Outside Ixtlán de Juárez, Mexico, a sign warns visitors that “In this community, private property does not exist. The purchase and sale of communal lands is prohibited.” Lucas Laursen.
Peter Bloom of Rhizomatica shows off the signal strength on a handset outside of Talea de Castro, Mexico. December 2014. Lucas Laursen.
Talea de Castro, Mexico. December 2014. Lucas Laursen.
Talea GSM’s antenna in December 2014. Lucas Laursen.
Talea GSM’s antenna in December 2014. Lucas Laursen.
IN THE cloud forests of the Sierra de Juárez mountains in southern Mexico, a new kind of tree is springing up: the mobile telephone mast. Unlike most phone masts in the world these are installed, owned and operated by small, mostly indigenous communities. Providing a mobile service in these villages was not profitable enough for big telecoms companies to bother with, unless the locals stumped up $50,000. But improvements in software and the falling price of hardware has made it possible to build a local mobile-phone base station for around $7,500, which non-profit operators and small communities can muster. Continue reading DIY Telecoms→
The sound of a mobile phone is routine in much of the world. But it’s a recent arrival here in Talea de Castro, a mountain town in the southern state of Oaxaca, Mexico.
This radio report first aired on NPR’s Here and Now in partnership with IEEE Spectrum: [html] [mp3]. See also a related news story for The Economist’s Tech Quarterly: [html].
Engineers David Díaz and Nahielly Cervantes teach recyclers in Ixtlán de Juárez how to separate plastic for recycling into 3D printer filament.
Plastic bottles at the recycling center in Ixtlán de Juárez, Mexico. They could be milled, melted, and extruded to make filament for 3D printers.
Recyclers in Ixtlán de Juárez, Mexico, learn how to separate plastic bottles for recycling into much more valuable 3D printer filament.
Plans at the FabLab in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Plastic pellets that engineers at the FabLab in Oaxaca, Mexico, will melt and extrude into filament for 3D printers.
The engineers at the FabLab in Oaxaca, Mexico, use a toaster-oven to heat plastic pellets.
Engineer David Díaz adjusts the plastic extruder at the FabLab in Oaxaca, Mexico.
A 3D printer with 3D-printed plastic parts at the FabLab in Oaxaca, Mexico.
Engineer Matt Rogge demonstrates the 3D printer he built at the FabLab in Oaxaca, Mexico.
A busy street climbs a hill on the edge of Oaxaca de Juárez, the capital of the state of Oaxaca in southern Mexico. Up one flight of stairs in a fresh-painted white residential building you’ll find the FabLab community fabrication center and Oaxaca’s first locally-produced 3D printer and plastic extruder.
This radio report first aired on Deutsche Welle in English: [html] [mp3]. The photos here are mine and first published here.
On a steep road on the outskirts of Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico, a low buzz and plastic fumes emanate from a white house. A ribbed white paper tube snakes out of a window on the building, exhaling a light smoke which mixes with fumes from nearby open-air cooks and the sooty exhaust of rumbling, unmuffled bus engines. Inside, the tube is attached to a machine that’s gobbling plastic flakes—which can come from used drink bottles—through a funnel also made from a plastic drink bottle. At the other end of the machine, a spinning wheel draws out the fresh-melted polymer into a black filament just three millimeters wide and value hundreds of times what it was worth in in bottle form. Continue reading Building a New Economy on Soda Bottles and a 3D Printer→
Journalist covering global development by way of science and technology.
