[A few notes from someone who's doing exactly this in the neighbouring
country of Vanuatu....]
Jonathan Carter wrote:
Which model Thinkpads are those, btw? Have they been sourced yet? I
would also suggest a laptop with a smaller display- since it would use
slightly less power. Slower hard disks will help too, and making sure
that the cpu scaling works is also important (Edubuntu should do it
fine, but just make sure).
Sorry I didn't reply earlier in this thread, I've been out on the
islands myself for a little while....
Laptops can be a significant problem in remote areas, especially where
turnaround times in repairs can sometimes be months. The Pipol Fastaem
(People First) network in the Solomon Islands uses refurbished laptops,
and treats them as more or less disposable commodities. One dies? No
problem, Chuck it away and send another.
Dust, ants, heat, humidity, geckos, rats and people are all hazards
where this hardware is concerned. Plan for very short life times, and
ensure that the line of (re)supply is reliable.
Also laptops are, er, portable, which often encourages certain
individuals in the village to bring it home for 'safe-keeping'. It's
then kept so safe that no one ever sees it again. 8^/
Personally, I've been leaning toward refurbished Mac Minis. Price is
reasonable relative to the quality of the components, and power
consumption is about 20 watts per unit (plus monitor) - which means they
can be run very efficiently off alternative power sources.
Populating the desktop is a key question, what should go there (I'm
leaning toward home directory, gcompris, tux-math, openoffice.org)
In practice, new users have very few problems finding their way around
Ubuntu. The real obstacle is people who think computer == Windows(!).
Making a few UI concessions based on that assumption will help smoothe
the 'transition'.
From what you've explained, there'll be a high user to laptop ratio in
the areas these laptops will go into. I think it's likely that the
productivity tools will be high in demand, OpenOffice will probably be
quite highly utilised.
Our experience is:
1) Email/Webmail
2) Web
3) Music/Video
4) Word processing
[... big gap ...]
5) Spreadsheet
6) Graphics (See below)
The reasons for this are fairly straightforward. The promise of
broadened and improved communications in an island environment (where
mobility often equals opportunity) is universally compelling. Task
automation is also seductive, but experience and sophistication with
computers is limited, so every task consists of 'writing a letter' or
'writing a public notice', etc. In other words, the analog/paper world
pervades modes of thought.
Something like Scribus might be of importance for
community newsletters, etc. I would also include Inkscape, and of
course, some documentation/turorials for all these packages.
Our experience is that these two are very rarely used spontaneously. You
might need to provide significant training to assist with building the
spatial cognition skills that software like this sometimes requires.
As a general rule. Documentation is mostly ignored in Vanuatu, no matter
its quality and the degree to which users are encouraged to use it.
Learning is mostly oral/visual/ostensive here, and literacy levels are
often very low. We've found peer learning is the best resource. Show a
few people how to do things, and then sit them down, two to a computer,
with their friends.
I don't
know what the mandate of the sponsor is, but if the communities have
full autonomy over the use, I would assume that they'll address their
primary ICT needs first. Will they have cell phones with GPRS
connectivity? (that would be fantastic)
Internet is not bad at all in Fiji, at least on the main islands.
They're on the Southern Cross fibre network. I suspect that all bets are
off in the outer islands, though. For reference, Vanuatu has 19 Mb total
for all voice and data, and Papua New Guinea has 10 (for a population of
several million!).
I'm a bit concerned that the well meaning folks who've proposed this
donation haven't thought through how to really make use of the
resources we're handing out. I'm hoping they have, but given my
rather vague marching orders...
I'm afraid that's generally the case, from the highest levels right down
to good-hearted people who pack boxes and pay for shipping themselves.
I've spent two and half years trying to frame what ICT is all about in
Vanuatu, and I'm only just starting to get traction. It's really
frustrating sometimes seeing a dozen computers come off the ship and
knowing that they'll all be dead or stolen (or both) within 6 months.
Worst case maybe I'll need to fly out to Fiji to run additional
training, there are worse things.
Training to new users in administrative support for computers in remote
locations has been found to take between 3-6 months per person. I can't
overstate the importance of this training, too. Where possible, train
redundantly. Try to train 3 people for every position. On any given day,
one will be away (or discomposed), and one will be sick.
Most of the problems encountered with computers in rural areas of
Vanuatu are support-related, generally linked to little or no
troubleshooting skills. I've taken a 3 pronged approach to coping with this:
1) Two-day troubleshooting workshop for *every* computer user. Compulsory.
2) Intensive training in simple repair and maintenance procedures for a
few selected people who have demonstrated particular aptitude and
interest in computers. Usually, these people are selected from the
workshops.
3) Cultivation and nourishment of the local IT community, with
significant effort invested in instilling a sense of community spirit
and peer support. (Note that this runs counter to common notions about
learning and wisdom in Melanesia.)
Happy to chat at more length if you think it might be useful.
--
Dan McGarry [EMAIL PROTECTED]
IT Consultant
Community Communications Project
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