US Geeks Recycle GNU/Linux Boxes for Ecuador

An anonymous submitter writes: "According to this article on Salon, geeks involved with Indymedia are recycling 300 GNU/Linux boxes to send to independent media activists in Ecuador. The machines will be used to create free public computer labs across South America, networked with donated wireless 802.11b cards. Anyone wanna chip in to help cover the shipping costs?"

Comments

FreeGeek in Portland does something similar.

[Spy4MS]

They make Linux boxes out of donated parts and volunteered time. They also recycle monitors, motherboard parts and steel.
Please be gentle

Re:Humanitarians

[SethJohnson]

Ecuador does not need food. It is the largest banana exporter in the world. It is a hugely agricultural nation which is not suffering from droughts, etc. Ecuador does need infrastructure. These computers are part of that needed infrastructure. They need to leap beyond agrarian subsistence farming to get the country out of its economic hole.

What can accelerate this change? Education for sure. Books, schools, etc. How about a computer and internet connectivity? We've got a lot laying around here gathering dust. Probably more so than textbooks written in spanish.

I've visited Ecuador several times. Once I was helping some women at a library set up a VCR and TV that was recently donated by some wealthy Ecuadorians (I was a friend of the donors). The women working in the library were nicely dressed and educated pretty well from what I could tell with my limited spanish. They were the Ecuador equivalent to minimum-wage office workers in America.

When it came time to put the batteries in the remote control, I realized the value I was bringing to the VCR-TV-setup project. These women had never held a remote control. They needed some batteries (2 X AA), which they also had no experience with. I gave them a dead AA from my walkman so they could take it to the local shop and make sure they were buying the right size (with money provided by the donors). When they returned with the batteries, I had to explain the pictures inside the battery compartment so they'd understand how to install the batteries in the future.

I guess I am relating this anecdote so people can better understand the technological chasm that seperates people around the world. Sure, booklearning is a key part of a third-world country's development. At the same time, these free computers are going to help as well.

Seth