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The other day, Jeff Wheeler, technology director for the Hermon school system, explained to my class a technology that, by all rights, should be changing the world any time now.
It’s a free Internet service called HermonNet that connects any Hermon resident to a central server that does all the computing work, while the user’s computer acts simply as a means to input data and view the interface. This way, the user’s computer is never obsolete so long as it can connect to the Internet. People can use old computers that corporations have discarded and would otherwise have to pay to dispose of. Instead of the town’s school having to replace its computers each year, they only need to upgrade the server to deal with more students and higher bandwidth requirements. The investment is exponentially smaller.
As for the server’s stability, Wheeler told me they’ve gone months without restarting it.
On the server, the town gives everyone access to free, open-source software that requires no license. If their own computers fail or lose power, the server keeps all their information intact for when they sign back on. In addition, water towers and high-placed houses across the town have become makeshift towers to give everyone wireless access to HermonNet.
This sounds too good to be true, but it has caught the attention of the Maine Legislature, many of whom want to implement a program like it in schools statewide.
A French diplomat has also taken notice. According to the Bangor Daily News, Jean-Jacques Pierrat said he’d like to start an identical program back in France.
HermonNet is one of a number of revolutionary changes coming to personal computing lately that are bringing computer use to everyone, not just people who traditionally had access to the technology. The Internet has become the best, widest and most democratic source of information in the world and visionaries like Wheeler have become dedicated to bringing access to everyone, essentially putting the world on equal footing.
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology Media Lab has developed a $100 laptop for children in developing countries. This rugged little green machine has a crank on the side to power it up, but it still connects to the Web. Countries like Libya and Uganda have signed up to buy millions of them for school-aged children.
The mission statement for the MIT Media Lab says they intend to “invent and creatively exploit new media for human well-being and individual satisfaction without regard for present-day constraints.” These are bold words, and bold ideas attract nay-sayers like ants to a pile of sugar.
After years of hearing from companies like Microsoft that such a device would never work, 875 test machines have been manufactured.
Add to this the spread of open-source software like OpenOffice and GIMP, both powerful, free applications that let users make PowerPoint-type presentations or digitally edit photos without shelling out a fortune to Microsoft or Adobe. New media student Eryk Salvaggio swears GIMP can do anything Photoshop does, too.
Open source is nothing new. In fact, head to the IT Help Center in Shibles Hall and they’ll hand you a burned CD filled with free software for editing music, word processing and plenty of other applications. For students who pirate software, open source is free, functional and won’t get you fined for copyright violations.
The $100 laptop and even HermonNet aren’t for everyone. A $2,500 Macbook will get you better performance than running from a remote server.
To steal a metaphor from Wheeler, the people who can afford a big, roomy car usually don’t ride the bus. With technology like HermonNet, we can all get to the same destinations.
Tony Reaves loves HermonNet.
