IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015 - 29

for already existing technology. Some have ventured
into the area of urgent needs without considering the
intricacies of the product cycle, including approvals
and other critical issues. It is important to underline
that health and other urgent initiatives are no place for
experimentation, but rather that known effective technologies and processes2 should be deployed. When the
infrastructure demands the installation of telecommunication equipment on top of 90-meter towers in the
Amazon, the equipment to be utilized has to be proven
to work in such circumstances, for a long period of
time - especially when the technology will used for
health services.
However there are various aspects of technology that
can be improved; among them:
■ Localization of firmware and software.
■ Creation of software for one-click configuration of
replacement equipment.
■ Diagnosis tools.
■ Maintenance tools.
■ Technologies that can add value to already existing
infrastructure (i.e., environmental monitoring, early
warning appropriate technology, etc.).
■ Add-on tools.
■ Application of industrial management processes to
the context.
■ Research and development on interdisciplinary or
niche areas.
■ Other areas.
The issue of standards is quite important as generally standard-capable technologies are cheaper, more
flexible, and a solution is not locked in to single vendors. However, there are always exceptions and other
options must always be open, including the recommendation for standard-creation bodies such as appropriate IEEE standard groups. It is important to underline
that, in our context, standards generally lower the cost
of equipment, but do not necessarily make better or
appropriate technologies. Another important issue to
consider is that standards have generally been focused
on "mainstream" markets, leaving aside others. This is
the case of long-distance Wi-Fi, where equipment manufacturers, through the evaluation of real needs, have
carried out proprietary changes to standards in order to
provide desired services and flexibility.3 However, this
has caused projects to be locked to single vendors, thus
sacrificing costs and functionality in the long run.
2

For the purpose of proof of concept and technical pilot experimentations,
a testbed was built in Ottawa. Besides the technical learning benefits of
such a testbed, important aspects of volunteer dynamics, partnerships,
and other aspects were learned. However the most important role of a
stable implementation in the Peruvian Amazon was the experience of the
main partner organization.
3
This can be the case of Mikrotik's Nstreme or Ubiquiti's AirMax, among
many others.

MARCH 2015

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Importance of a Sustainability Plan
Engineers, technologists, business people, and international developers tend to focus their efforts differently.
Technologists generally measure results based on the
success of implementation and maintenance of technology; business people on profits resulting from usage and
maintenance of infrastructure and services; international
development organizations and NGOs through impacts
and outcomes that are set in the context of their timeframe, main components of their programs, cross-cutting
issues, and requirements of funding organizations.
In a real scenario where time, resources, and intentions of the partners are favorable, all these areas should
be considered, over a short, medium, and long period
of time as part of a formal innovative business plan with
components such as capacity-building, medium- and longterm maximization of benefits to the local population, and
expansion to other areas. These initiatives must not be limited to program cycles but should instead be open ended,
possibly lasting more than five years. This highlights again
the importance of bottom-up and top-down socialization.
The nature of the project (health, technology, sanitation, water, roads, and infrastructure) has played an
important role in the ability of the local population to
sustain it. For instance, villagers in various parts of the
world are known to have good organization for when the
potable water infrastructure fails, electricity infrastructure
is not operational, portions of the road are washed away
by floods, or when there are needs for other urgent fixes.
Appropriate telecommunications infrastructure has the
potential to become one of the most straightforward
infrastructures to service because of its packaged nature,
lowering price, and the emergence of technically oriented
new generations. In the Amazon project, volunteers in
various parts of the world were able to encapsulate innovative scripts and software for one-click configurations
and reconfigurations of equipment, thus enabling locals
to service and replace parts quite efficiently.
In our particular case, one important factor that
favored success in the health sector so far, is the fact
that operationally, health centers depend on the main
hospital, and administratively, the main hospital is
served with statistical and case information that higher
health authorities demand. I.e., positive results justify
their funding. This two-way dependency merged with
communication technology enhances and furthers their
relationship. Thus, in projects of this kind, note will
need to be taken of administrative-operational dependence, as this might be one of the most important characteristics for the sustainability of a project.

International Applications
This article provided background on a long-distance connectivity project carried out in a poor and economically

IEEE TEchnology and SocIETy MagazInE

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of IEEE Technology and Society Magazine - March 2015