Digital Common Sense

On Sunday evening before VON, Sheryl and I had the pleasure of sitting after dinner chatting with Jeff Pulver for an hour or so. Jeff’s a fascinating man with many diverse interests. He’s someone we’re proud to count among our friends. For those of you who either know Jeff or have heard him speak, he’s passionate about a number of things. When Jeff’s passion kicks in, his excitement really shows.

Jeff shared a bit of information about the concept and drivers behind one of his new projects, FWD’s Global Communicator Project.

Announcing FWD’s Global Communicator Project:

I meant to kick off Spring 2008 VON.x with the announcement of FWD’s Global Communicator Project. But I didn’t, as I spent a few minutes honoring the passing of Russell Shaw, who passed away on March 14th. I had hoped to see Russell at Spring 2008 VON.x and talk to him about this project before talking to anyone else about it.

Announcing FWD’s Global Communicator Project:

I want to thank the visionary participants of the first official planning meeting of FWD’s Global Communications Project.

- Chris Anderson, Editor-in-Chief, Wired Magazine
- Yves Behar, Founder, Chief Designer, fuseproject
- Daniel Berninger, CEO, FWD
- Tom Evslin, co-founder, CTO, FWD
- Stuart Gannes, founder, Stanford Digital Vision Program
- Mike Masnick, CEO, Techdirt
- Mitch Pergola, Managing Partner, fuseproject
- Tim Pozar, Partner, Late Night Software
- Michael Spencer, co-founder, i2 partners
- Emy Tseng, Director, San Francisco Digital Inclusion Program
- Roland Van Der Meer, Partner, Velocity Interactive Group
- Yossi Vardi, Principal, International Technologies Ventures

fuseproject hosted the meeting in their San Francisco studio toward the creation of a new category of device capable of delivering communication to the billions of people presently unserved by the communication industry.

I have suffered plenty of abuse over the years about the supposedly naive sentiment that led to the founding of Free World Dialup in 1995, so it is gratifying to see the caliber of people excited by continuing the vision. Yves Behar and fuseproject, for example, created the design of the XO Laptop for Nicholas Negroponte’s OLPC and routinely gets featured in art exhibits around the world.

FWD’s Global Communication Project (GCP) seeks to leverage VoIP and open standards in a device that delivers affordable communication beyond even the very rapid and ongoing price performance improvements achieved by the cellular industry. We have in mind a device costing a fraction of the $25 price point associated with low end SIP phones, and a business model without monthly service charges. The design requirements call for a device that copes with rural realities or urban environments and supports deployment scales from a few dozen to billions of devices.

[Read Jeff's Full Post]

Jeff’s unbridled passion about putting telephones in the hands of everyone on the planet is infectious and gigantic. That’s one of the things I like most about Jeff - he doesn’t think small.

Jeff and the brain trust behind this effort are looking for help from all of us. Grand ideas require grand efforts and teamwork to succeed. I urge everyone to contact Daniel Berninger (dan@danielberninger.com) and ask how you can help. I’ll be sending him a note shortly.

Filed by Ken at 10:51 am under General