By Ravi Adhikari
How much worth someone can have of a dollar in the United States? The question itself sounds like a practical joke. But a visionary, working in remote mountains of Nepal dreams of transforming the country into something beyond imagination with this meager amount.
“If you give me a dollar every month, I can assure you that ninety percent of Nepal will be connected by wireless technology in five years,” said Mahabir Pun, the winner of the Ramon Magasaysay Award in 2007, aka the Nobel Prize of Asia, in recognition of his community service.
How much worth someone can have of a dollar in the United States? The question itself sounds like a practical joke. But a visionary, working in remote mountains of Nepal dreams of transforming the country into something beyond imagination with this meager amount.
“If you give me a dollar every month, I can assure you that ninety percent of Nepal will be connected by wireless technology in five years,” said Mahabir Pun, the winner of the Ramon Magasaysay Award in 2007, aka the Nobel Prize of Asia, in recognition of his community service.
The source of Pun’s dramatic optimism hails to Nepalis living outside Nepal, especially in the United States, Canada and European nations.
Since 2001, Pun has been on a quest to link rural villages in Nepal via WiFi network, and provide basic community services that leverage the network such as VoIP phone calls, tele-medicine, money transfer, tele-teaching, and local e-commerce.
“I want Wifi network in remote villages not for the sake of computing and fun related to it, but to provide basic facilities to thousands of human being living in that part of the world,” Pun made a heartfelt appeal while addressing a gathering of Nepali community in Bay Area on July 10. “I want to build a national broadband info highway using wireless technology.”
With his limited resources, his team of volunteers has already linked 20 rural villages, working with 7 schools in the area, and serving a population of 22,000.
Tech Talk At UC Berkley
Primarily to support the vision of Pun, the US chapter of Computer Association of Nepal (CAN-USA) organized a two-day US-Nepal Technology Development Conference on July 12 and 13, at UB Berkley.
A host of researchers, professionals, policy makers, technocrats, aid-organizations, industry leaders, and concerned citizens expressed their opinion to create technology based solutions for critical issues facing Nepal and other developing nations.
“We want to support such a noble cause every way we can,” said Bineet Sharma, president of CAN-USA, talking to this reporter. “Because of our own limitations, we cannot go to Nepal and work on the projects Mr. Pun is working. So, the best way is to help him from wherever we are.”
The keynote speaker of the Berkley conference was Aditya Jha, an ICT entrepreneur and social activist in Canada. Pun was one of the speakers. The other speakers were: Eric Brewer (Professor, UC Berkeley), Manohar Bhattarai (Member, High Level Commission on Information Technology, Nepal), Shiva Gautam (Assoc Professor, Harvard Medical School), David Zilberman (Professor, UC Berkeley), Jim Forster (Distinguished Engineer, Cisco Systems), Raka Ray (Assoc Professor, UC Berkeley) and Rifat Latifi (Professor, University of Arizona).
The seed of the conference was sowed in December 2007, during a talk by Pun. The conference was organized by Can-USA in conjunction with Department of South East Asian Studies at UC-Berkeley, which has generated a lot of interest in the bay area tech community to get involved in ICT sector development in Nepal.
“This is a great opportunity for CAN-USA to take a lead role in channeling this momentum into specific WiFi networking projects that showcase CAN-USA’s ability to make meaningful impact in ICT sector, specifically in rural areas,” said a news release.
Since 2001, Pun has been on a quest to link rural villages in Nepal via WiFi network, and provide basic community services that leverage the network such as VoIP phone calls, tele-medicine, money transfer, tele-teaching, and local e-commerce.
“I want Wifi network in remote villages not for the sake of computing and fun related to it, but to provide basic facilities to thousands of human being living in that part of the world,” Pun made a heartfelt appeal while addressing a gathering of Nepali community in Bay Area on July 10. “I want to build a national broadband info highway using wireless technology.”
With his limited resources, his team of volunteers has already linked 20 rural villages, working with 7 schools in the area, and serving a population of 22,000.
Tech Talk At UC Berkley
Primarily to support the vision of Pun, the US chapter of Computer Association of Nepal (CAN-USA) organized a two-day US-Nepal Technology Development Conference on July 12 and 13, at UB Berkley.
A host of researchers, professionals, policy makers, technocrats, aid-organizations, industry leaders, and concerned citizens expressed their opinion to create technology based solutions for critical issues facing Nepal and other developing nations.
“We want to support such a noble cause every way we can,” said Bineet Sharma, president of CAN-USA, talking to this reporter. “Because of our own limitations, we cannot go to Nepal and work on the projects Mr. Pun is working. So, the best way is to help him from wherever we are.”
The keynote speaker of the Berkley conference was Aditya Jha, an ICT entrepreneur and social activist in Canada. Pun was one of the speakers. The other speakers were: Eric Brewer (Professor, UC Berkeley), Manohar Bhattarai (Member, High Level Commission on Information Technology, Nepal), Shiva Gautam (Assoc Professor, Harvard Medical School), David Zilberman (Professor, UC Berkeley), Jim Forster (Distinguished Engineer, Cisco Systems), Raka Ray (Assoc Professor, UC Berkeley) and Rifat Latifi (Professor, University of Arizona).
The seed of the conference was sowed in December 2007, during a talk by Pun. The conference was organized by Can-USA in conjunction with Department of South East Asian Studies at UC-Berkeley, which has generated a lot of interest in the bay area tech community to get involved in ICT sector development in Nepal.
“This is a great opportunity for CAN-USA to take a lead role in channeling this momentum into specific WiFi networking projects that showcase CAN-USA’s ability to make meaningful impact in ICT sector, specifically in rural areas,” said a news release.
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