Tuesday, March 04, 2008

from the "what is the meaning of life?" dept.

Boingboing has a piece on a nifty unit that extends the reach of the InterTubes to remote locations: The Question Box.


The Question Box is a project from UC Berkeley's Rose Shuman to bring some of the benefits of the information on the Internet to places that are too remote or poor to sustain a live Internet link.

It works by installing a single-button intercom in the village that is linked to a nearby town where there is a computer with a trained, live operator.

Questioners press the intercom, describe their query to the operator, who runs it, reads the search results, and discusses them with the questioner (it's like those "executive assistant" telephone services, but for people who live in very rural places).
[MORE]

Cheers!

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