Using The Net To Connect To The Rest Of The World

Cartographers say the distance from Ontong Java, Solomon Islands' northernmost atoll to Rennell Island to the south is a distance of 900 kilometres. In the other direction, from the Shortland Islands bordering Papua New Guinea's Bougainville Island to the east (northeast actually) and Fatutaka atoll, to the extreme southwest, it is 1600 kilometres long. Scattered and remote as they are, many of these islands, however, are in instant communication with Honiara and the outside world at the click of a button. Amazing as this may sound, the technological breakthrough had been made possible by a project known locally as the People First Network, Pfnet for short, that is fast getting recognition worldwide. It is trailblazing stuff, so much so that the project became a finalist in the Stockholm Challenge last year and accepted into the InfoDev ICT Story Competition, initiatives that recognise the ingenious use of technology for the development of human life.

Getting connected...a Pfnet outlet in Honiara

At Prepcom 3 of the World Summit on Information Society in Geneva late last month, a video on Pfnet produced by UN Television was screened to delegates. The video, producers say, will go out on all networks to be seen by millions of viewers. The four-minute film features the Ulawa email station of Pfnet pirupiru@pipolfastaem.gov.sb. Ulawa lies south of Malaita but belongs to Makira Province.

As you read this story, Pfnet is collaborating with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to introduce a revolutionary new email-based search engine that is easy to use as Google but operates via email.

"It returns the full text of 10 to 15 best results pages in a small compressed file optimised for low bandwidth connections," says Pfnet advisor, David Leeming.

It remembers previous searches and so avoids repeating. It builds up a searchable library on the remote computer. Massachusetts Institute for Technology is testing it and adapting it to our system.

"Basically, it gives rural email stations a whole new utility direct searching of the Internet and retrieval of web pages from rural stations." In fact, the email system opens a list of seemingly endless opportunities. Leeming said the entire community in these remote islands or villages have become to depend on Pfnet as the main means of communication.

One seafood enterprise, for instance, depends on it to receive orders and check on payments. Health workers use it in case of emergencies, either when an urgent evacuation is required or questions on treatment are raised. Bulk of the users are students who need to check on places in tertiary institutions in Honiara or abroad, as well as seeking clarifications from the national exam board.

Even during the cyclone season, Pfnet users can obtain up-to-the-minute weather reports from the Weather Office in the capital, hundreds of kilometres away.

"A seaweed farmers association in one of the rural areas uses it to manage its exports, farmers to get technical advice from PestNet and other farmers' advisories that offer help on crop diseases," explains Leeming.

"Churches use it heavily to communicate and arrange activities, police officers use it to communicate with their head office, micro-project programmes like CPRF use it to monitor projects and communicate with provincial officers."

Installing an emailing station is not cheap. To be able to obtain short-wave radio, low-end computers and solar panels, Pfnet has been relying on foreign donors. For software, it requires Wavemail/Pactor-2 system which allows not only HF but also VHF Packet, telephone, Immarsat and other connectivity choices integrated into a single upgradeable and secure system.

"Conceptually, it's no different from using a computer with a telephone modem, except that instead of an email going through the telephone modem, ours go through an HF modem," says Leeming.

Indeed, the beauty of the system, which explains why it is fast gaining popularity in the Solomon Islands, is Pfnet's ability to bridge the distance and remoteness through a reliable and dependable communication system.

Pre-Pfnet, these islands, like in other islands around the Pacific, rely on the unreliable and mostly expensive radio telephone system.

For now, email stations of Pfnet have been established in 10 locations around the country, and Leeming says the plan is to erect 10 more stations. So successful is the project, that its original sponsor, the United Nations Development Programme, intends to introduce similar schemes in at least four other countries in the Pacific.