The Few, The Proud, The Geeks 116
Ethan Zuckerman, one of the founders of Tripod, felt that he wasn't getting as much as he wanted out of what he was doing. He knew from personal experience that a lot of people had achieved personal gain through the Internet, and wanted to donate money or time to a good cause, but couldn't find one that fit. So, along with now-program director Elisa Korentayer, Ethan decided to form Geekcorps, as a way to take burnt-out techies to developing countries, bringing their expertise to places that desperately needed it. Ethan assembled a team of technical gurus -- and international development specialists -- and started gathering funds to make his dream come true. His strategizing and monetary legwork is about to bear fruit: Geekcorps pilot program is beginning this year in Ghana. The Ghana program demonstrates the Geekcorps approach in a nutshell: the group will dispatch techies from the United States and Europe to developing countries to work with local small and medium for-profit enterprises. They're targeting countries with enough infrastructure to use the Internet for commerce, but where that opportunity goes largely unused.
The six techies to serve in Ghana will work with six businesses that work with information technology, whether they turn out to be cyber cafes or small manufacturers that want to get online. In return for providing these services, Geekcorps will ask each business to commit to social responsibility and community engagement. Geekcorps would ask, for instance, that a cafe offer access services for low and/or free rates to members of the local community. The specialists chosen for the program, likewise, are expected not only to help out these start-ups, but also to provide information technology training for the local community.
Zuckerman recognizes that Geekcorps isn't the only organization to do this kind of work; also in the works is a global database of techies who would be interested in volunteering for their program, so techie volunteers can be farmed out at no cost to other governmental and community-building projects. While there is only so much that Geekcorps can do, they understand that by keeping information free and taking the time to do it right, the benefits will be much greater.
Linux and other Free Software products have been extremely popular in developing countries, for their adaptability and low hardware requirements as much as for the absence of per-seat licenses. Is Geekcorps dedicated to using Free Software solutions? I asked Elisa Korentayer, one of the Geekcorps founders and international specialists.
Elisa: We're pretty dedicated. We're a big fan of Open Source, and we're a big fan of taking advantage of free software. The aspects of the Internet that are incredibly conducive to non-profit, saving-the-world kind of attitudes, we're really into that. Think about it -- What we're doing in human terms is very similar to what Open Sourcing is. We're going into a country and we're saying 'We're going to offer you services, but we're going to ask you to give those services to other people.' We're going to say 'You can have access to this, but you need to provide that access to other people who didn't have access before."
Elisa provides a startling example of the scale of the technology divide developing countries face:
Elisa: One of the sad-but-true facts right now is that the United States government has set a goal to have a computer in every school, in every library, and they're about 90% of the way there. The goal that the United States has for developing countries is for everyone to live within one day's travel of a telephone.
Geekcorps is looking for volunteers to build these solutions in developing countries. However, if you can't get three to four months off of work to volunteer in Ghana, there is still a good opportunity to work with Geekcorps in your off-time back in your local neighborhood.
Elisa: A lot of the other stuff we're thinking about in terms of taking advantage of the Internet is that we hope to have an open channel for our volunteers in Ghana to communicate back to volunteers at home, so other techies can log in from wherever they are to help those in the developing countries."
Companies worldwide claim to make the Internet and computers more accessible, but Geekcorps is getting out there and doing it this summer. Geekcorps needs time, effort and rampant volunteerism, and the opportunity for Open Source and Free Software enthusiasts to get involved is there for the taking.
Will you sign on? (Score:2)
That's pretty cool... (Score:4)
Pros: Technology clearly helps people become more self-sufficient. It's not necessarily a good thing to wait until everything else is in place to give people tools.
Cons: Perhaps the money and resources would be better spent helping people stabilize their economies, get fed, and things like that?
I guess I come down on the "pro" side. We've been trying to "feed the poor" for as long as we've had written history, and it's never really *solved* anything. Now, if we *EDUCATE* the poor, maybe that'll actually change something.
Great use of Linux! (Score:1)
Iridium can also help in this respect, I just realize. It can actually reach some of the remote areas!
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Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com." The purpose of that site was not known. -- MSNBC 10-26-1999 on MS crack
Re: (Score:1)
other needs (Score:3)
I for one will not support the Geekcorps.
Don't get me wrong, I think It is a good idea and there hearts are in the right place, but there are other things that are more important.
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If my facts are wrong then tell me. I don't mind.
Re:Will you sign on? (Score:2)
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Another non-functioning site was "uncertainty.microsoft.com." The purpose of that site was not known. -- MSNBC 10-26-1999 on MS crack
Re:Will you sign on? (Score:1)
There are an increasingly of techies who've "made their fortune" so to speak in the mid-thirties. On the other hand, older people tend to have more commitments, like spouses, mortgages, kids, etc. That could be a big problem here.
In some ways, I think this could be a cool thing to do, but there's no way I could do it. The nice thing about being right out of college is that you have no responsibilities.
Re:other needs (Score:4)
Think of it as a particularly relevant form of education. Communication, planning, resources... These are all things people will need if we want them to someday feed *themselves*.
The more I think about it, the more cool this sounds; it's a good use of resources. Free skilled labor is always good.
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:1)
I guess this is a good idea in that you have the aforementioned burned out techies put to good use as teachers, otherwise the alternative would be to ship them to the third world for someone to eat...
Re:other needs (Score:1)
Why don't people like you understand that you can't feed everyone in the world. There will always be poor and hungry people. Otherwise, it's called communism and we know it doesn't work.
Why is there always someone who will post along the "feed the hungry" lines when there is an article about space exploration, etc?
Or may be I am replying to a stupid troll. Oh well...
The Appropriate Technology??? (Score:2)
what happens all too often is that businesses (and individuals)want to donate their old hardware stored in the back closet (XT, AT, etc) made by companies that at no longer around, and/or are no longer supported. Considerable expertise is required to work with these, and many folks are deficient when dealing with command lind interfaces. Often, the expertise resides with a few people who still remember how these things work
of course, knowledgable folks all want the latest toys.
I can still run my business from a dos database program I know (it's relational), but I don't. (I have moved on to better things)
I know I would be considerably under-happy about providing tech support for people ramping up on this. Especially from overseas.
(I have worked in tech support, and the worse cases are the people who want you to help design their system from scratch over the phone, for free. and of course who do not want to learn since you are their intelligent talking book. It is, of course far easier in a course room situation, where you can grow the appropriate attitudes of personal responsibility)
So the issues are:
How are these being managed?
