Closing the Digital Divide
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What does the world stand to lose without equal access to technology and the internet? Microsoft\\u2019s Dona Sarkar and Leonardo Ortiz discuss the Microsoft Airband Initiative and why the future of jobs and education make closing the digital divide more important than ever. Then, Windows Insider MVP Andre DaCosta from Jamaica, shares his thoughts on the power of connectivity, plus a few tips for optimizing Windows while having limited access to the internet.
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Episode transcript
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Welcome to the Windows Insider Podcast.\\xa0 You\'re listening to Episode 12.\\xa0 I\'m your host, Jason Howard.\\xa0 Today, we\'re exploring the digital divide and access to the Internet, what does the world stand to lose if some people have access to technology and the Internet and other people don\'t; what can be done about the digital divide; and why should all tech companies care.\\xa0 Those questions and more coming up in this episode.
First up, Dona Sarkar, head of the Windows Insider Program, chats with Leonardo Ortiz of Microsoft Philanthropies about how the digital divide profoundly affects communities, education, and employment.
Here are Leonardo and Dona.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 My name is Leonardo Ortiz.\\xa0 I\'ve been in Microsoft for 18 years now, and I currently work for the Microsoft Philanthropies group where I oversee our global execution.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Which is, you know, kind of amazing
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 It\'s definitely fun, you know, and it has to do with figuring out how we land our programs all over the world.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s right.\\xa0 So as a society we\'re in the middle of an exciting technological transformation, but there\'s billions of people around the world, and millions right here in the U.S. who don\'t have access to tech and the Internet.\\xa0 Why is this issue of digital divide so critical, and why is Microsoft Philanthropies so committed to solving it.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 As you say, you know, the world is changing at a very rapid pace. Everything is becoming more digital, which means the way in which we work, the way in which we learn, the interaction with government, with commerce.
And as the world becomes more digital, when you have more than half of the population in the world with no access to technology or connectivity, which on itself shouldn\'t matter that much but for the fact that that connectivity allows you to access opportunities, content, knowledge, services, then these people are lagging behind even in a more rapid pace. They are underserved already, and the gap gets just widening in a more dramatic way.
And they\'re not being able to advance and access technology by market means, which means that companies like Microsoft, we really need to step up and do some extra work in addition to what we normally do in our business model to ensure that technology advances but that we left no one behind, to the extent possible.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 You said over 50 percent of the world has no connectivity.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Exactly.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s enormous.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Not even a feature phone, nothing.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Nothing.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Nothing.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 So more than 50 percent of the world is never connected.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Exactly.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s pretty extraordinary.\\xa0 And I know you guys have been doing a lot of work over the past few years to ensure that people in communities have access to the opportunities that tech provides.\\xa0 Can you tell us a little bit about what you\'ve been doing.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Yes.\\xa0 So our main goal is to bridge that digital divide, to ensure that people have access to technology, but most important to ensure that people is ready for the future.\\xa0 In a world in which we\'re going to see more artificial intelligence, more robotics, the way of working is going to evolve rapidly.
We need to make sure, and I\'m going to start with young people, that all the future generations that will come to the workforce are future ready, that they\'re learning not only how to use technology but how to create technology, which is now going to become not just something that is useful for the software industry, but for everyone, regardless of the discipline that people pursue.\\xa0 So that\'s going to more generalized in the future, and we need to make sure that that happens.
Right now, we\'re seeing displacement starting to happen, job displacement, people whose jobs are going away because of automation, and especially in areas like the manufacturing industry or retail industry.
And we need to work with society, with academia, with nonprofit sector to ensure that we\'re identifying those people, that we\'re reskilling those individuals, and that we\'re matching them to the existing jobs that are out there, because people may just think jobs are going away, but you know what, every time that technology evolves and that industry evolves, jobs go away but other new jobs come up.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s right.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 But we just need to make sure that people are trained rapidly enough to be able to plug into the existing jobs.
