Re: [DDN] Fortune Digital Divide and Global Leadership
Pamela - all good work. And how publicity have you received from it? Can you point us to your press releases web page? I hope so. I really do. My bet is the demands on you are such that publicity comes a long way down the totem pole. If so, should more resources be devoted there? John Hibbs http://www.bfranklin.edu/johnhibbs http://www.digitaldivide.net/blog/hibbs At 1:18 PM + 2/19/05, Pamela McLean wrote: Hi Chris. I think you might like what CawdNet is doing in rural Nigeria. To oversimplify the explanation - we are using ICTs to help people on both sides of the digital divide connect with each other and rub brains about how issues of rural poverty can be addressed. . # Run an innovative training course for teachers, http://teacherstalking.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Main/TeachersTalkingCourse # Taken a farmer's problem to the GKD discussion list [GKD] A Nigerian Farmer Using ICTs to Seek Information Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/ # Organised a workshop on solar cooking (I have some photos - but not on the Internet and I don't expect it is acceptable to send them as attachments with this email) ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Fortune Digital Divide and Global Leadership
In a message dated 2/20/05 1:44:03 PM Central Standard Time, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes: Pamela - all good work. And how publicity have you received from it? Can you point us to your press releases web page? I hope so. I really do. My bet is the demands on you are such that publicity comes a long way down the totem pole. If so, should more resources be devoted there? John/Pamela: I was in the Peace Corps in Nigeria from 1962-1964. These types of efforts, along with Youth for Technology, an initiative that was started by an employee at Microsoft a couple of years ago, really could use some support from the mainsteam U. S. public technology interests. Not entirely sure how it can be done. But encouraged that Pam's efforts pop up in the email of folks like John Hibbs. Would hope that Pam's efforts could connect to that of Njideka, and become a critical mass for the help of former Peace Corps Volunteers and others with interests in Nigeria and West Africa. Njideka Don Samuelson ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Fortune Digital Divide and Global Leadership
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: (snip)I am very interested in learning more ..how we can make the world a less unequal and destructive place to live empower (people) to live the lives that they want and that they know makes them happy and is sustainable..how modern technologies could be of use as a creative tools to the marginalized and underdeveloped in moving everyone closer to the ideas of accomplishing the rediculously HUGE and inhumanly scaled problem we--all the people in the world--are faced with currently; Poverty. Thanks for listening. I would love to hear what you have to say Hi Chris. I think you might like what CawdNet is doing in rural Nigeria. To oversimplify the explanation - we are using ICTs to help people on both sides of the digital divide connect with each other and rub brains about how issues of rural poverty can be addressed. . CawdNet's approach is one of small small steps and then dissemination. We work through Special Interest Groups. A SIG can be tiny - it can even be as small as one person. But if the problem is likely to be shared by other people in a similar situation - a farmer, a health worker, a woman with a problem about cooking, a teacher, a young person who cannot find work. - then we think in terms of the start of a SIG... If we can solve the problem for one person - then we solve it for other potential SIG members... . In the past three months Cawdnet has: # Run an innovative training course for teachers, http://teacherstalking.xwiki.com/xwiki/bin/view/Main/TeachersTalkingCourse # Taken a farmer's problem to the GKD discussion list [GKD] A Nigerian Farmer Using ICTs to Seek Information Archives of previous GKD messages can be found at: http://www.edc.org/GLG/gkd/ # Organised a workshop on solar cooking (I have some photos - but not on the Internet and I don't expect it is acceptable to send them as attachments with this email) CawdNet welcomes new people who are interested in working with us (especially from home using the Internet on our behalf) or supporting our work in any way. Do contact me on or off list. Pam Pamela McLean CawdNet convenor. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Anti-Virus. Version: 7.0.300 / Virus Database: 265.8.8 - Release Date: 14/02/2005 ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
RE: [DDN] Fortune Digital Divide and Global Leadership
Lars has a very important point. Profit may play a role, perhaps a central role, in solving many of our major problems, including the digital divide and education for all. The idea that we can do it all with free software is a romantic notion, one that does not take into account the major expenses of producing good software and hardware that will work globally. Consider for example educational material. There is a long pre-computer history of producing quality learning units. For example, in the post Sputnik curriculum efforts each project cost millions of dollars. I see no examples of extensive effective learning units developed in any area, with of without technology, which has been developed with no cost. Does anyone on this list know of any? In our plan for the education for all solution, profit plays an important role. Alfred Bork University of California, Irvine ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Fortune Digital Divide and Global Leadership
Okay, i want to say this up front. I am a college student (20 years..Human Ecologist), who know's very little about this subject--the Digital Divide. All the following is generally based off of gut feelings. I am of the Net-Generation, and grew up with the privilage of having access to the internet and all of the modern technologies as they grew into what they are today. I am also disposed to want to help all those 4ish, 5ish billion people in the world to have the same the opportunity and to have the same privilages as I have including having them not need to work the fruits of their lives until they rot in order for ME to continue and live the way i am used to with all my luxuries. How to make this utopian thought a reality is the quest i have just recently begun. And i will say that the following will likely be a very ill-articulated piece, with many misinformed ideas and one that are simply incomplete. What can i say, i know very little. But, that's okay. In the big picture, so does everyone, even if they act like they don't, right? I am very interested in learning more about the worlds economic, political, scientific and technological, ecological, agrocultural