Nigel Ballard wants to help the world, and Intel apparently wants him to, too: Ballard's projects include digital inclusion, which is the extension of useful technology to underserved and unreached people, whether in rural or urban parts of the U.S., or distant reaches of Africa. Ballard's background at Personal Telco, a wireless community group in Portland, Ore., gave him some insight, as well as his efforts to build devices that would use mesh, Wi-Fi, and long-range wireless combined with solar power to offer voice and information to distant communities. Ballard talks about how you can't throw computers at problems, but need to back them up with training and applications.
Ballard was also one of the key folks that Intel tapped to bring connectivity to areas affected by Hurricane Katrina. Ballard describes being on the job for a few weeks and then suddenly being given carte blanche to just get whatever was needed however it could down south. [40 min., 19 MB, MP3]