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Peace Corps to Wire Senegal

Posted by michael on from the goodwill-to-men dept.

An anonymous submitter wrote: "Peace Corps Online is reporting on the White House's Digital Freedom Initiative that will place volunteers from the Peace Corps, Hewlett-Packard and Cisco in a pilot program in Senegal where they will leverage nearly 200 cybercafes and 10,000 telecenters to provide opportunities for small businesses and entrepreneurs. The idea isn't new - David Rothman proposed an Electronic Peace Corps in 1984, the Geek Corps has been doing this kind of work in Ghana for years, and the Peace Corps already has about 1,500 volunteers working in information technology."

8 of 171 comments (clear)

  1. Re:why? by droid_rage · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Maybe it's because most entrepreneurs and small business owners in Senegal can't afford a computer, and would be better off renting small amounts of time as needed. According to the world bank Senegal's GNP per capita for 1996 was only $570. I doubt it's gotten much higher.

  2. Always has to be hardware by jj_johny · · Score: 4, Interesting
    It seems that everyone who does development work does not feel that they have made a difference unless they leave behind something to point at: A dam, a tall building, an internet... Please although internet access maybe easy to get your hands around, accessible technology that the educated can support and widely available, it really is way behind other issues that need to be fixed. Most countries need better laws, courts, banks not IT infrastructure.

    Well at least Cisco and HP are branching into new market and away from the saturated ones.

    1. Re:Always has to be hardware by hoppy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      Development is not a serial process. You can not wait all population to be healthy before giving it education ect...

      IT infrastructure permits to nurses to know better about new drugs, to exchange knowledge. it permits communication in a land where phone is very expensive.

      Funny thing is Senegal is one of the most connected country in sub-saharian africa, 45Mb where Niger have only 2Mb. And it is the richest in west-africa (may be Nigeria is on par).

      IMHO it is just another way to promote american engineering and products to a potentially good marketplace. Why not Mali, or Niger which are in a much more problematic state ?

  3. Open Source is crucial... by tau_bada · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I certainly hope Peace Corps intends to use open source for these projects. One of the most import tenants of Peace Corps projects is sustainability from a host country's perspective - a perfect dovetail for open source code.

  4. Re:Swell! by collapser · · Score: 3, Interesting

    You're not far off the mark - Take a look at egypt's attempts to form a technocratic (as opposed to fundamentalist) society.

    It's all very well and good to want to provide communications access to those that don't have it, but do they *need* it?
    I would have thought that tackling the causes of Africa's poverty, rather than attempt to "boost it into the 21st century" (whatever that means) would be a more effective and longer-lasting solution.

    but no. we'd rather show we care enough to give them the benefits of Fark, AYBABTU, and hotmail accounts (and who wants to bet some enterprizing fellow won't work out a way to capitalise on our own greed and idiocy - Nigerian 411, anyone?)

    not belittling the hard work people put into this, but it seems to be yet another case of malformed priorities/treating symptoms not cause. but then, treating symptoms doesn't carry so much responsibility/difficulty, does it?

    sadly, a pointless excercise.

    --
    <B>note to self:</B> <I>post as html</I>
  5. Re:Swell! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    Yeah, the food thing is more important than the tech thing. However, I think it's worth baring in mind that these "missionaries" of today are attempting to westernise the developing world through technology rather than religion. This I think is worth noting.

    My (anonymous) opinion. Do both. It's different aid from diffrent people.

  6. Please stop the "they only need food" by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Interesting
    It's all very well and good to want to provide communications access to those that don't have it, but do they *need* it?

    Yes. It's exactly like if you argued they don't need a postal service at all in third world countries. Now matter how starved they are, postal service is useful. Likewise for communications. For the record, many of those countries have numerous emmigrants, and considering the price of international phone communications, you'll understand why email and cybercafes are such a success there. The emmigrant-whose-plane-ticket-was-paid-by-the-villa ge-and-who-sends-back-money is not uncommon. There are other uses too.

    In addition, in almost all third world countries, have a very rich upper class, with the lastest technological toys, and which doesn't know what to do with its money (investing is boring - culturally speaking this isn't US/UK self-made-man dreams etc..., using money to get power isn't always necessary, as there is more social corruption). At the very least, those demand a good Internet access.

  7. Woah, 1500 IT workers? by jonbrewer · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think not. Sure 1559 volunteers may be "promoting" IT in their roles, but there certainly are not 1559 Peace Corps volunteers working in IT. The vast majority of these people are English teachers who have a secondary project of trying to improve their school's computer lab, often using "creative grant-writing" techniques to appropriate funds marked for women's health or community development.

    Until "IT" is a Peace Corps job category like Education, Agriculture, Health, and Environment, Peace Corps will not be taking IT seriously.

    I speak from experience.

    -JB (Volunteer - Poland 15, 1999-2000)