Geeking in the Third World

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Posted by michael on Thursday May 15, 2003 @04:51AM from the thar-be-dragons dept.

suzipaw writes "Geekcorps founder Ethan Zuckerman, late of Tripod, gets some well-deserved media attention for his good works via an interview on oreilly.com. What he and other volunteers are doing on behalf of developing nations is pretty darn cool. And humbling--makes this first-worlder grateful for a regular power supply."

8 of 183 comments (clear)

Help by grub · 2003-05-15 04:57 · Score: 4, Funny

child: papa, will we eat today?
father: no my son, but we will get to search the internet for information on food and food-like products.

--
Trolling is a art,
Comment removed by account_deleted · 2003-05-15 04:57 · Score: 4, Funny

Comment removed based on user account deletion
Re:Hey! Didn't you read that e-mail? by Surak · 2003-05-15 05:16 · Score: 4, Funny

It says:

PLEASE, THIS TRANSACTION REQUIRES ABSOLUTE CONFIDENTIALITY AND YOU
WOULD BE EXPECTED TO TREAT IT AS SUCH UNTILL THE FUNDS ARE MOVED OUT
OF THIS COUNTRY.

and

PLEASE, YOU WILL ALSO IGNORE THIS LETTER AND RESPECT OURTRUST IN YOU
BY NOT EXPOSING THIS TRANSACTION, EVEN IF YOU ARE NOT INTERESTED.
I LOOK FORWARD TO WORKING WITH YOU.

So you go ahead and post it on Slashdot! Like no one's gonna see it there! Sheesh! Remind me never to ask you for help moving my money out of the country! It's not like they send those e-mails to just ANYBODY ya know!

--
My journal has hot /. gossip.
Ghana's New Hope: Ballmer by Anonymous Coward · 2003-05-15 05:19 · Score: 2, Funny

As reported here, the economy in Ghana is in serious need of help.

The town is more like an overgrown and crowded village, with goats, dogs and chickens rooting around for scraps, and herds of bony cattle strolling along the streets.
Ballmer's travel agent confessed, "With so many poor and helpless goats, Steve will be sure to visit and pump some badly needed funds into the local economy, in exchange for certain favors." Ballmer could not be reached for comment.
Re:IT helps the whold country by heff · 2003-05-15 05:24 · Score: 2, Funny

just imagine.. being able to buy those little carved giraffes straight from kenya instead of going through intermediaries like e-bay and pier one imports..

one day.. one day..

--
--
|-_-| . o O ( bEef!)
Re:Okay... by jon787 · 2003-05-15 05:34 · Score: 2, Funny

Give man a fire and he'll be warm for the night, set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life :)

Of course the grandparent does bring up a good point, i don't think these computers are going to people who desperately need the three basic necessities. I for one would really like to some first-hand experience over there, but I don't have the time to do it yet. I have a friend who went with his family to Bangladesh for a year when he was in 8th grade.

--
X(7): A program for managing terminal windows. See also screen(1).
THIRD WORLD GEEK LUST ITEMS by _ph1ux_ · 2003-05-15 05:38 · Score: 2, Funny

Check out my new case modded rice cooker!!
to hear some people talk around here... by hopeless+case · 2003-05-15 05:48 · Score: 5, Funny

this guy should be admonished for attempting to teach IT skills to a third world country. Next thing you know, greedy american companies will be outsourcing IT or programming work to people in Ghana for pennies and letting 3 well-paid American programmers go.

For the sarsacm inpaired, I think what this guy is doing is great. What I don't think is great is the guild/labor mentailty of some programmers and IT people who think there is a fixed amount of wealth in the world.