So we\'re working on those two fronts, and a third area of work is ensuring that the nonprofit sector, which is one that doesn\'t have a lot of budget and that solely focuses on addressing some of the most difficult societal issues in the world, that they are also adopting technology so that they themselves become more effective, more productive, and do more good around the globe.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 The best way to empower them is by being able to scale with tech.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Exactly.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 I love that.
What you just said about jobs go away but new jobs emerge, and we have to really take the responsibility to train the next generation to be able to do those jobs, it reminds me a lot of that article that Brad Smith recently wrote about the retirement of the horse -
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Oh yes.
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 -- with the introduction of the car, and all of the new jobs that came along with the introduction of the car, different jobs, completely different.
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 That\'s a great example.\\xa0 A great stat from that story is that in the year 1900, New York City used to have 100,000 horses.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Wow.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 That was what made possible everything in New York, right, people moving from one place to another, products being moved.\\xa0 And then 20 years later, those horses were gone.\\xa0 Imagine the amount of people that were driving the coaches or the veterinarians or people feeding the horses or cleaning after the horses.\\xa0 Those jobs went away, but now you needed chauffeurs for cars and drivers, mechanics, and a breadth of other roles that existed.\\xa0 Now, can the person that was cleaning the barn after the horse, was that individual skilled to now go and repair a car?\\xa0 No.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 No.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 But something needed to happen.\\xa0
And that happens in any industrial revolution, and that happened all over the world.\\xa0 The countries that have the ability or the societies that have the ability to learn faster and adapt faster are the ones who emerge to the top.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 So true, and history has dictated that this will happen over and over again.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 It\'s happening, yeah.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 It\'s happening.\\xa0 So speaking of happening, can you share a success story that represents what people or communities can achieve once they have access to technology?\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 We see a lot of different stories, all inspiring.\\xa0 Especially, when I talk to people, to journalists and other people around the globe, and we talk about all these 52 percent of population in the world that has no access to technology, some of those communities don\'t even have running water or electricity.\\xa0 They barely have food.\\xa0 They have no education.\\xa0
So people ask us, why would they care about having technology when they\'re not even covering these needs, right, their essential needs.\\xa0
And the answer is that technology helps leapfrog certain stages of development.\\xa0 And technology helps accelerate the ability for communities to access things, content, different services, that will allow people to improve their quality of life.\\xa0
A great example of this is these three kids from Uganda, Aaron, Joshua, and Josiah.\\xa0 A couple of years ago, they participated in a competition that we have in Microsoft called Imagine Cup, you probably have heard of it, which is inspiring kids in high schools and colleges to learn how to develop software.\\xa0 And then by doing that, they enter this competition in which they create solutions for problems that they see in their communities, whether it is related to health or education or the environment or something else.\\xa0
These kids are from Uganda, and they realized that the rate of mortality of mothers and newborns was very high in rural areas, these places that had no running water, on electricity, nor clinics.\\xa0 And the mortality rate was high because there wasn\'t enough health, not even physicians but nurses or other people, practitioners or facilities to even monitor the pregnancy.\\xa0 And where you had community clinics of some sort, they didn\'t have the equipment, like no way to do an ultrasound, right?\\xa0
So with a mobile device, a mobile phone, and coding, they invented a very low-cost device, and software, to actually replace the sonogram or the ultrasound machine at a super-low cost.\\xa0 Basically, it\'s the cost of the device, just the phone.\\xa0\\xa0
And they started deploying it in rural Uganda.\\xa0 And they tried it, they created this thing no one had ever created something like it, definitely not the industry, because it\'s a very cheap solution.\\xa0 And in the communities in which they piloted, the mortality rate started going down very quickly.\\xa0\\xa0
