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UK To Offer PCs For £98, Subsidized Internet Connections
Sam writes "The UK government wants to offer low-cost computers as part of a 12-month trial during Race Online 2012. The scheme, which aims to reach out to the 9.2 million adults that are not yet online, 4 million of whom are considered socially and economically disadvantaged, aims to 'make the UK the first nation in the world where everyone can use the web.' Prices will start at £98 ($156.01) for a refurbished PC, with subsidized Internet connections available for as little as £9 ($14.33) a month or £18 ($28.65) for three months. The cheap computers will run open-source software (think Linux) and will include a flat-screen monitor, keyboard, mouse, dedicated telephone helpline, delivery, and even a warranty. The cheap Internet packages will use a mobile dongle to help people access the web."
I fear the "open source software" will be very quickly replaced with "windows", just like what happened with the OLPC.
Every experiment which ends in a big bang is a good experiment.
I live in the East End of London and am already involved in this kind of approach, but on a small scale and informally. So I think it's a a pretty good approach to supply of the basics and a better way than just stripping down perfectly viable PCs.
But, the big but, is training and support. Here Linux [we're mainly Ubuntu and variants] is slightly better because it doesn't get trashed by viruses immediately and file permissions etc. make things easier to lock down. However, I've spent 7 years on/off training people and the web, email, looking for stuff, deciding whether to trust sites etc etc. is NOT intuitive and searching, especially, is a hard subject.
So, without training, many of these PC will be underused and languish, as so many provided under various schemes do now. We prefer drop-ins currently, they're more sociable and mean you can train/help several people at once and they can provide peer support and discovery. Also, the connections can be consolidated and needn't go through mobile networks.
Just my 2p [that's a pence, non-UK folk] on this.
On y va, qui mal y pense!
It's not too bad, really, though I think you might be able to do better with some careful shopping on ebay and using public wifi. The big difference is that you'd be getting support from these guys, rather than depending on a computer geek friend. That's important to a lot of people.
Exactly. If they still can't afford internet access even after all the benefits they get chucked at them and their sixteen kids, maybe we should look at stopping them wasting it all on booze and smokes before we start offering them extra on top.
Quite. The "chavs" are not the poor and socially excluded that this project is aimed at. But Daily Mail readers like to conflate them as an excuse not to deal with the problems of the seriously disadvantaged.
Quidnam Latine loqui modo coepi?
laugh all you want, but here in holland, most cities give people who are on government support 400 euros every so many years to buy a new TV, because god knows there is no way those people could survive without a 32 inch flatscreen!
I am all for stuff like universal healthcare, but things like this makes me feel like im living in commie country..
You are living in commie country my friend.
A fellow dutchman
Teaching them how to use a computer isnt "leading" the poor?
Your right, we need some tough love like, not feeding them, or allowing them to have heat in the winter!!
Thin that herd out, amiright? /sarc
You are entitled to your own opinions, not your own facts.
You talk about those who have earned their living, but they don't do that in isolation. They do so in a functioning society, in an economy that can support them. Government has a stake in all our industry because it paid for the system that lets it happen, and taking a share to let that continue is not unreasonable.
In the specific case of social security, it directly contributes to people's ability to make money by making sure that there isn't a vast number of people relying on undeclared labour or crime to survive.
Raise the minimum wage and watch even more low paid jobs head to china. Don't think it'll happen? Look where most of your clothes and electronics are made already. Thats not because the chinese are better at it. All we'll be left with is service industry jobs - ie burger flippers.