My computer monitor screen now has two bars of violet and green on either side. It happened yesterday when thunder sounded and the little voice in my head said to turn off the computer. Just as I was processing that a loud crack of thunder shook the room and I turned to see the monitor screen: drat! My father popped his head through the door to see if I was okay. It took out the phone message machine and the upper VHS stations of the TV: double drat!

We here in America aren't accustomed to considering the fragility of services we take for granted. Yes these electronic devices in my house were connected to power surge strips. We're not really prepared to be without electricity here for any length of time. This little mishap is only a slight reminder, but the aftermath of hurricane Katrina along the American Gulf is a more sobering one.

Development in the world's poorer countries is challenging and interesting. Discussions are often contentious. Many disparage small projects, saying they're just a drop in the bucket. It's a fair point, yet the needs are so pressing now that inexpensive small projects seem worth doing.

My friend Nathan wrote in his blog apcala.com/nathan/weblog/

> I read that ICT has the wonderful capacity to empower an individual person, even the >poorest. But how can one eliminate poverty through the use of ICT in Uganda?

Recently I saw two very significant Web sites dealing with uses for solar energy. The first SODIS www.sodis.ch/ is a technique for providing safe drinking water and is simplicity itself. Water in clear plastic drinking bottles exposed to heat and UV radiation from the sun kills water borne pathogens. There are some important details, but essentially it's as simple as that.

SODIS is an example of information which widely spread will save lives and improve standards of living. But spreading the word to areas without electricity or telephone, much less Internet access is difficult.

The second important Web site describes the important work of INVENEO www.inveneo.org/ to connect villages to telephone. Brilliant! Like SODIS the idea is really simple, but carefully researched to address real world problems. So for example the system is powered by solar cells, but can also be powered by pedal power on cloudy days www.inveneo.org/ Also the computers are designed with few moving parts to make them more robust. Most of all the entire system is realistically cost.

Mobile phone technology has greatly increased the spread of telephony to previously isolated areas. Innovative solutions like INVENEO's village telephones systems can further speed communications allowing people to get information they can use, like SODIS, and importantly allowing the rest of us to hear their voices.

All of us have something to offer. Information and communications technologies make it possible for many to communicate to many. Nathan's question is no rhetorical lament, but rather calls for a response. The intelligence, creativity, and the dedication of the many using new information and communications technologies can help people all over the world to rise up out of poverty. And we all can play a part in this.

People in more developed countries can also benefit by turning their attentions in this direction. Many of us have become disconnected from the processes which provide us with the necessities of life. Hurricane Katrina reminds us of how fragile our systems actually are. Communications were destroyed and greatly complicated the response to the emergency. INVECO's inexpensive system for telephony might have come in handy in New Orleans. In any case the redundancy built into the design is something that even here in the West should pay heed.

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