They have now been in contact with local governments from a couple of African countries, or national governments from African countries that are now interested in expanding the use of this solution to be able to provide a better quality of health to expecting mothers in rural Africa.\\xa0 That\'s a story I love.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 I love that story.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 And like that we see a lot of other examples of great things being done.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 I love that.\\xa0 That\'s such impact, because it affects not just the mothers but their entire family, it affects huge communities.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Oh, it\'s a multiplying effect.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Yeah.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Yeah, that\'s why organizations say that if you work with women, the multiplying effect in society is huge, because in many cases, especially in developing countries, women are heads of family.\\xa0 So you impact the whole family immediately.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 I think that\'s fascinating.\\xa0 What you said about leapfrogging is really powerful, because we have a Windows Insider named Caleb teaching Code.org tutorials.\\xa0 He used the Minecraft ones that your team produced to teach basic tech education to these kids outside Nairobi, in Kenya.\\xa0 And these are kids who have never seen a computer, who have never been in a connected area.\\xa0 So he goes to town with a car, some PCs, Code.org tutorials, sets up this hub, and actually gets them hands-on time with these tutorials.\\xa0
And what\'s fascinating is that the kids take to it immediately, they learn it right away.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 They do.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 And parents will often come and say, "What are you wasting your time with, this has no place in our life, we need you to be helping on the farm," you know, this kind of thing.\\xa0
So Caleb told us a story that his best student is a ten-year old named Bernice. And one day, Bernice\'s mom comes to school and says, "Why is she wasting her time with this?\\xa0 This has no room on our farm.\\xa0 We need her to work on the farm."\\xa0 And Caleb said, "She is learning things that will enable her to bypass farming forever."\\xa0 And to Eunice that\'s like a shocking stat, right, she doesn\'t know that that means.\\xa0
So what Caleb did was he pulled in the parents and the teachers into learning to code so they also have the opportunity to leapfrog their lives, and they\'re able to actually help their kids with technology, because when kids have questions, you go to the adult in your life.\\xa0 And Caleb knows he\'s not going to be around in their village forever, so he\'s systematically changing people\'s lives, not just kids, but the adults who love them, who care about them.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 This is a great example, and it speaks to what we\'re really getting when learning how to code, which is it\'s not the coding, it\'s you\'re learning critical thinking, problem-solving.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s right.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 And in the long term we in Microsoft and many other players in the industry and in academia are convinced that computer science education is fundamental and should be compulsory in the same way in which we all learn biology and chemistry and physics.\\xa0 Not because we will become part of the health industry or go and work for a chemical company, but because, for example, for you to know how your body works you needed to learn fundamentals of biology.\\xa0 In an increasingly digital world, if we want to understand how things work in society, we need to learn computer science.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Oh, absolutely.\\xa0 I think everyone has to learn computer science.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Even if you\'re not going to become an engineer.\\xa0 So that\'s --\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Essentially if.\\xa0 And I tell everyone it\'s like reading and writing.\\xa0 Just because you can read and write doesn\'t make you an author.\\xa0 You don\'t need to become an author necessarily.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Exactly.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 But it\'s fundamental to learn.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Exactly.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 So in order for people to actually learn computer science, we need connectivity.\\xa0 And like you\'re saying, over 50 percent of the world\'s population isn\'t online.\\xa0 And in the U.S. 23 million people in the rural parts of the U.S. don\'t have access to high-speed Internet or broadband.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 You know what\'s crazy about that?\\xa0 Even in some of these communities we have data centers, and other companies have data centers.\\xa0 Can you imagine you go outside of a data center there\'s no connectivity for the community, the neighboring families?\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s crazy.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 So that\'s a big problem.\\xa0 It\'s a global problem, of course.\\xa0 We have been as Microsoft engaged in trying to address this problem for a few years now.\\xa0 We have around 18 different projects around the globe.\\xa0 We\'re currently heavily investing in India, which is a vast country, also with a huge gap in connectivity.\\xa0
