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Proyecto
ACCESO is promoting the
rule of law throughout the Americas.
The ACCESO team works with all the sectors in the administration
of justice. We are judges, prosecutors, public defenders,
legal educators, and journalists. We are building new
systems for conflict resolution that are fair, efficient
and transparent.
By training legal innovators, together we are srengthening
the rule of law in our Hemisphere.
For more information contact us
[email protected]
Web Update from the Director |
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ACCESO Director’s Message – 2006
Dear Friends:
What a year! 2005 was filled with wonderful events for ACCESO as we expanded our product line and our programs throughout Latin America.
Please come in here and have a look at our current programs and events.
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ACCESO in the News
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Rockstar Inc., Globoguy
and our team member Sebastian Vives were featured in an article in
the Toronto Star. Highlighting the innovations that is the hallmark
of ACCESO Tec.
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VINCE TALOTTA/TORONTO STAR
Andrew Muroff in Toronto using his computer
and webcam talk to and see his colleagues in
Santiago, Chile.
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Apr. 11, 2005. 01:00 AM
Broadband boosts vidoephone into the picture
Long-anticipated, it was long too expensive Now, `It's a dynamic
and emerging market'
SHARDA PRASHAD BUSINESS REPORTER
BUSINESS REPORTER TECHNOLOGY AT WORK
Does the phone number Venus-1234 sound familiar? These are the co-ordinates
to reach one of the most technology- advanced families ever, the Jetsons.
George, Jane, Judy and son Elroy benefited from the videophone in
1962.
Real versions have been seen at world's fairs from time to time. But
it has taken until the digital age for the vidoephone to truly come
calling.
"A lot of infrastructure has not been in place until now,"
says Willi Powell, strategic development manager at Apple, explaining
why videophones, though long-anticipated, have been slow to mass market.
"It's just now that we have broadband . . . It's just now that
the infrastructure has enough oomph."
The hurdles are fading, and the possibilities of what the videophone
can do are emerging.
Take Andrew Muroff. He's a Toronto-based lawyer, dreamer and self-described
technological geek.
The combination of these skills allowed Muroff to launch Proyecto
ACCESO in 1998 with other lawyers in North and South America. It's
a not-for-profit organization dedicated to raising awareness about
legal reform in Latin America. It receives funding from the United
Nations, the U.S. State Department, as well as numerous U.S. embassies
in Latin America and the German government.
ACCESO's projects have been in demand. And Muroff and his ACCESO partners
are running ACCESO while dispersed throughout two continents. How
do they do this? The modern day videophone, of course.
Muroff is eager to show off his videophone. It's his laptop computer.
There is no separate handset. Instead the camera is hoisted to the
top of his computer screen and it hosts a microphone. He's loyal to
Apple.
Muroff has a Macintosh, an iSite camera and iChat software to operate
his videophone.
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`It's
just now that we have broadband . . .
It's just now that the infrastructure has enough oomph'
Willi Powell, Apple strategic development manager
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Sitting in front of a downtown café, Muroff connects to the
café's wireless hot spot. Muroff checks to see if his colleagues
in Santiago, Chile are available to speak by looking at their status
on his software, iChat. They are.
The comes a scene out of the Jetsons, but this is more reality TV
than a Hanna Barbera animated flick. Muroff talks to his screen, and
Sebastian and James are responding back from Chile. It's true Muroff
looks strange talking to his computer screen in the middle of a busy
downtown building, but he doesn't care. He spends about six hours
a day doing this. He's doing business with colleague in a different
hemisphere — and not accumulating any long-distance charges.
A good thing for any business, a boon for a not-for-profit.
The cost of using the new videophone is limited to the cost of the
computer, camera and Internet fees.
Compare that to the cost of video-conferences, says Powell, and the
business case for investing in the new videophone make sense. Especially
when compared to the other option of simultaneously seeing and speaking.
"The (video) conference rooms are very expensive," says
Powell. "It's not long ago they cost $100,000 at each end. And
it's still not an insignificant amount."
Muroff spends about $50 per month on high speed Internet fees and
only incurrs additional charges when he's traveling and has to pay
Internet access charges. Before using the modern-day videophone, ACCESO
employees used to use a combination of e-mail and long-distance telephone
calls. In November 2003, they decided to commit to using Apple technology,
but they can still communicate with PC users on an AOL platform.
Even though the grandmother of videophones, AT&T, no longer sells
videophones — it sold the product arm of the business, a spokesperson
said, several years ago — there are also non-computer options
that just require internet access. D-Link has a videophone that sells
for $375 (U.S.) and Motorola is debuting its Ojo Personal videophone
mid-year for $895 (Canadian).
Non-monetary costs of videophones include the potential intrusiveness
of being seen while being heard. It's not something telephone users
will all welcome. But Powell says technology offers options.
For example, the iSite is "very obvious when it's on and off
. . . It's white when it's off and a green light flashes when it's
on." People can choose how they want to communicate.
Muroff isn't concerned about the potential intrusiveness. He sees
videophones as a way of doing business.
Travel costs, long-distance costs will decrease. And more meaningful
business connections will increase.
"It's a dynamic and emerging market," says Powell. And for
an obvious reason. There are still those of us who aspire to live
like the Jetsons. |
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