I met Martin Varsavsky last March at the International Summit on Democracy, Terrorism and Security last March in Madrid, where he’d invited me to join an Internet working group. He impressed me with his energy, vision and genuine belief that people working together could improve the world.

Late last year, Martin, a serial entrepreneur, invited me to join the U.S. advisory board for his new company. FON, boiled down, is a way to share Wi-Fi connections securely in a collaborative system that could turn into a global network of inexpensive (or, depending on how one participates) entirely free hotspots.

Today, on his blog, Martin announced fairly amazing news for a company so young:

FON can now count Google , Skype, Sequoia Capital, and Index Ventures as investors and backers. They’ve joined us to help advance the FON movement, leading a group that has put 18 million Euros into FON and also committed to give us a strategic boost that should help us make this great idea into a great platform for everyone who wants a faster, cheaper and more secure wireless Internet. Read the rest of this entry »

Introduction
Satellite Newspapers has developed a self-contained, fully automated newspaper-vending unit: the Satellite Newspaper KiOSK. The Satellite Newspaper KiOSK is capable of receiving files, processing payments and on demand printing of newspapers. As the point-of-sales unit, the Satellite Newspaper KiOSK continuously receives publisher files through Satellite Newspapers’ Multicast Satellite Network. Offer your guests and visitors the ultimate amenity: the latest edition of their hometown newspaper. Within just two minutes, the Satellite Newspaper KiOSK prints and staples the latest editions of national and international newspapers, on customers’ demand, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Using the KiOSK
Each Satellite Newspaper KiOSK is equipped with a user-friendly touch screen. Customers are prompted through the menu in their native language to:
1. Select the continent
2. Select the country/state
3. Select your newspaper
4. Insert credit card or KiOSK-card.
In just two minutes, the Satellite Newspaper KiOSK then prints and staples the latest edition of any newspaper of choice. The crystal clear digitally printed newspapers are similar in content and lay out to the editions customers are used to reading at home. Read the rest of this entry »

PEPC provides the technology to circulate your daily content from the point of content creation to the point of content consumption. With its innovative approach PEPC realizes revenue generating and cost saving opportunities for participating newspaper publishers. Referring to the traditional supply chain, PEPC has cut out the printing, distribution and transportation costs.

Seamless distribution

PEPC Publishers send their digitally formatted newspaper files via the Internet to PEPC’s Control Center in The Netherlands. After an eight-step-process - maximum thirty minutes - the newspapers are up linked to PEPC’s Multicast Satellite Network. This Satellite Network, covering 99, 1% of the world’s population, distributes the newspapers to PRESSPOiNTS and printing locations around the globe, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Read the rest of this entry »

PEPC Worldwide today announced the installation of its interactive newspaper kiosk, the PRESSPOiNT™, at upscale hotels in The Dominican Republic, Egypt, Panama and South Korea. PEPC now offers its newspaper-on-demand service in 14 countries around the globe. With the recent addition of South Korean Joongang Ilbo, the PRESSPOiNT™ currently prints the latest editions of 88 newspapers from 40 countries. PEPC’s rapidly growing Publishers Network represents leading publications such as the International Herald Tribune, USA TODAY (USA), the Los Angeles Times (USA), Sports Nippon (Japan), El Pais (Spain), Komsomolskaya Pravda (Russia), Le Figaro (France), Times of India (India) and El Economista (Mexico).

PEPC installs the PRESSPOiNT™ at international, high traffic venues such as hotels, airports, cruise ships and convention centers throughout the world. Through its proprietary Satellite Distribution Network, PEPC distributes the newspapers to the kiosks on a 24/7/365 basis. This seamless distribution method ensures that PRESSPOiNT™-venues can rely on a constant offer of all participating newspapers. PEPC’s innovative distribute-then-sell-then-print model makes pre-purchases and overstocks belong to the past.

In the Dominican Republic a PRESSPOiNT™ is installed at the Hotel Barceló Palace in Higuey. In Egypt at Le Royal Meridien Cairo and the Sheraton Heliopolis Hotel in Cairo, in Panama at the Marriott Panama Hotel in Panama City and in South Korea at the Westin Chosun in Seoul.

About PEPC Worldwide PEPC Worldwide, headquartered in The Hague, The Netherlands, with offices in Miami, San Diego and Hong Kong, is a global distributor of digitally aggregated content from newspapers around the world. PEPC, founded in 1999, has developed a self-contained interactive kiosk, the PRESSPOiNT™ that digitally prints the latest editions of newspapers, on-demand within minutes. PEPC’s state-of -the-art proprietary software - developed in close co-operation with IBM - and its Private Multicast Satellite Network, have created a Digital Distribution Network - covering 99.1 % of the world population - that provides a distribution “highway” to PRESSPOiNTS around the globe.