But you would imagine that people would say developed countries don\'t have this problem.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Oh my.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 But you then go and look at the stats, and, you know, 24 million people in the United States --\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s not a small number.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 -- that live in rural areas don\'t have access.\\xa0 Actually, the number is greater when you add the people in urban areas.\\xa0 It actually goes up 32 million people in the United States, 23 of which are in rural areas, which is where the problem is more pronounced.\\xa0
And that\'s an issue.\\xa0 Why?\\xa0 Think about the education model in the United States, for example, right now, requires students of all grades to access resources and do homework online.\\xa0\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s right.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 That\'s generalized.\\xa0 It\'s like all districts have components that are online.\\xa0 More and more and more as a parent you need to engage online.\\xa0 The kids come home, and they need to do homework online, and they check for answers of their math homework online to see, okay, did I solve this problem right, and then online you have the whole construction of how you did it.\\xa0\\xa0
If you don\'t have access, if you\'re an 11-year-old or a 12-year-old in middle school, you had no way of knowing if you did your math homework right or wrong.\\xa0 Or sometimes to even go and do what is required online.\\xa0 And if you don\'t do that, that means that you start falling behind.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Immediately.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 And that\'s exponential.\\xa0
And for purpose of the example let\'s just put it in time.\\xa0 If you fall a month behind from everyone else, the next year you\'re two months or three months behind.\\xa0 It\'s exponential.\\xa0 The more you fall behind because everyone is advancing rapidly, the gap starts widening very quickly.\\xa0 That\'s one example of why connectivity is very important.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That is a frightening realization.\\xa0 I had not thought about that in that way.\\xa0 I\'d thought about it in terms of this will just keep these people from knowing about opportunities that exist in the world.\\xa0 But if it starts all the way in elementary school, they don\'t even get there.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 It impacts education.\\xa0 People think, okay, if you don\'t have connectivity, then too bad, you need to go to the store instead of shopping online, or you won\'t access Facebook.\\xa0 No, it\'s not about that.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 No, it\'s just about basic education.\\xa0 It\'s online.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 It\'s about basic education.\\xa0 And when you think about that, then that impacts everything else in society.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Yeah.\\xa0 My gosh, I hadn\'t realized, because, you know, when you and I went to school, looking stuff up online was not a mandatory part of our life.\\xa0 But now it is.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Now it is.\\xa0 And you could say, well, those kids then need to go to the library, but that could be a partial solution, but it is not enough because now everything is online.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 And they are going to have to assume certain things:\\xa0 library is there, it\'s open, library has connectivity, they have enough computers for everybody.\\xa0\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 There are stories that we\'ve heard of kids that live in zip codes in which there\'s no connectivity and are required to do certain homework online, and kids driving somewhere to the neighboring town and standing outside of a caf\\xe9 or a store or somewhere that has Wi-Fi in a parking lot trying to do the homework.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Wow.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 So when you think about that, it\'s like this, we really need to solve this.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 We have to solve this.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Exactly.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 This is a global problem, but definitely a local one, as well.\\xa0
So what have you found are the main challenges that stand in the way of closing this connectivity gap?\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 There are different components to it.\\xa0 There is a regulatory component to it, and there is a technology component to it.\\xa0
The technology piece, it\'s kind of solved in the sense that there\'s existing technology that can help address this at a lower cost than the normal broadband by fiber optic.\\xa0
The problem is infrastructure.\\xa0 So these places don\'t have connectivity because there\'s no fiber optic network to go and do that, because there\'s not enough market, why all the investment.\\xa0
