SpeedGeeking
Child Soldiers Project - Bukeni
MARRYING TECH AND DEVELOPMENT... YOUR DATE WITH SPEED GEEKING
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Like speed-dating, these are introductions-in-a-hurry. Some 11 interesting
projects got a chance to introduce themselves to participants of Africa
Source, during the week-long event in Kalangala, on an island in Lake
Victoria, Uganda.
You have just four minutes to hear all about them, before having to
compulsorily move on.
Dorcas Muthoni of Kenya represented LinuxChix. Despite its light-hearted
sounding name, the group is working on the serious job of improving women's
participation levels in Free/Libre and Open Source Software.
"We're a pan-Africa organisation, very focussed on African women. We are
creating a programme to mentor young women to get into computing. We
encourage chapters for local activity (in various parts of Africa) and share
best practices across our mailing lists," she said.
See africalinuxchix.org for more details. There are also other initiatives
across the globe. Sulamita Garcia from Brazil visited Bangalore, India and
inspired women there to make their voice heard in the world of FLOSS.
Africa's group was launched in February 2005, and currently has some 90
members. "We do work mainly online, and want to see how we can work on the
ground. We're looking for funding partners too," Dorcas adds. They have
lists discussing their issue in both English and French, in a continent
where the language of the colonial ruler is still, well, the lingua franca.
LinuxChix Africa plans roadshows soon.
ArabDev.org's Manal of Egypt introduces us to how their group installed
FLOSS in schools in Upper Egypt, some three-and-half hours from Cairo. They
have a computer lab that offers FLOSS, and a telecentre. Each child gets 4-6
hours of computer time a week. And there are five children per PC.
Given their background, the geeks supporting the project, including this
young Arab lady who is threatening to teach belly-dancing to members of the
camp, find no problems in supporting the project.
"As techies, we not as used to the Arabic interface (for computing)," she
adds, honestly.
David comes from Fantsaum Foundation, a group in Nigeria that focuses on ICT
(information and communication technologies) and micro-finance. They're
working on the 'solo' computer, which will consume just 85 watts of power in
a resource-poor continent laden with untapped-talent. In addition, it will
have no moving parts, and use flash-memory.
Fantsaum acts as an "infomediary" and shares useful agri-based information
available from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture. Computer
Aid International, meanwhile, ships in once-used PCs for schools and
non-profits, and re-uses a vital resource in a tech field where obsolescence
(and planned obsolescence!) can otherwise result in a huge waste of computers
and mountains of perfectly-working but discarded computers.
Meanwhile, kubatana.net is a Zimbabwean network that helps civil society to
communicate with the rest of the world. It has an online directory of 270
online organisations currently, and works hard to keep its information
updated and useful. A critical job in continents like Africa and Asia, where
people tend to be enthusiastic verbal communicators, but reluctant to deploy
the written word to share their ideas.
Kubatana finds that human rights defenders tend to be the most articulate
contributors. Those in the development community appear the worst. They get
about 2500 visitors a day. "FLOSS has not really played a part (in our
activities) to date. But our organisations are undermined all the time by
viruses," says Kubatana's technical director Brenda Burrell (admin at
kubatana.org.zw).
Rudy from South Africa gives a speedy intro to eRiding. He's from
ungana-afrika.org and points out that other non-profits badly need tech help
that comes from an NGO background. One that understands them.
"What we do is not tech support -- or attending calls to deal with, for
example, a broken printer -- but technology planning. This is very
important," says he.
Live support is very important. So also is help to migrate to FLOSS. When an
eRider finds something that works well with one organisation, (s)he
cross-pollinates with other organisations.
"eRiders are (tech support personnel for NGOs who) are motivated by work
they're doing. They often don't get salaries at commercial levels. But the
networks of eRiders are very supportive of each other. They're almost like a
[GNU]Linux users' group." That was all Rudi had time to narrate, quite
out-of-breath, before the alarm sounded for each group to move on and hear
of another experiment.
Bukeni from the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) told us about work
being done to build awareness about child soldiers. Video is used here as a
tool for both advocacy and outreach. They take the videos, together with a
generator and a with bed-sheet (which doubles up as the screen). Films are
then shown in villages which HAVE probably never even seen a television
before.
Now, they've got local youth to use the cellphone as a tool for reporting
cases of children being inducted as 'soldiers'.
Hilton, a burly South African, warns you that he's got some "toast for
breakfast". And how! He's part of the Shuttleworth Foundation, set up by
geek-cosmonaut-billionaire Mark Shuttleworth to spread FLOSS and education
across South Africa.
So, they've come out with a 'vending machine' that sells -- you guessed it!
-- Free Software. Put in a CD, and take out a 'distro' or distribution of
your choice. And while your waiting for the CDs to be copied, keep reading
about the world of Free Software and what it really means.
Each CD vending machine costs US$5000 approx. But the plans are available
online and you're free to replicate it. And don't forget to claim your free
Ubuntu CDs at http://shipit.ubuntu.com
[We in India adopt a low-tech solution of encouraging FLOSS supporters to
start up low-cost, low-margins CD stores. They 'sell' distros at about a
dollar per CD, and this gives them enough of an incentive to keep on 'in
business', and share the Free Software while earning a little. That works
too.]
Goretti Zavuga Amuriat of Uganda introduces us to the women's network
Wougnet's programmes. These focus on information sharing and networking,
tech support, and rural access. They also provide a platform for women to
get speaking, through mailing lists, a monthly electronic newsletter, a
website and an online discussion forum. They offer an unusual link to the
internet, using WorldSpace's satellite radio receiver to download data to
remote village communities.
Baldati.org meanwhile is a network of villagers in the tiny country of
Lebanon. It currently links some 1468 villages. For a country which has a
lot of out-migration, it builds links between emigrants and their villages.
Baldati -- which means simply "my village" -- helps to put up maps, GIS and
population statistics online. Then, it leaves all the content-creation to
the local people. It takes a smart bus packed with computers, to different
locations, and invites people to put *their information* online.
If villagers have issues like solid waste or environmental issues, they try
to put the people in touch with experts.
Finally, our group ended up with a rather exhausted Mark from the San
Francisco-based Inveneo. (He had been speaking to all the groups ahead of
us, repeating what he said so many times.) It has a solution which attempts
to take communication to rural areas -- thin clients, using just six watts
of power, VOIP (voice over internet protocol) for two phones, and a rugged
wireless unit that connects to a hub. From remote village to cyberspace.
Possible? Check inveneo.org where you can find details on how to build the
system, including its software.
Price? $1800, including the solar panel.
Food for thought, ideas for inspiration. The big question: can such projects
be scaled up sustainably, to ensure that real change occurs and makes the
lives of the people on the planet that little bit less of an uphill
struggle?