The repair issues alone could be horrific. Something works well for six months or a year, then dies a horrible death, and you need to redo the setup with new obsolete hardware. This could be a death trap for the tech supporting the setup.
Re:other needs (Score:2)
Gross overgeneralizations (Score:1)
Did you not conside that they will all have their own individual preferences, just as geeks in developed nations do?
Re:Will you sign on? (Score:2)
However, a friend of mine has been griping about how she wants to do some good in the world, not just sit at a desk, and I forwarded the article to her.
Re:other needs (Score:1)
It was about time (Score:1)
Re:other needs (Score:1)
I don't think it's entirely accurate in the sub-Saharan Africa context to say 'they don't have an education, hence they have lots of kids'. Birth control is a very new phenomenon that has to become accepted in the culture to succeed. That doesn't happen overnight. Family size is a function of necessity, not education.
You are probably right about some places in the world, but that's what I know about sub-Saharan Africa in particular.
structure it as a business (Score:1)
The charitable portion of the project would be pouring in the free training, but the success could be measured by these projects becoming self-sustaining. I guess I'm thinking of a higher tech version of what the Grameen Bank has been doing in Bangladesh, where they put together a group of locals who each accept individual loans, but agree to "cover" each other and share the risk of default. These people (women, I think) embark in small industry, using the loans (very small) to buy a sewing machine or something, but the model has proven quite effective in allowing families to achieve real financial independence (no, we're not talking about early retirement here :)
So, I like the idea of a realistic but forward looking project: grounded in creating self-sustaining commercial enterprises, but one which is also teaching more high tech and the other aspects of a modern service economy than the Grameen program strives for.
Re:other needs (Score:1)
your point of view on the problem being the government, and needing the infrastructure is something that I could agree with.
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If my facts are wrong then tell me. I don't mind.
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:2)
Bringing everyone the Internet is one thing, but do they really want/need it? Mamy don't know what it is, and I can envision lots of people in developing countries get sucked into online culture at the expense of more pressing local situations that they should be helping to remedy.
Rolling out the necessary telecom infrastructure in remote places is quite a task. Besides, local (and even national) politics in lots of developing nations are rife with graft and corruption (hmm...so in that sense they're First World), something that will hinder the possibilities of providing good access to everyone.
100% a good thing (Score:3)
Remember the old adage (paraphrased as best I can remember), "Give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day, teach a man to fish and he'll eat for a lifetime." I'm all for geekcorps... I'll be checking into their web site further to see how I can help.
Re:Gross overgeneralizations (Score:1)
Of course, that's just made up. I don't have the actual statistics or anything. There are more ways to answer a question than radio controls. Besides, the post was meant mostly to be humorous.
Re:other needs (Score:1)
But...
Developing countries need help everywhere/anywhere.
If we wait until starvation is eliminated before doing anything else, a lot of good work will go undone...
t_t_b
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How to start a Civil War (Score:3)
First of all, I think the idea of educating people is a good thing. Don't get me wrong!
But, according to Johan Galtung's Rank Disequilibrium theory of war, educating the poor, if done by itself, can encourage violent revolutions.
The theory goes like this: when people are wealthy, educated, respected, and their skills are being well used, they are not likely to revolt. Likewise, if they are poor, uneducated, abused, and ignored they are likely to be resigned to their lot, and be not likely to revolt. However, people who are a mix, eg poor but educated and unable to get a worthwhile job, are unhappy and are therefore more likely to revolt.
This theory suggests that to cause a civil war, one should:
Galtung does not suggest by this that 3rd world countries should be kept in their "underdog" position, but that development should be done on several fronts simultaneously.
Definitely necessary, and a great idea (Score:2)
First off all, I'd like to say that I come from Trinidad in the Caribbean, which is a developing third-world nation, albeit more on the "developed" side of developing. And this kind of program is exactly what the developing world needs.
The third world needs to catch up with the developed world. This can not be achieved by following in the footsteps of the developed nations: as fast as we develop, the developed nations will maintain their lead and we will always be second-class world citizens.
Information technology has the ability to allow us to leapfrog several steps in the development process by creating economies based on the 21st-century business model from the ground up rather than recreating offline economies and going through the same painful and expensive restructuring process that the developed nations are currently undergoing. And, yes, it would be a good idea to get all our citizens clothed and fed, but to do that we need money and lots of it, and the only way to get that is to get our economies competing effectively with the rest of the world.
But the age-old need-money-to-get-money problem comes into effect: we are too busy preventing complete collapse of our economies to think about beefing them up. We don't have the resources, both physical but especially mental -- third-world countries suffer heavily from "brain-drain" as all our best and brightest get their bloody H1-B visas and ship off to the states as fast as they can.
The developed nations have made all their money exploiting the developing nations for raw materials, cheap labour and relaxed laws of every kind for centuries now: it's high time they started giving back.
Knowledge is power. The Internet is knowledge... (Score:1)
Given the chance to learn, and love learning, people in '2nd world' countries will embrace knowledge, and strive to advance their society (or at least their families..).
Give people access to the internet (and in turn, the world around them), and they shall learn. Education is the key.
"Give a man a fish, feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, feed him for a lifetime..."
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:1)
Before we waste our time "educating" the people of a developing nation on how to use ICQ, or even how to type, perhaps helping them to construct meaningul systems of formal education is in order.
As for feeding the poor, that's a different can of beans all together. If you expect people to become self-sufficient, and not need continuous supplies of food, then you need to develop infrastructure for them.
This includes things like:
Creating real systems of education, like public schools for children and adults.
Creating specific schools for training teachers, so they can then train future generations of children.
Donating machinery for processing wood, stone, and various metals. It's hard to build a school without mills, saws, hammers, etc. And when you've a small economy (if any) it's almost impossible to buy these things. Of course we always have the World Bank to lend them money, so if they ever manage to construct an economy, U.S. corporations can setup shop in their country, and begin exploiting their population for cheap labor and eventually a new source of capital.
Donating farm equipment, like tractors and plows.
Educating the farmers on the use of compost for fertilizers.
Donating supplies of genetically engineered seeds for planting, to increase yields. Then educate the farmers on sustaining their system, to keep from needing further large sources of seed.
Creating roads, and teaching them how to construct road systems that last many years.
Creating supplies of safe drinking water, and educating them in various plumbing and filtering techniques.
etc etc etc
There's a lot of infrastructure that needs to be given, and education on how to preserve, and construct the infrastructure. I can't see any developing nation putting an internet cafe above quality education for its young. And though you may consider using computers as "quality education," I think that they could use mathematics, literacy, physics, biology, chemistry, medicine, etc a lot more.
