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(This'll be my last comment on this as I've had this discussion oh-so-many times with people like you and I get tired of it)

OK, so they don't have internet access today and they can't check the weather. Who's to say the PCV's next project won't be to set up a wireless network? Who's to say they won't soon be getting telephone and dial up in his area? There are a lot of amazing things going on in this area. Here's one of my favorite: Jhai. Granted, you did point out one thing they can not do today with computers which I stated they could, what about all of the other things? Spreadsheets? Students learning? Bookkeeping? Computers are multipurpose tools. Not having an internet connection does diminish the value of them but, as I demonstrated when I was a PCV, by no means eliminates their value.

Building/buying PCs requires a lot of planning and execution. Having lived in the rice fields of central Thailand and spent many days traveling back and forth between my village and Bangkok, I know this from personal experience. It is not easy and this PCV should be commended for his efforts.

There is a big difference between buying a bottom-of-the-line PC over the internet here in America and buying a PC in any developing country. When I was a PCV I did not buy bottom of the line PCs because I knew they would be obsolete way too quickly. We ended up with 35 mid-level machines and we assembled them ourselves. part of this was due to cost and part due to my desire to teach people.

I can not speak for Togo but I can say that here in the US and in Thailand is is almost always cheaper to buy the components and assemble a machine yourself than it is to purchase a machine of the same specs. When I was a PCV that difference was about $300 but machines were expensive in Thailand at the time. When I last built a box here in the US I did a lot of research and saved about $200 building my own machine. Of course I spent my time instead of my money by assembling these machines but I enjoy it and when I was in Thailand I taught a group of students how to do it. Several of them went on to technical school/college to pursue computers - directly because they were exposed to them. Until I came along they had never used or knew anything about computers. So we saved money and built capacity. Pretty good value if you ask me.

The last point I will address is the one which makes me mad because it is clear to me you have not done any research before making such asinine comments as "Really clueless scam".

I suggest you head back to Aaron's blog. Click through to see his project listing on the Peace Corps site. Now, I used to be the director of the Peace Corps Partnership Program - the part of the Peace Corps he is using to help fund his project. If you actually read and research, which you clearly haven't, you might find that the PCPP raises a lot of money for PCVs in country and there is a lot of oversight of these funds. Oversight includes the staff here in Washington, DC accounting, accounting in-country by Peace Corps Staff, project oversight, project reviews, etc. You could even do a FOIA request to learn more about the oversight on a particular project if you wanted. Like I said, I know all this because I used to be director of that program and I fielded many a complaint by donors and Volunteers alike that we added too much red tape. I agree, there is a lot of oversight but it is necessary to maintain the integrity of the program.

In one of my parent comments I mentioned that "in-kind" gifts are not all they are cracked up to be. Early on when I was a PCV I solicited used computers and they were a serious headache. Some worked, some didn't and they all broke fairly quickly. It was just as easy/hard (depends

There is an organization that is already doing something similar: the Jhai Foundation. They have developed a PC (not a laptop, but still portable), designed by Lee Felsenstein, with no moving parts, that runs on Linux, and can be human-powered, and is based on wireless networking.

They are not as well funded or well known as the Media Lab, but they are already in the field doing it.

Here's more information via Google.

There is an organization that is already doing something similar: the Jhai Foundation. They have developed a PC (not a laptop, but still portable), designed by Lee Felsenstein, with no moving parts, that runs on Linux, and can be human-powered, and is based on wireless networking.

They are not as well funded or well known as the Media Lab, but they are already in the field doing it.

Here's more information via Google.

Here is a link to an article about the bike-and-linux powered computer they developed. It is pretty cool.

Here is a link to a previous slashdot story on the machine. There were a lot of dumb comments previously on this story for some reason.

Here is a link to a page on the Jhai Foundation's website about the concept. Last I heard, the project was hung up in Laotian red tape, waiting for some bureaucrats to give it the green light. I have no idea why a project like this would pose any threat to the government of such a country, however. Hopefully these problems have been resolved.

It's also one of the poorest. A good case can be made that if the country hadn't been bombed back to the stone age by the U.S. during the Vietnam War (for no really good reason, either, since the U.S. lost anyway), then perhaps they'd have a nicer country to live in. War and widespread destruction will damage a country's social fabric, you know...that kind of environment can sometimes be good breeding grounds for totalitarian regimes.

