The Jeff Pulver Blog: Announcing FWD's Global Communicator Project:

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March 24, 2008

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.

GCP will need partners for all phases of the project as overcoming the connectivity and distribution challenges go far beyond what a single company can accomplish. We also hope to stimulate others to think more about the fact 70% of world's population represents a greenfield voice market. Please contact Daniel Berninger (dan@danielberninger.com) if you have ideas to contribute to GCP or we can help get visibility for your effort to reach the unserved communication markets.

Tags: Free World Dialup, FWD, Chris Anderson, Yves Behar, Tom Evslin, Stuart Gannes, Mike Masnick, Mitch Pergola, Tim Pozar, Michael Spencer, Emy Tseng, Roland Van Der Meer, Yossi Vardi, Global Communication Project, GCP, Daniel Berninger, VoIP, Jeff Pulver