What developing nations don't need:
Religous groups attempting to "convert" them, in exchange for vacinations and food.
Corporations "investing" in them, for later exploitation.
Do this in your own community! (Score:4)
I build up net surfing stations using linux running on old hardware and then donate them to people who can't afford a new computer. I also occasionally teach free computer classes for people who need to improve their job skills but can't afford commercial training.
Thad
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:2)
This may seem trite, but remember the adage, "Give a man a fish and he eats for a day..." Assuming the people actually want to become "developed" (as many cultures want nothing to do with it). It's very surprising what technology can do to developing areas. Of course, there's the technological benefits, but I've been more interested in the non-technological aspects. For instance, learning about technology, or doing something that we might find very simple, can be a socially activating thing. Suddenly this person that thought he or she was completely out of the loop can do incredible things with a computer. It can be quite a self confidence booster.
If you're interested in getting more info on the effects of high tech on poor areas, check out the book, "High Technology and Low-Income Communities: Prospects for the Positive Use of Advanced Information Technology", edited by some of the greats, Donald Schon, Bish Sanyal, and William Mitchel. ISBN: 026269199X
you guys are missing the point (Score:1)
presents, we are slowly erasing the divides that
are present right now. If you could train a
village in Africa on how to successfully compete
in the new market, they will be prepared to earn their own money for food. No one wants a hand out, but no one minds someone helping them to help themselves. A minor investment in training and equipment will pay for itself tenfold unlike consumables, enable them to purchase consumables on their own.....
Re:other needs (Score:2)
Re:other needs (Score:2)
First off, get your terminology straight: originally, the "second world" referred to Africa and India (they were sailed to and discovered by the Spanish/Portuguese before the Americas were discovered. The third world referred to the "New World": this, obviously, includes what is now the United States. Obviously, these terms have changed.
"Third world" is now a synonym for a "developing nation" -- anything that isn't a developed nation is, I guess, part of the third world. The term "second world" is no longer used. But this is not the point.
People who say "we should solve all our/their basic problems before we tackle new development" are missing the point: we need development in order to solve the basic problems. If people had listened to this kind of thinking back in prehistory, we'd still be a load of cavemen desperately trying to hunt enough animals to keep everyone fed before we started work on this new-fangled "fire" thing.
If the Geekcorps can create a successful IT business in a country that creates 20 new jobs, then 100 people will have a source of income and can feed themselves. That is preventing starvation.
Re:How to start a Civil War (Score:1)
Not to mention that there's no shortage of things for an educated individual to do, in a developing nation, so I can't see them revolting out of boredom.
If however they're being abused by their Government, perhaps revolting isn't such a bad thing.
Every time I try to help an underdeveloped soceity (Score:2)
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:1)
Re:other needs (Score:1)
You could, in fact, feed every single human being on this planet. It wouldn't even take a remotely large faction of total land area of the planet.
The problem lies in distribution, whether it be how to get it there, or supporting (financially) the number of people needed to supply food for the rest of the world.
There will always be poor people, while any one person thinks that he is somehow entitled to as much of everything as he can possibley get, and that the condition of everyone else is irrelevant.
5% of the population having 80% of the world's wealth is a rather good indicator that our system "doesn't work."
There has been no real institution of communism, so whether it would work or not is hard to say. And before you call China or the U.S.S.R communists, I think you should read some Marx.
Totalitarian regimes don't a communist make.
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:1)
I think this would be a good way to help boost 3rd world economies.
Andrew Sharp
Peace Corps doing the same thing (Score:1)
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:1)
....Teach a person to fish...... (Score:1)
Give a person some fish, and feed them for a day.
But, teach a person to fish and feed them forever."
The real question is: Is technology Fish?
meaning is technology the one thing that we should be teaching second, and third world countries(I personally hate the terms 2nd and 3rd, it makes them seem different than us even though they aren't!). Is technology really the holy grail? Will it feed the hungry?, will it cloth the clothless?, will it fill help the less fortunate countries stand with their more technologicaly advanced brethren?
I think the answer is yes. I firmly belive that technology can help other countries find a place in this new world that we are creating. If they aren't given the tools to help themselves now they are in danger of being left behind in this "race" for technological evolution.
Hey posters. If you are relly reading these replys then I have another favor to ask of you: Please make this a real topic. Turn this reply into an "ASK SLASHDOT". With the Question something like: IS technology really the holy grail that will solve all the world's problems?
Well it doesnt have to be that question but somthing like it. You all have better experience writing questions that people resond to. Be my guest.
Thanks for your time.
flatrabbit,
peripheral visionary
Re:other needs (Score:1)
It would also be beneficial if a few hundred thousand patriots would commit suicide, especially executives of multinational corporations. This should cut down on the exploitation of the world's people by a great amount.
On a serious note, this isn't the sort of infrastructure developing nations need. They need real schools, good roads, good plumbing infrastructure, environmentally friendly means of producing electricity, hospitals, and effective agriculture.
Learning how to use a computer isn't going to help them make better roads, if they don't know math enough to seriously study physics.
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:1)
Re:Smart? (Score:1)
Re:Smart? (Score:1)
As a citizen of a developing country, I can assure you that there are quite a few people here using the internet. Sure, not as many as in the US etc, but well over 1 and a half million. Unless you can provide an affidavit stating that EVERY single person in the US and Canada is rich and doesn't need the kind of services you're talking about for developing countries, like the one I'm in....well, I dunno. Maybe it's just time for some people to step off their proverbial high-horses slightly. The one and a half million refers to dial-up users and ISDN dial-up users, btw, and there are also a shitload of companies with permanent connections to the internet. Sure, DSL isn't quite there yet (telecomms monopoly), but once the monopoly is broken up, we should see DSL prices coming to acceptable levels and not restricted the way they are at the moment. AFAIK this is schedueled for 2001.
Technologically, the only thing I'm concerned about here is education. There's no denying it, it's pretty useless here at schools. Kids are still using P75's and 486DX4/100s running MS DOS 6.22 and TurboPascal. THIS is a worrying factor. Universities aren't much better in their choice of language - BLECH - JAVA. (They do have better hardware though). Anyways, that's about all for now.information (Score:2)
Funny that is, who would be able to buy anything from them when noone has inet access(now we are talking about really far away future earnings<g>). Internetcafes are nice, but will, unless properly adminstered be used for gaming, which will also not help the economy.
