For an example of the downstream catalyzing effects of infrastructure and applications (more on that in a sec), check out Digital Divide Data in Cambodia.
The key is in investing in both the INFRASTRUCTURE (computers, networks, etc) and the APPLICATIONS (value-creating services that use the infrastructure).
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.
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The key is in investing in both the INFRASTRUCTURE (computers, networks, etc) and the APPLICATIONS (value-creating services that use the infrastructure).
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.
Dr. David Carpenter obviously hasn't played SimCity 2000, otherwise he would realize that Microwave Power is the safest kind. Duh.