are making this happen. • I am finding a little more balance in my life. I have started daily exercise again and am trying to remember to meditate daily. My middle son is preparing for a transfer to four year college and my young son will be starting school for the first time next month after seven years' of my wife's home schooling. My wife has started a dog walking and training business. And Jesse’s radio show is now in many US markets and has a large podcast audience, too. • I am winding down in at least one way - I will do more writing, speaking and consulting and less organizing and uncoordinated evangelism. The ideas I expressed five years ago about ICT and how it can relate to community development in villages, based on our grounded experience at that time, are beginning to be broadly accepted in the developing world. I have many allies and friends in developing regions and together we'll do some good. • I don't have to work with others to invent anything any more ;D ... although ... I just can't give this up yet. It is too much fun ... it gives me energy. o I’m studying low cost, low power alternatives to LCD screens. o I still think satellite up/download solutions in most of the world are best of all connectivity alternatives when combined with mesh networked wifi. The problems are regulation, price and guts. Current business models assume low volume use for uploads, as I understand it. Thus, costs are pegged high. What if satellite providers had the guts to lower this hurdle on the basis of mass appeal in coordination with governments and rural implementers, especially corporate ones? It would change the communication picture in rural areas radically. If you can do ‘on demand’ video via satellite, you certainly can do data. There is certainly capacity. • In the process and over time (more than a year, less than six) I will devolve my role in the Foundation and it will mutate into something new with others at the helm. I am aware that my family has paid for my sacrifice on wages. I drew less than $26,000 last year. I want to make amends. I am. So that's my report this month, including the embarrassing bits. If you are not a member of the 1% club, perhaps you want to join. 1% folks are pledging 1% of their income monthly. This helps to even out the cash flow considerably. Write me. If you are a member, thanks! If you want to send a new donation, I can really use it. We did get the World Links contract, but that only covers on average one day a week of my time. If you want to hang out ... hey, I'm ready! Know this: we're doing what we said we would do. It takes lots of partners. It takes time, lots of time, partly because we’ve done almost everything without much money and with great volunteer effort. We have superb partners - leaders in each region of the world in ICT for development. They are simply the very best. We are cooperating with these leaders so that villagers can get what they need to get what they want. >From my book: I want my best strength to be like a shoot, with no anger and no timidity, as a shoot is; this is the way the children love you. RAINER MARIA RILKE (BLY) I wish this want for you. Btw, if you want my book, “Money and Spirit”, just drop me a line and I’ll send you a review copy by email. Thanks again for your ongoing support and deep friendships. If you can give a donation, please do NOW. I could use it. Yours, in Peace, Lee Thorn chair, Jhai Foundation 350 Townsend St., Ste. 309 San Francisco, CA 94107 USA +1 415 344 0360 (office) +1 415 420 2870 (mobile) lee@jhai.org www.jhai.org new personal blog:: http://www.leethorn.blogspot.com/ Please buy FAIR TRADE Cafe Lao at http://www.jhaicoffee.com/ and support Jhai Coffee Farmers Cooperative Please hear my son, Jesse's, hilarious radio show The Sound of Young America, at http://www.splangy.com/radio/ Stand-by for my son, John's, new fantasy novel, and Hear my 11 year old son Brendan's band, Total Annihilation, by going to http://www.myspace.com/totalannihilationband And ... Enjoy! -- You may automatically unsubscribe from this list at any time by visiting the following URL: <http://splangy.com/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=u&l=jhaiupdates&e=webmaster@vientianetimes.com&p=9690196>