Internet-in-a-box

Target SDGs

Target Users (Target Impact Group)

Community

Distributors / Implementing Organizations

Implementing organizations include several orphanages and schools in Haiti to a youth community in Malaysia, to villages in Northern India, to a girls science school in Rwanda, to rural communities and libraries across southwest Ghana, and more broad Central American deployments like Nicaragua, Costa Rica and 6 schools in the Dominican Republic beginning late 2015.

Competitive Landscape

Direct competitors include RACHEL and Kiwix.

Regions

Worldwide

Manufacturing/Building Method

Internet-in-a-Box is free and open source software that runs on many different hardware platforms recommended in their FAQ site. Some of the suitable hardware are:

Raspberry Pi 3 and the Raspberry Pi Zero W ($10 + parts): able to serve 32 students simultaneously, with built-in Wi-Fi. Provider strongly recommends the RPi 3, for DIY implementers building their 1st digital library to serve a classroom. For smaller kiosk scenarios serving just a few people consider the RPi Zero W.

Refurbished "Windows" Laptops: Quality donated laptops can work well to install Internet-in-a-Box. External Wi-Fi router is usually required, making installation more complex than RPi and Mini PCs (whose internal Wi-Fi is generally capable of AP mode, so an external Wi-Fi router is not required in many/most spaces)

Intel NUC: classic/desktop PCs are not recommended, as they consume far too much electricity. Low-power Mini PCs (such as the Intel NUC) have proven very effective as servers.

Other Mini PC: MSI units, Zotac, Gigabyte BRIX (e.g. GB-BSI3H-6100).

Intellectural Property Type

Open-source

User Provision Model

Code is available for download in their GitHub site.

Distributions to Date Status

This product has been deployed in more than a dozen countries since 2014.

Design Specifications

Internet-in-a-Box is a community-based project developed and supported by volunteers around the world. According to their GitHub site, language employed in development include JavaScript, Shell, Python and Makefile

Product Schematics

Technical Support

There is a wiki site with technical support and other materials for anyone interested in the solution.

Replacement Components

N/A

Lifecycle

N/A

Manufacturer Specified Performance Parameters

N/A

Vetted Performance Status

The solution has been deployed in more than a dozen countries since 2014 but no relevant third party analysis is available but Don Watkins article.

Safety

N/A

Complementary Technical Systems

It is required to purchase simple hardware to run the solution in a certain location. Price for all required equipment range from US$70 to US$250.

This solution does not include network infrastructure to access data and content within Internet-in-a-box solution nor end user terminals, which need to be available prior to deployment.

Academic Research and References

Compliance with regulations

Yes. All content available in Internet-in-a-box is open source and can be freely share everywhere.

Evaluation methods

For verification of proper hardware and software installation, an operation test on connectivity and data accessibility must be performed.

Other Information

None.