Archive for novembre, 2006

The village of Bourem Inaly, near Timbuktu, Mali, is on an island in the Niger river, removed from the mainland by a twenty-five minute ride on a motorized pirogue. The village’s radio station, Radio Beeray, serves over four thousand people in Bourem Inaly and surrounding villages who depend on the station for their news.

In October, Geekcorps installed a VIA Desert PC with R-BGAN satellite modem connection to give the radio station access to email and the Internet. Geekcorps is testing its Low Bandwidth Networking project in Bourem Inaly and Bourem Foghas (see picture), a village near Gao in northeastern Mali. Geekcorps will continue to improve the system and hopes to make it available to an additional thirteen radio stations next year.

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.
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Bourem Inaly, Mali

Aboubacrine Touré admits to having become somewhat of a local celebrity in Bourem Inaly, a remote community about 30 kilometers west of Tombouctou on the Niger river in northern Mali. While he is the director of the local community radio station, Radio Beeray (Respect), he is best known throughout the region as the host of Journal of Journals, a weekly radio news program that airs every Sunday night. Read the rest of this entry »