Even when considering latest economic research, evidence is inconclusive and not entirely on the side of more information equals better living standards. From geekcorps webpage you can't exactly figure out, what they are up to.
Having read some of the development economics papers, it seems that there have been positive relations between enabling them to access to the following kind of sites(incomplete, but you get the notion):
news(which many don't have in their villages and towns)
crop and farming information(what kind of seeds, best strategies against shocks, how to build up credit systems on a village basis,..)
social, political and job education(there are actually a few NGOs I think, that are trying this right now)
What did not seem to be useful is to let them get lost in cyberspace browsing around for hours at amazon&co:)
The Internet by itself will IMHO not help developing countries a great lot, until they can enhance their productivity(which is actually possible), educate people(which is also possible) and let them communicate with the outside world(which most of them have and will never see/experience, being bound to their countries/villages for all their life), which will hopefully open their minds and initiate/support democratic thinking and values of the people in those countries.
The problem it seems has very often been to get Internet access to the villages, service the computers, governments(the inet challenges some of their views, take for instance China) and who is going to pay for all this.
Just to throw something into the discussion here, some people believe, that after having been left out of the Industrial Revolution, that the Third World, might be able to join the Information(Internet) Revolution and simply skip the step to fully developed industrial countries.
This is an interesting point and I think that it might be possible for some countries or better regions, but that this won't be a general solution. Looking at India, which has a few software development hotspots, taking the country as a whole, the Inet has not changed very much, besides inducing dreaming about becoming an inet millionaire, for some of the cs students. Most of the ppl still live in poverty and neither has the inet changed the trend of the population, namely upwards(by 2030 they are supposed to overtake China, according to the UNpop)
Before bla-ing anymore along, I would like to know, what exactly it is that geekcorps will be doing and whether they are planning to help ppl use the inet or get local business into the net(if the later is the case, I doubt they have thought enough about all this).
Considering the latest developments in countries like Zimbabwe(was down there just 3 months ago<g>) I would make sure that there are not some nice coup d'etats&co cooking...would give the name Internet Revolution a totally new meaning(you would be very fast revolutionizing your geek ass again out of that country)
-k13
Re:other needs (Score:1)
To successfully feed a large population, you need to have a lot of infrastructure in place. This infrastructure, which leads to successful and prolonged feeding of the people, is the same infrastructure that allows people to study that new-fangled "fire thing."
Creating an internet cafe in a country where they don't even know what an eigenvector or a cell is, isn't going to help them much. So a priority above an internet cafe is obviously an effective means of education. And to provide an effective means of education, you need institutions to aid in mass education. And to build these institutions you need to be able to process stone, metal, wood, etc effectively. You also need to construct environmentally safe sources of power, and so on and so on.
You can't just give people that can't afford vacinations five 386es, and expect them to somehow build an economy on it.
Re:Peacecorps does tech stuff to! (Score:1)
These two plans could work together really well and tandum... I mean, what good is a tech startup without a stream of qualified workers, and what good is giving kids tech knowledge if they're all going to have to leasve the country to find work?
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:1)
There is no end to the need of this infrastructure in a developing nation. And infrastructure is all we should build in these nations, not businesses.
The money would be better spent helping them educate their children, than helping them construct 'net cafes, internet service providers, or anything else. Even constructing general telecommunications equipment is more important, than specifically offering them the internet.
In Ghana they'd be better off donating computers to the few quality sources of education, than anything else. And perhaps taking positions in their schools to help teach math, science, etc.
You can't run before you can walk, and that's certainly what it sounds like.
Re:What we're all wanting to know..... (Score:2)
Re:Do this in your own community! (Score:1)
You're doing a noble thing, and I can only hope that there're many other people equally concerned with the well being of neighbors.
Re:Peacecorps does tech stuff to! (Score:2)
Re:....Teach a person to fish...... (Score:1)
Two major points missed (Score:3)
First there is the question of what use the Internet would to people in second world countries. A few people have commented that it would be enable people to learn and gain knowledge, but there is more to it than that.
With the Internet as we currently see it, one of the major uses which we in the developed world have is purchasing things on-line. These purchases are invariably cheaper than they are to buy in a shop, so we save money. In Britain the government has already commented that they want to get more of the deprived areas onto the Internet. They recognise that those people who most need to save money, are loosing out on the chance to do so. Those who can afford an Internet connection can save a lot, thus increasing the economic divide within the country. This divide is obviously even bigger between the developed and developing countries for in part the same reasons.
Secondly. Those people who have questioned the merits of a scheme like this, on the grounds that there are more important things which developing countries need seem to have missed the point. Yes, they do need food, water and shelter. Of course we shouldn't stop giving that and start giving them PC's. But there is a limit to the amount of food and cloths which can be donated at any time, and once this limit has been reached, we should not sit back and say we are doing all that we can, we should strive forward to find more ways in which we can help, which IMHO is exactly what this scheme is setting out to achieve.
To me it makes no sense at all to get a highly skilled computing professional, lugging sacks, building walls etc, when he/she has rare skills which can be put to use instead.
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:3)
Ghana's an interesting example of a country in transition - most of the population lives in rural areas and work as subsistence farmers, but there's a large migration to urban areas and a need for high-paying jobs to support these migrants. No, most folks aren't going to come from a village and land a job doing web design... but they might find jobs working for a factory that's expanding... because it's suddenly selling products to a wider world market... because someone's helped them set up an ecommerce presence and fulfillment system. This is realistic in Ghana because the government has substantially liberalized telecommunications law, allowing ISPs to operate and ordinary individuals to get relatively inexpensive phone lines. (Not the case in much of the world.)
One of the populations we're most concerned with helping in countries like Ghana is the thousands of university graduates who have computer and business skills and bring them to the US, because there aren't a lot of good IT jobs in Ghana at the moment. Our goal is to help folks build great IT businesses in Ghana to give folks an incentive to share their talents in their home countries, rather than contributing to the problem of "brain drain" many developing nations face.
Re:other needs (Score:1)
Did I say an Internet cafe? No, I said an IT-based business. Obviously, creating the business involves a lot of education. It's not the same as educating the masses, but that's the point. We need money before we can educate the masses, and the way to do that is by educating some people and starting businesses in motion.
Okay, sure we should educate everybody, but you don't grasp how poor these countries are: why do you think the education system sucks in these countries (screw "these countries"; I mean "my country" and I'll say so)? Because it's never occurred to us that "HEY! Sending people to school is a good idea!"? It's because we can't afford schools, we don't have the resources to build them or the money to continue staffing them. Because we're POOR.