In the United States we clearly have an initiative called Microsoft Airband Initiative is that trying to address this.\\xa0 Microsoft has been investing in developing, along with some partners, technology that allows us to use the unused TV radio spectrum.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s right.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 They call it TV whitespaces.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Yes.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 So it\'s when you think about the UHF channels, for example, I\'m old enough to remember changing the TV not with a remote control but just using those channels.\\xa0 Radio and TV, by the way, use that radio spectrum.\\xa0 In places like LA or New York the radio spectrum is full because there\'s a lot of --\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 A lot.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 -- TV stations and a lot of radio stations.\\xa0 But as you start going to more remote places, you hardly have usage of the radio spectrum.\\xa0
All that unused space is space through which you can transmit data, as well if you have the right technology.\\xa0
So MSR in Microsoft, along with other engineers, have created technology that allows you to access that, to put some antennas and be able to transmit some Wi-Fi signals in the radio spectrum.\\xa0
Now, the way to scale this is not just to go and put a standalone antenna here or there, but to partner with commercial partners that are interested in having a low-cost solution for selling connectivity services to the population.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Ah, I see.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 But you asked me about the main challenge, and I\'ll get to the partnerships and how we do this, but the main challenge right now is more political.\\xa0 It\'s about getting the regulatory approval, because it has to do with permits to be able to deploy those solutions in different locations.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 So the technical problem is not the biggest challenge that we face.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 No, the biggest challenge is getting the approvals.\\xa0 That\'s why when we launched our initiative a few months ago, Brad Smith, who\'s our president, presented this plan in Washington, DC in front of a lot of representatives and people from the DC community, calling for clearing these regulatory hurdles so that we in an easier way deploy this technology across the country.\\xa0
That\'s one part of how you solve this, and then once that is cleared --\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s right.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 -- then you work on the business side of the house, which is, you know, we need to partner.\\xa0 We don\'t want to become a broadband company.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 No, not at all.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 That\'s not -- that\'s not our goal.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 We have no intention.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 We\'re interested in the technology to solve the problem.\\xa0 That\'s why we\'re partnering with local providers in order to figure out how to create a model that is cost effective for the population, and that doesn\'t require the millions of dollars of investment in fiber optic.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 So it benefits the Internet Service Provider at a lower cost without them having to invest upfront so much that they say no.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Exactly, because if the density of the population is low, then the ROI for investing in fiber optic in certain places, it\'s not there.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 It\'s not there.\\xa0
So funny TV whitespaces story for you, outside Nairobi there\'s a region called Nanyuki.\\xa0 Satya had gone there for Win 10 launched.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 That\'s where he launched Windows 10, exactly.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Yes.\\xa0 And he actually met a Windows Insider named Chris Baraka, and Chris actually works for a company that does TV whitespaces in Nanyuki.\\xa0 He\'s one of our Windows Insiders we work with quite regularly.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Oh, that\'s amazing.\\xa0 And that\'s one of the first projects that we ever did in the world, and a lot of learning has come from that, and we are trying to replicate that in many places.\\xa0 And that\'s what we\'re trying to do in the United States.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 I think that\'s amazing.\\xa0\\xa0
So what does Philanthropies all up hope to accomplish in the next year, and eventually long term?\\xa0 What would you consider to be success?\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 There\'s a couple of things that I will call out.\\xa0 We\'re trying to train students or even young kids that may not be in school and teachers, teachers to be able to teach computer science education, and students to learn it.\\xa0
We\'ve already in the past few years trained more than 300 million kids.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Three hundred million?
