I — along with fellow Winchester Highlanders Carrie, Lee, Dan and Tom — trekked 35 minutes north to Derry, New Hampshire for the ever “moderately challenging” Boston Prep 16 Miler. The course remains the most difficult road course in New England. The day was absolutely beautiful. Near 10 deg F at the start, rising a bit from there, and no wind. Brilliant sunshine lit our tour of scenic New England farmlands and large-lot homes. Well-organized and great food at the finish (high on my list of criteria for choosing a race 
). My running buddies all did great, and I’ll let them speak for themselves. My story …
Archive for January 2012
Boston Prep 16 Mile Race
The Mobile Phone is the Computer of Africa
“These are exciting times as over 5 billion people have a device that allows them to access the Web. [though only 2 billion are using the Web] The challenge is to go beyond the use of mobiles as person-to-person devices, so they become Web-access platforms. Two major conditions have to be met, though. The first is access – people need interface they can use and understand whether they speak Urdu, Mandarin or any other language, or indeed whether they are literate or not. The second is the suitability of content – people require content and services that are relevant and useful in their day-to-day life.”
This is part of an interesting interview with our Lead Program Manager, Stephane Boyera, that was conducted in association with his keynote at the first UNESCO Learning Week. Steph did a very good job, in responses to just 5 questions, of articulating the challenges to effective use of mobile phones for creating and consuming useful content, and what the Web Foundation is doing to address these challenges.