The Integrative Stream

Ndiyo’s Low Cost Labs

I recently came across the web site for Ndiyo. This is very clever stuff. They’ve taken a very simple approach to building low cost computer labs for developing countries (or any cost sensitive group). Little boxes, not much more than a network connection and a monitor port, connect to a central computer running Linux. A $800 computer can provide services to six or seven terminals, running web browsers, office applications, or whatever. Their goal is to get the technology down to a level where the adapter box costs a few tens of dollars – or is built right into the monitor.

The opportunities in education are really interesting. At their current price point, each terminal could cost $250 or less, even with flat panel displays. That’s far and away the cheapest way to equip a classroom. And there are maintenance advantages. By having a single server the maintenance overhead falls dramatically. This is really important in small school districts without a lot of local IT support. Configurations could even be managed centrally for an entire district. No troubleshooting required for individual PCs.

Eight or nine years ago I wanted to get into the network computers for education market. I moved on to other things when the network appliances that Oracle and Sun were pushing turned out to be more expensive and less useful than they needed to be. Commodity computers (for use as servers) are cheap enough now that this model should be revisited. The cost of ownership benefits, along with the initial cost savings, could be considerable. I can’t wait to see how much traction these guys get.