![]() The very best of them in my opinion is called Sharepod. There are ways to use your Ipod without succumbing to the tyranny of Apple and Big Media's bid for monopolistic control over file sharing. Well, I'm blogging here today to tell those of you with similar frustrations that there ARE solutions. The biggest problem in my work is that almost all of my colleagues in the poor areas of Cairo (Adham Fawzy, whose pictures accompany this article, is the best example) have invested in media-ready cell phones with cameras, and they frequently take little videos or photographs of the problems they are facing when building solar hot water systems to give to me, and while I can download them on a PC computer, I have to then put them on a USB stick and wait until I get home to put them in my ITunes library on My Macintosh and only THEN load them up on my Ipod so I can share them with others in the field who might have ideas or solutions. The problem with the Ipod, as those of you who own them must concurr, is its slavish devotion to Itunes and the single computer (that sounds like a good name for a sitcom about a romance between cybernetic organisms in some future robotic big city: "Don't miss 'Itunes and the Single Computer', Wednesdays at 8 Eastern 7 Central time!) This came in very handy when doing my household demand survey for hot water systems - I could show pictures of all the possible systems and simply ask people to point to the one's they use or prefer. In many meetings throughout the Middle East, from urban ghettoes to small villages, I have been able to make my point by pulling the Ipod from my pocket and simply saying "tafaddal, take a look". The other is that I can use it to show videos and photographs of the technical issues I want to communicate wherever I go and despite language barriers. The fact that the Apple Ipod (I have the 30 GB version) can be used as a portable external hard drive is one reason why it comes in so handy for people in the field. The pouch is soldered to the board - impossible for most of us to fix even if we could find a replacement - these battery pouches aren't sold off the shelf! Aargh!)įortunately, I had a Video Ipod and learned you could use it to do far more than merely listen to ITunes and watch Britney Spear's vapid Music Videos. I thus rely on my Apple Ipod - At least until its battery dies - shame on these companies for forcing us to pay through the nose for "technical service" to do something as simple as change a battery! I took apart the Ipac and found that the battery is a lithium pouch - not a removable battery. My Ipac's battery is stone dead and (maddeningly) irreplaceable. ostensibly in a form of Urban Ecology, I am using an Ipod. These days, having switched from my Master's studies in what could be considered Rural Agro-forestry to a Ph.D. It enabled me to climb steep rock faces to get to places where the baboons I was observing lived, and then quickly take my field notes I could also use the convenient presence of Windows Media Player to show local people pictures or video of the plants I was interested in finding. Zoo, I had an HP Ipac palmtop computer and a foldable pocket sized QWERTY keyboard that I took with me to the bush in South Africa. ![]() I don't know how many of you out there in development who work in remote places or infrastructurally challenged urban environments also use your Ipods or palmtop computers or Iphones or media-friendly cell phones as effective participatory development communication devices, but I have to share with those who don't that these mobile technologies are a Godsend!īack at the turn of the century (almost a decade ago!), when I was working for the L.A. Photo: A still image from a video taken on Adham's cell phone that Mahmoud took of Adham and Hana explaining their experience dealing with the goats on the roof, now on my Ipod so I can share it with people who can't visit Adham's roof and so I can review the issues they are facing when I'm on the plane.) (Another photo from Adham's cell phone, of Adham foam-gluing the styrofoam strips to the plastic hot water tank - they are experimenting to see which is more labor intensive or more efficient, building a styrofoam box, which uses less foam spray (35 LE or 7 dollars a can!) and is therefore less expensive, or making a round insulation of strips which makes maintenance of the tank easier.) Here they are preparing styrofoam pieces to insulate the hot water tank on Adham's roof and debating the best way to do it.) (Photo: A picture from Adham's cell phone showing Mahmoud and Hanna viewing pictures and watching little videos on a mobile device to help them build their do it yourself hot water systems.
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