I do hope that Laos is getting a good deal out of this, but I also hope that Laotians in general will benefit from some of it.

In the meantime, check out the Jhai foundation, they do some pretty good stuff. The chair of the Jhai foundation actually participated as part of a bomber crew during the Vietnam war. Having brought pain to this part of the world, he now wants to make amends by bringing peace and the internet to Loatian villagers. He's also part of Veterans for Peace and a really decent guy.

In any case, it'd be some sweet irony that one of the poorest nations on Earth would get some money for selling TLDs to one of the richiest part of the world... :-)

As a volunteer for the Jhai Foundation myself (the Jhai Foundation is the organization trying to put this together), I know personally how important this is, and how it might help poor people living in these remote villages to help themselves.

A little background on Jhai: The Jhai Foundation was founded by Lee Thorn, a Vietnam War veteran who, during his service in the US Navy, loaded bombs onto bombers that devastated Laos. Some of that ordnance is still unexploded and lying around the Plain of Jars. Lee started the Jhai Foundation (which means, "hearts and minds working together" in Lao) in order to reconcile himself as well as his country with the people that the US formerly bombed. Lee works out of his basement coordinating over 100 volunteers on a shoestring budget. It is his passion and his life.

The point of this project is not simply to hook up the wealthy people in Laos. I doubt there are very many people there at all that could be considered very wealthy. It is also not to simply allow them to download porn or shop at the Gap. The main idea is to connect the people of Laos with each other and with the world. Here's an example. Let's say you are a rice farmer in a remote village in Laos. You have just harvested your latest rice crop, and are getting ready to take it to the market to sell. But, the market in town is two days away by horse drawn cart. You need to know if there is anyone there buying rice at that time, and if so, what the prices are. You might find that there is a glut of rice in that market at that time, but there is another village in the other direction that has a shortage. With a few keytrokes, you have saved yourself several days effort. Or, you may find that rice is not in demand anywhere nearby. In that case, you might decide to store the rice for later, or for your own consumption.

There are many, many, other uses for such a wireless network. Let's say that a boy in a remote village becomes ill. The hospital, which is very far away can be contacted and asked for advice. A doctor can be sent for, or medicine delivered.

And then there are all of the even harder to predict uses that a community may make of such a communications tool. When people can share information with each other, they become more efficient, and this improves their quality of life significantly. Also, children will obviously begin to use the computers and the network themselves and build it into something even more powerful, much as many of us here on /. have done with various other networks we participate in.

In addition, this is only one facet of what the Jhai Foundation does in Laos to help. They also deliver medical supplies, help to set up hospitals, dig wells, work to eliminate unexploded ordnance, and help farmers to raise crops and compete globally. The list goes on.

Yes, there are lots of other charitable organizations out there right now doing good work. It is never easy to know where to send donations (especially these days). But, Jhai is doing something in Laos that no one else is doing, that personally, I think is fascinating. The wireless, no-moving-parts, human-powered computer that Lee Felsentstein has contributed is definitely cool, even from a strictly techno point of view. But, it will also be fascinating to see if this tool can help the Laotian people to help themselves. Personally, I can't wait to see what they manage to accomplish with the network. The Laotian people have suffered so much in the past at the hands of governments like the United States. I am glad to have been a part of this effort.

For people who are really interested in donating, but are feeling the economic pinch, Jhai also has a program for selling Laotian coffee, in the Newman's Own fashion. The coffee is all grown by Laotian farmers, and all profits go towards the important work that Jhai is doing. You can buy the coffee online at: jhaicoffee.com

(Also, because someone asked, this page describes the hardware and software... it's basically Linux with a localized version of KDE.

Man! This project just gets better and better! Soon you'll be able to support these guys with your caffeine habbit. I know I will. Check the link:

http://www.jhai.org/jhai_coffee.htm

Well, why don't you? This project is not finished, as you said so yourself. Just go to the Jhai Foundation's webpage and start asking questions and volunteer! Thats the best part about this line of work: unless you're working on the hardware, you can work from basically any corner of the world!