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Yes.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Wow.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Three hundred million.\\xa0 And this is a count that we started like five and a half years ago.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Yeah, but 300 million, that\'s very impressive, that\'s amazing.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Yeah, yeah.\\xa0 Teachers we\'re in the thousands still.\\xa0 It\'s a harder challenge.\\xa0 And we started more recently to focus more and more and more on teachers.\\xa0 We just want to keep working on those numbers, but most importantly ensuring that different countries adopt computer science education as compulsory in their education system, because we will never scale unless the formal education system integrates computer science education in their curriculum.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Absolutely.\\xa0 There\'s many countries who made it mandatory, like I think England was one of them.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Well, and England is in the right path, Korea, Russia, and a few others, but the majority of the countries aren\'t.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Absolutely they are not.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Including the United States.\\xa0 In the U.S. there are still 18 states that have not adopted computer science education as a subject that can earn you credits for high school graduation.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 That\'s insane.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Forget about K-12, right now --\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Eighteen?\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Yeah, 18 that still need to pass legislation.\\xa0 And we have a team working on that, and we\'re moving fast to do it, but there\'s a lot of work there.\\xa0
That\'s one part of what we want to accomplish.\\xa0 On the other end, and I mentioned that earlier, that working with nonprofits for us, enabling them with technology is a multiplying factor to help address some of the most pressing challenges around the globe.\\xa0 So accelerating technology adoption, especially cloud technology, for nonprofits is also something that we want to do.\\xa0
Right now, we donate technology, over a billion dollars\' worth of technology to more than 100,000 nonprofits around the globe.\\xa0 We actually want to in the next couple of years multiply that to reach 300,000 nonprofits.\\xa0\\xa0
Two years ago, in the World Economic Forum in Davos our CEO, Satya Nadella, said that we were committing to donate a billion dollars\' worth of cloud services to the nonprofit sector over the next three years.\\xa0 And we have very rapidly seen progress there.\\xa0
But it\'s not about the investment, it\'s about how many nonprofits actually get on technology, ours hopefully, but any technology, to be able to do their work in a better way.\\xa0 And that\'s what we want to do, that\'s our goal.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 I love that.\\xa0\\xa0
Thank you so much for being here.\\xa0 This has been such a pleasure, obviously something we\'re deeply passionate about.\\xa0 And, you know, we have millions of Windows Insiders, every country in the world.\\xa0 So whatever we can do to help, just let us know, because, one, we have access to technology.\\xa0 Two, we have a great passion for using that technology knowledge to make a lasting impact in the world.\\xa0 So if you ever need a million friends to do something, we\'re your people.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 We always need that, so thanks for the offer --\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Of course.\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 -- and I hope that we work together on different projects with your community around the world.\\xa0
DONA SARKAR:\\xa0 Of course.\\xa0 Thank you.\\xa0\\xa0
LEONARDO ORTIZ:\\xa0 Thanks.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Windows Insiders around the world cope with the connectivity gap, including our MVPs.\\xa0 Next up, we\'ll be chatting with Andre DaCosta, the first and only Windows Insider MVP in Jamaica.\\xa0\\xa0
Andre is dialing into our story from Jamaica.\\xa0 You might notice a few glitches in the audio, and that\'s due to the very problem we\'re talking about today, limited Internet connectivity.\\xa0
Hi, Andre.\\xa0 Welcome to the show.\\xa0 What are you working on these days?\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Hi.\\xa0 It is great to be here.\\xa0\\xa0 This is Andre DaCosta from Jamaica.\\xa0 I currently write for groovypost.com where I write a combination of how-to articles, tips and tricks, and how to get the most out of Windows 10 and Office 365.\\xa0
As you mentioned, I am the one and only Windows Insider MVP in Jamaica right now, and I hope to change that.\\xa0 I actually participate every day on the Microsoft communities where I offer my help and expertise in using Windows 10, and it was recognized many years ago when I was helping out with Windows 7, and I was nominated to become an MVP.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Awesome.\\xa0 So our listeners can find you on Microsoft community and at groovypost.com.\\xa0