Saying "educate first, then build your economy" is the ultimate hypocrisy of the developed nations, and especially the US. These nations did not become rich by thinking about the poor and uneducated, they got where they are by ruthlessly exploiting them -- picture slaves in the cotton fields, and illiterates working in the steel mills and automobile factories. The US, one of the world's richest nations, also has one of the worst education systems, and that fact has been proven time and time again. How can you remember that fact and still say "education is key"? Smart people are fostered by strong economies, not the other way around.
Obviously you need some basic infrastructure in place before starting an IT business -- computers need electricity. But it doesn't need to be and cannot be universal before you can go to the next stage. The cities are always more developed than the hamlets, even in the US. Start giving people in the villages vaccinations, but start giving people in the towns the 386s. There's room for both.
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:2)
Actually, the reason we're choosing to focus on the International Digital Divide is that so much good work is being done on DD issues in the US. For a good overview of some of the other groups out there, check out helping.org [helping.org].
Remember the home front too! (Score:4)
The point is, you can make a huge difference just be working a few weekends, essentially in your own back yard. To see an example of what can be done, check out a site that we have been working on in Baltimore:
http://agape.qis.net/ [qis.net]
This site is hosted over the same 56KB modem line that the kids used to surf the web, so be prepared for a wait, ok?
-p.
Re:other needs (Score:1)
That's cool with us, as long as you work on the issues that you think are more important. I'm certainly not going to claim that universal access to the Internet is the most important issue facing the world. I am going to claim that it's an important step towards economic development and job creation in countries that desparately need good paying jobs.
There are numerous issues confronting the world community. Some of them require short-term action: famine relief, refugee assistance, peacekeeping missions. Others require long-term solutions: economic development, infrastructure development, public health. The world needs organizations and people to work on long-term and short-term issues. So if you feel Geekcorps is working on the wrong issues, that's fine (and perhaps true), but please back up your words with your time and money and support the efforts that you see as more important than what we're doing.
Ethan Zuckerman, CEO and co-founder, Geekcorps
Re:Definitely necessary, and a great idea (Score:1)
At least one person who posts on
One centrally located connected computer in a severely depressed rural area could be utilized for more then ONE specific project. It could access medical, agricultural, educational, political and cultural information and act as effectively as the little red schoolhouse did in the early days of the American West.
Not only could our OLD technology teach a man to fish, but how to prepare the fish properly, how to compost, how to balance a diet and how to work smarter at fishing, farming and family planning.
Good for these guys! Wish I wasn't SOooo old and still so technologically inept! I'd volunteer in a heartbeat!
Re:What we're all wanting to know..... (Score:1)
It can be an interview if you want it to be. Keep throwing out questions and I'll answer them as fast as I can. Can't promise I'll answer everything today (gotta mow the lawn at some point), but I'll get you responses faster than Lars did to the Napster questions... :-)
>Do people in developing countries prefer Gnome, KDE, or Afterstep? Vi, emacs, pico?
In Ghana, the developing nation where I've spent the most time, most people aren't aware that they could be running Linux on their PCs. Part of the work we're hoping to do is introduce folks to the opportunities free *nix presents for folks who want to run a highly scaleable tech presences. So, give us a few months and we'll get you some data back from the pilot. :-)
Me, personally? Gnome and Emacs.
Re:structure it as a business (Score:1)
We're working exclusively with businesses, rather than building NGOs, which have the tendency to work to sustain themselves rather than to solve problems and move on. Our goal is not to continue working with a business, but to train trainers at that business, so they can train their staff and communities. To keep ourselves honest, we're limiting ourselves to five years in a country.
We're also looking towards the venture capital community to provide an essential component of our work. As we work with companies to expand their online presences, they're going to need money to expand their work. If we can help introduce our best partners to venture capitalists willing to take the risks inherent in investing in the developing world, we'll consider ourselves very successful.
Sustainable economic development's a challenging field, though. It's taken Grameen, Accion and others a couple of decades to work the kinks out of their admirable methods. Give us a little time to work out the right model. :-)
Starvation vs Knowledge, or why this is good. (Score:1)
I see a lot of debate about whether we should feed the hungry or educate the people in technology.
I think the people advocating feeding the hungry first are overlooking vital information.
When looking to feed the hungry, you should first ask, Why are they hungry? How about this list?
Answer: Yes there is.
Answer: Yes there is.
Answer: Yes.
Answer: Political corruption.
Answer: Yes and No, in some cases, yes if the knowledge how to produce were available, in some cases no, where the local production is blocked by the current polical/military environment.
I could go on, but I think you get the point. The question then is, Is there a place for the tech help? I would say, absolutely, and the more technology spreads, and the more information is dispersed because of this, the more people will have the knowledge and thus power to prevent people from being starved by corrupt polical systems. Will starvation be eliminated? No, because corruption cannot be eliminated, it can only be reduced.
Anyway, that's my 2 cents on the subject... :-)
Re:Definitely necessary, and a great idea (Score:1)
The solution to brain drain - IMHO - is to create more economic opportunities for these talented folks in their home countries. If Trinidad had a few more successful IT businesses, there might be fewer folks grabbing those H1-B visas.
A bit of good news - brain drain can be reversed. That's one of the reasons we're so excited about Ghana. Ghanaians who've been living in the US for the last few years are starting to return home to start IT businesses. This is great news, and a major step forward...
Re:other needs (Score:2)
It turns out that people who don't have a good education tend to fuck a lot.
If you want people to stop having babies, give them condoms and TVs. Everything else is secondary.
Re:information (Score:2)
In some cases, it allows you provide services that simply don't have a local market. One business we're hoping to work with in Ghana is providing software development services for companies in the US who are running large COBOL systems. There's not neccesarily a large market for their services in Ghana, but there is in the US, and net access allows them to work in a market they couldn't otherwise reach.
I agree with the poster that IT by itself doesn't neccesarily improve living standards or development conditions. Our goal instead is to help businesses use IT to create jobs. Better paying jobs means more money to spend on medicine, education and other essential services. IT's not a magic bullet, but may be a catalyst for long-term change.
Re:other needs (Score:1)
However, attempting to construct businesses that can't be maintained by the country, isn't going to do it any good.
More than money, what these countries need is a self-sustaining infrastructure. You can get money as a side-effect, but the infrastructure needs to be built.
A much better way for this to be built, is for organizations to construct, for free, this infrastructure. Otherwise these countries become tied to the World Bank, and eventually further exploitation by the U.S. corporations. Fun stuff, really.