and social systems (and whatever else is out there...call it an interdisciplinary approach) with respect to how we can make the world a less unequal and destructive place to live. I want to find ways to engender creativity and motivation in the people empower them to live the lives that they want and that they know makes them happy and is sustainable; that might mean that they will adopt these technologies that i am so used to in my life and that i at times, like many including the author of the article think are impossible to live without anymore; or it might mean that they take some of the technologies that help them live better lives and ignore others that are more of a burden to them that a help; or it might mean they continue with their own lines of development and do as they see fit without the use of modern technologies, which does not mean in my opinion that they are resisting change or ignorant or whatever; for everyone is always in a state of change, especially in todays world, it doesn't have to be forced. Everyone is human and everyone has a right to choose the lives they have in this world, as communities that they exist in and as individuals. So what i have right now is a great interest in learning how modern technologies could be of use as a creative tools to the marginalized and underdeveloped in moving everyone closer to the ideas of accomplishing the rediculously HUGE and inhumanly scaled problem we--all the people in the world--are faced with currently; Poverty. Now, with respect to this article, my heart skipped a few beats. I can say in the least that it is a bad article and i wonder if i could actually write something up for Forune some day soon in the future :-) J/K, and at the most, i hope the author misunderstood some things (or i did) and i really hope that simply bringing technology to the developing world isn't really the approach they are taking. Unfortunately though, I already do know that it is and it's a strong movement all across the world; however i would imagine it is more often to be found as an initiative in the top of the chain of economic and political power, not at the bottom except where the people have been convinced that it is better for them this way. This is one problem, or might i say, doubt, hesitation or sceptisism that i have towards the idea of bridging the Digital Divide. The corporations and politicians might have all the good intentions in the world (they are most important i would believe because they seem to have the biggest political clout out of everyone, since they are they ones who are at the top of the latter currently and apparently forever that can truely manipulate everything in this system that is being talked about, right?), but what's a for-profit company going to intend to do over everything else in the end? Profit. Do people even exist in the pursuit of profits? I think not. Except possibly in a few very rare occasions such as a business here and a business there, or when they are treated as means to an ends (appendages..for profit...labor) or on the opposite end, as investors or consumers (consider taxes included). Perhaps also one can consider that people are considered as human when big money that is left over from the left over profits is put forth for AID projects. To me though, these mostly seem to be lame attempts that try to tackle problems much greater than they could ever be humanly possible and commonly become more destructive in their attempts to repair the social and ecological damages already made by the profitiering that they parttook in to begin with. David Kirkpatrick say's clearly that the initiatives that now have great importance in the eyes of some of the top leaders in the world is how they can help the developing countries truly participate in the
Re: [DDN] Fortune Digital Divide and Global Leadership
Hi chris -- thanks for your frank exposition. For a little background on the idea of the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid, you might be interested to read CK Prahalad's book by the same title, http://www.changemakers.net/library/temp/fortunepyramid.cfm The idea of eradicating poverty through profits is not a western, top-down concept, but actually one begun by visionaries like Muhammed Yunus of Grameen Bank (http://www.grameen-info.org/). I think that what the fortune magazine reflects is a powerful convergence in thinking, not a vertically integrated scam. The idea is that the power of networks, made global through ICTs, has tremendous power to increase the individual's capacity to create, ultimately to create wealth. Efforts like Grameen's Village Phone (http://www.gfusa.org/technology_center/village_phone/) demonstrate how income can be a motivator to bring the poor into a relationship with a technology reseller. Everyone, in theory, benefits. I'm not sure what the success rates are with technology donation projects, but it seems to me that if you make appropriate technologies available to people in ways that increase their level of ownership the better that technology will be used. I know that is an oversimplification, but I don't have a moral problem with the equation -- affordable access is the critical factor. Have a look at the links if you aren't already familiar with the initiatives and let me know what you think. lars -- lars hasselblad torres art + technology + democracy http://tagstudio.net On 2/16/05 6:49 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Now, with respect to this article, my heart skipped a few beats. I can say in the least that it is a bad article and i wonder if i could actually write something up for Forune some day soon in the future :-) J/K, and at the most, i hope the author misunderstood some things (or i did) and i really hope that simply bringing technology to the developing world isn't really the approach they are taking. Unfortunately though, I already do know that it is and it's a strong movement all across the world; however i would imagine it is more often to be found as an initiative in the top of the chain of economic and political power, not at the bottom except where the people have been convinced that it is better for them this way. This is one problem, or might i say, doubt, hesitation or sceptisism that i have towards the idea of bridging the Digital Divide. ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
Re: [DDN] Fortune Digital Divide and Global Leadership
the article is interesting, but when I tried to send a comment to [EMAIL PROTECTED] which is the email address he listed at the end of the linked article, it came back with just failed uzi justman __ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com ___ DIGITALDIVIDE mailing list DIGITALDIVIDE@mailman.edc.org http://mailman.edc.org/mailman/listinfo/digitaldivide To unsubscribe, send a message to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the word UNSUBSCRIBE in the body of the message.
