Inveneo

Inveneo Newsfeed's blog

Subscribe to Inveneo Newsfeed

Keep current on Inveneo's latest news, tips, and information - subscribe via email or one of these handy formats.

.

Inveneo Low Power Advantage: 60 Hours of Computing on One Charge

The cost of electricity is a huge barrier to ICT adoption in the developing world. Rolling blackouts are common in cities, while in peri-urban and rural areas, there's no grid electricity infrastructure - its all solar or generator power. Yet petrol or diesel generators are noisy, costly and hard to maintain and solar power is expensive - $10+ per Watt.

Every Watt Counts

In an effort to make every watt count, Inveneo offers low-power computers that are highly energy efficient. We've reduced the power draw of an Inveneo Computing Station to 17 Watts thanks to custom LCD screens and Intel Atom chipsets. But what does that really mean for an end user?

Let's compare an Inveneo High-Efficiency Computing Station (PDF) with a traditional desktop computer:

To be truthful, even we were blown away by the difference. We knew the Dell would burn through the standard deep cycle battery pretty quickly. It lasted only 3 hours. But we didn't expect the Inveneo Computing Station to last for 60 hours - 20x longer.

For everyone from a cybercafe owner to a school to a microfinance institution, this should be an immediate "wow!". With Inveneo you can go 1.5 weeks on a single charge, reducing dependency on grid power or generator usage. And your solar power costs will be 1/10th or less than a traditional computer.

Learn more about Inveneo Low-power Solutions

Andris Bjornson is Ranked the #1 Reason to Feel Hopeful About the World!

Andris Bjorson installing WiFi in Port-au-Prince Haiti

Matador Change, which features people and projects around the world committed to positive change, has bestowed a great honor on Inveneo project engineer Andris Bjornson. In their grand list of 19 Reasons to Feel Hopeful about the World, Andris was nominated as the most hopeful reason:

1. Andris Bjornson

Long-time Matador member Andris Bjornson has a degree in physics. He’s worked as a wildland firefighter, a State Department diplomat, and an adventure trip leader.

But the reason why Andris is #1 on this list is because of the work he has done in Haiti. Within six days following the January 12, 2010 earthquake, Andris traveled to Port-au-Prince with Inveneo, a non-profit dedicated to improving information communications technology in underserved communities.

"Within three weeks we linked 11 NGOs, among them CARE, the IRC, and Save the Children, setting them up with networks so they could connect with their headquarters," Andris says. "Though the relief effort seem[ed] chaotic, it would be much more so without the technology we were able to put in place."

And while Inveneo can also seem chaotic, we're much better off with amazing staff like Andris. Thanks for making us all hopeful!

Congratulations to Richard Chisala, Now a MACRA Board Member

After a successful career with European ICT companies, Richard Chisala returned to his native Malawi to effect economic development with technology. As the Chief Technology Officer for UltiNetS, an Inveneo Certified ICT Partner, Richard works every day to increase access and impact of life-changing ICTs in Malawi.

His contribution has just been recognized by the Malawi government with a board appointment to the Malawi Communications Regulatory Authority (MACRA).

Of his appointment to the MACRA Board of Directors, Richard says:

This is a great honour to me and strategic for the Government. I am looking forward to an exciting two years with the Regulatory Authority — we have so much to look for in the future!

We at Inveneo would like to congratulate Richard on his accomplishment — both with the government of Malawi and in his own efforts to connect those who need ICT most. It is also a great honor for us to work with local partners like Richard, in Malawi and around the world.

Inveneo and EKTA Foundation in The Economist

In anticipation of next month’s Annual Meeting, Clinton Global Initiative (CGI) is running a new commitment each week in The Economist, highlighting the work of one or more CGI members.

We’re proud to be featured in the profile placed by our partner and funder EKTA Foundation in the August 7, 2010 issue of The Economist. The EKTA Foundation is an innovative family foundation based in Alabama, and has had an interest in Haiti since the 1980s. It has been a leading member of CGI’s Haiti Action Group and has spearheaded projects in Haiti for water.org and the Haitian Education & Leadership Program since its inception in 2007.

EKTA Foundation is supporting our expansion into rural and underserved areas of Haiti, like Leogane, where Inveneo has just established a permanent long-distance WiFi link from Port-au-Prince thanks to MultiLink, one of our local partners in Haiti and Rohan Mahy our newest Inveneo team member.

The Clinton Global Initiative hosts meetings with changemakers from the public, private and nonprofit sectors, all of whom have demonstrated a commitment to actions "to realize change." CGI Annual Meetings have brought together more than 125 current and former heads of state, 15 Nobel Peace Prize winners, hundreds of leading global CEOs, major philanthropists and foundation heads.

Inveneo is honored to be a CGI member for the fifth year in a row, and attend the CGI Annual Meeting 2010 on September 21-23 in New York City.