Helpers and Re: The go-anywhere cyber cafe in a shipping container May 24, 2010
I'm glad you like the questions I raised regarding the go-anywhere cyber cafe . You suggested that it might be interesting to fire these questions at the promoters of this scheme and see how they respond.
I think that in the early days of my involvement in grass roots projects I was more ready than I am now to approach people/organisations involved in development projects like this one. My experiences have taught me that if people have a solution then they are, understandably, more interested in that solution than in my concerns about a related problem.They also have their own networks of people that they work with and therefore, again understandably, they are not interested in working with outsiders.
However, this story is about Computer Aid and I do have respect for their work, regarding their history of providing refurbs. I know many people who have benefitted from the computers they have made available. In fact the first time I was at Fantsuam Foundation I arrived just behind a lorry load of refurbs (which I think had come from Computer Aid) and the only time that John Dada and I met in London we spent part of the time at Computer Aid collecting some laptops for Fantsuam Foudation.
With this is mind, I decided to click on the link and see how easy it was to connect with the right people. The link was in fact to an ITPRO news-story rather than the Computer Aid website.It began:
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While internet access might seem universal to us in Europe, it's not for many in the world. Computer Aid is looking to change that with its new cyber cafes in a shipping container.
The group unveiled its second cafe in London this week, before the box was shipped to Kenya. The first is set to be installed in Zambia soon.
Computer Aid founder Tony Roberts said it was time for the hardware recycling group to move beyond its original remit.
The green IT charity has successfully hit its tenth birthday and shipped 100,000 old computers to be used by those in the developing world, leaving them thinking "it would be safe for us to look at meeting some of the other associated needs when you're providing computers to people in developing countries," Roberts told IT PRO.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~So maybe Tony Roberts might be interested in exploring the needs of my friends in Ago-Are and maybe I should try contacting him - but I confess that following up on this is unlikely to make it to the top of my "to do" list at present - unless someone knows him and could smooth the way for me and I'd have some encouragement that it was worth doing. Before I can follow up on such things I need to find some extra people to help me. They could be students perhaps, or people "between jobs" (who want to be doing something of interest other than job hunting, both for its own interest and for their CV). I need help me with some of the things I am already doing before I will have time to do more chasing up for my Ago-Are friends.
Any suggestions for where I might find some comparatively time-rich people who might like to work alongside me (literally or virtually) would be gratefully received. It would be unpaid at first (perhaps always) - work experience or suchlike - as little or as much as suits the individual (as long as it is a win-win arrangement). Later (I have no idea how much later) when Dadamac Limited is my "proper day job" then I will need more paid help with my paid work instead of unpaid help with my unpaid work. Obviously at that point I will prefer to work with people I know - people who already know Dadamac's network and working practices. However, that may be a long time off, so for now it's best if someone is genuinely interested in working with Dadamac for the learning experience, the satisfaction, the networking and the fun of it.
Regarding the present level of expertise of the people in Ago-Are, which you asked about, that can be found through reading some open letters at dadamac's posterous - but the information is somewhat buried in "the email trail". The links are
Collaboration opportunity - Mobile phones in rural Africa - ICT4D or ICT4Ed
[teaching in the rurals] internet connectivity get more popular
[teaching in the rurals] internet connectivity get more popular (continued)
Pamela