What is the Jhai PC?

(This post makes no reference to  the OLPC project. Please see OLPC News for such commentary -LF)

In the summer of 2000, I was presented with a challenge to design a system that would serve to bring telecommunications and computer functions to remote villages without power or telephones. Lee Thorn, chairman of the Jhai Foundation, sought me out during a 30-year reunion of the place where we had met before. The villagers in Laos with whom he was working had requested telecommunications as thier priority need.

Details of the resulting design can be found at the Jhai Foundation website. I am no longer affiliated except as an advisor to the Jhai Foundation - In 2003 I turned over the design work to a crew of volunteers and focused my attention on issues of power generation. The Jhai PC, as it became known, has gone through some changes as might be expected with an emergent design.

I would like to exercise my prerogative as the originating designer to specify what characteristics make this design qualify for the designation.