[PLUG] Linux against Poverty was a success

[Keith Lofstrom]

On Tue, Aug 04, 2009 at 10:17:29AM -0700, Jameson Williams wrote:
> It would indeed be awesome to have something like this in Portland. PLUG,
> FreeGeek, and a variety of Portland's general-purpose dogooder non-profits
> could team up to give Austin a run for its money -- and help more
> underprivileged gain access to computing resources. 
...


Free Geek has already helped thousands of "underprivileged gain 
access".  Access is more than a free computer;  there is training,
maintenance, support.  There is also power and connectivity.  An
older computer with a CRT monitor can draw 150W - powered half the
time by $0.10/kWhr electricity, that's $66.00/year .   Free Geek 
scraps the older machines, reusing only the newer and more efficient
hardware.  They push a lot of volume to sieve out the better stuff.

Most "computer access" these days involves the internet, and ISP
is expensive, hundreds of dollars a year.  The Personal Telco
Project is working on providing free wireless internet access
to the underserved.  PTP always need help.

If you give away a stand-alone Linux computer, without community
support, the recipient will just replace the Linux with bootleg
Windows and use the machine to play computer games.  So all you
end up doing is providing them with an expensive addiction.
Computers, even-stand alone ones, are good for much more than
games, but recipients need training and support to get there.

The Free Geek model,  based on active recipient involvement, is
much more empowering and sustainable than what the Austin folks
wrote about.  Their work is a nice first step.  After another
decade of hard work, I hope they evolve into something like
Free Geek, and make a lasting contribution to their community.

If you want to "help the needy get nerdy", then get involved at
Free Geek.  There are lots of needful tasks there, all the way
from simple build-program stuff, up through training, support,
and even occasional bits of programming and hardware engineering.

Keith

-- 
Keith Lofstrom          keithl at keithl.com         Voice (503)-520-1993
KLIC --- Keith Lofstrom Integrated Circuits --- "Your Ideas in Silicon"
Design Contracting in Bipolar and CMOS - Analog, Digital, and Scan ICs