Once the infrastructure is in place, the populations can be educated in various things, such as literacy, mathematics, the sciences, engineering, medicine, good farming techniques, etc.
To attempt to thoughtlessly industrialize a nation, is somewhat moronic. To expect that you can create an economy with ignorant people is naive.
If you attempt to industrialize a nation, without educating the masses, the country is doomed to a painful developmental process, just like the U.S. and the Britain went through. Massive exploitation of people by a small ruling class. If this is what you wish for developing nations, then I'm saddened.
What sort of economy can one expect from a horde of ignorant workers? One based upon mindless factory work, such as China. The scenario is more or less a large U.S. corporation setting up its construction in a developing country with poor, ignorant people, and using lax social laws to exploit them heartlessly.
After all, you can't expect a country of ignorant people to somehow be able to compete against the factory workers of multinational corporations. And without quality education, they domain of employment is limited.
Now of course you'll suggest that somehow these same ignorant hordes can construct an e-commerce business that will be able to rival all of the countless other e-commerce businesses, when they exist in a country that "has no resources."
You site quite heavily into the construction of the U.S. economy. Mentioning slaves, ignorant factory workers, and poor education.
Certainly the U.S. has a deplorable history, and if it's your belief that through repracticing the same injustices against the people of third world nations will somehow construct an equal setting, then I urge you to think again.
The world was certainly a much different place while the U.S. was industrializing, enslaving, and exploiting its workers. And though while no one is there to enslave and exploit you, you can certainly build quite an economy (for a small number of people, at least), it's certainly different when there is an entrenched giant exploiter waiting to utilize your weak country for its cheap labor.
If you settle for attempting to produce just a worker class of citizen, while a small number of people attempt some form of modern business, your country will just be ripe for exploitation by the U.S. corporations.
If organizations were to hand-hold a developing nation while it developed, the nation would be developed in parallel, and stand a better chance of being able to stand on its own. It's hard to exploit a nation of educated people, fully involved in their Government, and capable of designing their own technologies and economies.
What is really need, is large scale non-profit investment.
The U.S., while an extremely rich country, is also a country of great inequality. A very small amount of the population is in control of the majority of our GDP. We've a long history of exploitation of workers by this small population, and a long history of exporting this exploitation to other countries, as our citizenry becomes increasingly more resistant to domination.
And most importantly, the U.S. is still broken. The education system is hardly the worst in the world, but is certainly in need of development. Our higher education facilities are amongst the best in the world, while our secondary schools range from excellent to poor, depending on population density.
You don't think that those large amounts of poorly educated people in high population density regions are experiencing the benefits of our "great economy," do you?
Try living in the poor part of a U.S. city, and tell me you want to encourage the same sort of exploitation that the U.S. used to get where it is today, because you dream that one day that people have that to look forward to.
There is certainly room for computer education in developing nations, but there's also limited good, at this time, that just wasting money on setting up a few computer businesses can do.
The resources would be better spent advancing their schools, and not wasting money on businesses that will just fail, at best.
Great idea (Score:1)
Just a thought
Re:Two major points missed (Score:1)
You say, ecommerce is good for the third world because they can get their goods cheaper.(right?)
Good, let's tear that apart:
1.) They don't have the purchasing power for buying stuff and would only waste their time browsing goods that they cannot afford(overgeneralisation)
2.) How shall pay their goods(even if they have the money)? Do they have ecash systems or credit cards? Have you every lived in one developing country? especially in the rural areas? Then you might know that there very often are NO banks(which is actually one of THE biggest problems, the inefficient and restricted credit and money market) You could try starting a click-click barter system interesting concept..hmmm
3.) Have you ever heard parcel delivery to the 5th hill on the right behind the second water fall on the left? No UPS does NOT deliver to those countries very well. Maybe the US will attach you books from Amazon on their next cruise missile if you happen to life next to a chemical plant.
-k13
Re:other needs (Score:2)
Unfortunately, I can't find any good links about the model, but the basic idea is that organisms tend to have fewer offspring (and dedicate more resources to them) when their children's future prospects are relatively predictable (K-strategy). When the future is unpredictable, it's easier just to focus on quantity (r-strategy).
For example, in the U.S., a college education, or rather a college diploma, has a big impact on your future success, so middle- and upper-class Americans tend to have few kids and pour lots of money into them. In less developed countries, a well-educated child is just as likely to starve or die of disease or be eaten by a lion as an uneducated child, so r-strategy prevails.
There's no question that this model applies on the level of species... insects versus mammals, for example. It hasn't been proven that it applies within species as well, although it seems obvious that it would.
Incidentally, even though what we consider "birth control" has only been around for a few thousand years, humans have always had other ways to control their reproduction. I had a professor who would illustrate this point with wisecracks about Monica Lewinsky... You can fill in those blanks yourself, if you must.
Re:What we're all wanting to know..... (Score:1)
What about reciprocity? (Score:2)
I have been thinking a lot about initiatives like this lately. Having developed a fairly deep toolkit of skills (water treatment, energy optimization) and a huge karmic deficit (I work in the oil industry), I am looking for a way to apply my skills in a more socially beneficial way.
What really has been my impediment to pursuing a second or third world opportunity is a fairly strong disagreement with the over-riding faith in technology that seems to underly many of these initiatives. To me, it reeks of cultural imperialism that what was good for our society (in my case N. American) will be the way out of hunger and suffering for those around the world.
To be honest, I am skeptical that the modern technological life seen in much of N. America is anything to be envied. As we become further immersed in mediated experiences, we lose our need for community. And community is one thing I have seen in pre-industrial (for lack of a better term) nations in spades.
Maybe initiatives such as Geekcorps address this need for community for the relative few who become involved. And hopefully those who do will bring back a different outlook on what they can do for their own society.
Finally, if anyone knows of any similar initiatives for those of us who deal in atoms rather than bits, let me know.
Re:other needs (Score:2)
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:2)
No, if you give a man the tools to make a buck, he eats for 15 to 30 with time off for good behavior ;)
Re:information (Score:1)
I took the liberty and snipped from your answers left and right, hope you don't mind:
!!!"Thus, the projects we're going to undertake are more like helping a business set up an ecommerce presence or a wireless WAN than teaching basic email skills."