Well, tell us a bit about where you live in Jamaica.\\xa0 What do you see when you look out your window?\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Well, I currently live in the central part of Jamaica, which is the Parish of Manchester.\\xa0 That\'s about 60 miles away from the capitol, Kingston.\\xa0 It\'s mostly a rural area.\\xa0 There are a lot of farms around.\\xa0 So I wake up to seeing like goats and chickens and cows and stuff like that around me.\\xa0 And lots of nature.\\xa0 It\'s a really nice place to live if you really want quietness.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 I was going to say, it sounds like a beautiful place to be.\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Yeah, it is.\\xa0 I am not too far from the beach actually.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 A little sun and sand anytime you want it.\\xa0
What about the Internet connectivity in your community?\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 It\'s not great.\\xa0 Currently, I use a metered connection.\\xa0 I had to travel to my brother\'s home today to set up this event.\\xa0 Every two days, I pay like about $2 U.S. to get about 300 megabytes of data, which I use to do my work.\\xa0 And that\'s really that\'s how I\'ve been working for a long time now.\\xa0 It\'s a struggle, but I do work with it, and make the best of it.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 So it sounds like in an area that has either low Internet connectivity or in your case highly metered connections, it sounds like you need to use some specific strategies in adapting to that type of environment.\\xa0 Can you tell us a little bit about that?\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Definitely.\\xa0 You really have to be planning ahead.\\xa0 Time management is an asset.\\xa0 You really have to know how to use your time wisely.\\xa0 But I try not to make it frustrate me or anything.\\xa0 I\'m still doing what I love.\\xa0 I enjoy doing this.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Within the Windows OS itself is there anything particularly helpful about Windows, any settings or things that you can change that help make this process any better?\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Well, for me personally one of the big issues I had initially with Windows 10 was it\'s a service.\\xa0 It really delivers a lot of its functionality through the Internet.\\xa0 So using a lot of features in Windows 10 required that I had a good Internet connection.\\xa0 But at the same time, Windows 10 allowed me to manage how I access the Internet.\\xa0 So features like the Metered Connection settings in Windows 10 allowed me to really manage which programs and services were able to access the Internet.\\xa0\\xa0
And it\'s interesting, because a lot of persons, especially in North America, had similar issues.\\xa0 And I was able to write an article, and it turns out to be one of the most popular articles I have on groovypost.com, how to manage your Internet usage in Windows 10.\\xa0 So I\'m able to help persons still use Windows 10 and use all the offline features that it has to offer.\\xa0\\xa0
And there are many programs that you can still use offline, and it doesn\'t necessarily have to be like this operating system is going to use up all my data, what am I going to do.\\xa0 You can use features in Windows 10 to manage your bandwidth, and at the same time take advantage of all the new features it has to offer.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 So you did mention in settings being able to go through and set metered connection settings, and that it helps control how much bandwidth is being used.\\xa0\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Yeah.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Are there any application level settings or other things anywhere inside the OS that you\'ve found through this trial and error process that you were able to provide tips and tricks on to other users?
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Again, going back to the metered connection settings, but also in Windows Update there are ways to control how Windows Update downloads updates.\\xa0 So I can also adjust whether I want to share my bandwidth with other computers I have on my personal network at home, and I can also turn on certain background applications from accessing the Internet in the privacy settings.\\xa0
So those are features that are available for users to explore and try and see what works for them.\\xa0 You don\'t have to wholesale turn off everything.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 So having said that, how would having a better Internet connection make a difference for you?\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 I try not to look at it just from my perspective alone.\\xa0 I think personally for the wider community where I live I think having better Internet connection would lead to a better community.\\xa0\\xa0
One aspect I think that would really help is in education where a lot of young people leaving high school, you know, college is not affordable, it\'s very expensive, and I think for a lot of young people leaving high school the first thing they think about is getting a job to support that dream of eventually going to college.\\xa0 I think that\'s one of the areas where the Internet can definitely help when it comes to higher learning.\\xa0 It equalizes the playing field for many.\\xa0
I think one of the great opportunities of having a faster, more consistent and reliable Internet access would be to provide students leaving high school the opportunity to continue their education.\\xa0
