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Geeking in the Third World
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."
father: no my son, but we will get to search the internet for information on food and food-like products.
I know you were just being glib, but let me amend that for you:
"but we will get to search the internet for ways to stop our crops from dying off, so we can eat tomorrow."
Of course, you could put in other lifestyle improving search terms, like say, how to build a sewage treatment plant so your village doesn't dump raw turds in the river that you drink from, or using all that pig/chicken/cow shit around the place to make enough methane for a small generating plant. Or even how to construct a nice cheap house that'll hold up to cyclonic winds and monsoon rain.
Living in a modern country, and going to a even a second-world country (never mind a third world one) is a real eye-opener - things that I've said:
(This is when I was staying in a town of about 300,000. Picture a small idyllic fishing village, then cram 25,000 people and cars into it)
"What're all those tanks on the roof for?"
"Oh, the tap water's just bore water - it's not really fit to drink. We get the drinking water trucked in."
"Damn! What's that stink?"
"Dead cow in the open drain outside the window there, see?"
"How long will the power be off for?"
"Oh , two or three hours... it normally comes back on around 10."
"Howdy'a get a line out here? I need to ring home"
"I'll book you a call, the guys at the exchange will ring us back when it's hooked up. There's only 15 lines out of town."
You are in a twisty maze of processor lines, all alike.
There is a lot of hype here.
I came to Guyana, South America in 1995, having worked in telecoms for 6 years. They had no internet access - not a single link. I used to dial Barbados and collect my email. Surfing was an expensive luxury. Still, managed to get the newspaper I was working for on the web (now Stabroek News).
The O'Reilly article is wonderful - clearly shows that the digital divide will not be bridged by IBM or Micro$oft and that hardware is not the answer - skill transfer is. Also shows how reliable power is not a given in developing countries (and, of course post-Enron California...
Now we have ADSL, satellite, fibre (Americas II). Still regular blackouts though.
Check out the Guyana SDNP, the UNDP Digital initiative.
Backward%20compatibility%20is%20over-rated
Having just returned from three months connecting rural schools in Uganda, let me just offer one (small-sample-size) perspective:
It's a lot tougher than you think. I visited 16 schools several months after they had received an in-depth, two-week Linux training course. By the time I arrived their Linux computers lay broken, not having been touched for weeks.
We (geeks and nerds of the developed world) have been suckling at the teet of technology all our lives: drivers, file systems, and the like are now second-nature. However, to someone from another, non-technically-innundated culture, it's extremely difficult to use Linux.
Proof? In 16 schools, only one Linux machine was still running when I arrived. But every Windows machine was still being used, and loved.
For the time being, at least, let's give developing nations what they CAN use (Microsoft) not what we WANT them to use (Linux).
I would love to hear other people's experiences with MSFT vs OS in developing nations.
Maybe these guys deserve attention, but not nearly as much as Engineers Without Borders. It may be considered trolling on Slashdot, but to most people it is obvious that there are more urgent problems for many of these countries/cities/villages than lack of Internet access.
"If you think education is expensive, try ignorance" - Derek Bok