???Funny, the WAN was actually something that I was thinking of, but I could not resolve who would provide the financing for this. I am talking about a WAN to farmers or for education. What does the government in Ghana say to that, are they willing/going to support you for *such* infrastructure projects(pilot stage)
!!!"Ghana's an interesting example of a country in transition - most of the population lives in rural areas and work as subsistence farmers, but there's a large migration to urban areas and a need for high-paying jobs to support these migrants. No, most folks aren't going to come from a village and land a job doing web design... but they might find jobs working for a factory that's expanding... because it's suddenly selling products to a wider world market... because someone's helped them set up an ecommerce presence and fulfillment system. This is realistic in Ghana because the government has substantially liberalized telecommunications law, allowing ISPs to operate and ordinary individuals to get relatively inexpensive phone lines. (Not the case in much of the world.)"
??? Hmm(always good for a bad beginning<g>). I see you being able to help them to develop skills to setup ebiz centres and so on, so I see the supply side here, but then I have a problem seeing the demand side. Who is going to buy what? Are you thinking of the international markets when you are talking about ebiz, or domestic ones? What kind of e-business shall that be?
I can see a huge software development centre and web designers and so too, but I have a problem with anything physical(transportation costs). So is one of your visions to have a software centre there? Develop the domstic e-conomy?
Some things that I think would be interesting:
a) software and web development centre
b) practical seminars at university level(how to install a server, linux123, networks[practical useable stuff that theydon't learn at the uni]), you might have a more efficient and wider reach and they will surely welcome a foreign expert with hands on experience
c) convince the government to officially commit to a tech zone and
d) talk to biggies to start investing over there, even if starting only with a small office for outsourcing software development. It is a chain, if this starts, small companies that will supply them will come and so on and so on
e) increase efficiency of the government bureaucracy using IT
f) if you are going to go for helping subsistence farmers and their villages try cooperating with econ academics(email me if you are interested, could get you some contacts that are just working on informational issues and developing countries)
Have you talked to the Ghana government, what are they thinking about this, from my experience this has often been crucial to projects in the third world.
Get the third world programming!
Skip the Industrial Revolution.
This could work.
Hmm...:)
Some peoples' wages I see going down:)
-k13
Domestic Geek Corps (Amerigeeks?) Anyone? (Score:1)
As a geek living in inner-city Boston, I know for a fact that there are schools here that don't have functioning libraries, forget computers and network access. My high school taught BASIC and Pascal on vintage Apple IIes as recently as 1996.
Why not put together a domestic Geek Corps? Call it "Amerigeeks" something like that. Why go overseas when you can bridge the "digital divide" in your own backyard?
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:1)
Re:Will you sign on? (Score:1)
Some buddies of mine and I once set up a service bureau in Colombia to do map vectorization for companies in the US. Maybe I could contribute in a similar fashion here if my little penguin [katie.net] vetoes a full on trip.
Re:What about reciprocity? (Score:1)
I can't program my way out of a wet paper bag either. I think that's one of those things you have to do yourself.
Unless of course you've got a giant robotic arm mounted attached to your computer. But most of us don't, so I'd say you're on par with the average programmer.
Ever get the impression that your life would make a good sitcom?
Ever follow this to its logical conclusion: that your life is a sitcom?
Re:other needs (Score:1)
This is how to help the poor (Score:1)
If you don't have property rights, you're just a serf.
Re:Will you sign on? (Score:1)
Linuxer since
As a friend once said, "When you're 75 and looking back on your life, you measure your worth not in terms of dollars you made, but in terms of difference you've made to the world around you".
This seems like a perferct opertunity to put some karma into the old karma bank, and not in a
----
Remove the rocks from my head to send email
NO, NO, and NO (Score:1)
"Don't people think that preventing starvation in 3rd world countries would be more important than bringing the internet the 2nd world countries?!?"
A million times no. I see this argument dragged up on /. every single time an article has anything to do with developing countries, and it is quite simply saying that it is better to give people fish than to teach them how to catch fish, which will never get anyone anywhere.
Yes, there are people starving *right now*. And yes, sending them food will help prevent them from starving *right now*. But then five, ten, fifteen, twenty years from now they will *still* be starving, and then their children will be too.
There is only one way to solve the problem and that is to focus on long-term solutions for empowerment: that means precisely two things: education, and technology.
I'm sorry if that proposal does not give you the immediate gratification/satisfaction that somebody somewhere will not starve *today*, but you will just have to learn how to think long-term, rather think about those people's kids, grandkids etc.
By just sending food you achieve nothing other than to perpetuate the problem.
Voluntary teaching? (Score:1)
"How can a person like me really help the underdeveloped nations of the world?"
I live in a developing country (South Africa) and have been wondering myself what I can do to help give our local "previously disadvanted" people some sort of leg-up into technology (long-term solutions are absolutely the only way to go, i.e. educating people.)
Basically I was thinking about devoting a few hours per week to teaching programming, since that is my field of expertise, and as skills go, its going to be a basic requirement for some time still for any country that wants to prosper.
Not sure where I could go though or how to go about it.
It would be nice if they could set up some sort of index of "how to contact a Geekcorps near you" type of thing. (Mebbe there is one, haven't clicked the link yet ..)
Re:Peacecorps does tech stuff to! (Score:1)
The problem is that although I've got 6+ years in the industry, have worked my way up to Tech. Svcs. Manager for an internet provider, I have no cash to live on or for plane fare for this sort of volunteering. Wages are not as high for the tech sector here in Canada (Vancouver) as they are elsewhere, like the US. If there was a program like this which would pay plane fare, and give a small living allowance, I would be much more likely to go. The living allowance would not have to be much more than to keep myself fed, clothed, and not completely insane, but three months without something would be pretty difficult.
TheGeek
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:2)
country to work with. It's important to make a distinction between
primary and secondary development needs, where primary development is
concerned with improving rates of literacy and basic health, and
getting liberal (independent judiciary and police force, free press)
institutions into place.
Until these are in OK shape, work on secondary development (improving
secondary health care, technical education, etc.) won't make much
difference. Ghana has been making great progress on primary
development since its new constitution cam into place. Ghana is also
influential in African politics, as a country that is getting tings
right. I reckon this is a place where the right input can make a big
difference.
Re:That's pretty cool... (Score:2)
primary and secondary education. In cities, literacy is close to
100%.
How do you recommend your `education to preserve infrastructure' be
organised? By government fiat? I think building up communication
networks and online repositories of knowledge about the quality of
local government, agricultural information etc. would do the job
better. Why do you think promoting IT skills must be at the expense
of the skills you support?
