Everywhere you turn, you hear the pundits say that thanks to computers the Digital Age offers everyone unprecedented access to information. To everyone who can afford it, that is. While the price of a new computer has dropped dramatically over the last 5 years -- you can get one for under $500 -- people with low incomes view owning a computer is a dream that is far out of reach. Even if they could afford a computer, the software they need would still be more than they could afford. Instead of benefiting everyone, computers are widening the gap between the wired haves and the have-nots.
In recent months, President Clinton and a host of others in the public and private sectors have proposed programs like Kids 2000 and Power Up, aimed at closing the gap. The programs they are advocating are expensive (Kids 2000 will lay out $20 million a year over six years) and not much has been done to make these grand ideas a reality.
Jose Lacal, on the other hand, has an inexpensive and powerful way to close the Digital Divide, both here and abroad.
According to Lacal, "Without being PC literate, a vast percentage of the world's population is and will remain condemned to a limited range of employment opportunities, most of them low-paying and without growth potential". And that's where his Volks-PC initiative comes in. The goal of the Volks-PC is to bring computers to those who need them most. Regardless of where in the world they live.
The idea behind the Volks-PC is akin to that of the Volkswagen. Instead of bringing inexpensive cars to the masses, Lacal wants to put a simple, yet powerful, PC into the hands of those who can't afford a high-end system. Lacal describes a Volks-PC as "a comprehensive package of software and clearly-written manuals that turns a PC into a productivity tool to empower the world's citizens." Bound up in this idea is the concept of the Digital Trader, who Lacal defines as anyone who uses their knowledge and skills to earn income by trading "digital goods", like software and electronic documents. A Digital Trader can be anyone from the son of a Bangledeshi shoe maker to a poor single parent in a large North American city.
The person behind the Volks-PC has an interesting perspective on the computer world. Jose Lacal describes himself as "a combination of a nerd and businessman." He's been using computers since the eighties, and currently works with bleeding-edge technologies at a large international firm. As an entrepreneur, one of his projects was founding a successful Internet Service Provider in Mexico.
Using this experience, Lacal has devised what he believes to be the optimal hardware and software configuration for a "People's PC". The hardware specs of a Volks-PC aren't what many people would call cutting edge. Lacal sees the first Volks-PC as being a 386 with 4 MB of RAM, a hard drive, modem, sound card, and mouse. It's a no-frills approach that can meet the needs of most users. Users will be able to upgrade the hardware with industry-standard components.
Lacal states that one of the reasons to use older technology is that a "Volks-PC can do 95% of the same functions, faster and cheaper, than any of today's 'traditional' PCs for 10% of the cost." The fact is, and always has been, that not everyone needs the same hardware and software. A large number of today's users leverage only a fraction of the power of their computers. Lacal points out that "for grandma, a 386 with e-mail capabilities and is an affordable solution to stay in touch with the grand kids." Taking this a step further, he adds "ninety-five percent of the world's population cannot afford, or needs, a traditional PC with bloated software."
To some, the Volks-PC seems like an anachronism in a time when sub-$500 computers are bringing the dream of owning a PC within reach of more people. But it isn't. The Volks-PC is a full system; many of the cheaper PCs come without often-expensive monitors. And the Volks-PC is fully-loaded with applications for personal/business productivity, using and publishing on the Internet, and for software development. But it's software with a difference -- software that's released under the Open Source license. Open Source is a concept which allows developers to freely modify the source code, the actual building blocks, of a program. The only catch is that the fixes have to be released to the public.
"Open Source software is the foundation rock of the Volks-PC concept," Lacal states emphatically. "The central focus is 'Power to the Digital Trader'. That transfer of power starts by giving full access to the source code of all software the user runs." Users can get under the hood and tinker. They can fix software bugs and even add new functionality. Doing this benefits the wider community of users.
All the software for the Volks-PC is useful and functional, and includes a desktop GUI, Web and software development tools, a Web server, programs to access the Internet, and perhaps even office productivity applications. Lacal is in conversation with a number of software vendors in an effort to get them to release older versions of their applications as Open Source. But he's careful to note that "I'm not trying to have the software released to me or to the Volks-PC initiative, but rather to have the source code freely available to anybody via the Web."
The engine running all this software will be good old DOS -- most likely FreeDOS, an Open Source version of DOS currently under development. The choice of DOS as the Volks-PC operating system is a sensible one. DOS will run smoothly on the chosen hardware. There is still a lot of powerful software for DOS out there, and much of it is Open Source or freeware (see the Free Software for DOS site for a wide-ranging selection). These run the gamut of personal productivity apps, typesetting systems, utilities, programs for using the Internet, and software development tools. On top of that, "DOS is a familiar environment for millions of users," Lacal explains. "the use of any other operating system will create a steep learning curve that I want to avoid for existing users." The version of DOS running the Volks-PC is a proven OS that's stable and not crashy. Unlike recent versions of Windows which are very unstable and require massive amounts of memory, large hard drives, and fast processors.
All this may make Lacal seem like a wide-eyed utopian. He isn't. Lacal does view the Volks-PC as a form of computing with a social conscience, and he created the concept to give something back to a society that has given him much in the way of educational opportunities and culture. The Volks-PC initiative will be a for-profit enterprise, but not only for Lacal's own enrichment. The profits will be used to fund additional Open Source development efforts. Lacal sees the Volks-PC initiative as eventually being a business agent for developers. "It is sometimes very difficult to be both a good programmer and a good business person," Lacal says. "The Volks-PC will help good programmers do what they do best, and we will run the business side for them."
The Volks-PC initiative faces several problems, the largest of which is funding. Lacal estimates that it will take $250,000 to get the project rolling. In finding that funding, Lacal faces his other major hurdle: peoples' attitudes towards PCs. "The hardest part of all of this has been dealing with the incredulity of people who think that if your PC doesn't run Windows, it means the PC is useless." On top of that, a venture capitalist Lacal approached for funding concluded that this project is a "huge waste of time", and a technology editor at a large Canadian newspaper referred to the Volks-PC as "just another piece of vaporware that will never materialize". Then, of course, there is the problem of finding suppliers who can and will produce low-end hardware. Hardware which is old in comparison with today's popular high-end systems. The only company manufacturing PCs based on older hardware specifications is My Turn.com, with their Global PC. While inexpensive, the Global PC runs proprietary software -- something that definitely does not fit in with the Open Source philosophy.
As it stands now, the Volks-PC only exists as part of Lacal's home network. In the end, though, Lacal concedes that "it really doesn't matter if my idea succeeds or not. What matters to me is that somebody does something along the general lines I'm proposing."