For a lot of students leaving high school, especially in my community, it\'s difficult to think about going to college right away, and many have to think about getting their first jobs.\\xa0 And what that does, it tends to limit the opportunity to go to school, because once you start going into the work world, it minimizes that feeling of going on to higher education.\\xa0
So I think for a lot of young persons, having access to fast Internet would give them the opportunity to continue learning using social media, using sites like YouTube to continue learn, and continue to pursue their dreams.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Do you see any economic benefits or opportunities that better Internet could bring to your community?\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 The shared economy is an opportunity.\\xa0 Platforms like Airbnb, they\'re coming online here in Jamaica.\\xa0\\xa0
Another opportunity also is even for farmers.\\xa0 You know, they will be able to sell their products and advertise it to new markets.\\xa0
The Internet is really the basis for the economy going in the future.\\xa0 And you can\'t have people just thinking about leaving their rural towns and causing this exodus to go to another town where there might be better Internet.\\xa0 You need to build up your local communities.\\xa0
And I\'ve made a conscious effort to stay where I live and contribute to my local economy.\\xa0 And it\'s through the work I do as a Windows Insider I\'m able to do that.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 You\'ve done an amazing job of describing both the challenges of limited connectivity and the potential for positive change if the gap were to be bridged.\\xa0 Do you see any other ways that better access to the Internet could make a positive impact?\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 You know, Jamaica has recently been going through a lot of issues in terms of the crime and violence.\\xa0 And I think it goes back again to the youth not having opportunities for them to really do things to make a change in their society.\\xa0
And I think if the Internet was available in a way where they could use it as a platform to build solutions that the society really needs, even if it\'s someone maybe starting their own Internet caf\\xe9 in the community.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Yeah, it would definitely change the landscape that you\'re currently operating in.\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Yeah.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Are there any parting words of wisdoms you\'d like to share with the rest of the Windows Insider community?\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Sure.\\xa0 The Windows Insider program is great.\\xa0 You know, if someone told me three years ago that Microsoft would release a new version of Windows two times per year, and giving the opportunity to try new releases of it every week, you know, I would say you\'re crazy, but it\'s actually happening.\\xa0\\xa0
And the opportunities to really contribute to the product and to see the features actually be realized is one of the great things about the Windows Insider program.\\xa0 I\'m actually seeing features suggested become actual technology, the end products I use every day.
So I just encourage Windows Insiders all over the world definitely open up that Feedback Hub, and make sure you send in the feedback if you really want to see change, because it really does happen.\\xa0\\xa0
So I applaud the engineers, people like Dona and Jason and Jen and Brandon, who engage with users on Twitter every day, applaud to you.\\xa0 You know, you\'re doing great work, and it\'s just for us, the users, to continue sending in that feedback to help make a great product even better.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Thanks, man.\\xa0 You\'re making me blush over here.\\xa0 (Laughter.)\\xa0\\xa0
Well, I have to tell you it has been fantastic chatting with you.\\xa0 Thank you for sharing your experience with us.\\xa0 And best of luck to you in your work.\\xa0
ANDRE DACOSTA:\\xa0 Same to you, Jason.\\xa0 Take care.\\xa0
JASON HOWARD:\\xa0 Thanks for listening to this episode of the Windows Insider Podcast.\\xa0
Join us again next month when we chat about lifelong learning, side hustles, and free learning resources for Windows Insiders.\\xa0
If you liked this episode, subscribe on your favorite podcast app and share it with your friends.
Thanks, Insiders.\\xa0
VOICEOVER:\\xa0 The Windows Insider Podcast is produced by Microsoft Production Studios and the Windows Insider team, which includes Tyler Ahn --- that\'s me -- Michelle\\xa0 Paison, Ande Harwood, and Kristie Wang.\\xa0
Visit us on the web at Insider.Windows.com.\\xa0 Follow @WindowsInsider on Instagram and Twitter.\\xa0
Support for the Windows Insider Podcast comes from Microsoft, empowering every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more.\\xa0
Please subscribe, rate, and review this podcast wherever you get your podcasts.\\xa0
Moral support and inspiration come from Ninja Cat, reminding us to have fun and pursue our passions.
Thanks, as always, to our programs cofounders, Dona Sarkar and Jeremiah Marble.\\xa0
Join us next month for another fascinating discussion from the perspectives of Windows Insiders.\\xa0
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