Re:Two major points missed (Score:2)
of prices with which to plan economic activities, especially in
agriculture. Too often poor farmers are encouraged to produce cash
crops whose revenue advantages evaporate next harvest because all the
poor framers are producing the same thing.
Putting better knowledge of who's producing what in the farmer's
hands has the potential to avert unnecessary poverty and misery.
2 cents (Score:1)
there is no way to see if the business supports the local community. It's a hell of a lot easier to recieve then to give.
Re:other needs (Score:1)
:p
Almost my dream life (Score:1)
Originally, the idea was that I would find a job with a company that had an overseas office, and at some point transfer there, and work there for a year. During the course of that year, I would save up enough money to move to another country, and try and find a job there before I left.
I realized of course that first, I needed to clear myself of my existing debts (which is currently progressing well), and second, I would probably be limited to developed countries.
I didn't give much regard to 1) language barriers and 2) racial strife. For the former, I figure that English is a well-established language internationally, enough to get by on, and that for where it doesn't, I'll either motivate myself to learn it, or get by on touristese. For the latter, I don't know; but I don't think it would keep me out of many countries.
From my POV, it's too bad GeekCorps is volunteer. I couldn't take that time off (3-4 mos.) from work; it would have to be between jobs. And I think I'd be seriously bored to go back to America with its unexciting two-party politics
and its disaffected society of boob-tubers.
(And to my peril, I'm more attracted to iron-curtained political hotspots than well-traveled classical locales. Heck, I can see all I want of London by watching PBS. But Bagdad, that's a real place to discover. Violent overthrows and bombings on the street corner? The occasional repressive military junta? Like I said, American politics is boring me. Having something interesting happening around me is a welcome change to living where I've been lately.)
Call me a cloud-headed adventurist (and I already know I have a death wish, thanks), but honestly, I chose a the technical field because I wanted to be able to do something I enjoyed. In the same sense, I want to find an exciting way to do it.
If GeekCorps lasts, I just might decide to save up some living money and jet off to one of their missions sometime next year. Assuming I haven't already found the ideal path to my quest.
--
globalization with a human face (Score:1)
Geekcorp's approach is admirable because it will help increase worldwide participation in cyberspace. I think the Internet has previously-unimaginable potential for social reform, but it will not be realized with such disproportionate access. Check out the UN's 1999 Human Development Report. This link will show you a pie chart that illustrates the divide (plus alot of good docs)
GLOBALIZATION WITH A HUMAN FACE [undp.org]
The Internet can decentralize power, which could be such a boost to humanity. I think the dream will remain unrealized if the power will only spread amongst the top %20 of the world.
But, as with any method of intervention, there is the potential of harm. I personally agree with those who would dissolve/drastically reform the IMF and World Bank. These institutions generate tremendous wealth for financiers and externalize the substantial risk to industrialized tax payers. They loan to the foreign elite, but extract the payoff from the developing poor.
It is not hard to imagine a program like this one creating a stronger dependency on the West, which is probably not in their best interest.
For the most part, I think Geekcorps embodies some great ideals (blending open source with philantropy and a species-centric view), but I'd like to see some more discussion re: How to make sure we are truly helping. I think we'll find it's a more difficult question than we think.
A Little More Background Research? (Score:1)
Without criticizing Geekcorp's intent or integrity, I want to point out organisations who have been doing this and more to assist not-for-profit NGOs and humanitarian groups for years. Most people know the story - this technology represents to many groups in developing or strife-torn countries the cheapest (and sometimes the safest) way of communicating to the outside world.
The APC [apc.org] has been assisting communication, networking and training in developing countries for well over 10 years.
Especially in Africa, people such as Karen Banks (amongst many others) from GreenNet [apc.org] have been working with African groups with internetworking (or UUCP/Fidonet when the comms infra has not been available or appropriate) for many years.
Also, ISOC (Internet Society) [isoc.org] have a sustainable education/training project [isoc.org] open to all in developing countries.
There is little sign on the Geekcorps' site that they are aware of these and many other efforts (except for AOL), but I would hope that communication with these groups would further their goals through coordination of efforts (or at least of being aware of what others have been doing for many years before them).
shine brightly
Re:Do this in your own community! (Score:2)
The funny thing is, I never originally set out to do anything nobel or generous. It was just that I had some old hardware that was not doing me any good, and I knew some people that could not afford a new computer. After a while the word got out, and I was getting donations of old computers, so I felt compelled to find people who could use them. The free trainging was just the natural next step.
I've discovered I've really like seeing that light bulb go on when a person discovers just how useful a tool a computer can be. I've also discovered that a properly configured Linux machine can have a very user friendly desktop that even a total computer neophyte can handle. This whole myth about Windows being easier is a load of crap. ANY system is easier when it comes preconfigured out of the box versus having to install it yourself.
Later,
Thad
Re:A Little More Background Research? (Score:1)
Re:What we're all wanting to know..... (Score:1)
Small Linux: http://smalllinux.netpedia.net [netpedia.net]
Vector Linux: http://metalab.unc.edu/vectorlinux/ [unc.edu]
Green Frog Linux: http://members.linuxstart.com/~aus tin/GreenFrog/ [linuxstart.com]
muLinux: http://sunsite.auc.dk/mulinux/ [sunsite.auc.dk]
ThinLinux: http://www.ThinLinux.org/ [thinlinux.org]
But there's at least one additional project to provide a Linux distro to the 3rd world. If I could only recall the name right now... (oldering sucks)
Re:Voluntary teaching? (Score:1)
Re:What we're all wanting to know..... (Score:1)
Re:Remember the home front too! (Score:1)
Re:What we're all wanting to know..... (Score:1)
Cynical (Score:2)
I think we are so caught up in our wonderful palm-pilot-toting, cell-phone-ringing, pager-vibrating, glazed-over-CRT-staring, technological world, that we arrogantly assume that everybody wants or needs it or that it can help everybody in some way. The internet brings all sorts of problems that developing countries don't need to have to deal with. First of all they need to stop being exploited by first-world countries. They need to be self-sufficient, in whatever their interpretation of that means (in many cases that doesn't mean exploiting natural resources for export so you can import that latest first-world Pokemon products). They need to be self-determining...not supported by stupid puppet regimes that the West patronizingly thinks will be the best for them.
There's a whole hell of a lot of more real problems that these countries face than the mythical problem of not having "enough" technology. If you're so concerned, join the Peace Corps, donate money (to an unconditional charity preferrably). Don't insist you know what's best and go in and institute your own changes. Help people help themselves. They need helping hands, not expensive crutches.